Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Dan Charles Derby

Dan Charles Derby was born in Santa Fe, Kansas on February 18, 1890, the son of Spurzheim and Mary Catherine ‘Mollie’ (Erickson) Derby. He was educated in grammar schools and business college.

He had three years’ experience as an agriculturist with the Natomas Company of California in their fruit orchards near Sacramento. (Nellist)

Natomas planted several experimental farms, including a grove of Blue Gum Eucalyptus and an Orange Grove. Land to the east of Natomas was leased as experimental orchards, the land west was used for Wheat. (PacificNG)

During this time, he was made foreman. The manager there was assigned by the Chicago Canning Company, Libby, McNeill & Libby (Libby’s), to grow pineapple in Hawaii. He took only two of his men, Dan C Derby, the grower, and Arthur F Stubenberg, a natural mechanic. (Merilyn K Derby, daughter).

In June 1917, Derby came to the Islands to manage Libby’s pineapple plantation in Pupukea, on O‘ahu’s North Shore. (Wife Waleska K Derby’s oral history)

For the next 38-years Derby worked with Libby’s; at his retirement he served as Libby’s General Plantation Manager. (Adv, Feb 28, 1955) (In 1920, Dan Derby married Waialua School teacher Waleska Kerl; they had two daughters, Jeanne, born in 1921, and Merilyn born in 1925, and one son, Dan Jr. born in 1929.)

Libby’s, one of the world’s leading producers of canned foods, was created in 1868 when Archibald McNeill and brothers Arthur and Charles Libby began selling beef packed in brine.

In the early 1900s, it established a pineapple canning subsidiary in Hawaiʻi and began to advertise its canned produce using the ‘Libby’s brand name. In 1912 Libby, McNeill and Libby bought half of the stock of Hawaiian Cannery Co.

Unlike the other bigger pineapple producers, Libby’s did not start in Central Oʻahu; by 1911, Libby’s gained control of land in Kāne‘ohe and built the first large-scale cannery at Kahalu‘u.  This sizable cannery, together with the surrounding old style plantation-type housing units, became known as “Libbyville.”

During most of the period when this cannery was in operation, the canned pineapple was transported to Honolulu by sampan from a pier just off the end of the peninsula near Libbyville.

Growing and canning pineapples became a major industry in the area for a period of 15 years (to 1925.)  At its peak, 2,500 acres were under pineapple cultivation on Windward O‘ahu, and of this a large percentage was in the Kāne‘ohe Bay region.

The change in landscape to the Windward side by 1914 is reflected in the following sentences: “At last we reached the foot of the Pali… Joe and I looked over the surrounding hills …”

“… but looked in vain for the great areas of guava through which but a few months ago we had fought and cut our way. As far as the eye could reach pineapple plantations had taken the place of the forest of wild guava.”  (Cultural Surveys)

Later, Libby’s expanded to the Leeward side, in Wahiawa and Kalihi, and then on Maui and Molokai. (Hawkins)  By the 1930s, more than 12-million cases of pineapple were being produced in Hawai‘i every year; Libby’s accounted for 23 percent of that.

“A pioneer for Libby, Mr Derby opened up the Libby holdings on the Big Island in 1921, on Molokai in 1923 and on Maui in 1926.  The next year he was made general manager over all Libby’s plantations in the Hawaiian Islands, and has aided the growth and development of pineapple for his company”. (Adv, Feb 28, 1955)

Libby’s need to ship fruit from the growing area on Molokai to pineapple processing on Oʻahu created an opportunity for the Young brothers.

Libby’s built a wharf at Kolo, just below Maunaloa.  Kolo had a shallow channel, and the Inter-Island Steam Navigation ships couldn’t get in.

The brothers made a special tender and with their first wooden barges, YB-1 and YB-2, Young Brothers carried pineapple from Kolo Wharf to Libby’s O‘ahu cannery. “That’s how [Young Brothers] started the freight.”  (Jack Young Jr)

The end of the pineapple era began in 1972 when Libby’s sold to Dole Corp and was finalized three years later when Dole closed its Maunaloa facility. (West Molokai Association)

“With the growth of the pineapple industry in the Wahiawa area, my grandfather told me that he was concerned about the cultural significance of Kukaniloko.”

“There was another plantation that abutted the rocks and boulders who wanted them removed for planting, however, he protested and supported efforts to preserve the sacred and historic site in the early 1920s.“ (granddaughter Dana Ritchie Fujikake)

“He was a modest kindly person, never scolding us as children, but instead sharing a parable to teach us the lesson we were to learn.”  “If a man is treated with dignity, he will behave with dignity” was one of his sayings. (granddaughter Dana Ritchie Fujikake)

“The industry, as well as Libby, McNeill and Libby, loses one of its foremost men, Mr Derby has played an important part in the development of pineapple in Hawaii.” (Adv, Feb 28, 1955)

Dan Derby died January 22, 1975.  “The Derby crypt at Hawaiian Memorial Park overlooks his fields.” “God’s Own Nature,” he would say of his beloved Ko‘olau vista. (granddaughter Dana Ritchie Fujikake)

© 2024 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kamehamehas Acquired Western Ships

Before European open ocean exploration began, Eastern Polynesia had been explored and settled.  (Herb Kane)

Voyaging vessels were double-hull; hulls were deep enough to track well while sailing across the wind or on a close reach into the wind. The round-sided V hulls provided lateral resistance to the water while under sail.  (Herb Kane)

The most widely distributed and presumably most ancient sail was a triangle made up of strips of fine matting sewn together and mounted to two spars, one serving as a mast; the other, as a boom, usually more slender and either straight or slightly curved.

Throughout Eastern Polynesia, the same basic design probably persisted throughout the era of long distance two-way voyaging. (Herb Kane)

The double-hulled voyaging canoes were seaworthy enough to make voyages of over 2,000 miles along the longest sea roads of Polynesia, like the one between Hawai‘i and Tahiti.

Fast forward to post-‘contact’ and the time of the Islands’ unification; a new style of boat was in the islands and Kamehameha started to buy and build them.

Following the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778, more “ships were coming into the harbor at Honolulu – merchant vessels, war ships and ships out to discover new lands.”

“Of these the chiefs and people bought arms and gunpowder. Kamehameha had several storehouses well stocked with foreign arms, but nobody wanted money or clothing.”

“On the part of the foreigners potatoes and yams were in great demand. The chief accordingly went into the cultivation of these foods, and grew potatoes on the hill of ‘Ualaka‘a between Manoa and Makiki, and yams at Ka‘akopua, and sold them to the foreigners.”

“Canoeloads of provisions from Hawaii and the other islands were distributed among the chiefs, counselors, lesser chiefs, warrior chiefs, soldiers, followers, cultivators, paddlers, runners, canoe makers, and craftsmen; no one was left out. And in the same way distribution was made to the households of the chiefs.” (Kamakau)

Then, in 1790, Kamehameha acquired his first Western boat, the Fair American. It was not bought or built by Kamehameha: one of Kamehameha’s ‘Kona Uncles,’ Kame‘eiamoku, overpowered the ship and turned it (and its weapons) and its only survivor, Isaac Davis, over to Kamehameha.

In 1795, Kamehameha had a fleet of 20 vessels, tonnage of from 20 to 40 tons. Each vessel was well armed and manned. (US Naval Institute)  “In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Kamehameha I methodically acquired all the materials and crafts needed to construct ships locally, and he purchased larger foreign brigs and schooners when good opportunities arose.” (Mills)

“Kamehameha and successive high chiefs purchased most foreign vessels with sandalwood harvests by maka‘āinana from Hawai‘i’s forests, which Chinese coveted for incense and medicine.” (Mills)

By 1805, Kamehameha had a sizable navy, consisting of more than 40 large ships and several hundred peleleu, all equipped with guns of various caliber. (The peleleu was a long and deep double canoe with a covered platform and foreign sail, and was built for Kamehameha by his foreign friends.)  (US Naval Institute)

The first Western-style vessel built in the Islands was the Beretane (1793.)  Through the aid of Captain George Vancouver’s mechanics, after launching, it was used in the naval combat with Kahekili’s war canoes off the Kohala coast.  (Thrum)

Encouraged by the success of this new type of vessel, others were built.  The second ship built in the Islands, a schooner called Tamana (named after Kamehameha’s favorite wife, Kaʻahumanu,) was used to carry of his cargo of trade to the missions along the coast of California.  (Couper & Thrum, 1886)

From 1796 until 1802 the kingdom flourished. Several small decked vessels were built.  (Case) According to Cleveland’s account, Kamehameha possessed at that time twenty small vessels of from twenty to forty tons burden, some even copper-bottomed.  (Alexander)

Kamehameha eventually built at least three shipyards, at Kealakekua Bay and Kawaihae on Hawai‘i Island and another on O‘ahu at Waikiki.  (Mills)

“What holds the king’s attention more than any other subject, though, is shipbuilding. Already, it is said, he can accurately and with true discernment spot the strengths and weaknesses in any ship’s construction.  All equipment and tools relating to shipbuilding, he regards as particularly valuable.”

“One cannot do better, therefore, than to use such tools as articles of trade when going to Owaihi. Any sailor wo is at the same time, a ship’s carpenter is particularly welcome there, and is straightaway presented with a piece of land and almost anything else that he may want.” (Georg Langsdorff in Mills)

“As to his navy, Kamehameha had the largest naval force in the entire Pacific during his time. Japan had gone into seclusion from 1638 to 1852, during which time she forbade anyone from leaving the country or from building ships, under penalty of death. America acquired the Louisiana Territory during this time, and had not yet reached her Pacific boundaries.”

“Lisiansky, a Russian naval officer, was much impressed by Kamehameha’s might and in comparing his army and navy with those of other South Sea Islands, styled them ‘invincible.’ He noted that they included some 7,000 warriors and about 60 Europeans, a large arsenal of modern weapons, and a fleet of many war canoes and ships.”  (US Naval Institute)

Kamehameha was the greatest Polynesian Commander in Chief that ever lived. He placed the art of warfare on a scientific basis, and to insure peace to his people, he built the largest navy in the entire Pacific region, in spite of the fact that he did not have occasion to test its strength.

He believed in security, and he achieved his grand and favorite object, so that before he died, he was able to issue the following challenge to his friends and advisors: ‘Strive as ye may to undo that which I have established in righteousness, ye will never reach the end.’ (US Naval Institute)

Interest and acquisition of Western ships must have run in the family …

Not to be left out, Liholiho (Kamehameha’s son who reigned as Kamehameha II) bought the Thaddeus on January 21, 1821.  (The Thaddeus brought the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries to the Islands and arrived at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.)

Shortly thereafter, she sailed to the Northwest Coast for seal and otter skins; she arrived back to the Islands on October13, 1820 and shortly thereafter Liholiho purchased the Thaddeus for 4,000 piculs of sandalwood.  (Mills)

Another of Kamehameha’s sons, Kauikeaouli (who later reigned as Kamehameha III), was, as a child, “chiefly occupied with his toy boats rigged like warships and with little brass cannon loaded with real powder mounted on (their] decks. The firing off of these cannon amused him immensely.  …”

“As he grew older, perhaps eight or nine years old, he used to go out with a boatload of boys, generally in the sail boats … and he would haul the sails and do any of the work without trying to assume command, for even up to the time when he became king he was simple in his ways.” (Kamakau)  Liholiho and Kauikeaouli each acquired several Western ships.

© 2024 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Young Brothers Come to Hawaii

John Nelson Young was born April 15, 1839 in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, the third child of John Alexander Young and Lucy Baldwin.  John grew up in St. Andrews, a small but busy port on the shore of Passamaquoddy Bay, just across the international border from Maine.

His father was a chair and cabinetmaker, and John followed in his father’s footsteps.  He also learned the art of trading and shipping for profit. In 1859, when he was twenty years old, he and his brothers, James and Alexander, left St. Andrews to go to California.

They sailed to Panama, crossed the Isthmus, and from there sailed up the west coast to San Francisco. John bought the schooner Champion and sailed between San Francisco and Sacramento carrying trade goods and passengers. (He may also have traded as far north as Portland, OR, or Eureka, CA, and as far south as San Diego.)

In San Francisco on April 15, 1868, John N. Young married Eleanor Annie Gray, daughter of Robert and Mary K Gray, emigrants from Robbinston, Maine.  Shortly thereafter, John and Eleanor moved to San Diego.

In 1868, with his brothers James, Alexander, and William, John started a furniture business, one of the first commercial enterprises in San Diego. After James and Alex left the firm in 1869, John and William continued the firm of Young Brothers Carpenters and Furniture Builders, and added undertaking as a sideline.

William Young, John’s brother and business partner, died in 1873. John then reorganized the Young Brothers business as the Pioneer Furniture Company.

John and Eleanor had a growing family with five children. Annie Edith Young was born December 28, 1868 (in San Francisco), then in San Diego, Herbert Gray Young, on March 21, 1870; William Edward Young, on April 24, 1875; John Alexander ‘Jack’ Young, on January 2 1882; and Edgar Nelson Young, on July 21, 1885.

The family supplemented their income with produce from their garden John often took the older boys fishing mackerel and bottom fish in San Diego Bay.

Eleanor Young developed rheumatoid arthritis when she was in her early forties.  She died on February 16, 1894 at age forty-five, leaving minor children Jack, 12, and Edgar, 10, and granddaughter Belle, 8.

John Young suffered from tuberculosis in the 1890s. After Eleanor died, he traveled extensively trying in vain to find a more suitable climate. He finally returned to San Diego. There he died September 13, 1896 at age fifty-seven.

John Young’s sons, Herbert and William, were working to help support the family. Herb learned deep sea diving by accepting several salvage jobs that required underwater skills and, in the summer of 1899, all four boys ran a glass-bottomed boat excursion at Catalina Island.

After the season ended, Herb landed a berth on a schooner bound for the Hawaiian Islands, and Will decided to join him on what he would later call ‘the great adventure.’  Twenty-nine-year-old Herb had served as chief engineer during the ten-day journey from San Francisco, while Will, then age twenty-five, served as crew.

The first view of Honolulu that greeted Will and Herb on January 19, 1900 and revealed a town numbering fewer than 45,000 residents. For several days, Chinatown had been burning to what would become a smoldering ruin in an effort to rid the city of bubonic plague.

With a capital of only $86, they bought a small launch, the Billie, and started running a ‘bum boat’ service in Honolulu harbor – they called their family business Young Brothers.

Jack Young arrived later that year (October); he once reminisced about arriving in Honolulu in 1900 with a few cans of fruit, a large trunk and only twenty-five cents in cash-too little to pay to have his trunk brought ashore.  So, he rustled up a spare rowboat and rowed in his own gear.

In those days there were usually between five and twenty ships moored off Sand Island in the harbor at any one time.  Most of ships used sail and needed help to move about in the crowded harbor.

The Young brothers ran lines for the ships in the harbor. When a ship came in, the anchor line had to be run out to secure the ship. Or if the ship needed to unload, a line had to be carried to the pier.

The next year they bought the Fun from the Metropolitan Meat Market and took over the contract to deliver meat and other fresh supplies to the ships anchored in the harbor. Herb got the contract, but Jack was assigned the job every morning of picking up meat, vegetables and fruits and deliver them to the various ships in the harbor.

Herb and Will also worked as a diving team, salvaging lost anchors, unfouling propellers, or inspecting hulls of ships for repairs. A more frequently needed undersea service was to scrape the sea growth off the hulls of ships.

The launches of the Young Brothers were routinely asked to pull stranded boats or ships off the shore or reef or to rescue ships in trouble at sea. In 1902 they saved six Japanese fishermen in a sampan that had become disabled in a sudden storm off Honolulu. The sampan had gone too far out to sea searching for fish and was caught by heavy seas.

The same year, they rescued a novice seaman in a rowboat who thought he could row out of the harbor to where a battleship was anchored. If he hadn’t been seen from the boathouse, he would have been lost. On another occasion, the schooner Mokihana was towed back to harbor from twenty miles out in 1901 when she lost control from the helm.

May 1903 saw the beginning of a long association between the Young Brothers and the Customs Department. Young Brothers purchased the launch Water Witch, from AA Young (no relation) and completely renovated her.

They entered a contract to use the Water Witch launch as a revenue and patrol boat, and to take boarding officers to all incoming liners. Herb had the privilege of presenting her and flying the Custom’s flag on May 21, 1903. The Water Witch remained in service for over forty years.

ln March of 1903, the Youngs moved from their first little boathouse on a sand spit near the lighthouse to a spot near what is now Piers 1&2. The Young Brothers’ boathouse was home to Herb, Will and Jack, and was a structure well known on the waterfront as a center of information for everything going on in the harbor.

In 1903, Edith moved to the Hawaiian Islands an joined her brothers. In 1905, Herb sold his interest in the Young Brothers business and went to the mainland to look for work as a diver.  Young Brothers incorporated on May 5, 1913.

Following incorporation, Will stopped taking an active role in the operations of the company, preferring to pursue his fascination with sharks, and eventually left the islands for good in 1921 to become a well-known international shark hunter.  Jack, the last founding member of the company to remain in Hawai‘i remained as the operating manager.

I am the youngest brother of the youngest brother of the youngest brother of Young Brothers.  Jack Young is my grandfather. We never met him, and he and my grandmother never knew they had grandchildren from their son Kenny.

They both had died before they knew my mother was pregnant with my older brother. (Lots of information here is from Young Brothers: 100 Years of Service and a Young family background and genealogy.)

© 2024 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pony Express

The Mongol empire, ruled by Genghis Khan and his descendants in the 1200s and 1300s, covered most of Asia, the Middle East, and Russia. Far larger than any empire built by the Greeks, Romans, or Russians, it stretched from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean, the largest mass of connected land ruled by anyone in history, before or since. (American Museum of Natural History)

In 13th-century China Marco Polo described a “system of post-horses by which the Great Khan sends his dispatches.” Using this as an example, Oregon missionary Marcus Whitman in 1843 proposed using horse relays to deliver mail from the Missouri River to the Columbia River in 40 days. But in 1845 it still took six months to get a message delivered.

Congress established postal service to the Pacific Coast in 1847 and, in 1851, set the rate for a half-ounce letter at three cents for delivery if less than 3,000 miles and six cents if it went farther. Private contractors handled the business, which required huge government subsidies.

In 1848 the US Post Office awarded a contract to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to carry mail to California. The mail traveled by ship from New York to Panama, moved across Panama by rail, then by ship again to San Francisco.

By the late 1850s a half million people had migrated West, and they wanted up-to-date news from home. Something had to be done to deliver mail faster and to improve communication in the expanding nation.  (NPS)

In 1855 Congress even appropriated $30,000 to see if camels could carry mail from Texas to California – they proved impractical. Then, John Butterfield won a $600,000 contract in 1857 that required mail delivery within 25 days. His overland stagecoach service began in 1858 on a 2,800-mile route that left Fort Smith, Arkansas and reached San Francisco.

Pre-Civil War settlers who had already reached California and its promise of gold found themselves cut off from the rest of the world. Butterfield Express’s took twenty-three days for delivery.

Most people knew it was a matter of time before the telegraph and railroad would span the continent, but with the Civil War looming, something was needed to replace the existing overland route.  (Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History)

With civil war threatening to close southern routes, northern politicians sought a central route. Benjamin F Ficklin had carried US Army dispatches from Utah Territory and proposed that the government could provide express mail service using a horse relay. (NPS)

William Russell of the freighting firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell created the Pony Express almost by accident. Russell, William Waddell, and Alexander Majors were Missouri business partners with vast experience hauling cargo and passengers – and a great interest in government mail contracts.

Their firm already provided mail and stagecoach service between the Missouri River and Salt Lake City. Russell felt that a horse relay, a Pony Express, would promote his company and gather congressional support to win the mail contract for a central overland route.

The three partners started a new firm, the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Company (COC & PP) – the official name of the Pony Express.  (NPS) It ran from St Joseph, Missouri (that was connected to the East by railroads and the telegraph) to Sacramento and San Francisco, California.

The St Joseph Daily Gazette declared it would “forward, by the first Pony Express, the first and only newspaper which goes out, and which will be the first paper ever transmitted from the Missouri to California in eight days.” This Pony Express Edition also announced, “The first pony will start this afternoon at 5 pm precisely.” (NPS)

On April 3, 1860, the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously left St Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.

Ten days later, on April 13, the westbound rider and mail packet completed the approximately 1,800-mile journey and arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound packet’s arrival in St Joseph by two days and setting a new standard for speedy mail delivery. (History A&E)

COC & PP established home stations every 75 to 100 miles (to house riders between runs) and smaller relay stations every 10 to 15 miles (to provide riders with fresh horses).

Some of the Pony stations were set up at the various forts along the Oregon Trail.  Many stations were upgraded from existing stagecoach stations, but some stations were built from scratch. The operation expanded from 86 stations on the Pony’s first run to 147 stations by mid-1861.  (NPS)

The company employed between 80 and 100 riders and several hundred station workers. Riders had to weigh less than 120 pounds and carry 20 pounds of mail and 25 pounds of equipment.

Riders earned wages (based on initial advertisements for riders, they were paid $50 per month) plus room and board. They joked that the company’s initials, C.O.C.& P.P., stood for “Clean Out of Cash & Poor Pay.”

Riders had to sign a pledge promising not to swear, drink alcohol, or fight with other employees. The riders carried the mail in the four pockets of a pack which fit snugly over the saddle and was quickly switched from one horse to another. Letters were wrapped in oil silk to protect them from moisture. (Postal Museum)

The company bought 400 to 500 horses, many thoroughbreds for eastern runs and California mustangs for western stretches. Horses averaged 10 miles per hour, at times galloping up to 25 miles per hour. During his route of 75 to 100 miles a rider changed horses eight to 10 times.

The Pony Express charged five dollars per half-ounce for mail (about $85 in today’s money), later reducing the fee to one dollar. At first the Pony ran once a week in each direction. Starting in July 1860 it ran a second weekly trip, delivering mail in 10 days or fewer between St. Joseph and San Francisco.

Newspapers relied on the Pony Express to deliver the latest headlines like when Abraham Lincoln was elected president or when the City of San Francisco opened its first railway that ferried passengers around the city on horse-drawn streetcars.

The Pony Express also helped deliver international news. Headlines that traveled over the ocean by ship could reach the opposite coast in just 18 days. (newspapers-com)

In April 1861 the Pony delivered word of the outbreak of the Civil War. (Pony Express National Museum) On October 26, 1861, the completion of the transcontinental telegraph from New York to San Francisco made the Pony Express obsolete.

On that day the Pony Express was officially terminated, but it was not until November that the last letters completed their journey over the route. (NPS)

News relayed via Pony Express, and then on to ships coming to Hawai‘i, was reported in the local newspapers (under ‘Foreign News’).  At least one letter made its way to/from Hawai‘i.  In 1861, the US Consul in Honolulu sent a letter to John C Underwood, the fifth auditor of the United States Treasury in Washington DC.  (Stamp Auction)

© 2024 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Halfway House

The way is long, the way is steep,
the road is crooked, the holes are deep;
on the Half Way House a blessing be?
Lord bless this house, and the thoroughbred flea,
For man may swear, and woman may weep.
But the cursed flea won’t let you sleep;
In the early morn, arise and go
The remaining way to the Lava flow
To the brink of the Pit of fiery depth
The Volcano House upon its width. …
(Max Pracht, San Francisco, 16 May 16, 1884)
(NPS, Volcano House Register)

In the 1800s, tourism was already developing as an important part of Hawaii’s economy. Honolulu was the principal destination and excursions to Kilauea crater were the main drawing card of the island of Hawai’i. Only hardy souls braved the “discomforts of the journey from Honolulu to the Volcano [which] were often vexatious and always considerable.” (Manning)

Two routes may be taken to the crater Kilauea, on the slope of Mauna Loa, one by Puna, the other by Ola‘a. Time being an object, the trip to and from the crater via Olaa can be accomplished in three days, which will give one day and two nights at the volcano house. (Manning)

The most traveled route between Hilo and Kīlauea was the Volcano Trail, which we now refer to as the “Old Volcano Trail” (at the time called “the Volcano Road”). (McEldowney)

The alignment of the Old Volcano Trail was mapped as early as 1874 by John M. Lydgate who referred to the Old Volcano Trail as “Road to Hilo”. The trail appears as a meandering line that straddled the ahupua‘a of ʻŌlaʻa and Keaʻau and strays in and out of the boundaries between the two. (ASM)

A critical step toward developing agriculture in ʻŌlaʻa was the creation of a new road between Hilo and Kīlauea located mauka of the Old Volcano Trail. As the new Volcano Road through ʻŌlaʻa was being built, the Crown made a large portion of potential agricultural lands (Ola‘a Reservation) available for lease and homesteading. (ASM)

The old trail effectively adjoins and runs mauka of the mauka lots in the mass of lots subdivided in Puna in the 1950s-70s (Hawaiian Acres to Fern Forest).

“Fifteen miles from Hilo Olaa is reached, the half-way stopping place. The intermediate territory is covered with ti plant and ferns, while the road consists mostly of pahoehoe lava, scantily covered with bunch grass and occasional bushes and trees.”

“‘The Half-way House’ at Olaa is merely a cluster of grass houses, a passable rest for travelers, who wish to spend the night, and obtain pasturage for horses.” (Whitney, 1875)

“There were at least two different structures over the years. The first probably existed as early as 1867, certainly by 1870. This structure was a one-room grass house with a wooden porch or lanai.”

“The interior was ‘divided in half by a curtain; in one half … a large four-poster bed, rough table and chairs, and in the other … a thick layer of grass covered with mats, on which … the whole family sleep.’”

“Those stopping during the day often used a mattress stuffed with pulu fiber from tree fern fronds laid on the floor instead of the four-poster bed.  Around 1880, Hawelu [the operator] built a hale la‘au, a substantial frame house with glass windows.”

“The new halfway house is mentioned in a promotional brochure, ‘The Great Volcano of Kilauea,’ designed by the publishers, Wilder’s Steamship Company, to attract tourists to ‘that extraordinary wonder of nature,’ Kilauea crater.”

“During the Hilo-Volcano horseback trip, the writer suggests a stop to rest at the halfway house, saying, “This house of accommodation has five bedrooms and the usual conveniences of a stopping place. …’” (Manning)

“Here several orange trees display their rich fruit in sight of the road. Although this point is 1138 feet above the sea level, and ten miles from Keaau, (the nearest point on the sea shore) the roar of the sea may be distinctly heard during a heavy surf.”

“Leaving Ola‘a, the route is over pahoehoe in all its varieties, thickly covered with wild grass, straggling ferns, creeping vines, and that vegetation which in tropical lands seeks only water to become impenetrable.” (Whitney, 1875)

“For more than 20 years, Hawelu and Lipeka operated a rest stop or halfway house on the Hilo-Kilauea crater trail. This horseback trip was said to ‘try the patience of most travelers.’”

“Tired and weary travelers could turn off the trail near ‘Kalehuapuaa . . . where there is a mauka road which goes to Hawelu’s.’ Over the years, halfway houses were variously situated along the trail.”

“Hawelu’s house was on the Hilo side of Mahiki. Visitors record that Hawelu’s was anywhere between 13 and 15 miles from Hilo, at an elevation of 1,138 or 1,150 feet. [“A comparison of the many descriptions places Hawelu’s near a point parallel with the Hilo end of present-day Mountain View, but on the Kea’au-‘Ola’a border”.]

“A visitor might rest at Hawelu’s for a few hours or overnight. Heavy rains occasionally stranded people at the halfway house for one or two days.”

“Each service was independently priced, but the price was the same regardless of the service. Horseshoeing was a dollar, food was a dollar, and lodging was a dollar. Lipeka was a full partner. The profits were divided in half, with Lipeka acting as banker.”  (Manning)

“Travelers variously reported the accommodations as beautiful and clean or dreary and dirty! Male travelers complained more  than females. Women seem to have expected rough ‘camp’ conditions. … Travelers throughout the Kingdom reported their tortures.” (Manning)

As noted by one in the Volcano House Register, “The undersigned left Hilo Friday morning June 7th at 6:30 a.m. Jo Puni as guide. Directly after leaving Hilo they received a moderate wetting down with a sun shower, wh. awakened them to the realities of Hawaiian travelling.”

“It was quite sultry until they arrived at the Half-way House, when a very distinct change in temperature was experienced. Showers of rain kept ahead of them from there to the Volcano House.”

“At the Half-way House a very good meal was heartily enjoyed, and a rest of two hours taken. They arrived at the Volcano House at 3:55 p.m. June 7.”

“The volcano was apparently quite active during the night, but the ride had fatigued your humble servants sufficiently to enable them to sleep soundly. They started for the crater at 7:45 a.m. and traveled down at a jog trot.” (Godwin McNeil, Sacramento, Cal., June 8, 1878; NPS, Volcano House Register)

With the new road, in May 1891 the Kilauea Volcano House began offering a package tour. It included steamer passage from Honolulu, a carriage ride from Hilo to the end of the half-finished road, and saddle horses supplied by Volcano Stables for the remaining ride. Accommodations were provided at the Volcano House.

In the same year, JR Wilson built Mountain View House as a rest stop on the new road. Little, if any, business would have been left to Hawelu’s independent halfway house by 1891 and he stopped his operation about that time. (Manning)

© 2024 Ho‘okuleana LLC