Peter T Young

January 10, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Oʻahu Charity School

Andrew Johnstone, born in Dundee, Scotland in 1794, came to the US in 1813; he and his wife (Rebecca Worth Johnstone) were members of the Fourth Company of missionaries to the Islands, arriving on June 7, 1831. (Mission Houses)

The missionaries stationed at Honolulu were overwhelmed with working with the native Hawaiian population, preaching, translating the Bible, preparing text books and superintending the Hawaiians in schools. (Alexander)

The missionaries taught their lessons in Hawaiian to the Hawaiians, rather than English. In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English-speaking Hawaiians.

Johnstone, by a previous understanding, devoted part of his time to visiting seamen and distributing Bibles and other books among them. During one of these visits, he met the 12 or 14-year-old son of Captain Carter, commanding the English Cutter ‘William Little’ then in port.

Johnstone offered young Carter some books and invited him to his house; in a day or two he brought with him another lad, the son of a foreign resident, who asked Johnstone to teach him to read.

Johnstone agreed, and very soon one and another boy came asking the same favor, to the point where a regular class was formed. (Alexander)

Meanwhile, “(m)arriages between foreigners and Hawaiians appear of late to be rapidly increasing, and it has been the custom of many parents to send their offspring to the United States to receive an education.” (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

Some of the parents of half-Hawaiian/half-foreign children wanted their children to learn the English language. There was an evident and growing need for an English language school. (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

Soon, a subscription was opened to raise funds for the creation of a school house for the instruction of English-speaking children. Generous donations were made by some of the residents, and an orphan-school fund was created. This led to the establishment of the ‘Oʻahu Charity School.’

The missionaries supported Johnstone’s efforts at their June 1832 ‘General Meeting,’ resolving “That the Mission approve of Mr and Mrs Johnstone’s continuing their attention to the instruction of the children of foreigners, making annually such a report to the Mission of the school and their labors, as is required of the rest of our number in our respective spheres of action.”

The King granted a lot for the school in an area of Honolulu known as Mililani. On September 3, 1832, the subscribers met and approved the construction of a schoolhouse. (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

“It is a neat substantial building of stone, 56 feet long and 26 feet wide, fitted up with benches, and other conveniences, for a school-room”. (Sailor’s Magazine, August 1838) (It stood in a lane running from King to Queen Street near the Waikiki end of the Judiciary building. (Goodale))

“On looking around the room, it appeared well furnished with cards, maps, books, slates, &c, of an excellent character and in sufficient variety.” (Polynesian, November 14, 1840)

“Thirty five children of both sexes having been admitted, the school was opened on the 10th Jan. 1833. … The children were all beginners, and nearly all entirely ignorant of the language of their teachers.” (Polynesian, April 10, 1841)

“Until the establishment of this institution, the education of (the children of Hawaiian mothers and foreign fathers) was almost entirely neglected, but now they appear to be in a fair way to become fitted for stations of usefulness and respectability in life.) (Polynesian, November 14, 1840)

Oʻahu Charity School was the first school in the Islands and the first school on the Pacific where the English language was used (it was one of six English language schools west of the Rockies.) In fact, it received pupils from the US, Alaska and Mexico. (NEA, February 1922)

In 1842, nine boys from the best families of California were sent here to be educated at the Oʻahu Charity School. One of these boys was José Antonio Romualdo Pacheco, Jr. He came to the Islands when he was 7-years old, and was in the Islands for five years. He later became the 12th-Governor of American California.

The School continued to increase in numbers and usefulness; however, there was a falling out and the Johnstones left (January 22, 1844) and formed their own school.

During the years Pacheco attended the School, its good reputation and numbers steadily increased. Students were arriving from the Russian settlement of Kamchatka, while others were coming from California and the other Hawaiian Islands.

The school had dormitories for the students who were either orphans or who had been sent from distant places. The curriculum was comprehensive and substantial, including classes to teach the Hawaiian language, writing, reading, mathematics, sciences, the arts and geography. (Hartmann & Wright)

Later, other schools offered English language education. Oʻahu Charity School experienced financial difficulties, with the rise of various competing private schools, and in 1851 was provided with public assistance.

A special tax was imposed on all foreigners of legal age residing in Honolulu: $3 for every individual without children, and $5 for every individual having children within the school age. This plan met with general approval. (Alexander)

The school’s name then changed to the Town Free School, but its board maintained control over the school until 1859, when it passed into the Superintendent of School’s domain. (NPS)

In 1865, the Board of Education split the school into separate boys and girls (the Town Free School became Mililani Girls School.) In 1874, that school closed and the girls went to a new school called Pohukaina. (Alexander)

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January 9, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Apology & the Supreme Court

On March 31, 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court and rendered a decision on a case between the State of Hawaiʻi and OHA relating to the transfer of ceded lands.

In that decision, the US Supreme Court discusses the 1993 ‘Apology’ Resolution, as well as makes references to Hawaiian Sovereignty. The following are quotes from the US Supreme Court decision:

“In 1893, ‘[a] so-called Committee of Safety, a group of professionals and businessmen, with the active assistance of John Stevens, the United States Minister to Hawai‘i, acting with the United States Armed Forces, replaced the [Hawaiian] monarchy with a provisional government.’ ‘That government sought annexation by the United States’ (Newlands Resolution).”

“Pursuant to the Newlands Resolution, the Republic of Hawai‘i ‘cede[d] absolutely and without reserve to the United States of America all rights of sovereignty of whatsoever kind’ and further ‘cede[d] and transfer[red] to the United States the absolute fee and ownership of all public, Government, or Crown lands, public buildings or edifices, ports, harbors, military equipment, and all other public property of every kind and description belonging to the Government of the Hawaiian Islands, together with every right and appurtenance thereunto appertaining’ (hereinafter ceded lands).”

“The Newlands Resolution further provided that all ‘property and rights’ in the ceded lands ‘are vested in the United States of America.’” “Two years later, Congress established a government for the Territory of Hawai‘i. … The Organic Act reiterated the Newlands Resolution and made clear that the new Territory consisted of the land that the United States acquired in ‘absolute fee’ under that resolution.”

“In 1959, Congress admitted Hawai‘i to the Union (hereinafter Admission Act). Under the Admission Act, with exceptions not relevant here, ‘the United States grant[ed] to the State of Hawai‘i, effective upon its admission into the Union, the United States’ title to all the public lands and other public property within the boundaries of the State of Hawai‘i, title to which is held by the United States immediately prior to its admission into the Union.’”

“Hawai‘i state law also authorizes the State to use or sell the ceded lands, provided the proceeds are held in trust for Hawaiian citizens. In 1993, Congress’ joint Apology Resolution “apologize[d]” for this country’s role in overthrowing the Hawaiian monarchy, and declared that nothing in the resolution was ‘intended to serve as a settlement of any claims against the United States.’”

“In 1993, Congress enacted a joint resolution ‘to acknowledge the historic significance of the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, to express its deep regret to the Native Hawaiian people, and to support the reconciliation efforts of the State of Hawai‘i and the United Church of Christ with Native Hawaiians.’ Joint Resolution to Acknowledge the 100th Anniversary of the January 17, 1893 Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, … (hereinafter Apology Resolution).”

“Turning to the merits, we must decide whether the Apology Resolution ‘strips Hawai‘i of its sovereign authority to sell, exchange, or transfer’ the lands that the United States held in “absolute fee” and “grant[ed] to the State of Hawai‘i, effective upon its admission into the Union”. We conclude that the Apology Resolution has no such effect.”

“The Apology Resolution did not strip Hawai‘i of its sovereign authority to alienate the lands the United States held in absolute fee and granted to the State upon its admission to the Union.”

“The resolution’s first substantive provision uses six verbs, all of which are conciliatory or precatory. Specifically, Congress ‘acknowledge[d] the historical significance’ of the monarchy’s over-throw, ‘recognize[d] and commend[ed] efforts of reconciliation’ with native Hawaiians, ‘apologize[d] to [n]ative Hawaiians’ for the overthrow, ‘expresse[d] [Congress’s] commitment to acknowledge the ramifications of the overthrow,’ and ‘urge[d] the President … to also acknowledge [those]ramifications’.”

“Such terms are not the kind that Congress uses to create substantive rights – especially those that are enforceable against the cosovereign States.”

“The Apology Resolution’s second and final substantive provision is a disclaimer, which provides: ‘Nothing in this Joint Resolution is intended to serve as a settlement of any claims against the United States.’ By its terms, speaks only to those who may or may not have ‘claims against the United States.’”

“The State Supreme Court, however, read [this] as a congressional recognition – and preservation – of claims against Hawai‘i. There is no justification for turning an express disclaimer of claims against one sovereign into an affirmative recognition of claims against another.”

The US Supreme Court concluded, “First, ‘whereas’ clauses like those in the Apology Resolution cannot bear the weight that the lower court placed on them. As we recently explained in a different context, ‘where the text of a clause itself indicates that it does not have operative effect, such as ‘whereas’ clauses in federal legislation …, a court has no license to make it do what it was not designed to do.’”

“Second, even if the ‘whereas’ clauses had some legal effect, they did not ‘chang[e] the legal landscape and restructur[e] the rights and obligations of the State.’”

“The Apology Resolution reveals no indication – much less a ‘clear and manifest’ one – that Congress intended to amend or repeal the State’s rights and obligations under Admission Act (or any other federal law); nor does the Apology Resolution reveal any evidence that Congress intended sub silentio to ‘cloud’ the title that the United States held in ‘absolute fee’” and transferred to the State in 1959.”

“Third, the Apology Resolution would raise grave constitutional concerns if it purported to ‘cloud’ Hawaii’s title to its sovereign lands more than three decades after the State’s admission to the Union. We have emphasized that ‘Congress cannot, after statehood, reserve or convey submerged lands that have already been bestowed upon a State.’”

A later Hawaiʻi Supreme Court case noted (in 2014,) “The US Supreme Court reversed this court, holding that the Apology Resolution did not confer substantive rights or have a substantive legal effect. Thus, the Apology Bill cannot serve to support a fundamental right to nation-building”. (SCWC-29794)

It’s interesting to note the Supreme Court’s repeated references to the Republic of Hawai‘i, Annexation, Territory, Newlands Resolution, Admission Act, State, etc.

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January 8, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Mule Tunnel

With its panoramic view from Koko Head to Waiʻanae, the summit of Diamond Head was an ideal site for the coastal defense of O‘ahu. In 1904, Diamond Head was purchased by the Federal government and designated for military use.

In 1906, Secretary of War William H Taft convened the National Coast Defense Board (Taft Board) “to consider and report upon the coast defenses of the United States and the insular possessions (including Hawai‘i.)” They recommended a system of Coast Artillery batteries to protect Pearl Harbor and Honolulu.

Fortification of Diamond Head began in 1908 with the construction of gun emplacements and an entry tunnel through the north wall of the crater from Fort Ruger known as the Mule Tunnel.

Originally, the tunnel was 5-feet wide and 7-feet high which is what was required for mules. Mules were used primarily to pull narrow gauge rail cars loaded with material in and out of the crater and to the various construction points.

Fort Ruger Military Reservation was established at Diamond Head (Leʻahi) in 1906. The Reservation was named in honor of Major General Thomas H. Ruger, who served from 1871 to 1876 as the superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

The trail to the Diamond Head summit was built in 1908 as part of the US Army Coastal Artillery defense system. Entering the crater from Fort Ruger, through the Mule Tunnel, the trail scaled the steep interior western slopes of the crater to the summit.

The dirt trail with numerous switchbacks was designed for mule and foot traffic. The mules hauled materials on this trail for the construction of Fire Control Station Diamond Head located at the summit. Other materials were hoisted from the crater floor by a winch and cable to a midway point along the trail. (DLNR)

In about 1910, there was a narrow gauge railway running from the mule tunnel across the center of the crater

Between 1909-1921, the Hawaiian Coast Artillery Command had its headquarters at Fort Ruger and defenses included artillery regiments stationed at Fort Armstrong, Fort Barrette, Fort DeRussy, Diamond Head, Fort Kamehameha, Kuwa‘aohe Military Reservation (Fort Hase – later known as Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi) and Fort Weaver.

The forts and battery emplacements were dispersed for concealment and to insure that a projectile striking one would not thereby endanger a neighbor.

The fort included Battery Harlow (1910-1943 – northern exterior;) Battery Hulings (1915-1925- (tunnels through crater wall;) Battery Dodge (1915-1925 – tunnels through east crater wall;) Battery Mills (1916-1925 – on Black Point;) Battery Birkhimer (1916-1943 – mostly below ground inside the crater;) Battery Granger Adams (1935-1946 – on Black Point (replaced Battery Mills;)) Battery 407 (1944 – tunnels through south crater wall;) and Battery Ruger (1937-1943).

In 1922, Mule Tunnel was enlarged to 15 feet wide by 14 feet high. A Fire Control Switchboard that had been in a shed outside the tunnel was moved into a room carved into the wall about 100 feet from the outside end. (Its name later changed to the Kapahulu Tunnel.)

The headquarters of the Harbor Defenses of Honolulu came to Fort Ruger in January 1927. In 1932 work began on a bombproof Harbor Defense Command Post (HDCP or “H” Station) built into the Kapahulu Tunnel.

During the widening of the tunnel, a larger cavern was cut into the wall of the tunnel at the downhill end, creating rooms for a Harbor Defense Command Post.

The new complex of eight rooms included the old fire control switchboard room and became the Harbor Defense Command Post. (Those rooms are now used by the Hawaii Red Cross as storage.)

In 1932 the tunnel was enlarged again, to 17 feet high to allow truck traffic. During the widening a larger cavern was cut into the wall of the tunnel at the downhill end, creating rooms for a Harbor Defense Command Post.

The Kahala Tunnel was built in the 1940s and is the public entrance today. (The Kapahulu Tunnel is used only when the Kahala Tunnel is closed for repairs or problems.)

In January 1950 Fort Ruger became the headquarters of the Hawaii National Guard. In 1955 most of the Fort Ruger reservation was turned over to Hawaii with the U.S. Army retaining the parade and Palm Circle until 1974 and the Cannon Club (officers’ club) until 1997.

The fort’s barracks area became the University of Hawaii’s Kapiʻolani Community College. (Lots of information is from DiamondHeadHike.)

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Originally Harbor Defense Command Post offices, now Red Cross Storage-diamondheadhike

Brian Miyamoto of Hawaii Civil Defense and Denby Fawcett walk through the Kapahulu or Mule Tunnel-StarAdv

Old Mule trail – now hike to summit

Old Mule trail-now hike to summit

Hike to summit

Near summit

Kahala Tunnel

Tunnel on hike to summit

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State Monument interpretive sign

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Fort_Ruger_Harbor Defense Command Post (HDCP)

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January 6, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

“the loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean”

In 1866, Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) was retained by The Sacramento Union newspaper to write a series of articles on Hawaiʻi. Here are some of his words about Hawaiʻi (from that series, as well as his other writing.)

“I was there for four or five months, and returned to find myself about the best known man on the Pacific Coast.” (Twain) Popular pieces, some credit the series with turning Twain into a journalistic star.

Like they get to a lot of people, the Islands struck a chord with Clemens.

“On the seventh day out we saw a dim vast bulk standing up out of the wastes of the Pacific and knew that that spectral promontory was Diamond Head”.

“So we were nearing Honolulu, the capital city of the Sandwich Islands – those islands which to me were Paradise; a Paradise which I had been longing all those years to see again. Not any other thing in the world could have stirred me as the sight of that great rock did.”

“The town of Honolulu (said to contain between 12,000 and 15,000 in habitants) is spread over a dead level; has streets from twenty to thirty feet wide, solid and level as a floor, most of them straight as a line … houses one and two stories high, … there are great yards, (that) are ornamented by a hundred species of beautiful flowers and blossoming shrubs, and shaded”.

“A mile and a half from town, I came to a grove of tall cocoanut trees, with clean, branchless stems reaching straight up sixty or seventy feet and topped with a spray of green foliage sheltering clusters of cocoa‐nuts”.

“… not more picturesque than a forest of colossal ragged parasols, with bunches of magnified grapes under them, would be. … It is the village of Waikiki once the Capital of the kingdom and the abode of the great Kamehameha I.”

“What a picture is here slumbering in the solemn glory of the moon! How strong the rugged outlines of the dead volcano stand out against the clear sky! What a snowy fringe marks the bursting of the surf over the long, curved reef!”

“I tried surf-bathing (surfing) once, subsequently, but made a failure of it. I got the board placed right, and at the right moment, too; but missed the connection myself. – The board struck the shore in three quarters of a second, without any cargo, and I struck the bottom about the same time, with a couple of barrels of water in me.”

“It has been six weeks since I touched a pen. In explanation and excuse I offer the fact that I spent that time (with the exception of one week) on the island of Maui. … I never spent so pleasant a month before.”

“I went to Maui to stay a week and remained five. I had a jolly time. I would not have fooled away any of it writing letters under any consideration whatever. … I sail for the island of Hawaiʻi tomorrow.”

“We landed at Kailua (Kona,) a little collection of native grass houses reposing under tall cocoanut trees ‐ the sleepiest, quietest, Sundayest looking place you can imagine.”

“Ye weary ones that are sick of the labor and care, and the bewildering turmoil of the great world, and sigh for a land where ye may fold your tired hands and slumber your lives peacefully away, pack up your carpet sacks and go to Kailua!”

“I suppose no man ever saw Niagara for the first time without feeling disappointed. I suppose no man ever saw it the fifth time without wondering how he could ever have been so blind and stupid as to find any excuse for disappointment in the first place.”

“I was disappointed when I saw the great volcano of Kilauea to‐day for the first time. It is a comfort to me to know that I fully expected to be disappointed, however, and so, in one sense at least, I was not disappointed.”

“I said to myself ‘Only a considerable hole in the ground ‐ nothing to Haleakala ‐ a wide, level, black plain in the bottom of it, and a few little sputtering jets of fire occupying a place about as large as an ordinary potato‐patch, up in one corner ‐ no smoke to amount to anything.’”

“I reflected that night was the proper time to view a volcano … I turned my eyes upon the volcano again (now, at night.)”

“… the floor of the abyss was magnificently illuminated; beyond these limits the mists hung down their gauzy curtains and cast a deceptive gloom over all … Here was room for the imagination to work! … it was the idea, of eternity made tangible ‐ and the longest end of it made visible to the naked eye!”

“We hear all our lives about the ‘gentle, stormless Pacific,’ and about the ‘smooth and delightful route to the Sandwich Islands,’ and about the ‘steady blowing trades’ that never vary, never change, never ‘chop around’”.

“No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one; no other land could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done.”

“Other things leave me, but it abides; other things change, but it remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surf beat is in my ear”.

“I can see its garlanded craigs, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore; its remote summits floating like islands above the cloudrack”.

“I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitudes; I can hear the plash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago.”

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January 3, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Collapse to Caldera

The Hawaiian Islands are volcanic in origin. Each island is made up of at least one primary volcano, although many islands are composites of more than one. The Big Island, for instance, is constructed of 5 major volcanoes: Kilauea, Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, Hualālai and Kohala. Mauna Loa is the largest active volcano on Earth.

Kilauea is presently one of the most productive volcanoes on Earth (in terms of how much lava it erupts each year). The primary volcanoes on each of the islands are known as a shield volcanoes, which are gently sloping mountains produced from a large number of generally very fluid lava flows. (SOEST)

To the casual observer, Kilauea appears to be part of the larger volcano Mauna Loa, but geological data indicates that it is a separate volcano with its own vent and conduit system. (livescience) When Kilauea began to form is not known, but various estimates are 300,000-600,000-years ago. (USGS)

Kilauea is a broad shield volcano built against the southeastern slope of Mauna Loa. The summit presently has a caldera that is roughly 2.5-miles by 2-miles wide, and walls nearly 400-feet. Another feature, known as Halemaʻumaʻu crater, lies within the main caldera (on the southwestern side.)

For the past century, Halemaʻumaʻu has been the principal site of activity at Kilauea’s summit. There has also been frequent activity along the Southeast rift zone (such as the presently active Puʻu ʻOʻo eruption, which started in 1983.)

While at nearby Mauna Loa eruptions tend to occur in pairs (i.e., a summit eruption followed by one on the flank), Kilauea’s pattern of summit versus flank activity appear to be more random. However, evidence of numerous flank eruptions occurring after a summit eruption can be found. (SOEST)

Sometimes, volcano summits form calderas. When an erupting volcano empties a shallow-level magma chamber, the edifice of the volcano may collapse into the voided reservoir, thus forming a steep, bowl-shaped depression called a caldera (Spanish for kettle or cauldron.)

The summit regions of many active shield volcanoes are marked by calderas. Hawaiian examples include the Mokuaweoweo caldera on Mauna Loa and the Kilauea caldera on Kilauea. (sdsu-edu)

So, when and how was the Kīlauea Caldera formed?

The modern caldera at Kilauea collapsed in about 1470-1500 AD, as recognized by geologic field work and C-14 radiocarbon dating. Two lines of geologic evidence indicate it was very deep soon after it formed, as is also suggested by Hawaiian oral tradition.

Scientists suggest at least a couple possibilities exist for the collapse. One is that the magma reservoir emptied rapidly without erupting; the other possibility is that magma withdrawal was prolonged, not rapid, in response to slow eruption of the ʻAilāʻau lava flow (the largest in Hawaiʻi in more than 1000 years.)

The flow erupted on the east side of Kilauea’s summit during a ca. 60-yr period ending in about 1470. It has typical tube-fed formation, consistent with slow eruption. The eruption just predates the caldera – its shield is cut by the outermost caldera fault – and in fact could have ended when the caldera formed. (Swanson)

Geologic evidence indicates that the caldera appeared in about AD 1500, give or take several decades. It developed at the end of, or soon after, a 60-year-long eruption from the ʻAilāʻau shield just east of Kilauea Iki, flooding much of Puna with lava flows. The caldera formed at the start of, or shortly before, a series of explosions that radiocarbon ages date to about AD 1500. (USGS)

However, most geologic models assume very rapid removal of material to form a caldera. The argument is that a large void cannot support itself underground, so an empty volume of a few cubic miles could not exist for long. If so, a huge volume of magma must have almost instantaneously left the reservoir under Kilauea’s summit, leaving a void into which the summit fell.

Both geologic and cultural evidence should exist for such a major volcanic event. Indeed, the events are likely chronicled in the Pele-Hiʻiaka chants. But neither cultural nor geologic evidence tells us where the rocks disappeared when the top of the volcano sunk to form the caldera.

How much material was removed? The volume is uncertain but very large. If the entire caldera formed at one time, scientists estimate a volume of 1.4 cubic miles, equivalent to 780-million loads for a 10-cubic-yard dump truck. That estimate is based on the caldera’s dimensions when first surveyed in the 1820s and on guesses as to how much deeper it might have been. (USGS)

Historical eruptions at Kilauea volcano have occurred from both the summit caldera and from vents along the East Rift Zone. The historical record began with a very explosive eruption in 1790.

After this, the volcano was almost continuously active, mostly showing gentle effusion from a lava lake at the summit until 1924, when it again erupted explosively. The period 1924 to 1955 saw mostly short-duration summit eruptions.

From 1955 to the present Kilauea has seen mostly East Rift Zone activity interspersed with small summit eruptions. Two notable rift eruptions were Mauna Ulu (1969-1974) and Puʻu ʻOʻo (1983-present). Kilauea’s Eruption rate diminished steadily over the first half of the historic period but has been increasing again since 1924. (SOEST)

Since the Puʻu ʻOʻo eruption started on January 3, 1983, the southern part of the caldera has been sinking 2.5-4 inches/year. (USGS)

Currently there are 3 Hawaiian volcanoes that we can be classified as active: Kilauea, actively erupting since 1983; Mauna Loa, which last erupted in 1984 and is building for a new eruption in the next few years; and Loihi, which erupted in 1996.

All three of these active Hawaiian volcanoes share the Hawaiian hot spot, but retain unique volcanic histories and compositions.

The most likely dormant volcanoes are: Hualālai, which last erupted in 1801; Haleakalā, which last erupted in about 1790; and Mauna Kea, which last erupted about 4,000-years ago. (SOEST)

Due to the ongoing eruption, portions of the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park are periodically closed, due the hazardous and unsafe conditions; check conditions and area closures before venturing.

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