Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Crossing the Bog

Hawaiian bogs occur primarily in montane zones as isolated small patches on flat or gently sloping topography in high rainfall areas in cloud forests and other wet forests on all of the high islands between 3,500-5,500 feet elevation.

These bogs also occur in the subalpine zone at 7,446 feet elevation on Maui, and as a low-elevation bog at 2,120 fee) on Kauai. Soils remain saturated on a shallow to deep layer of peat, underlain by an impervious basal clay layer that impedes drainage.

Two bogs are believed to have formed in former small lakes, one along the Wailuku River, Hawai‘i (Treeless bog), the other the subalpine bog on East Maui (Flat Top bog). The low-elevation bog on Kauai occurs on shallow, poorly drained acidic peat. (NatureServe Explorer)

The Treeless Bog was a large, open bog that lacked woody vegetation. Annual precipitation in this part of the island ranges from approximately 100-200 inches per year, but we had no rainfall data for the individual sites. (Wakeley, 1994)

All of the following is a description crossing the bog by Wm E. Oleson (with D Howard Hitchcock), October 20, 1884, as noted in the Guest Book from Pua Akala, typed by June Humme …

I left Hilo for the purpose of exploring the bed of the Wailuku, and for a tramp for health reasons.

Rode on ‘Grit’ from Hilo to Fuka Maui falls, sending the horse back to Hilo, and starting from that point on foot with four strong school boys, Kapewa from Waipio, Aina from Kohala, Haalilio from Waimanu, and Sidney Smith from Kaawaloa.

We packed our food and clothing on our backs. At noon we struck a trail into the woods above the point where the ‘56 lava stream came into the river, and after walking an hour or more, came to what I suppose was the Honolii stream.

We worked up-stream with great difficulty, water very deep, banks very high, and the land on both sides quite swampy.

At last we left the stream and followed my pocket compass in a southerly direction right through the swamp. Night came on with us when in the boggiest place and we camped under the lee of a fallen tree.

It had rained all the afternoon and we hadn’t a dry thing in the company. After vainly trying to light a fire, using up all but three matches, we crouched down in the rain and cold with a vivid realization that we were out on a tramp.

Next morning early we kept on through the swamp and in half an hour came to the Wailuku. If I were an Englishman I would say that the swamp is the ‘nastiest’ place on Hawaii.

It is like a jungle, and one feels that it takes about a minute a step to get through the tangle of ie ie and to pull one’s feet out of the bog.

If one wants to find out what a victory of mind over matter is, he can find no better proof at the adage is true and in what sense it is true, than by an hour’s pull through this miserable swamp.

We stripped and partially dried our clothes on the rocks of the Wailuku, and at about eight oclock started up river with new courage and an emphatic purpose not to leave the stream to follow the most inviting trail.

At night we made a fern hut and then took our three matches and stood around to see what the result would be of their lighting. No, 1 lighted but burned out before igniting the dry fern leaves. No. 2 wouldn’t light at all. No. 3 made a sickly sputter, and then went out.

We turned in, with wet clothes again, but with the mountain wind blowing right at us, so that this second night was not exactly like unto the first! To cap the climax it poured torrents all night long, and we huddled up like frogs, each in his own pool, and waited for the day.

In the morning we wrung about a bucket of water out of each blanket, and something less from each garment, and shivering and rheumatic we started again for the source of the river. We did some famous climbing, hanging by finger-nails over undesirable places, and ’chinning’ it in one especially difficult place.

Garments failed to stand the strain of so much soaking, and stretching, and gradually separated, so that on finally reaching the edge of the woods, and the source of the river, we felt quite unpresentable.

Three of us went to work on a hut for the night’s camping, getting wood for our fire and grass for our bedding, while the other two went on to Puakala for matches and a supply of edibles, ours having suffered from being too much diluted.

It was not long before Mr. Edw. Hitchcock with extra mules came over and took our entire party to Puakala, for the first time in three days showing us a bright fire and giving us the luxury of dry clothes.

There are occasions when a man doesn’t care whether his clothes and slippers were made for another man, and this was such an occasion.

I am profoundly thankful that inasmuch as there is a Wailuku river and an adjoining swamp, there is also such a hospitable home as Puakala, and such good Samaritans as the Hitchcocks. The original Samaritan just happened across the needy man in the parable, but this Hitchcock Samaritan came out with horses to search for the needy ones.

One thing I want to caution all hapless travelers through the swamp against, and that is, don’t let the host roast you out with his rousing fires, when once you reach Puakala.

The contrast is too overcoming, and after such an experience one needs to get used to fires, as the starving man does to food before he can get back to his normal condition of enduring ordinary supplies of each.

My impressions are that there is such a thing as the Wailuku River, and that it has one source about a mile to the southwest of Puakala, that it has some three or four other sources to the south extending as far as Hale Aloha …

…  but that I shall probably never trace any of the other sources unless I get a government appointment and can afford to do the job by proxy. (Wm E. Oleson with D Howard Hitchcock, October 20, 1884, as noted in the Guest Book from Pua Akala, typed by June Humme)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawai‘i Natural Area Reserves System (NARS)

Hawai`i contains unique natural resources, such as geologic and volcanic features and distinctive marine and terrestrial plants and animals, many of which occur nowhere else in the world.

In 1970, the legislature statewide Natural Area Reserves System (NARS) was established to preserve in perpetuity specific land and water areas which support communities, as relatively unmodified as possible, of the natural flora and fauna, as well as geological sites, of Hawai`i.

Areas that are designated as NARS are protected by rules and management activities that are designed to keep the native ecosystem intact, so a sample of that natural community will be preserved for future generations.

Contained in the System are some of Hawai`i’s most treasured forests, coastal areas and even marine ecosystems.  Some would argue the NARS are the best of the best natural areas.

The Natural Area Reserves System (NARS)  currently consists of reserves on five islands, totaling 109,165 acres. (DLNR)

NARS was established to protect the best remaining native ecosystems and geological sites in the State.

A Natural Area Reserves System (NARS) Commission assists DLNR and serves in an advisory capacity for the Board of Land and Natural Resources, which sets policies for the Department.

The diverse areas found in the NARS range from marine and coastal environments to lava flows, tropical rainforests and even an alpine desert.  Within these areas one can find rare endemic plants and animals, many of which are on the edge of extinction.

While NARS is based on the concept of protecting native ecosystems, as opposed to single species, many threatened and endangered (T&E) plants and animals benefit from the protection efforts through NARS.

Major management activities involve fencing and control of feral ungulates (wild, hoofed animals such as cattle, sheep, deer and pigs), control of other invasive species (weeds, small mammalian predators), fire prevention and control, rare plant restoration, monitoring, public outreach, and maintenance of existing infrastructure, such as trails and signs.

The reserves also protect some of the major watershed areas which provide our vital sources of fresh water.

To protect Hawai`i’s invaluable ecosystems, a dedicated funding mechanism was created for the Natural Area Partnership Program, the Natural Area Reserves, the Watershed Partnerships Program and the Youth Conservation Corps through the tax paid on conveyances of land.

These revenues are deposited into the Natural Area Reserve (NAR) Special Fund and support land management actions on six major islands and engage over 60 public-private landowners, partners and agencies.

The Natural Area Reserves System is administered by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife.  Here is a list of the reserves:

Big Island:

  • Pu‘u O ‘Umi
  • Laupāhoehoe
  • Mauna Kea Ice Age
  • Waiākea 1942 Lava Flow
  • Pu‘u Maka‘ala
  • Kahauale`a
  • Kīpāhoehoe
  • Manukā
  • Waiea

Maui

  • West Maui
  • Hanawi
  • Kanaio
  • ‘Ahihi Kīna’u
  • Nakula

Molokai

  • Oloku‘i
  • Pu‘u Ali‘i

O‘ahu

  • Ka‘ena Point
  • Pahole
  • Mount Kaʻala
  • Kaluanui
  • Pia

Kauai

  • Hono O Na Pali
  • Kuia

See more here: https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/ecosystems/nars/ 

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Some Hawaiʻi Aviation History

Bud Mars was the first man to fly an airplane in Hawaiʻi, on December 31, 1910.  Piloting a Curtiss B-18 biplane, he flew to 500-feet over Moanalua Polo Field, Oʻahu.  He repeated the flight the next day to the thrill of thousands of spectators.

The first aircraft accident in the Islands was on the Big Island, dating back to June 10, 1911 when Clarence H Walker came to Hilo for an exhibition flight in his Curtiss Biplane.  There were no airports on the island, so Hoʻolulu Park was selected for the runway.

Walker was able to get a few feet off the ground in his trial flight. Later Walker attempted to fly over the city.  The engine began missing and he lost altitude.  He crashed minutes later into a lauhala tree as he attempted to land, destroying the plane but surviving the crash.

On August 31, 1925, John Rodgers (Commanding Officer of the Naval Air Station at Pearl Harbor from 1923 to 1925) and his crew left San Francisco to attempt the first flight across the Pacific Ocean from the Mainland US to Hawaiʻi.  The seaplane was forced to land in the ocean after running out of fuel, about 365 miles from Oʻahu.

After three days of waiting to be picked up, the crew crafted sails from the wings of the plane and sailed toward Hawaiʻi.  On the tenth day, they spotted Kauaʻi.  Ten miles off shore they met a submarine which towed them safely to shore.

Lieutenant Lester J Maitland (pilot) and Lieutenant Albert F Hegenberger (navigator) were selected to fulfill the Army’s dreams to successfully cross the Pacific Ocean to Hawai‘i.  Shortly after 7 am on June 28, 1927, the Army pair shook hands with their crews and climbed into positions in the airplane.  25-hours and 49-minutes later the three-engine plane touched down at Wheeler.

That year, Hawaiʻi’s first airport was established in Honolulu and dedicated to Rodgers. When Inter-Island Airways (now Hawaiian Air) began the first commercial passenger flights between islands in 1929, their hangar was one of two on the airport.

“Honolulu has seen the evolution of transportation from the Chinese junk and the Yankee clipper in ye olden days to the palatial liner, the fast freighter – and now the airplane. The dedication of the John Rodgers airport near Honolulu is a significant milestone in Honolulu’s transportation history.”

“The event virtually signalizes the inauguration of commercial aviation in Hawaiʻi. At least, it makes possible the innovation and symbol of twentieth century progress.  In years to come it is destined to become a center in this new era.”

“It is the pioneer of the many big commercial stations that will ultimately be located in Hawaiʻi. And because of that fact, it will find its rightful place in history—not only of Hawaiʻi—but of the American nation as well. That aviation will enter the commercial life of Hawaiʻi, there is no doubt. Definite steps to that end are already being taken. The John Rodgers airport is one of these steps.” (Editorial, Honolulu Advertiser, March 22, 1927)

Immediately after the Pearl Harbor Attack (December 7, 1941) all airports were taken over by the US armed forces. Some of these airfields were considered vulnerable to attack and unusable, and the others were placed under strict control of either the Army or Navy (the US Air Force didn’t start until after the war when it was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947.)

All civilian aircraft in Hawaiʻi were grounded. Within a few days, Hawaiian Air was approved by the Military Governor to make emergency flights under military direction, carrying engineers, medicines, munitions, etc to the neighbor islands.

During the early days of the War, Hawaiian’s Sikorsky planes were converted to cargo planes, carrying critical medical supplies and equipment to the other islands and bringing back cargo of fresh vegetables and beef. Thus began the first US air-freight service.

The military began to construct airfields for its own use, for seaplane and land plane operations, across the Islands.  Following the war, many of these facilities were returned/turned over to the Territory for commercial and general aviation.

On December 13, 1955 Honolulu International Airport became the first civilian airport in the nation to get a preview of commercial jet aircraft operation when the British DeHavilland Comet III jet-liner arrived on a good will flight around the world.

1959 brought another welcomed change.  Scheduled service with the Boeing 707 started in June 1959 by Qantas Airlines; flying time from California to Hawaiʻi was cut by nearly a half, from 9 hours by propeller to less than 5 hours by jet.

Pan American Airways followed in September and United Airlines jet service arrived at Honolulu in January 1962. In October 1962, all airline operations moved from the Honolulu terminal building built by the Navy during World War II on Lagoon Drive to new passenger terminal buildings on the North Ramp of the airport.

Planning for the Reef Runway at Honolulu International Airport began in 1967; its primary purpose was to mitigate noise during aircraft takeoffs.

Work began on phase 1 the Reef Runway on May 7, 1973 (dredge, fill and protection structure;) it was completed in August 1976.  Subsequent phases included paving, taxiways, etc; the Reef Runway was completed and dedicated for use on October 14, 1977.  It was later, May 1989, chosen as one of several emergency landing sites NASA’s space shuttle program.  (Information in this summary is from hawaii-gov.)

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As the biplane with its gigantic winds swept over the grass field and rose into the air there was a general whoop of exultation and spontaneous applause from spectators.
Biplane flown by Clarence H Walker-1911
Curtis B-18 biplane made of spruce, ash, bamboo, steal tubing and silk; piloted by J. C. Bud Mars. Took 9 seconds to get airborne and climbed to 500 ft before landing safely.
Honolulu Airport, 1947, with Keehi Lagoon Seadrome at top
Honolulu Airport, 1947. Seadrome is at top of photo
JC Bud Mars’ biplane was christened Skylark after its maiden flight.
John_Redgers_Airport 1928
October 1928 West Section
John_Rodgers_Airport-1928
Rodgers and the PN-9 No. 1 taxis in San Pablo Bay near San Francisco on August 31, 1925
Navy PN-9 No. 1, resting in Nawiliwili’s waters, Kauai, after first attempted flight from the mainland to Hawaii (1925)
JohnRodgersAndPN-9Crew
Lieutenant Lester J. Maitland, pilot, and Lieutenant Albert F. Hegenberger-srriving in Hawaii-1927
US Army Fokker C-2 Bird of Paradise at Wheeler Field after completing first mainland to Hawaii flight June 29, 1927.
Lieutenant Lester J. Maitland, pilot, and Lieutenant Albert F. Hegenberger_congratulations-1927
Naval Air Station Honolulu (John Rodgers Airport), April 1945
Pan American Airways China Clipper, 1947
Pan American China Clipper at Keehi Seadrome, Honolulu Airport, 1946
Reef_Runway
Reef_Runway_Under_Construction 1970s
Reef_Runway_Under_Construction-1970s
Reef_Runway-Completed

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kyoto Gardens

Driving down the Pali, after you pass Kapena Falls, off to the right are a number of cemeteries (including Mauna ʻAla, Oʻahu Cemetery and others – including Honolulu Memorial Park.)

Part of the Honolulu Memorial Park, rising out of the foliage, is the Sanju Pagoda – it’s discernible and it’s deteriorating.

With over 20-years of neglect, the neoprene roofing material has sprung leaks, exposing the reinforced concrete rafters to weakening moisture and decay.  (Historic Hawaii Foundation)  Historic Hawaii Foundation listed it as one of Hawaiʻi’s Most Endangered Historic Sites in 2006.

The pagoda is the only concrete pagoda outside of Japan and is built in the authentic fashion of a wood-constructed pagoda.

The neoprene was supposed to be the best thing ever, but it turned out to be not so good.  The eaves are in jeopardy right now, in bad condition and very heavy. At any point, one of those eaves could fall down. If one falls, it falls on the next, and the building would most likely collapse. (Historic Hawaii Foundation)

Located in the eastern half of the Honolulu Memorial Park, Kyoto Gardens consists of two large columbarium (a structure of vaults lined with recesses for urns holding a deceased’s cremated remains) structures and a Japanese garden.

The Territory of Hawaiʻi established the Honolulu Memorial Park as a community service cemetery in 1958.

The Honolulu membership of the Buddhist Federation commended and endorsed the development of the cemetery in 1964, whereupon it was decided that a monument be erected which would honor the followers of the Buddhist faith.

Founded by the Richards family, Honolulu Memorial Park includes the Sanju Pagoda along with the Kinkaku-ji memorial, which were completed and opened in July 1966.

The name of the Kyoto Gardens was designated in 1966 with the donation of a bronze bell donated by Mayor Takayama of Kyoto, and brought to Honolulu in May of 1966.

The inscription on the bell was written in both Japanese and English.  In English, it reads: World Peace Forever, and continued with the inscription: Praying for the Everlasting Fellowship of Honolulu and Kyoto, Mayor Yoshizo Takayama, January 1, 1966.

With the arrival of the bell, the name of the Nuʻuanu Memorial Gardens Funerary Home was changed to Kyoto Gardens. In 1966, the Senior Minister of the Kinkaku-ji of Kyoto, Japan, Abbot Jikai Murakami, was present for the opening of the Kinkaku-ji memorial and gave his blessing.

The three-tiered Pagoda, the Kenkaku-ji Temple and the Mirror Gardens located within the Honolulu Memorial Park are historically important for being the best examples of Japanese traditional-style structures and gardens built outside of Japan.

The Pagoda is architecturally significant for three reasons: it was designed with the original proportions of the Nara Pagoda and uses the bracketing construction techniques found in the traditional design; it is the largest pagoda ever built; and it incorporates new construction techniques using concrete and steel.

The Sanju-Pagoda, designed by Robert Katsuyoshi, is a 1½-times larger model of a pagoda located on the grounds of the Minami Hoke-ji Temple in Nara, Japan, built in the Momoyama Period (1571-1602.)

Its height from the foundation to the top of the roof, not including the ku-rin copper spire is 80-feet, the total height, including its spire, is 116-feet.

The Kinkaku-ji columbarium models itself after the world-famous Kinkaku-ji located on the grounds of the Roku-on-ji Temple in Kyoto, built in the Muromachi Period (1335-1573) style.

The Kinkaku-ji columbarium is a three-story steel-framed and plaster finished columbarium. The height of the building measures approximately 38-feet high, not including the phoenix finial at its roof peak (the symbol of the Paradise of the heavenly Buddhas.)

The Mirror Lake Garden is also designed in the style of the Muromachi Period (1335-1573.) The design of this garden is based upon the symbols of the Buddha’s world.

Originally, carp fish were donated to Mirror Lake – traditionally the significance of the carp fish is a Japanese historical and religious one: carp fish are always found in the ponds of the temples for, through the carp, one’s sins were washed clean.

The inspiration and information for this summary is primarily from the National Park Service.  While at DLNR, I signed off on the nomination forms to list these improvements on the National Historic Register of Historic Sites; it was listed on February 11, 2004.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pineapple In Hawai‘i

Christopher Columbus brought pineapple, native of South America, back to Europe as one of the exotic prizes of the New World.  (‘Pineapple’ was given its English name because of its resemblance to a pine cone.)
 
Pineapple (“halakahiki,” or foreign hala,) long seen as Hawaiʻi’s signature fruit, was introduced to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1813 by Don Francisco de Paula Marin, a Spanish adviser to King Kamehameha I.
 
Credit for the commercial production of pineapples goes to the John Kidwell, an English Captain who started with planting 4-5 acres in Mānoa.
 
Although sugar dominated the Hawaiian economy, there was also great demand at the time for fresh Hawaiian pineapples in San Francisco.
 
After Kidwell’s initial planting, others soon realized the potential of growing pineapples in Hawaii and consequently, started their own pineapple plantations.
 
Here is some brief background information on four of Hawai‘i’s larger pineapple producers, Dole, Libby, Del Monte and Maui Land & Pineapple.
 
Ultimately, as part of an economic survival plan, pineapple producers ended up in cooperative marketing programs and marketed the idea of Hawaiian products, as in “Don’t ask for pineapples alone.  Insist on Hawaiian Pineapple!”
 
Dole Pineapple Plantation (Hawaiian Pineapple Company)
James Dole, an American industrialist, also famously called the Pineapple King, purchased 60 acres of land in the central plains of Oahu Island and started the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901.
 
In the year 1907, Dole started successful ad campaigns that introduced whole of America to canned pineapples from Hawaii.
 
In 1911, at the direction of Dole, Henry Ginaca invented a machine that could automatically peel and core pineapples (instead of the usual hand cutting,) making canned pineapple much easier to produce.
 
The demand for canned pineapples grew exponentially in the US and in 1922, a revolutionary period in the history of Hawaiian pineapple; Dole bought most of the island of Lāna‘i and established a vast 200,000-acre pineapple plantation to meet the growing demands.
 
Lanai throughout the entire 20th century produced more than 75% of world’s total pineapple.  More land on the island of Maui was purchased by Dole.
 
In 1991, the Dole Cannery closed.  Today, Dole Food Company, headquartered on the continent, is a well-established name in the field of growing and packaging food products such as pineapples, bananas, strawberries, grapes and many others.
 
The Dole Plantation tourist attraction, established in 1950 as a small fruit stand but greatly expanded in 1989  serves as a living museum and historical archive of Dole and pineapple in Hawai‘i.
 
Libby, McNeil & Libby (Libby’s)
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.
 
By 1911, Libby, McNeill & Libby 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.”
 
The Kāne‘ohe facility ultimately failed; some suggest it was because Libby built it on and destroyed the Kukuiokane Heiau in Luluku.
 
In 1912 Libby, McNeill and Libby bought half of the stock of Hawaiian Cannery Co.  By the 1930s, more that 12 million cases of pineapple were being produced in Hawaii every year; Libby accounted for 23 percent.
 
Del Monte Plantation
Del Monte another major food producing and packaging company of America started its pineapple plantation with the purchase of the Hawaiian Preservation Company in 1917.  The company progressed and increased its plantation areas during 1940s.
 
In 1997, the company introduced its MD-2 variety, popularly known as Gold Extra Sweet pineapple, to the market.  The variety, though produced in Costa Rica, was the result of extensive research done by the now dissolved Pineapple Research Institute, in Hawaii. In 2008, Del Monte stopped its pineapple plantation operations in Hawaii.
 
Maui Land & Pineapple Company
The family of Dwight Baldwin, a missionary physician, created the evolving land and agricultural company.  It first started as Haiku Fruit & Packing Company in 1903 and Keahua Ranch Company in 1909, then Baldwin Packers in 1912.
 
In 1932, it was renamed Maui Pineapple Company, which later merged with Baldwin Packers in 1962.  In 1969, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (ML&P) was created and went public.
 
In 2005, the company introduced its now famous “Maui Gold” variety, which is naturally sweet and has low acid content.  Maui Gold pineapple is presently grown across 1,350 acres on the slopes of Haleakala.
 
Maui Land & Pineapple Company is now a landholding company with approximately 22,000-acres on the island of Maui on which it operates the Kapalua Resort community.
 
In 2009, the remnants of the 100-year old pineapple operation were transferred to Maui Gold Pineapple Company (created by former Maui Pineapple Company employees who were committed to saving the 100-year tradition of pineapple on Maui.)
 
While the scale of pineapple farming has dwindled, the celebration of pineapple lives on through Lāna‘i’s Pineapple Festival.  Starting in 1992, the event, formerly known as the “Pineapple Jam,” honors the island’s pineapple history.  (June 30, 2012 will be the 20th annual Pineapple Festival)
 
The image is the iconic Dole Cannery pineapple 100,000-gallon water tank. Built in 1928, it was a Honolulu landmark and reminder of pineapple’s role in Hawaiian agriculture until it was demolished in 1993. (images via: A Pineapple Heart and Burl Burlingame, Honolulu Star-Bulletin)