Ali’i / Chiefs / Governance | Page 62

October 27, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kewalo

The modern urban district of Kaka‘ako is comprised primarily of the ‘ili (land section) of Kaʻākaukukui, Kukuluāeʻo and Kewalo, all part of the ahupua‘a of Honolulu.

A typical ahupuaʻa (what we generally refer to as watersheds, today) was a long strip of land, narrow at its mountain summit top and becoming wider as it ran down a valley into the sea to the outer edge of the reef. If there was no reef then the sea boundary would be about one and a half miles from the shore.

Some ahupuaʻa were subdivided into units (still part of the ahupuaʻa) called ʻili. Some of the smallest ahupuaʻa were not subdivided at all, while the larger ones sometimes contained as many as thirty or forty ʻili, each named with its own individual title and carefully marked out as to boundary.

Occasionally, the ahupuaʻa was divided into ʻili lele (“jumping strips”.) The ʻili lele often consisted of several distinct pieces of land at different climatic zones that gave the benefit of the ahupuaʻa land use to the ʻili owner: the shore, open kula lands, wetland kalo land and forested sections.

Like adjoining makai lands of Kaʻākaukukui and Kukuluāe’o, Kewalo, is an ʻili lele. It was awarded to Kamakeʻe Piʻikoi, wife of Jonah Piʻikoi (grandparents of Prince Kūhiō;) the award was shared between husband and wife. The lower land section extended from Kawaiahaʻo Church to Sheridan Street down to the shoreline.

The ʻIli Lele of Kewalo had a lower coastal area adjoining Waikīkī and below the Plain (Kulaokahu‘a) (270+ acres,) a portion makai of Pūowaina (Punchbowl) (50-acres, about one-half of Pūowaina,) a portion in Nuʻuanu (about 8-acres) and kalo loʻi in Pauoa Valley (about 1-acre.)

The makai portion of the Kewalo region was described by missionary Hiram Bingham, as he stood atop “Punchbowl Hill” looking toward Waikīkī to the south, as the “plain of Honolulu” with its “fishponds and salt making pools along the seashore”. (Bingham)

Another visitor to Honolulu in the 1820s, Capt. Jacobus Boelen, gives similar insight to the possible pre-contact character of the Kewalo area:

“It would be difficult to say much about Honoruru (honolulu.) On its southern side is the harbor or the basin of that name. The landlocked side in the northwest consists mostly of tarro (kalo, taro) fields. …”

“From the north toward the east, where the beach forms the bight of Whytetee (Waikīkī,) the soil around the village is less fertile, or at least not greatly cultivated.” (Cultural Surveys)

The undeveloped natural condition of the Kewalo area once consisted of low-lying marshes, tidal flats, fish ponds, reef and limited areas of dry land.

However, during pre-contact times, Hawaiians used it for salt making and farming of fishponds along with some limited wetland taro agriculture, and this supported habitation sites clustered around the mauka (inland) boundary up to King Street.

The salt marshes were excellent places to gather pili grass for the thatching of houses, which may have led to the area’s name: Kaka‘ako (prepare the thatching.)

Beginning in the late-nineteenth century, these low-lying areas were filled in and then developed, which permanently changed the area into its present fully-urbanized character. (Cultural Surveys)

The Kaka‘ako area has been heavily modified over the last 150 years due to historic filling for land reclamation. During the first half of the twentieth century, the marshlands, kalo and rice fields, and reefs were filled to accommodate the expanding urbanization of Honolulu.

The original foot path at the edge of the former coastline has been transformed through time to a horse path, buggy and cart path, and finally to the widened Ala Moana Boulevard.

It continued to be outside Waikīkī and Honolulu during the post-Contact era and served as a place of the dying and the dead, of isolation and quarantine (leper, smallpox, cholera and bubonic patients,) of trash (the city’s dump) and wastelands, and the poor and the immigrant (Japanese, Chinese, Filipino and Portuguese.)

Kewalo literally means “the calling (as an echo).” Outcasts (kauwā) intended for sacrifice were drowned in a pond here as the first step in a sacrificial ritual known as Kānāwai Kaihehe‘e or Ke-kai-he‘ehe‘e, which translates as “sea sliding along,” suggesting that the victims were slid under the sea. (Cultural Surveys)

The priest holding the victim’s head under water would say to her or him on any signs of struggling, “Moe malie i ke kai o ko haku.” “Lie still in the waters of your superiors.” From this it was called Kawailumalumai, “Drowning waters.” (Cultural Surveys)

Today, Kewalo and the district of Kakaʻako are an important link between Honolulu and Waikīkī and are undergoing tremendous commercial and residential redevelopment and is well on its way as a vibrant place to live, work, play and learn, within easy distance between the two commercial centers.

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October 23, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kaʻahumanu Wall

In the early 1800s, the city of Honolulu went as far as South Street; Kawaiahaʻo Church and Mission Houses (on King Street, on the Diamond Head side of town) were at the edge and outskirts of town.

The flat area between Mānoa and Honolulu was known as Kulaokahu‘a – the “plains.” It was the comparatively level ground below Makiki Valley (between the mauka fertile valleys and the makai wetlands.) This included areas such as Kaka‘ako, Kewalo, Makiki, Pawaʻa and Mōʻiliʻili.

Queen Kaʻahumanu was Kamehameha’s favorite wife. When he died on May 8, 1819, the crown was passed to his son, Liholiho, who would rule as Kamehameha II. Kaʻahumanu created the office of Kuhina Nui (similar to premier, prime minister or regent) and ruled as an equal with Liholiho.

On December 4, 1825, Queen Kaahumanu was baptized into the Protestant faith and received her new name, Elizabeth, then labored earnestly to lead her people to Christ.

In 1829, at the suggestion of Queen Kaʻahumanu (with the likely support of Hoapili), Boki and Liliha gave the lands of Ka Punahou to Hiram and Sybil Bingham, leaders of the first missionary group to Hawaiʻi. Bingham then gave the land to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to establish Punahou School.

The Binghams built their home there; Kaʻahumanu wanted to be close to them and built hers nearby (the Binghams later built an adobe house, with thatched roof.) A memorial boulder near Old School Hall and the Library marks the location of the makai door of the Bingham home.

Just as in other outlying areas around the islands, roaming cattle became a nuisance. Recall that in the early-1790s Captain George Vancouver gave Kamehameha I gifts of several cattle (a new species to the islands) and Vancouver strongly encouraged Kamehameha to place a 10‐year kapu on them to allow the herd to grow.

In the decades that followed, cattle flourished and turned into a dangerous nuisance. Vast herds destroyed natives’ crops, ate the thatching on houses, and hurt, attacked and sometimes killed people. (Kamehameha III later lifted the kapu in 1830.)

To protect the Bingham’s property and surrounding areas, in 1830, Queen Ka‘ahumanu ordered that a wall should be built from Punchbowl to Mōʻiliʻili. “The object of the structure was to keep cattle grazing on the plains from intruding upon the cultivated region towards the mountains.” (Hawaiian Gazette October 29, 1901)

“Kaahumanu’s wall came from “the reef” (suggesting it was made of coral.) It is an Interesting fact many of the prisoners who built it were serving time for religion’s sake. After the native’s had cast down their idols and been converted, they turned against all forms of idolatry with the zeal new proselytes.” (Hawaiian Gazette October 29, 1901)

“When the Roman Catholic worship came in, the chiefs mistook the use of images’ for idolatry and threw a great many Catholics into prison. The labor which went into the Kaahumanu wall included theirs.” (Hawaiian Gazette October 29, 1901)

“Years afterwards when Curtis Lyons went into the Survey office and laid the streets on the plains he named the thoroughfare which ran alongside the great wall, Stonewall street.” (Hawaiian Gazette October 29, 1901)

The wall followed a trail which was later expanded and was first called Stonewall Street. It was also known as “Mānoa Valley Road;” later, the route was renamed for the shipping magnate, Samuel G. Wilder (and continues to be known as Wilder Avenue.)

While the street was initially called “Stonewall Street,” it does not necessarily immediately suggest the wall was made of rocks.

A decade later the Kawaiahaʻo Church was constructed, it was commonly called the “Stone Church.” However, it is made of giant slabs of coral hewn from ocean reefs, as were other structures, at the time.

Likewise, “(s)uch blocks still appear in the Kawaiahao structure. In the ancient parsonage back of it and in the old house of government next door to the Postoffice and the material for the fence which fronted the “Hale” on Merchant street.” (Hawaiian Gazette October 29, 1901)

However, a later reference suggests the wall, at least at Punahou, may have been made of “stone.” The Friend, in a summary on Punahou history stated, “To protect the Manoa land from grazing cattle she (Kaʻahumanu) called on the governor, Kuakini, to build a long stone wall at its makai side. To mark the boundary, at the makai entrance, two large stones were set up.” (Damon, The Friend, March 1924)

The ‘Pōhaku’ book (Cheevers) suggests this same rock wall configuration, rather than the coral construction noted in the 1901 Hawaiian Gazette article. Pōhaku notes, “About 2,000 men worked on it as each chief was responsible for building one fathom (six feet) of its almost two-mile length (or approximately six-feet of dry laid rock wall, five feet high, per man).”

Irrespective of The Friend’s reference to the “reef,” the rock material in the Kaahumanu stone wall appears the most plausible. The disappearance of the Queen Kaʻahumanu wall is due to the street widening order of the Board of Public Works.

This wasn’t the Islands’ only significant cattle wall. Between 1830 and 1840, Governor Kuakini built a 6-mile wall (from Kailua to Keauhou, on Hawaiʻi Island) that separated the coastal lands from the inland pasture lands (Ka Pā Nui o Kuakini – the Great Wall of Kuakini.)

Punahou’s dry stack rock wall along Punahou Street was constructed in 1834. The night-blooming cereus (known in Hawaiʻi as panini o kapunahou) that today continues to cover the Punahou walls (that back in 1924 was noted to have “world-wide reputation and interest”) was planted in 1836 by Sybil Bingham (Hiram’s wife) from a few branches of the vine she received from a traveler from Mexico. (The Friend)

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Kaahumanu Wall is on the left in this drawing of Punahou School-(MasonArchitects)-1848

Punahou Street looking toward Round Top-(HSA)-PPWD-17-3-027-1900

Oahu College scene of driveway to Old School Hall and E Building, c.1881

Bingham_house-marker-library_in_background

Punahou_Preparatory_School,_Honolulu-(WC)-(1909)

Oahu_College-Old_School_Hall_at_Punahou_School

Ka Punahou (the new spring) Robert Shipman Thurston, Jr. Memorial Chapel, designed by Vladimir Ossipoff in 1967-(MasonArchitects)

October 4, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Nāhiʻenaʻena

The only daughter of Kamehameha the Great and Keōpūolani, Nāhiʻenaʻena was born in 1815; her brothers were Liholiho (Kamehameha II – born circa 1797) and Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III – born 1813.)

Her mother refused to follow the custom of the period and hānai her baby daughter to the rearing of another chief. Keōpūolani wanted to keep the last of her children at her side.

This decision tells us much about the mother’s force of character and meant that Nāhiʻenaʻena was in the very center of the stage during the crucial period in 1819: the illness and death of Kamehameha I, the assumption of the throne by Liholiho as Kamehameha II and the abolition of the kapu (initiated by her mother and Kaʻahumanu.) The princess was four years old when these great changes occurred. (Sinclair)

Toward the end of 1820, the decision was made to move the king’s official residence from Kailua-Kona to Honolulu. In early-1821, Liholiho, with his family, including Keōpūolani, Kauikeaouli and Nāhiʻenaʻena, and the important chiefs, established the seat of government on Oʻahu.

In the spring of 1823, Keōpūolani established a residence away from Honolulu in a grove at the foot of Diamond Head; there she hoped to find a quiet place to restore her health and to hear the new gospel without interruption.

“She, at this time, expressed her earnest desire that her two children, the prince and princess, then able to read and write, might be well educated, and particularly that Nahienaena might be trained up in the habits of Christian and civilized females, like the wives of the missionaries. She wished, too, that the missionaries would pray for Liholiho.” (Bingham)

“The missionaries and their wives earnestly desired to withdraw her (Nāhiʻenaʻena) from the scenes of heathen corruption, and throw around her daily the protecting shield of Christian families. But this could be accomplished only in part, as in that state of the nation she could not well be detached from the native community. She is said to be very amiable and kind, and is universally beloved and respected by her people.” (Bingham)

At the end of May in 1823, Keōpūolani, Nāhiʻenaʻena and Hoapili (Keōpūolani’s husband) moved to Maui and took up residence in Lāhainā. Missionaries Charles Stewart and William Richards were assigned to establish a church and teach “letters and religion”.

The princess and her mother spent warm peaceful days in the study of letters and religion, interrupted occasionally when people came to celebrate their affection for the chiefesses by dancing and singing. Usually a great crowd assembled to watch.

Later that year, Keōpūolani became very ill and died. After Keōpūolani’s death, Nāhiʻenaʻena was placed in the care of Hoapili, her mother’s husband and governor of Maui, and of the two missionary teachers, Stewart and Richards, to whom she was already devoted.

In accordance with Hawaiian custom, Hoapili soon remarried. Nāhiʻenaʻena’s mother had been the first chief to be baptized a Protestant; her stepfather became the first chief to be married in a Christian ceremony. Richards conducted the service which united Hoapili to Kalākua, one of Kamehameha’s former queens.

In 1825, Nāhiʻenaʻena’s brother – King Kamehameha II – traveled to England. To celebrate his return, a yellow feather pāʻū was made for Nāhiʻenaʻena.

A pāʻū was a women’s garment that was typically a rectangular piece of kapa (tapa) wrapped several times around the waist and extended from beneath the bust (for royalty) or the waistline (for commoners) to the knee.

This special pāʻū was about 9-yards long, made of feathers, instead of kapa (it is the largest Hawaiian feather piece ever recorded.) Due to the unfortunate death of Liholiho and his wife Kamāmalu, the pāʻū was worn in grief, rather than celebration.

Hiram Bingham described the occasion, “The young princess had partly wrapped round her waist, above her black silk dress, a splendid yellow feather pau, or robe, nine yards in length and one in breadth, manufactured with skill and taste, at great expense, and designed for her anticipated reception of her brother Liholiho. In its fabrication, the small bright feathers were ingeniously fastened upon a fine netting, spun without wheels or spindles, and wrought by native hands, from the flaxen bark of their olona, and the whole being lined with crimson satin made a beautiful article of “costly array,” for a princess of eight years.”

The problem of a suitable marriage for Nāhiʻenaʻena had been in the minds of the chiefs from the time of her childhood. Before she was ten years old, a possible union between her and her brother was discussed. The purpose of such brother-sister marriages was to concentrate the royal blood so that the issue would have the highest possible rank. (Sinclair)

Queen Keōpūolani had been the issue of a brother-sister marriage, a naha mating of niʻaupiʻo chiefs; her parents had had the same mother but different fathers, both descended from the chiefly lines of Maui and Hawaiʻi. Liholiho had half-sisters among his five wives. They consulted the missionaries, who pointed out that such a marriage was forbidden in the eyes of God. (Sinclair)

There were repeated claims of incestuous behavior between Nāhiʻenaʻena and her brother, Kauikeaouli. On November 25, 1835, Nāhiʻenaʻena and Leleiōhoku (son of Kalanimōku) were married in Waine’e Church; the ceremony was performed by Richards.

She became pregnant the next year and on September 17 she had a son, who lived only a few hours. Nāhiʻenaʻena had been ill and continued to be gravely ill after the childbirth. She died shortly thereafter, December 30, 1836.

On February 14, 1837, Kauikeaouli, King Kamehameha III, was married to Kalama Kapakuhaili. Leleiōhoku married a second time to Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani; he had a son William Pitt Kīnaʻu from his second wife.

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'Nahienaena_Soeur_germaine_du_Roi_des_iles_Sandwich_Tamehameha_III',_Barthélémy_Lauvergne-(WC)-1836

Waineʻe (now Waiola) Church Cemetery-Nāhienaena, daughter of Kamehameha I and Keōpūolani-1836

September 27, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kuihelani

Helumoa (meaning “chicken scratch”) was the name bestowed on that niu (coconut) planting that would multiply into a grove of reportedly 10,000 coconut trees.

This is the same coconut grove that would later be called the King’s Grove, or the Royal Grove, and would be cited in numerous historical accounts for its pleasantness and lush surroundings.

Kamehameha the Great and his warriors camped near here, when they began their conquest of O‘ahu in 1795. Later, he would return and build a Western style stone house for himself, as well as residences for his wives and retainers in an area known as Pua‘ali‘ili‘i (little pig.)

Kamehameha’s kauhale (residence) was called Kuihelani and was situated at the area between the mouth of the ʻApuakehau (Moana Hotel) and Helumoa (Royal Hawaiian Hotel), a favorite dwelling site of Waikīkī’s chiefs.

It was probably adjacent to the old foot-trail that ran from Pūowaina (Punchbowl) to Waikīkī. John Papa ʻĪʻī described this main road into Waikīkī as follows:

“The trail from Kawaiahao which led to lower Waikiki went along Kaananiau, into the coconut grove at Pawaa, the coconut grove of Kuakuaka, then down to Piinaio; along the upper side of Kahanaumaikai’s coconut grove, along the border of Kaihikapu pond, into Kawehewehe …”

“… then through the center of Helumoa of Puaaliilii, down to the mouth of the Apuakehau stream; along the sandy beach of Ulukou to Kapuni, where the surfs roll in; thence to the stream of Kuekaunahi; to Waiaula and to Pali’iki, Kamanawa’s house site.”

Before the battle of Nuʻuanu, Kamehameha had promised the moʻo goddess Kihawahine a special kind of dwelling. According to Kamakau, Kamehameha had spoken to the goddess, saying, …

“If you take Oʻahu, I will build a house for your akua in the calm of Waikiki-a puaniu house …” The hale puaniu was a small structure in which offerings of bananas, coconuts, ‘awa (kava) and capes were kept to use in order to deify a deceased person and make him or her into a mo’o god or goddess. (Kanahele)

Triumphant upon his return, instead of the typical hale pili (grass hut,) Kamehameha built a stone house, enclosed by a fence. Nearby were the dwellings of Kaʻahumanu and Keōpuōlani and their retainers.

He may have built or commandeered additional houses to accommodate some of his other wives and children, along with their attendants, probably numbering several hundred. It was typical of Kamehameha to surround himself with a large entourage for whom he provided generously.

George W. Bates described Kuihelani and Waikīkī in 1854: “The old stone house in which the great warrior (Kamehameha I) once lived still stands, but it is falling into a rapid decay. I could not help lingering there for a time to notice the objects scattered around.”

“There were no busy artisans wielding their implements of labor; no civilized vehicles bearing their loads of commerce, or any living occupant. But beneath the cool shade of some evergreens, or in some thatched houses, reposed several canoes.”

“Every thing was quiet as though it were the only village on earth, and its tenants the only denizens. A few natives were enjoying a promiscuous bath in a crystal stream that came directly from the mountains (ʻApuakehau) and rolled, like another Pactolus, to meet the embrace of the ocean.”

“Some were steering their frail canoes seaward. Others, clad simply in Nature’s robes, were wading out on the reefs in search of fish. Here in this quiet hamlet, once unknown to all the world, Kamehameha I, surrounded by his chieftains, held his councils for the safety and consolidation of his kingdom.”

Waikīkī was well-suited for Kamehameha’s shallow-draft canoes that did not require deep water and could be easily beached. Its waters also provided the best anchorage for foreign ships, which were now calling on the islands in increasing numbers.

Captain Vancouver, a friend and counselor to Kamehameha, said of Waikīkī: “although open above half the compass in the southern quarters, it is unquestionably the most eligible anchoring place in the island.”

Its advantages were sandy bottom, soft coral, irregular reef and mild surf. Nonetheless, while foreign ships did anchor at Waikīkī, it was not the perfect harbor.

In contrast, Honolulu was a noisy, dusty port town of 14,000 inhabitants, including hundreds of foreign residents and visitors.

Waikīkī was quiet compared to the bustle of Honolulu’s yelping dogs, rattling carts, saluting cannon and carousing drunks. Over 600 ships a year called on its harbor discharging tons of cargo from all corners of the earth, along with sailors and whalers who rioted and brawled for sport.

Since the capital moved with Kamehameha, Waikīkī’s reign as capital of the kingdom was ended, at least until his next visit. For the next dozen years or so, Waikīkī, Kona and Lāhaina alternated as the capitals as Kamehameha spent long periods of time in each place.

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Kuihelani – Waikiki Home of Kamehameha I-400

September 22, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Pu‘u O Kaimukī – Telegraph Hill

When King Kamehameha stationed his troops on the beaches of Waikīkī in preparation for the battle to take O‘ahu, he stationed lookouts at Pu‘u O Kaimukī (aka “Kaimukī Hill”) to spot enemies arriving by sea.

When Honolulu became a major port, “Kaimukī Hill” was used as a signal station (using semaphore technology,) giving it the name “telegraph hill.” It had broad view over the Pacific and line-of-sight to downtown Honolulu. Back then, they used this vantage point to spot ships coming in, and then conveyed the news to Honolulu.

Optical “telegraphs” or signaling devices have been traced back to ancient times (initially using torches) and were the fastest systems to convey messages over long distances; these “telegraphs” eventually moved toward semaphore towers.

If Internet and its communications channels are at the forefront of the signaling opportunities of the 21st century, the semaphore was the signals intelligence breakthrough at the time of Napoleon (and Washington and Kamehameha.)

Semaphore towers used arms and blades/paddles to convey messages; messages were conveyed/decoded based on the fixed positions of these arms.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the French revolutionized land-based communications with the construction of semaphore towers bearing rotating arms to fashion coded signals. The British quickly followed suit in that new era of signals intelligence.

The semaphore tower/semaphore line design was first thought up by Robert Hooke in 1684 and submitted to the Royal Society. The system was not implemented, though, due to military concerns.

However, this did lead to Claude Chappe developing the first visual telegraph in 1792 – eventually covering much of France via 556 stations. In France, this was the primary source of communication for military and national applications, until it became more widely used in the 1850s.

In Hawaiʻi, Kaimukī Hill had been used as a semaphore signal station ever since Fair Haven (Honolulu Harbor) became prominent in Hawaiian commerce. This semaphore station reported all incoming ships from Koko Head to Barber’s Point.

“Before the telephone was invented, and long before the system was in use in Honolulu, we had the lookout station on Telegraph Hill, which by means of a semaphore arrangement communicated with a station on the building (downtown.) Every merchant was supplied with the code, and whenever a schooner, a steamer, a mail packet, or a man of war, was sighted, the heart of the town knew it immediately.” (Hawaiian Star, February 10, 1899)

“From Telegraph Hill and the slopes toward Waiʻalae may be seen Koko Head, the beautiful expanse of ocean and on clear days the distant islands of Molokai, Lanai, and Maui. On the town side, the residents look over the town, across the cane fields to the Waianae range.” (Evening Bulletin, September 26, 1898)

“Mauka of Diamond Head, for a distance of three or four miles is a high ridge that vernacular geologists call a “hog back.” At the most elevated point on this ridge is the debris of Telegraph Hill (Kaimuki). In the olden days vessels coming from the north were signalled to the city from Kaimuki by a semaphore system, clear and effective. The town end of the line was a building on Kaahumanu street, then occupied as a sail loft.” (Hawaiian Gazette, January 13, 1899)

Reportedly, in 1857, a semaphore mechanism on Puʻu O Kaimukī, with large moveable arms, was attached to the top of a sixty-foot pole and used to signal to Honolulu.

The official receiving station from Kaimukī was on Merchant Street, but some have suggested other receiving stations at Kaʻahumanu Street and the foot of Nuʻuanu.

Upon receiving the message, a signal was broadcast to the town noting the names and ports of origin of each ship coming into view. This information was announced in Honolulu by loud proclamation and bell ringing, and preparation made to tow the vessel in by hand or bullock power.

In 1866, the roof of Honolulu Hale on Merchant Street was fitted with a new marine lookout with a taller semaphore, making its signals accessible to a larger segment of the population.

This optical telegraph system was an important tool for residents of Honolulu. The signals were unique and people became familiar with them, so most could decode the signal and know which ships were coming.

Likewise, besides alerting the postmaster to the imminent arrival of the mail, it was helpful to merchants expecting new goods and people awaiting friends and relatives.

Semaphore was then called “marine telegraph”, and it seems logical that the early map-makers of Hawaiʻi would name the hill “Telegraph Hill.”

“When the telephone system got into working order the lookout station was moved to a position on Diamond Head which gave a view further along the channel, because it was no longer necessary for the station to be in full view of the city.” (Hawaiian Star, February 10, 1899)

Puʻu O Kaimukī had several colloquial names; one was Christmas Tree Park. There’s a bare metal Christmas-Tree-looking pole. It’s not a remnant of the prior semaphore communications, it’s just a Christmas tree, built by the City and County soon after the park’s christening in 1991. Every year since then the big metal tree gets hung with Christmas lights.

It’s also referred to as Reservoir Park, a reminder of the days in the early 1900s when the top of the hill housed a water storage tank for the Honolulu Water Works. Another name is Bunker Hill, from the World War II era when the spot became a handy surveillance bunker for the military.

It’s known today as Puʻu o Kaimukī Park and is just behind (makai) the Kaimukī Fire Station.

On November 13, 1900, the first Marconi wireless telegraph system was set up and messages were sent and received between Oʻahu and Molokaʻi across a twenty-eight mile channel. Military semaphore flag signals are still used, today

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