Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“I really pity you in comeing here.”

“On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began with a Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter. One month later, at the age of 31, George Edgar Buss enlisted in New York’s 14th Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company F, signing up for two years of service.”

“In 1863, when he was mustered out, he re-enlisted for a three year term, this time in a cavalry unit. The war ended before his second tour of duty was finished, so he was sent to Fort Collins, a small military outpost along the Overland Trail in the northern part of the Colorado Territory.” (Dunn, Northern Colorado History)

His wife Amelia traveled to Colorado in 1866 “[T]he family’s first winter was exceedingly difficult. Amelia kept a diary of her first year in Colorado. In it she tells of one of her nearest neighbors, Mrs. Jesse Sherwood, coming to visit and saying, ‘I really pity you in coming here.’” (Dunn, Northern Colorado History)

During the 1800s, the U.S. Government and other companies built forts along the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails to protect the emigrants traveling west and to also provide supplies for these wagon trains. Forts and outposts that were built along the Overland Trails in the States of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. (NPS)

“British, Canadian, French, Spanish, and American forts were distributed from the Prairie Provinces to West Texas and from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, although not evenly and not all having a strictly military purpose.”

“Broadly defined, Great Plains forts [in the rolling grasslands and agricultural land that slopes gently eastward from the Rocky Mountain foothills to the Kansas border] fell into two groups. Forts of the first group were places from which to carry on commerce, a staging area for traders of furs and robes. Forts of the second group, detailed here, were places from which to execute war, a staging area for soldiers.” (Plains Humanities)

“Fort Collins was founded in 1864 as a military fort called ‘Camp Collins.’ The camp was named by Gen. James Craig to honor Lt. Col. William Oliver Collins, who commanded the Ohio Cavalry troops headquartered at Fort Laramie. Soldiers from Kansas were originally sent to the area in 1862 to guard the Overland Stage Line and protect the Cherokee trail.”

“North of Fort Collins, U.S. Route 287 follows the path of the Overland Trail north to Laramie. West of Laramie the Overland Trail route was closely followed by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 and the Lincoln Highway and Interstate 80 in the 20th century.” (Visit Laramie)

“The Overland Trail was a critical route in the westward expansion of the United States. Stretching from western Kansas to Salt Lake City, the trail passed through parts of modern-day Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah.”

“In its early days, the trail was primarily used by people traveling west to reach Salt Lake City and California, as well as mining settlements in the Rockies during the Colorado Gold Rush. The Overland Trail was developed with heavy emphasis as a stagecoach mail line, serving the Overland Stage Company owned by Ben Holladay and later Wells Fargo.” (CSU History Matters)

“Colorado troops took over the camp, then located in LaPorte, about 3½ months later. Collins sent some of his men to Fort Collins to relieve Colorado troops in May 1864.” (Kyle, Coloradoan)  “A devastating flood rushed down the canyon of the Cache la Poudre River during the night of June 9, 1864. Flooding Camp Collins, it carried tents, ammunition and some of the cabins downstream.”

“Soon a search began for a new location for the post. Joseph Mason (credited with being Fort Collins’ first white settler) was living on his farm between the present North Shields and Wood Street on Vine Drive. Mason pointed out land on the Cache la Poudre River in the vicinity of the present Willow Street.”

“On August 20, 1864, Col. Collins signed the order setting aside the present location of Fort Collins as the new military reservation. Here the danger of flooding would be less and sufficient land was available without interfering with the claims of individuals. Thus it is August 20 that Fort Collins Historical Society honors as the celebration of Fort Collins’ birthday.”

“In October of 1864 the new post was ready for occupation and the term ‘Fort Collins’ is used instead of ‘Camp Collins’ in the order book, although there seems to have been no official order for the change. For almost two years Fort Collins remained a military post”.   (Fort Collins History Connection)

“When General William T. Sherman visited Fort Collins in 1866, he determined that threats to the trails and settlers in the area had been substantially reduced and that the fort was no longer of military use. … In 1867, President Johnson ordered the post abandoned. (Fort Collins History Connection)

“A few farms and ranches were located around Fort Collins and squatters settled on the abandoned military reservation in ‘Old Town’ … Finally on May 15, 1872, Congress opened the reservation to pre-emption homesteading and that same year the Agricultural Colony arrived to buy land and plat out Fort Collins.”

“Old Town had been built parallel to the river, while New Town was attached to it, being square with the compass. Fort Collins was incorporated as a town February 3, 1873. Statistics of 1870 give the entire population of Larimer County as 838 people.”  (Fort Collins History Connection)

“The colony movement, which led to the successful founding of Greeley, was also important in the growth of Fort Collins and the surrounding area. The movement was an attempt to reduce the hazards of moving to the frontier by bringing an entire community to help establish a settlement.”

“In 1869, a group of men representing families in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, arrived in Fort Collins looking for a site for a colony. … Unfortunately, the colony soon ran out of money and abandoned the undertaking.” (Fort Collins History Connection)

“The Fort Collins colony was a scheme developed by Robert A. Cameron, who had become superintendent of the Greeley Colony. … The group planned the new colony to spread what they believed were the benefits of the Greeley experience, as well as to reap profit from the sale of land.”

On May 15, 1872, “the military reservation was officially opened to settlement, and a new era of development ensued. The improvement company purchased lands and sold certificates of membership in their new colony which entitled the holder to commercial or residential lots or farm tracts, depending upon the cost of the membership.” (Fort Collins History Connection)

“Despite the establishment of important businesses and the erection of several frame and brick buildings, [there was] the ‘gloomy’ period following 1873 showed little progress for the town.”

“After the initial boom in population resulting from the creation of the colony, building activity dwindled and a number of people moved elsewhere in search of brighter prospects. The Panic of 1873, which resulted in bank and business failures throughout the country had an effect on the local economy.”

“Another milepost in Fort Collins’ progress was the opening of Colorado Agricultural College (now Colorado State University (CSU)) in the fall of 1879. Ten years later the first high school opened on the second floor of Franklin School, which once stood where Steele’s Market on West Mountain is now located.”  (Fort Collins History Connection)

“The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 altered the usage and significance of overland stagecoach trails. By the late 1870s and early 1880s, railroad networks were becoming a more reliable, safer, and luxurious form of transport, and the development of tourism to the region began to grow.”

“By the early 20th century, stagecoach travel was essentially dead. The explosion of the automobile industry and its promise of individualized travel led to the growth of road networks and highway systems, which largely replaced railroad travel in the Western United States.”

“However, large portions of early highway networks in Colorado and Wyoming, like the Lincoln Highway and I-80, were heavily based on the Overland Trail route.” (CSU History Matters)

“Around the 1940s, when hunting for a nickname for their fair city, Fort Collins garden clubs looked no further than the lilac bushes growing in their own backyards. Fort Collins shall hereby be called “The Lilac City,” they declared. … It didn’t stick.”

“Through the 1950s, pamphlets and tourism ads for the growing Northern Colorado community heralded it as “Fortunate Fort Collins,” an up-and-coming oasis in the state’s “Horn of Plenty” – where agriculture, industry, scenery and outdoor sports so wholesomely converged. … That one fizzled, too.”

“It wasn’t until later that decade that Fort Collins truly found its footing in the nickname department, becoming – once and for all – the Choice City.”  (Udell, Coloradoan)

“Harper Goff, who created Disneyland’s Main Street USA with Walt Disney, grew up in Fort Collins. Harper came back to Fort Collins in the 1950s to photograph the buildings of his youth”.

“Fort Collins and Walt Disney’s hometown, Marceline, Missouri [were] an inspiration and models for Disneyland’s Main Street USA.”  “‘Disneyland’s City Hall was copied from Fort Collins… so was the Bank building and some of the others.’” (Harper Goff )  (Fort Collins History Connection)

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by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Hāmākua Ditch

As a result of the 1902 Arthur S Tuttle report commissioned by the Bishop Estate to study the feasibility of bringing water to the Hāmākua area, two major ditches were proposed – the Upper Ditch and the Lower Ditch.

“The object of the Hawaiian Irrigation Company, Limited, is in brief, the supplying of mountain water, by means of one upper and one lower irrigation canal, from the large watershed and permanent streams of the Kohala mountains, Hawaii …”

“… to the sugar estates in the Hāmākua district, where a large area, which is capable of considerable extension, is now under cultivation.” (Hawaiian Star, July 2, 1910)

The Hawaii Irrigation Company was originally known as the Hāmākua Ditch Company, Ltd., which was incorporated on February 9, 1904. Among the local bond subscribers were FA Schaefer & Co, Honokaa Sugar Co, Pacific Sugar Mill, Allen & Robinson, H Hackfeld, Mr Ahrens and Mr Jorgensen.

Sometime between August 1908 and April 1909, the Hāmākua Ditch Company changed its name to Hawaiian Irrigation Company, Ltd.

“Efforts to obtain water on a large scale for the ‘dry’ Hāmākua section of Hawaii had begun, however, prior to the active association of Mr. McCrosson with the projects. In 1884 Claus Spreckels, WG Irwin, HP Baldwin and others had surveys made and did considerable preliminary work, but the scheme was abandoned owing to the decision of Mr. Baldwin to concentrate his energies and capital upon the island of Maui.”

“In 1892 LA Thurston, then minister of the interior, made an official survey of the country (with a view to devising a scheme for taking water into Hamakua.) These several surveys formed the basis of Mr McCrosson’s later operations and the survey basis of the three great systems as they appear today.” (Hawaiian Star, July 2, 1910)

Water sources for the Upper Hāmākua Ditch were the Kawainui and the Alakahi streams, as well as general runoff from the watershed into the ditch; construction apparently commenced in April 1906. The Ditch was completed in January of 1907 and was initially able to deliver 15 MGD (million gallons per day.)

John T McCrosson oversaw the construction of the ditch. The Upper Ditch was approximately 23-miles in length and some 15 miles of it ran through Honokaa Sugar Co. and Pacific Sugar Mill land. Originally the Upper Ditch consisted of dirt ditches and galvanized flumes patched with lumber.

The Lower Ditch construction began in June 1907 (water sources were the Kawainui, Alakahi, Koeawi, and later, the Waimea streams,) but serious construction work did not start until September 1908. The ditch was opened on July 1, 1910 with a delivery of 30 MGD.

It was the occasion of two days of banquets, speeches and merry-making … “According to rumors aboard the Mauna Kea, the Hamakua Ditch opening on Friday will be the scene of an immense gathering, if the weather be favorable. It is understood that the entire population of the district will foregather there…” (Hawaiian Star, June 30, 1910)

The original length of the Lower Ditch was approximately 24 miles. Later on it was extended about 5 miles to supply water to Pauʻuilo Plantation.

“(F)rom the water head to the exit from Waipio Valley a distance of nearly nine miles, the ‘ditch’ is no ditch at all but a continuous tunnel with only three breaks where it comes out of the face of the bluff to span a narrow gorge and plunge into the face of the opposite precipice once more to bury itself in the lava depths …”

“… and that there are as yet unused possibilities for the incidental development of 8000 horsepower which can be distributed as electric energy all over the Island of Hawaii, give some conception of what the Great Ditch means.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 5, 1910)

Japanese laborers built the ditch tunnels, the tunnel of the Lower Ditch, traveling the 8.9-miles from the Kawainui intake to the weir at Kukuihaele, was one of the longest in Hawai‘i. It was further distinguished by being quite large, approximately 10 X 12 feet in diameter. In 1920, another tunnel was constructed through Lalakea Gulch.

Apparently, three people were killed as a result of the building of the ditch. In July 1909, an engineer, Thomas F Kelly, drowned (with his horse) in Waipi`o Valley as he was returning from Kukuihaele with supplies.

A month later, a Japanese laborer was “pinned down by a large rock falling on him; he died shortly after the accident.” There is mention of a third, a Japanese workman, who, during the cutting of a trail across the face of the pali, was struck by a falling rock, “and he tumbled to death hundreds of feet below.” (EnvHawaii)

Due to various disputes , by February of 1915, Hawaiian Irrigation Co. was taken over by new management (essentially that of Honokaa Sugar Co.)

The company became involved in the growing and selling of rice. A rice mill was operated and became a source of revenue. There were also a few small independent poi factories located in the valley. The records also reflect other attempts regarding diversified agriculture in the valley.

In 1960, Honokaa Sugar Co. bought the remaining outstanding shares of the Hawaiian Irrigation Company, making Hawaiian Irrigation Company a wholly owned subsidiary of that firm.

For half a century it was the sole source for potable water for the communities along its path. The Hāmākua Ditch is woven into the history and culture of the local communities beyond its length. The ditch continues to serve the needs of the Hāmākua community.

The demise of the sugar industry, including the closure of Hāmākua Sugar in 1994, left a void in communities on the Big Island and throughout the state. At that time, the community expressed a strong desire to retain an agricultural lifestyle, which helped define the character of the community.

A movement toward growing a diversified agricultural community began with an eye on the highly desirable lower elevation lands. The Hāmākua Ditch remained a critical and important piece in this vision.

The Hamakua Ditch Work Group (comprised of local farmers and ranchers, representatives from the Hāmākua Farm Bureau and Hāmākua/North Hilo Cooperative, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, State Department of Agriculture, State Legislators and Kamehameha Schools) formed shortly after the 1994 closing of the plantation and has focused on maintenance and preservation of the Hāmākua Ditch system. (Takamine)

“John T McCrosson, the builder of the Hāmākua ditch, was born In Delaware, and arrived in the Islands first in March, 1880, going to Kohala plantation, where he had charge of theo traction engines. Remained there and at other plantations until 1885, when he went to San Francisco and engaged in the machinery business.”

“While at Kohala, Mr McCrosson studied deeply into the water problem of that rich country, and worked out during the years at San Francisco the great systems which are now under way there.”

“He returned to the Islands in 1895 and, with the exception of business visits to Washington, London, and other cities, has been here ever since. The Kohala ditch was the first planned and carried out by Mr. McCrosson.”

“This was completed June 11, 1906, and was the occasion of a monster ‘celebration’ in which almost the whole Island of Hawaii joined.” (Hawaiian Star, July 2, 1910) (Lots of information here is from HSPA, EnvHawaii and Takamine.)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Everybody Has It – Everybody Needs It

“The most interesting medical journal that has come to this desk in a long time is Number 3 of the first volume of the Hawaii Medical Journal. Although the publication date given on the cover is January, the Journal did not arrive until the middle of April.” (North Carolina Medical Journal, May, 1942)

“The delay in the publication of this issue of the Journal is due in part to the pressure of activity following the events of December 7th (1941) which delayed the preparation of material by the authors and in part to the necessity for securing permission from the office of the Military Governor for continuance of publication. That permission was finally received on January 15th…”

“The whole issue breathes the spirit of American medicine at its best. The first page of reading matter is headed ‘War Came to Hawaiʻi’, and briefly retells the story of the Pearl Harbor tragedy.”

“A dramatic story of the Honolulu Blood and Plasma Bank is told by its director, Dr Forrest J Pinkerton. He first tells of how ‘wounded men … very evidently marked for death … still live because of the life-giving plasma poured back into their veins.”

“A call for donors was broadcast over local radio stations and the response was overwhelming. From a previous maximum of 8-donors a day, 4-days a week, volunteers were now being bled at the rate of 50 an hour, 10-hours a day, 7-days a week. This continued over a period of 2-weeks. Every available doctor and nurse was enlisted to assist.”

“Men and women waited in line for hours. Soldiers stood their guns with fixed bayonets in the surgery hallway and rolled up their sleeves and helped; sailors gave their few precious hours of liberty to wait their turn. Mothers asked strangers to hold their small children and took their turns on the surgery tables.”

“Civilian defense workers from Pearl Harbor, and workers from Red Hill, red eyed from long hours of welding, stopped by to donate before snatching a few hours rest.”

“A crew of husky iron workers in their oily work clothes came en masse; whole crews from dry docks and inter-island steamships; the dock workers and society folks waiting in line side by side to do their part. Sugar and pineapple plantation employees came direct from their work in the fields…”

“The question most commonly asked was ‘How soon can I come again?’” (North Carolina Medical Journal, May, 1942)

Founded in 1941, the organization was originally known as the Honolulu Blood and Plasma Bank operating out of The Queen’s Hospital.

The Blood Bank operated as a war-time agency with the outbreak of World War II returning to its civilian status in 1942. Over the years, the name changed to Blood Bank of Hawaiʻi, services were expanded to include neighbor island blood drives and Hawaii’s unique ethnic population became nationally recognized as a source for many types of rare blood.

Later, to encourage folks to donate, ‘Fang’ called into Aku’s morning radio program (Hal Lewis – J Akuhead Pupule) to announce a coming Blood Drive. That was Betsy Mitchell (the Blood Lady;) she was Director of Donor Recruitment and Community Relations for the Blood Bank.

The Mitchells used to live in our old neighborhood on Aumoana on Kaneohe Bay Drive. In the early-‘80s she moved to Volcano, co-founded and was past president of the Cooper Center Council, and was one of the most energetic and community-minded people you would ever meet. Unfortunately, Betsy passed away on December 16, 2013.

I looked forward to the monthly meetings we had in Volcano; I think of Betsy a lot, especially when I give blood.

Unlike the post-Pearl Harbor waiting lines to give blood, the Blood Bank of Hawai‘i needs folks to drop into their offices or mobile locations to make donations to meet Hawaiʻi’s needs; they require approximately 250 donors every day.

There’s no substitute for blood. If people lose blood from surgery or injury, or if their bodies can’t produce enough, there is only one place to turn – volunteer blood donors.

You may donate if you are in good health, weigh at least 110 pounds, have a valid photo ID with birth date and are at least 18 years old (or 17 years old with signed Blood Bank parent/legal guardian consent form.)

Every donor completes a health history questionnaire and screening interview to identify behaviors that indicate a high risk for carrying blood borne disease. There is strict confidentiality.

They like my blood (O-negative,) it’s a universal donor type (can be transfused to almost any patient in need;) I’m also CMV-negative (not been exposed to the cytomegalovirus (so I am a ‘baby donor.’))

They regularly call me for donations – there is an 8-week wait period between donations. The process is relatively painless – the worst part for me is when they pull the tape holding the needle down and it pulls the hair on my arm.

Please consider giving blood.

More on the Blood Bank of Hawaii here:
http://www.bbh.org

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Kakela me Kuke’

In 1837 Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke landed in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiʻi,) as part of the 8th Company of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

Neither were missionary ministers. Castle was assigned to the ‘depository’ (a combination store, warehouse and bank) to help the missionaries pool and purchase their supplies, to negotiate shipments around the Horn and to distribute and collect for the goods when received. Cooke was a teacher.

Twelve years after Castle and Cooke had landed in the Islands, the American board decided that its purposes had been accomplished. It advised its representatives that their work was done and the board’s financial support would end.

Over the years Castle, who felt Cooke’s accounting abilities would help the depository, kept trying to convince his friend to join him. Cooke firmly declined until 1849, when his schooling of the royal children was complete. He needed to make a living since monetary support from Missions headquarters had been discontinued.

Castle and Cooke, good friends, decided they would become business partners. Many of the missionaries were planning to remain. Their needs must be met. So those of other residents and the crews of the whaling ships which wintered in Honolulu harbor.

So a business was born. On June 2, 1851, Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke signed their names to partnership papers. A sign reading ‘Kakela me Kuke’ (‘Castle & Cooke’) was installed at the entrance to the Honolulu depository.

Money could be made by trading with the community at large, while mission posts could be supplied at cost. They took up the matter with the Mission Board in Boston, which, after two years, decided to release the partners from the mission and pay each a yearly salary of $500.

In 1853 a branch store was opened downtown, to be closer to the considerable action the California Gold Rush brought. Also in 1853, Castle and Cooke purchased their first ship, the Morning Star to ship produce to California. By 1856, the partners elected to sell the depository, located on the outskirts of Honolulu, to concentrate on their burgeoning downtown business.

In 1858, Castle and Cooke first ventured out of the mercantile business to make an investment in the new sugar industry. In the late 1860s they branched into the shipping business, handling shore-side business for a number of transpacific schooners and several inter-island vessels.

Despite these diversifications, however, the mercantile portion of the business continued to provide the bulk of the profits. One of the most active customers was Kanaʻina, husband of High Chiefess Kekāuluohi and father of the boy who was to become King Lunalilo.

Then, the Civil War started; goods became hard to get and sales slumped. Then, business with the whalers failed; oil found in Titusville, Pennsylvania replaced whale oil. Castle & Cooke almost went out of business. It was sugar that encouraged the partners to continue their business.

They had generally avoided the policy of investing their firm’s funds in other enterprises, but had bought personally into ventures that attracted them. This often led to relationships producing merchandise and shipping business for the firm and occasionally resulted in its appointment as fiscal agent for a company — as in the case of Kohala Sugar Company.

Kohala Sugar was founded in 1863 by the Rev Elias Bond; he organized the venture to create jobs for the Hawaiians living in Kohala. (It was not until 1910 that Castle & Cooke as a firm acquired an interest in the Kohala Sugar Company, though it had served as its agent for nearly 50 years.)

Then, in 1890, BF Dillingham’s railroad (OR&L,) started with the help of $100,000 invested by Castle, ended at Pearl City. To go further the line needed freight revenues. None were in sight – unless the Ewa land could be made to grow sugar by tapping its underlying fresh water sources to irrigate the crop.

From the organization of Kohala in 1863 until the Ewa lands were leased for sugar in 1890, Castle & Cooke at one time or another served as agent for nine plantations.

On December 28, 1894, the Castle & Cooke partnership was incorporated. The company continued to believe in the profitability of the Ewa Plantation and the risk paid off. In 1898, the original merchandise business was sold.

Diversification did not stop, however. In the ensuing years Castle & Cooke involved itself in an automobile company, the Hawaiian Fertilizer Company, and a big but short venture into the sugar refinery business with the Honolulu Sugar Refining Company.

Although Castle & Cooke had been in the shipping business for 50 years, a 1907 agreement with William Matson to be the agent for his Matson Navigation Company greatly increased the business in this area. The agreement endured for 56 years.

To insure a supply of oil for his ships, Captain Matson bought some wells in California and built a pipeline to the coast. In 1910 he founded the Honolulu Oil Corporation. Castle & Cooke, with other island firms, helped him finance his oil venture.

Pineapple cultivation on a commercial scale began in Hawaii in 1886 when Captain John Kidwell set out a thousand plants in Mānoa valley. By 1909, Castle & Cooke, as agent for Waialua, had negotiated leases of over 3,000 acres of the plantation’s upper lands to James D Dole and other growers for pineapple plantings.

Castle & Cooke had no substantial direct investment in the pineapple industry until 1932 when Hawaiian Pineapple Company (later Dole) encountered financial trouble. In that year Castle & Cooke and Waialua jointly under wrote the reorganization of the pineapple company and for a few years thereafter, Castle & Cooke served as its agent and took over the operations.

Castle & Cooke recognized the need for diversification which led to investment in tuna canning (Hawaiian Tuna Packers, 1946) and macadamia nuts (Royal Hawaiian Macadamia Nuts, 1948.)

For a time in the 1960s, Castle & Cooke were the biggest of the Big Five (C Brewer (1826;) Theo H. Davies (1845;) Amfac – starting as Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and Alexander & Baldwin (1870;)) however, Amfac later outpaced it.

Later, the company was the subject of several takeover bids; ultimately, David Murdock took firm control of Castle & Cooke (1985,) reorganized it into a holding company for three separate operations: Flexi-Van, Dole Food and Oceanic Properties, and relocated its headquarters to Los Angeles. (Lots of information is from Castle & Cooke, Greaney and FundingUniverse.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hotel Del Coronado

Hotel founders, Elisha Babcock, Jr., and Hampton L. Story, along with San Diego developer Alonzo Horton walked along the Coronado beach in 1886.

Although neither Babcock nor Story had experience in the hotel business, they were so inspired by the natural beauty of Coronado that they decided to buy the island and build a magnificent hotel, one that would be “the talk of the western world,” an iconic California destination where “people will continue to come long after we are gone.”

They subsequently purchased about 4,000 acres of land around the Coronado Peninsula and the neighboring North Island in order to create a resort community that would service the new hotel. (Historic Hotels)

They first created the Coronado Beach Company, after which they established a number of additional enterprises to support the development of the Coronado community (a ferry company, water company, railroad company and an electrical power plant).

As soon as a site was chosen for the historic Hotel Del Coronado, the men laid out Coronado’s parks, civic areas, commercial zones and streets (Isabella and Adella avenues were named for the founders’ wives).

Once the town of Coronado was established, it was time to attract residents, so Babcock and Story held a very well-publicized land auction, which attracted a reported 6,000 people. 350 lots were sold during the auction, raising about $100,000. By June 10, 1887, Coronado lot sales had reached the $1.5 million mark. The grand total would eventually reach $2.25 million. (Hotel Del Coronado)

“Orange avenue is the name of one of the wide and elegant thoroughfares at Coronado Beach, the ferry to which locality is now in operation. The sea beach is over there is very fine, in which surf bathers can dip for many miles … Lots, which are large, can be bought at reasonable rates now, and more houses will soon be under way.” (Daily San Diegan, Feb 22, 1886)

The Coronado Beach Company are about to erect a mammoth hotel of five hundred rooms, and on the mesa a palace hotel of some three hundred rooms is projected.” (Daily San Diegan, Jan 4, 1887)

“The first shovelful of earth for the excavation for the foundation of the Coronado hotel was cast by Mrs ES Babcock, yesterday. The work will now proceed as rapidly as possible.” (Daily San Diegan, Jan 13, 1887)

By May 1887, approximately 250 men were employed in the construction of the exciting new destination beach resort, and The San Diego Union reported: “A million feet of lumber is scattered about the yard, and more is coming all the time.”

The all-wooden Hotel del Coronado used a variety of lumber: Douglas fir for framing and California redwood for exterior siding; hemlock, cedar, white oak, and Oregon sugar pine were also used. (Hotel Del Coronado)

Although guests began arriving as early as late January 1888, Hotel del Coronado’s birthday has generally been celebrated on February 19 – the day the historic Southern California hotel served its first meal in the main dining room (today’s Crown Room).

Room rates – which included three meals a day – started at about $2.50 per day. The hotel was built at a cost of $600,000 and furnished for $400,000. (Hotel Del Coronado)

Known affectionately as “The Del” by its many countless guests, the legendary Hotel del Coronado harkens back to the height of America’s Gilded Age.

Hawai‘i Connection to the Hotel Del Coronado

In 1876, son of wealthy “Sugar King” Claus Spreckels, John Dietrich Spreckels (sometimes called the Sugar Prince) went to the Hawaiian Islands, where he worked in his father’s sugar business.  

He loved sailing, and owned both personal shipliners and boats. Apart from being the Sugar Prince, Spreckels also became known as “Seadog.” In 1880, the Sugar Prince’s legacy grew to incorporate more than just the sugar industry.

Given his passion for sailing, Spreckels then established his own shipping enterprise in 1880, the Oceanic Steamship Company, operating a mail and passenger line to Hawaii and Australia.

In 1887, Spreckels visited San Diego on his yacht Lurline to stock up on supplies.  (Nearly forty years earlier (1850,) Honolulu-born William Heath “Kanaka” Davis, Jr. (1822 – 1909) had arrived in this part of California.

Davis purchased 160-acres of land and, with four partners, laid out a new city (near what is now the foot of Market Street.)  He built the first wharf there in 1850.) (Part of the interest in and growth of San Diego may also be attributed to when a terminus of a transcontinental line was made in 1885.)

When the Hotel Del Coronado was under construction; Spreckels, fell in love with it and provided generous loans and other assistance to the resort’s founders, Babcock and Story, in order to keep the dream alive.

“You have often heard the remark that San Diego is a one-man town. Personally, I feel proud to live in San Diego when it is referred to as a one-man town … this afternoon you can’t give our great leader enough glory.” (Mayor Wilde remarks of Spreckels, November 15, 1919; San Diego History))

Spreckels became an investor in the Coronado Beach Company in 1889, buying out Hampton L.Story’s one-third interest and over the next three years bought controlling interest in the company and became the sole proprietor of the Hotel del Coronado. (Coronado History)

He established Tent City, a large vacation campground that sprung up near Hotel del Coronado.  Tent City grew quickly – from 300 tents in the first year to more than 1,000 three years later, and attracted visitors from across the nation as an affordable vacation alternative.

“To be candid, I did not entirely fancy the idea at first, and then for a time I was doubtful of the success of the place. I was somewhat of the opinion that it might detract from the popularity of the resort proper and the hotel,” Spreckels said in a 1903 interview. “But Tent City has … established itself as firmly in my favor as in that of the public.”  (San Diego Union Tribune)

An early getaway brochure described the accommodations: “A furnished tent comprises electric lights, matting on boarded floor, comfortable beds and cots, bedding, wash-stand, mirror, tables, chairs, rockers, camp-chairs and stools, necessary cooking utensils, clean linen, daily care of tent, and laundry service of tent linen.”

Tent City also featured restaurants, a soda fountain, library, grocery store, shops, a small hotel (the Arcade), theatre, bandstand, dance pavilion, merry-go-round, shooting gallery, swimming floats (one with a high-diving board), its own police department, and daily newspaper. (Hotel Del Coronado)

In 1904, The Del – already considered a technological marvel – made history when it unveiled the world’s first electrically lit, outdoor, living Christmas tree. Holiday lights were strung from the hotel to a nearby Norfolk Island Pine. Although indoor trees were popular in America by this time, electric Christmas lights were a rarity (candles were still commonplace).

Spreckels died in San Diego on June 7, 1926. His biographer, Austin Adams, called him “one of America’s few great Empire Builders who invested millions to turn a struggling, bankrupt village into the beautiful and cosmopolitan city San Diego is today.”  (San Diego History Center)

Coronado is also home to Naval Air Station North Island, Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, and Silver Strand Training Complex, supported by nearly 20,000 military and civilian personnel.

In 1969, the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge was completed and made Coronado Island and Hotel del Coronado much more accessible. (Lots of information here is from Hotel Del Coronado, San Diego History Center, Coronado CA, and Coronado History)

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