Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Daguerreotype

Prior to photography, portraits were painted. A first connection to Hawai‘i in this was through the son of Jedidiah Morse (Jedidiah was an abolitionist New England preacher who some consider “the father of American geography” – he compiled and published the first American geography book).

His son Samuel showed enough artistic promise for Jedidiah to send Samuel abroad to study painting after he graduated from Yale University in 1810.

Painting provided Samuel with pocket money to help pay his term bills at Yale. He became one of the small handful of important American painters in his generation, and many famous depictions of notable Americans are his work.

The portrait of Noah Webster at the front of many Webster dictionaries is his, as are the most familiar portraits of Benjamin Silliman, Eli Whitney, and General Lafayette.  (Fisher)

Prior to the departure of the first missionaries to Hawai‘i, a portrait of each of the company had been painted by Samuel Morse; engravings from these paintings of the four native “helpers” were later published as fund-raisers for the Sandwich Islands Mission and thereby offer a glimpse of the “Owhyhean Youths” on the eve of their Grand Experiment.  (Bell)

The portrait of Noah Webster at the front of many Webster dictionaries is his, as are the most familiar portraits of Benjamin Silliman, Eli Whitney, and General Lafayette.  (Fisher)

Morse showed great promise as a painter, but he offered Americans grand paintings with historical themes, when all his paying patrons really wanted were portraits of themselves.  Eventually Morse accepted many portrait commissions, but even they did not bring the steady income he needed to support himself and his family.

Oh, one more thing about Samuel Morse, while he did not invent the telegraph, he made key improvements to its design, and his work would transform communications worldwide. First invented in 1774, the telegraph was a bulky and impractical machine that was designed to transmit over twenty-six electrical wires. Morse reduced that unwieldy bundle of wires into a single one.

Along with the single-wire telegraph, Morse developed his “Morse” code. He would refine it to employ a short signal (the dot) and a long one (the dash) in combinations to spell out messages.

Morse the artist also became known as “the Father of American photography.” He was one of the first in the US to experiment with a camera, and he trained many of the nation’s earliest photographers.  (Fisher)

While doing art and developing code, Morse was also deeply involved in trying to make a go of his newfound vocation as a daguerreotypist. Morse enthusiastically embraced this new technology and became one of the first to practice photography in America.  (LOC)

Daguerreotype was the first successful form of photography; it was named for Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre of France, who invented the technique in collaboration with Nicéphore Niépce in the 1830s.

Daguerre and Niépce found that if a copper plate coated with silver iodide was exposed to light in a camera, then fumed with mercury vapour and fixed (made permanent) by a solution of common salt, a permanent image would be formed. (Britannica)

The daguerreian era in Hawai’i began in the summer of 1845 when Theophilus Metcalf, an engineer and French scholar living in Honolulu, advertised that he was prepared to ‘take likenesses by the daguerreotype’.

The first surviving portraits, however, were made in January 1847, when an artist who called himself Senor Lebleu arrived from Peru and set up a studio.

Daguerreians continued to arrive and practice their art until approximately 1860. During this period there were almost a dozen artists working in the islands, for periods varying from one month to several years.

The most prolific Hawai‘i daguerreian whose work can be fairly well documented was Hugo Stangenwald (1829–99). He operated a studio in Honolulu from 1853 to 1858.

Dr. Hugo Stangenwald, the “student revolutionist, Austrian émigré, able practicing physician, and recognized early-day daguerreotype artist,” left Austria in March 1845. After living in California, he arrived in Honolulu in 1853. He married the former Mary Dimond in 1854. (HABS)

He opened a shop in late-1854 in a one-story frame structure on the site of the present Stangenwald building. His advertisement was well-known: “To send to them that precious boon, And have your picture taken soon, And quick their weeping eyes they’ll wipe To smile upon your daguerreotype.” (HABS)

His competitor for a year and a half (from 1855 to 1856) was Benajah Jay Antrim. Antrim left a memoir that, in a somewhat rambling and self-promoting fashion, recorded his success in the art in the Hawaiian Islands. (Davis & Forbes)

Before heading West, Antrim was a professional maker of mathematical instruments in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In the 1830s he apprenticed under Edmund Draper. (Complete Surveyor)

Antrim was one of the forty men of the Camargo Company who went to California via Mexico on January 1849, after the successful termination of the War with Mexico.  From 1852 to 1854 Antrim was noted in Sierra County, California.

From 1855 to 1856 he operated in Honolulu, Hawaii.  He operated under his own name, B. Jay Antrim, as well as Role Lane Gallery (based on its location on Rose Lane) and Excelsior Gallery.  (Polynesian, Nov 17, 1855)

He ran an advertisement noting, “Prices Reduced at the Excelsior Gallery, located on Rose Lane, east side of King-street opposite the Bethel Church. Thankful for past favors, the undersigned takes this method of soliciting for a limited time, the patronage of the citizens and visitors of Honolulu …”

“… assuring them that strict application has been made to every new feature of the Art, calculated to finish first class Portraits, Miniatures, and Views for all who may desire them, by the latest and most satisfactory mode of operating in the United States.”

“Gallery open from 8 AM to 4 PM.  Cloudy weather no detriment.  Call and examine the specimens of Rose Lane Gallery.  B Jay Antrim” (Polynesian, Dec 22, 1855)

Then Antrim announced a change in his business, “To the Citizens of Honolulu. This is to inform the citizens Honolulu, that Mr. Benson, will continue the Daguerrean Art on Rose Lane, after April 14th, 1856.  We would return our sincere thanks to our patrons, and recommend Mr. B, as worthy of their patronage.  B. Jay Antrim” (Polynesian, April 5 & 12, 1856)

Antrim went back to California and set up shop there; he advertised, “Three Pictures for $3.00! B. Jay Antrim & Co would respectfully intimate to the residents of North San Juan and vicinity their intention of closing their Photographic operations in this town in a short time.”

“Hence all persons who may be desirous of securing a cheap and elegant picture for transmission to their friends in the Atlantic States, will see the necessity of an early visit to their Gallery, adjoining the Sierra Nevada Hotel. They have just completed the necessary arrangements for taking the new style of Canvas Pictures!”

“These Pictures possess a soft and elegant tone, and can be mailed with little additional postage. North San Juan, Oct. 1.” (Hydraulic Press, Oct 16, 1858)

The newspaper reported, “Mr. Antrim, the Ambrotypist, is now prepared to take portraits on canvas, having so far perfected his invention that he is willing to make it public. These pictures have an exquisite softness of color, a fine, clear relief, and are protected from the injurious effects of moisture by a trans parent varnish of the artist’s own invention.”

“They can be rolled up as easily as velvet, and forwarded in letters a great distance without detriment. They can be taken as large as life – this is no fiction – and are as free from any blinding lustre as ordinary engravings.”

“Mr. Antrim is a man of great ingenuity. He has devoted much time and money to the perfection of this new style of sun-portraits, and offers them at such a low price that it is an object to every person to patronize him. His invention is destined to be talked about and to become popular.”  (Hydraulic Press, Oct 2, 1958)

(Ambrotype images are taken upon fine plate glass, over which is placed a corresponding glass,—the two being cemented together, so that the picture is just as permanent as the glass on which it is taken.  They are far superior, in many respects, to the best Daguerreotypes.) (Pioneer American Photographers)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Wahiawā

During ancient times, various land divisions were used to divide and identify areas of control. Islands were divided into moku (districts;) moku were divided into ahupuaʻa. A common feature in each ahupuaʻa was water, typically in the form of a stream or spring.

The Island of Oʻahu has six Moku: Kona, Koʻolaupoko, Koʻolauloa, Waialua, Waiʻanae and ʻEwa. The Waiʻanae ahupuaʻa, within the moku has an un-typical shape – it is sometimes referred to in two parts: Waiʻanae Kai, on its western side, runs from the ocean to the Waiʻanae Mountains (like a typical ahupuaʻa – this portion of Waiʻanae runs from the mountain to the sea.)

From there, however, the section referred to as Waiʻanae Uka continues across Oʻahu’s central plain and extends up into the Koʻolau Mountains – extending approximately 15-miles from the Waianae Mountains to the Koʻolau Mountains and ends up overlooking the windward coastline. (Each section is within the same ahupuaʻa.)

Wahiawā, situated in Waiʻanae Uka, was from very ancient times, identified with the ruling aliʻi of Oʻahu. The name breaks down to Wahi (place), a (belonging to), wa (noise.) (Handy)

Perhaps the name goes back to the time when Hiʻiaka was in this general area and could see waves dashing against the coast afar off and hear the ocean’s ceaseless roar… (Handy)

The chiefs of Līhuʻe, Wahiawā, and Halemano on Oʻahu were called Lo chiefs, poʻe Lo Aliʻi (”people from whom to obtain a chief”,) because they preserved their chiefly kapus…

They lived in the mountains (i kuahiwi); and if the kingdom was without a chief, there in the mountains could be found a high chief (aliʻi nui) for the kingdom. Or if a chief was without a wife, there one could be found – one from chiefly ancestors. (Kamakau)

A “sizable population” filled the Wahiawā area in traditional Hawaiian times, based on the “various areas of loʻi northwest of the present town of Wahiawā. … There were extensive terraces that drew water from Wahiawā Stream, both above and below the present town.”

“There were many small terrace areas along the sides of the valleys of all the streams of this general area. … The peculiarity of this area, apart from distance from the sea, is that it is the only extensive level area on (Oʻahu.)” (Handy)

In more modern times, at the height of the sandalwood boom, Kamehameha was buying foreign ships, including six vessels between 1816 and 1818, to transport his own wood to the Orient. (Kuykendall) According to Kamakau, Wahiawā was a prime source for the valuable wood; the largest trees were from Wahiawā.

Over the remainder of the decade, the population fluctuated. Things changed at the end of the decade. Following the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, western military and agricultural interests would transform the Wahiawā landscape.

Land that had previously been leased to Oʻahu businessman James Robinson for cattle grazing was designated Wahiawā homestead land by The Land Act of 1895 (as homestead land, including water rights from the Kaukonahua Stream (not DHHL homestead, this was for general homesteading.))

Then, in 1897, Californian, Byron Clark, became the Hawaiian Republic’s commissioner of agriculture. In looking for land for him to settle on, he learned of the availability of land at Wahiawā.

Clark organized a group of other Californians (as well as others) to join him in settling the whole tract of thirteen hundred acres — which became known as the Wahiawā Colony Tract. Having formed an agricultural cooperative called the Hawaiian Fruit and Plant Company, the homesteaders began formalizing and refining the physical organization of their Wahiawā settlement.

To reach Wahiawa, the homesteaders forded the north and south forks of Kaukonahua Stream which surrounds Wahiawa, making it an island within an island. Life was hard but they cleared the land and planted their required fruit trees and crops.

They built a one-lane bridge, constructed homes, laid out roads, obtained water rights, built a store and post office, and saw to it their children were educated. In a very short time the homesteaders had a community and started the pineapple industry.

Clark found some discarded pineapple slips which he shared with Alfred W Eames and in 1900 they harvested their first crop in the community. Clark experimented in his home kitchen to can the fruit in glass jars.

Eames founded the Hawaiian Island Packing Company and built his first cannery in the Wahiawā heights area in 1902. This company was later known as Del Monte Fresh Produce (Hawaii) Inc.

Another homesteader and planter, Will P Thomas, operated under the Thomas Pineapple Company, which in 1917 following his death, became Libby McNeill & Libby of Honolulu.

Initially each settler lived in a house on his five-acre parcel in the town site and farmed his other land in the surrounding area. It was soon discovered, however, that each settler preferred to reside on his own farmstead, holding his town lot in reserve.

The homesteaders abandoned the village plan and agreed that one man, Thomas Holloway, would live on their 145-acre central lot site.

On August 27, 1902 a trust deed, referred to as the Holloway Trust, formally set aside the central town lots for the use and benefit of the Settlement Association of Wahiawā resident landowners. Within a few years, Wahiawā Town was underway.

Some of the town’s streets would be named for the early homesteaders – including Clark, Kellogg, Thomas and Eames streets (initial mapping shows California Avenue as the first, and main, road.)

Another notable change at this time was the result of a presidential order of July 20, 1899 setting aside Waianae Uka lands as the military reservation. Ten years later, in 1909, these lands would become the site of Schofield Barracks, named after Lt. General John M. Schofield.

Another homesteader to the area was James D Dole, who moved to Wahiawā in 1900 to attempt farming on 61-acres. Dole described Wahiawā at the beginning of the 20th century as “a park-like stretch of some 1,400-acres of third-class pasture land, dotted with shacks of 13 hopeful homesteaders for whom (the) general sentiment was merely pity.”

Dole founded Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901. He built a cannery next to his pineapple fields in Wahiawā and packed his first cans in 1903. By 1904, Wahiawā was known as “The City of Pines” and was considered the “hub” of the pineapple industry in the world.

Within a few years pineapple production at Wahiawā had increased that Dole planned a cannery at Iwilei, near the shipping facilities of Honolulu Harbor. Today his Hawaiian Pineapple Company (HAPCO) is known as Dole Food Company, Hawaii.

In order to transport the pineapple from Wahiawā to Honolulu, Dole persuaded the Oʻahu Railway & Land Company to extend its rail line to Wahiawā. The line to Wahiawā was constructed in 1906.

Another change occurred on January 23, 1906 when the Wailua Agricultural Company, later known as Waialua Sugar Company, constructed the Wahiawā Dam and Reservoir, a 2.5-billion-gallon capacity reservoir (the largest in Hawaiʻi;) it is generally known as Lake Wilson, today.

Another “story that has never been told in Hawaii” were the events of December 7, 1941 in Wahiawā. While the incident is usually called “the bombing of Pearl Harbor,” other areas on O‘ahu were also shelled. In Wahiawā two civilians died, 22 were injured, and two houses were burned down.

Sixty-seven-year-old Soon Chip Kim was sitting in a Wahiawa plantation cafeteria when the town was fired upon. The bullets went through the roof, killing Kim.

Richard Masaru Soma, 22, was waiting at a bus stop on Kamehameha Highway for a ride to go fishing with a friend when Wahiawā town was strafed by enemy fire. Soma was injured and died five days later. (Napoleon)

In addition to the two civilian casualties, 22 people were injured in Wahiawā. Dr. Merton Mack, who Purnell said was the only physician in town at the time, treated the injured at his clinic on the corner of California Avenue and Kamehameha Highway.

The enemy also suffered casualties in Wahiawa. According to Purnell, a Japanese plane, engaged in a dogfight with an American plane, was hit and crashed into the Hawaiian Electric substation on Neal Avenue, killing the pilot and co-pilot. On its way down, the plane clipped a house, setting it ablaze. The fire spread to a neighboring home, destroying both buildings.

The start of World War II further helped to accelerate developments within Wahiawā to accommodate the needs of the growing military population. Wahiawā Elementary School, which started in 1899 to educate children of farmers who were brought in from California, closed their doors in the 1940s to become the new Wahiawā General Hospital.

At the end of World War II, the facility continued to remain in operation under the leaders of the Wahiawā Hospital Association. The 72-bed acute care facility was dedicated in 1958, under the official name, Wahiawā General Hospital.

Post World War II, the old Wahiawā Hotel had been used as living quarters for area school teachers. By the 1960s, Wahiawā teachers, who had been quartered at the teachers’ cottages (as they referred to them), were forced to relocate as plans for the new Wahiawā Branch Library were underway; the library opened on July 19, 1965. (Lots of information here from Cultural Surveys and Wahiawā Historical Society.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Fever

“The first symptoms of the fever is a restless sensation – an excited state of the system – a wild expression of the eye – and a light and elastic tread. These symptoms are followed with a desire to obtain implements for digging and washing …” (Polynesian, July 15, 1848)

There are “fearful ravages of a terrible fever which has nearly depopulated all the seaport towns and caused general rush to the interior. It is not exactly the yellow fever, but a fever for a yellow substance, called gold.”

“An exceedingly rich gold mine has been discovered in the Sacramento Valley, and all class all sexes have deserted their occupation and rushed en masse to the mines to make their fortune.”

“The gold taken from this newly discovered mine is not gold ore, but pure virgin gold. It is procured by the simple process of digging and washing, and is obtained at the rate of from two to four ounces per day by each laborer.”  (Polynesian, June 24, 1848)

The great California gold rush began on January 24, 1848, when James W Marshall discovered a gold nugget in the American River while constructing a sawmill for John Sutter, a Sacramento agriculturalist. News of Marshall’s discovery brought thousands of immigrants to California from elsewhere in the United States and from other countries.

At first, there were only two routes. The first entailed a six-month sea voyage from New York around the tip of South America to San Diego or San Francisco. Rampant seasickness, bug-infested food, boredom, and high expense made this route unattractive for many would-be prospectors.

The second route brought travelers over the Oregon-California Trail in covered wagons—over rugged terrain and hostile territory. This journey also averaged six months’ duration.

By 1850, the length and difficulty of both routes had inspired the construction of the Panama Railway, the world’s first transcontinental railroad. Built across the isthmus of Panama by private American companies to speed travel to California, the railroad helped to shave months off of the long voyage around South America.

In addition to massive emigration from the eastern US, the California gold rush triggered a global emigration of ambitious fortune-seekers from China, Germany, Chile, Mexico, Ireland, Turkey, and France. The number of Chinese gold-seekers was particularly large, though many Chinese did not intend to settle in the United States, which they called “the Gold Mountain.”  (harvard-edu)

It is estimated that not less than two hundred foreigners have left the Sandwich Islands for the gold mines in California.— Others it is rumored will soon follow. At the latest intelligence from the gold region there was no falling off in the amount of gold that rewarded the labors of the miner …”  (the Friend, September 1, 1848)

“The rush, to that part of the world, flows in unabated. One hundred and eight vessels, are reported to have left the Atlantic States, for San Francisco, during the month of December. … The mines continue to yield the usual amount of gold, and no sign of being exhausted. The freshet and overflowings of the numerous streams and rivers, are reported to increase the amount of gold in the ‘diggings.’”  (The Friend, April 1, 1850)

And, they came from Hawaiʻi … hundreds of Hawaiians came to California to work in the mines.  Remaining place names, Kanaka Creek and Kanaka Bar remind us of their early presence in the gold country.

Others from Hawaiʻi, even some of the missionaries, joined in the quest for gold.

“Several other vessels left port some for California, which has become a very interesting quarter, since the reports have reached us of the gold mines.”  (August 1, 1848)  “Comore. Jones has gone to St. Francisco and it is said he will put a stop to the private operations in the gold district, and will claim the district & the gold for the U. S. government.”  (Levi Chamberlain, August 8, 1848)

“There is at present a great excitement here about digging gold in California. … Mr. Douglass and Mr. Lyman of whom you have heard as former assistants in our school are both there, also — Mr. Ricord, the former attorney general. … Men, women, and children are all absorbed in it, the one great thing Gold.”  (Julia Cooke, September 21, 1848)

Reverend Damon of the Seamen’s Bethel Church and publisher of The Friend travelled the area – not as a miner, but an observer of the activities there.

“In travelling through the country I have met scores of seamen with whom I had become acquainted while at Honolulu.  I was cordially welcomed, although in more than a single instance they exclaimed ‘you are the last man that we expected to see at the mines.’ A few words of explanation were however sufficient to set the matter right.”  (Damon, The Friend, December 1, 1848)

Thomas Hopu and William Kanui, who returned to the islands with the Pioneer Company of missionaries in 1820, joined the gold rush.  Damon saw them in Sacramento on his journey through the area.

John Thomas Gulick, son of the Gulick missionary family, joined the rush after seeking his parents’ permission. By June 1849, his prospecting was reasonably successful, but after having his money stolen, he returned to Hawaii a few months later after having recovered his finances through various trading ventures.  (Bennett)

Likewise, the Reverend Lowell Smith, the first minister of Kaumakapili Church, sailed to San Francisco for a rest because of poor health.  He visited the California gold fields.

“Kamae went immediately to speak to the Hawaiians in other places to come so we might be together for the week. I witnessed their work in the gold fields …. They were not able to obtain much on account of the scarcity of water. Some made a dollar a day, others two dollars, and still others, nothing.”  (Smith; Kenn, HHS)

The California Gold Rush drawing Hawaiians to the continent was not its only effect on the Islands; the Hawaiian economy was affected in several ways – good and not-so-good.

Prior to the Gold Rush, supporting the Pacific whaling and trading fleets and trade between the West Coast and Hawaiʻi was the scale of the Hawaiʻi participation.  The scale of that significantly changed with the Gold Rush.

Hawaiʻi was only three to five weeks away, and with the growing population drawn to the gold fields, in addition to provisioning ships, Hawaiʻi farmers were feeding the gold seekers on the continent.

There were some down sides; this also brought a marked increase in the prices of consumer goods, especially food, caused by the great increase in agricultural exports to California, which offered very profitable new markets.  (Rawls)

Likewise, the exodus to the continent created a critical labor shortage in Hawaiʻi, where a sizeable number of sugar plantation workers migrated to the California gold fields.

The parting of workers from the plantations between 1848 and 1853 was so large, Hawaiʻi sugar producers began to seek Chinese immigrants to fill the gap.  (Rawls)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ʻIliahi

Sandalwood (ʻiliahi) has been highly prized and in great demand through the ages; its use for incense is part of the ritual of Buddhism.  Chinese used the fragrant heart wood for incense, medicinal purposes, for architectural details and carved objects.
 
Sandalwood was first recognized as a commercial product in Hawai‘i in 1791 by Captain Kendrick of the Lady Washington, when he instructed sailors to collect cargo of sandalwood.  From that point on, it became a source of wealth in the islands, until it’s supply was ultimately exhausted.
 
Trade in Hawaiian sandalwood began as early as the 1790s; by 1805 it had become an important export item.
 
Waimea Bay became the sandalwood capital during the 1800s. Huge cargo ships would anchor offshore to load sandalwood.
 
Sandalwood trade was a turning point in Hawai‘i, especially related to its economic structure.  It moved Hawai‘i from a self-sufficient economy to a commercial economy.  This started a series of other economic and export activities across the islands.
 
In 1809, two brothers, the American ship captains Jonathan Winship of the “Albatross” and Nathan Winship of the “O’Cain,” started on a voyage that established the sandalwood trade.
 
After trading for furs on the coast of Oregon, they sailed in October, 1811, for Honolulu, where they and Captain William Heath Davis of the “Isabella” took on cargoes of sandalwood.
 
The ships sailed to Canton, where the fragrant wood was sold at a large profit. Returning to Honolulu, the three captains persuaded King Kamehameha I to grant them a monopoly of the sandalwood and cotton trade for 10 years. However, after the first trip, Kamehameha cancelled the arrangement. (St John)
 
In 1811, an agreement between Boston ship captains and Kamehameha I established a monopoly on sandalwood exports, with Kamehameha receiving 25% of the profits.  As trade and shipping brought Hawaiʻi into contact with a wider world, it also enabled the acquisition of Western goods, including arms and ammunition. 
 
Kamehameha used Western cannons and guns to great advantage in his unification of the Islands and also acquired Western-style ships, buying the brig Columbia for a price of two ship loads of sandalwood in 1817.
 
Between about 1810 and 1820, the major item of Hawaiian trade was sandalwood.  Kamehameha I rigidly maintained control of the trade until his death in 1819, at which time his son, Liholiho, took over control.
 
When Kamehameha I died, although Liholiho (his son and successor) should have inherited all of Kamehameha’s lands, the chiefs also wanted the revenue from the sandalwood.
 
Chiefs persuaded the king to give them an in on the royal sandalwood monopoly; trade continued at an accelerated rate, following Kamehameha’s death. 
 
In America, the Panic of 1819 (the first financial crisis in the United States) made it difficult for traders to obtain sandalwood for the China trade.
 
However, because the Hawaiian chiefs had become enamored of items of foreign manufacture, the islands provided an open market for goods like rum, clothing, cloth, furnishings and a host of other things.
 
Foreign traders shipped these goods to the islands, exchanging them for sandalwood, which continued to be in demand in China.
 
It was Hawaii’s first source of revenue and major debt.  Credit secured by payment in sandalwood saddled the Hawaiian Chiefs and the Islands’ struggling economy.
 
In 1826, the kingdom of Hawaiʻi enacted its first written law – a sandalwood tax.  Every man was ordered to deliver to the government 66 pounds of sandalwood, or pay four Spanish dollars, by September 1, 1827.
 
Every woman older than 13 was obligated to make a 12-by-6-foot kapa cloth.  The taxes were collected to reduce the staggering debt.
 
The common people were displaced from their agricultural and fishing duties and all labor was diverted to harvesting sandalwood.  This period saw two major famines as ʻiliahi was over-harvested to the point of commercial extinction in Hawaiʻi forests. 
 
Unfortunately, the harvesting of the trees was not sustainably managed (they cut whatever they could, they didn’t replant) and over-harvesting of ‘iliahi took place.
 
By 1830, the trade in sandalwood had completely collapsed.  Hawaiian forests were exhausted and sandalwood from India and other areas in the Pacific drove down the price in China and made the Hawaiian trade unprofitable.
 
Once reported as growing on landscape scales, today, there are only remnant patches of ‘iliahi.  Several are trying to bring sandalwood back.
 
 

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Growing Pains

Oʻahu is about 382,500-acres in size; the district of Puna on the island of Hawaiʻi is about 320,000-acres in size – almost same-same.

According to the 2020 census, Oʻahu has about 984,000-people and Puna has about 46,800.  That means there are less than a half-acre per person on Oʻahu and about 7-acres per person in Puna.

For some, it sounds like optimal living; and, many are moving to the Big Island to enjoy this rural lifestyle.

Open spaces with room to roam, it sounds kind of like the Wild West.  And, for some, that’s its nickname, however, not with the same context.

Wait, there’s more.

Between 1958 and 1973, more than 52,500-individual lots were created.  There are at least over 40 Puna subdivisions. Geographically, these subdivisions are sometimes as big as cities.

For example, Hawaiian Paradise Park has over 8,800 building lots and is reportedly the second largest private subdivision in the United States.  It is over 4-miles long and nearly 3½-miles wide.

Back then, they plotted out the subdivisions in cookie-cutter residential/agricultural lots across a grid, with very little space for other uses (such as parks, open space, government services, regional roads … the list goes on and on.)

To add insult to injury, most subdivision lots are accessed by private, unpaved roads. The streets generally lack sidewalks and lighting, and do not meet current County standards in terms of pavement width, vertical geometrics, drainage and other design parameters.

There are only two main roads to move the people in the district in and out – one (Route 130 – Keaau-Pahoa Road) goes into Pahoa to Kalapana; the other (Route 11 – Volcano Highway) serves the lots up in the Volcano area.

Most lots rely on individual catchment systems (captured off the roof and rainfall stored in water tanks) supplemented with private delivery trucks for drinking water.  None of the subdivisions have central sewer systems. Large sections of some subdivisions are off the power grid.

Oh, and one more thing, about 6,400 subdivision lots lie in the highest lava hazard zone and over 500 of these are exposed to additional risks from subsidence, tsunami and earthquakes.

That’s not just hazards noted on a map; thousands of these lots have been covered by lava flows or have been rendered unbuildable by shoreline subsidence over the years.

While most of these subdivisions are on agricultural-zoned lands, the actual use of developed lots is predominantly residential.

At the time these subdivisions were approved, the Puna district was sparsely populated and, with the exception of a sugar plantation and a small-scale visitor attraction at the volcano, which had not yet been developed as a national park, there was little economic activity in the area.

Shortly after the approval of the first of these subdivisions, Hawai‘i was admitted as the 50th state. That event, coinciding with jet travel, spurred increased investment in the Islands.

To prevent the excesses of land speculation, Hawai‘i adopted the first State Land Use Law in the nation in 1961.

Most of the Puna district was placed in either the Conservation District or the Agriculture District when formal boundaries were established in 1964, and this somewhat served to abate the number of subdivision applications.

However, it wasn’t until the County adopted a subdivision ordinance in 1973, setting more rigorous lot size and infrastructure standards, that large subdivisions with minimal services were effectively discouraged.

In the first decade or so following the creation of the non-conforming subdivisions, lot sales were fairly brisk, but there was little lot development.

In the 1970 Census, the recorded population of the Puna District was only 5,154-residents, most of whom lived in the older settlements of Kea‘au, Pāhoa and Volcano.

That was then, over the years the population exploded, doubling to 11,751 in 1980, then up another 10,000 by 1990 (to 20,781,) and another 11,000 by 2000 (to 31,335,) and another 14,000 by 2010 (to 45,326) to the 2020 population of about 46,800.

Population growth has worn on the minimal infrastructure, as well as people’s patience.

Today, folks in Puna are living with the lack of planning and regulatory control over the subdivision bonanza days.  But, they do benefit from lower sales prices (associated with the general lack of facilities and the huge availability.)  Some say you are getting what you pay for.

This region is finally undergoing some short and long-range planning.  And, there are attentive council members seeking to have Puna get its fair share.

Depending on your perspective, addressing the issues in this region today is either a planner’s nightmare or a planner’s dream.  This is an area where I would love to get involved – for me, challenges create opportunities.

The image notes the individual parcels within the Puna district (overlaying the Google Earth image.)  At this scale, many of the lots are not discernible – the fully gray areas indicate smaller lot residential uses, with no (or very limited) park space – where you can just see between the lines, these are 1-5 acre parcels.

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