General | Page 49 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 24, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Air Mail

In the mid-19th century the Wild West was largely unexplored. Discovery of gold in 1848 made California a destination for tens of thousands from the east; communication back east had it challenges.

One way, the Pony Express, used 400 horses and employed 183 men only for a brief 20 month period starting on April 3, 1860 in order to carry mail and news across nearly 2,000-miles between about 165 stations from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco, California once or twice a week in 10-16 days.

Then, on October 24, 1861, wires were joined on the first transcontinental telegraph; the Pony Express mail delivery was discontinued by November 1861.

The driving of the ‘Last Spike’ at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869 brought the transcontinental railroad, into the scene. Coast-to-coast rail mail took about 10-11 days to deliver.

Then, on December 14, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright tossed a coin to decide who would fly first. At 10:35 am, December 17, 1903, Orville was at the controls and kept the plane aloft until it hit the sand about 120 feet from the rail – the first controlled and sustained power flight. (NPS)

To demonstrate the potential of transporting mail by air, the Post Office approved a special air mail flight as part of the festivities at an international air meet on September 23, 1911, on Long Island, New York.

With a full mail bag squeezed between his legs, pilot Earle Ovington took off and flew to Mineola, a few miles away. He banked his airplane and pushed the bag overboard. It fell to the ground and was retrieved by the local postmaster. (Smithsonian)

On February 22, 1921, four air mail flights set out to prove the mail could be flown coast to coast in record time by flying day and night. The going proved rough. One pilot died in a crash. Treacherous weather stopped others.

But the fourth flight got through, making it from San Francisco to New York in 33 hours and 20 minutes-a distance that took 4½ days by train and 3 days by air/rail (flown by day and shipped by train at night). (Smithsonian)

Early transcontinental airmail delivery was a hybrid system. In 1922, letters sent by airmail would have to leapfrog the country, traveling by air during the day and by train at night. Using this process, a letter moving at its absolute fastest might take about 83 hours to get from New York to San Francisco.

The few pilots who did try to travel at night during this time were taking their lives in their hands. Nearly 1-in-10 early airmail pilots died during the early days of the postal service’s airmail initiative, and emergency landings were common.

There had to be a safer way. Enter the highway of light — a system of airmail beacons that spanned the country. (Pope)

During the spring and summer of 1923, work on a lighted airway between Cheyenne, WY, and Chicago, IL, was being pushed forward with a view to carrying out certain experiments to determine whether cross-country night flying on a regular schedule was possible.

They wanted to see if transcontinental air mail service between New York and San Francisco could be regularly maintained. This was certainly a huge undertaking, as up to this time very little night flying had been done and there were no lighted airways in existence. (Air Mail Pioneers)

In the last half of 1923 and the first half of 1924, 289-flashing gas beacons were installed between Chicago and Cheyenne; 34-emergency landing fields between the same points were rented, equipped with rotating electric beacons, boundary markers, and telephones.

Five terminal landing fields were equipped with beacons, floodlights and boundary markers; 17 planes were equipped with luminous instruments, navigation lights, landing lights and parachute flares.

An 18-inch rotating beacon, mounted on top of a 50-foot windmill tower, was installed at each emergency field. This beacon was also set at a fraction of a degree above the horizon, revolving at the rate of six times a minute, and was visible to the pilots on clear nights from 60 to 70 miles.

A 36-inch-high intensity arc revolving searchlight of approximately 500,000 candlepower was installed on a 50-foot tower at the regular fields. It revolved at the rate of three times per minute and on clear nights could be seen by the pilots for a distance of 130 to 150 miles.

Concrete arrows, painted bright yellow, were at the foot of the 50-foot towers. The arrows were visible from a distance of ten miles, and each arrow pointed the way towards the next, some three miles distant.

In 1924 and 1925, the lighted airways were extended east from Chicago to Cleveland and New York and west from Cheyenne through Rock Springs, Wyoming, to Salt Lake City and then on to San Francisco. By the end of 1925, the US Air Mail truly had a day and night transcontinental airmail route covering a distance of slightly over 2,000-miles. (Air Mail Pioneers)

In 1926 management of the beacon system was turned over to the Department of Commerce, which continued expansion or the airmail beacon system until 1929. By 1933 the Airways Division of the Department of Commerce had completed 18,000 miles of lighted airways, installed 1,550 light beacons, and constructed over 250 airfields. (NPS)

Once the new lighted airway was in place, that same letter that used to take 83-hours took just 33-hours to get from New York to San Francisco.

But by the 1930s, navigation and radio technology had improved to allow flight without land-based visual guidance. And even though radio was all the rage — and fast becoming a coast-to-coast experience — sending a letter was still the most economical way to deliver any message among private citizens. (Pope)

In the Islands, on October 8, 1934, Inter-Island Airways made the first official US airmail flight in Hawai‘i from John Rodgers Airport. (hawaii-gov) Shortly after, on April 17, 1935, Pan American landed a survey flight crew to look at air mail service from California to Hawai‘i and on to Midway, Wake and Guam.

On November 22, 1935, Postmaster General James A Farley and Mr Juan Trippe ordered Pilot Musick, commanding Pan Am’s China Clipper, to take off on the first airmail flight, by way of Hawai‘i and the other islands, on to its Manila destination.

Twenty thousand spectators were on hand to watch festivities at Alameda, all eyes on the immense silver airplane. They saw an estimated 110,000 pieces of mail weighing nearly two tons being stowed on board. (hawaii-gov)

October 21, 1936 saw the first passenger flight. Pan Am provided weekly service along recently impossible routes. Although the first services stopped at Manila for political reasons, service continued to expand and eventually reached Hong Kong and Singapore. (Pacific Aviation Museum)

Pan American Clipper executive officer R. O. H. Sullivan hands over the first sacks of air mail delivered to Hawaii-PP-1-7-005-1935

First official consignment of U.S. mail flown to Hawaii by Pan American Clipper-PP-1-7-006–left-SFO-Nov_22,_1935

Postmaster Chillingworth (L) Gov Poindexter (M) Harold Dillingham (R) inaugural of inter-island air mail PP-1-4-003-Oct 8, 1934

Pan Am China Clipper, leaves San Francisco Bay for Manila carrying the first United States trans-Pacific air mail on Nov. 22, 1935

Mary Kearney of Honolulu recieved the largest postcard ever delivered by air mail in the U.S-PP-1-9-010-1936

Earle Ovington receives a bag of mail where he took off for the first official airmail flight in US

Earle Ovingtonand his plane

Early air mail was placed in heavy canvas bags and carried inside a special compartment in front of the pilot

Historic Ariway Beacons-tower and arrow are in Kansas, along the Amarillo – Kansas City route

Historic Ariway Beacons-Quail Creek, Washington, UT

Historic Ariway Beacons-Bloomington Overlook in St. George, Utah

Historic Ariway Beacons-Aviation Heritage Museum of the Grants-Milan Airport in NM has restored this airway beacon

Historic Ariway Beacons

Gov. Joseph B. Poindexter hands mail bag to Inter-Island Airways co-pilot James Hoff for neighbor island delivery-PP-1-4-008-Oct_8,_1934

First-official-Interisland air mail-Oct 8, 1934

East_and_West_Shaking_hands_at_the_laying_of_last_rail_Union_Pacific_Railroad-May 10, 1869

Arrow_Beacons-map

airmail-beacons02

airmail-beacon-concrete-arrow

1d_Airmail_Beacon-3

1d_Airmail_Beacon-2

Transcontinental Rail Mail-San Francisco-05-14-1869-to New York-05-25-1869

February 23, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Polar Bears and Reindeer

Within ten years after Captain Cook’s 1778 contact with Hawai‘i, the islands became a favorite port of call in the trade with China. The fur traders and merchant ships crossing the Pacific needed to replenish food supplies and water.

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States.

Needing supplies in their journey, the traders soon realized they could economically barter for provisions in Hawai‘i; for instance any type of iron, a common nail, chisel or knife could fetch far more fresh fruit meat and water than a large sum of money would in other ports.

A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China and the Hawaiian Islands to Britain and the United States (especially New England).

Foreign vessels had long recognized the ability of the Hawaiian Islands to provision their ships with food (meat and vegetables,) water, salt and firewood.

Salt was Hawaiʻi’s first export, carried by some of the early ships in the fur trade back to the Pacific Northwest for curing furs. Another early market was provided by the Russian settlements in Alaska.

On January 21, 1821, the Thaddeus (the brig that carried the Pioneer Company from Boston to Hawai‘i) was sold to Liholiho (Kamehameha II). Liholiho put her into service in the Northwest trade. On July 12, 1821, William Sumner sailed the Thaddeus to Maui to gather a load of salt to trade for goods at Kamchatka. (Mills)

In Kamchatka, “Salt is at present issued, but not in sufficient quantities; were that article more liberally distributed, the people might in some years prepare fish to last them several successive ones.”

“From the quantity now supplied by the king of the Sandwich islands, it is to be hoped that the first productive season will be taken advantage of.” (Cochrane)

“The principal riches of Kamtchatka may be said to consist in the animals of the chase, of which there are so prodigious a number, that there are not sufficient inhabitants to take them. The most valuable are foxes of various colours, a few sea and more river otters, with an immense number of sables.”

“Bears, wolves rein-deer and mountain-sheep, and sometimes a few lynxes, are also to be found. The number of skins annually exported and consumed in the peninsula is about thirty thousand, of which sables and foxes form the principal part.” (Cochrane)

On behalf of the Hawaiian government Alexander Adams “brought home a couple of deer the last time with a view of their thriving in the islands, but they had not long been suffered to go at large in Hanarura valley …”

“… when Pitt [Kalanimōku] happening to be unwell, fancied that the flesh of the deer would do him good, and one of them was killed for him to taste. This he found so much to his liking that he ordered the other one to be killed, thus ending the life of poor Adams’ deer.” (Macrae)

“Deer were not the only kind of wild animals introduced into Honolulu during the reign of Liholiho. [T]hat monarch dispatched his American-built brig, the Sunbeam [likely the Thaddeus], commanded by an Englishman, Captain John Bowles, and manned by Sandwich Islanders …”

“… to St. Peter and St. Pauls (Petropaulovski), Kamtschatka, with a cargo of salt as a present to his imperial brother, the Czar of Russia.”

“In return for this gift on the part of the Sandwich Islands king, the governor of St. Peter and St. Paul’s, who was then Captain Ricord, an Englishman, gave such articles as seemed most desirable, including some animals, with a view of propagating the breed.” (Macrae, footnote)

“[T]he beautiful clipper entered the harbour of Peter and Paul in Kamchatka. She flew a flag which to the watchers on shore was absolutely unknown; blue, white, and brown.”

“She seemed to be full of men, and saluted the fort with seven guns. In those days Petropavlovsk was practically the only Russian port on the Pacific, for the Amur River belonged as yet to the Chinese, and Vladivostok was still a desert.”

“The arrival of any ship in that God-forsaken port was a rare and great event, much more that of a vessel so mysterious. The whole population – about three hundred souls – gathered on the foreshore.”

“All the authorities were there, with the Governor at their head. This was Captain Ricord, an English naval officer who, with numerous compatriots, was in the Russian service, and had received, after many adventures, the governorship of Kamchatka as a reward for his distinguished services. …”

“Captain John Bowles [was] commanding the clipper Sunbeam of His Majesty Kamehameha II, King of the Sandwich Islands. The Sunbeam’s cargo consisted of salt, intended by His Majesty as a present to the Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias …”

“… in return for which His Majesty hoped that his ‘dear brother’ would send him animals fit to be bred in His Majesty’s islands – and especially bears!” (Poliakoff)

They made the trade and “Amongst the animals were two Siberian bears, but what became of them when landed at Honolulu is now forgotten.” (Macrae, footnote) (This summary was inspired and informed by Peter Mill’s recent book ‘Connecting the Kingdom;’ it’s a good read on sailing vessels in the early Hawaiian monarchy.)

February 21, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Great Crack

The Great Crack is one of the most conspicuous features of the Southwest Rift Zone of Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano. (Halliday) It is an extensive network of cracks, fissures and cones. It spans 8 miles in length, measures 50 feet in width and plunges down to a depth of 66 feet.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologists believe that the crack formed as magma intruded into the rift zone causing the surface to spread, not from the island falling apart. While the exact time of its formation remains uncertain, research indicates that it might have occurred gradually over time. (NPS)

In 1823, an eruption caused lava to surge out from the lower section of the Great Crack and flow for about 6 miles into the ocean, destroying one small coastal village at Mahuka Bay.

English missionary William Ellis witnessed the aftermath of the eruption. “Messrs (William) Ellis, (Asa) Thurston, (Artemas) Bishop and (Joseph) Goodrich made a tour round the island of Hawai‘i, examining its various districts, conversing with the natives, and preaching the gospel 130 different times.” (History of ABCFM) They were looking for suitable sites for mission stations.

Of this, Ellis wrote, “The people of Kearakomo also told us, that, no longer than five moons ago, Pele had issued from a subterranean cavern, and overflowed the low land of Kearaara, and the southern part of Kapapala.”

“The inundation was sudden and violent, burnt one canoe, and carried four more into the sea. At Mahuka, the deep torrent of lava bore into the sea a large rock, according to their account, near a hundred feet high, which, a short period before, had been separated by an earth quake from the main pile in the neighbourhood ….”

“We exceedingly regretted our ignorance of this inundation at the time we passed through the inland parts of the above-mentioned districts, for, had we known of it then, we should certainly have descended to the shore, and examined its extent and appearance.”

“We now felt convinced that the chasms we had visited at Ponahohoa, and the smoking fissures we afterwards saw nearer Kirauea, marked the course of a stream of lava, and thought it probable, that though the lava had burst out five months ago, it was still flowing in a smaller and less rapid stream.” (Ellis)

A hundred years later, geologist Harold Stearns officially named it the ‘Keaiwa Flow,’ which was a name the residents of Ka‘ū had been using informally back then. (NPS)

“The Keaiwa flow of 1823 from Kilauea welled up in the Great Crack and spread out seaward as a thin flow, in places only a few inches thick. The absence of cinders or driblet cones in or along the crack indicates that the usual fire fountains of Hawaii did not play during this eruption.”

“Lining the Great Crack in many places are lava balls that appear to be bombs, but that do not owe their form to projection.” (Stearns)

Beginning at roughly 2,300 feet in elevation, the lower extent of the Southwest Rift Zone is quite unlike any other on the island. Faulting activity here has consolidated into a feature named The Great Crack. It is just that, a single large crack that runs unbroken for more than 10 miles before finally reaching the coastline. (Coons)

“The Great Crack is one of a number of open cracks that fissure the southwest rift zone, a belt 1-2 miles wide extending southwestward from Kilauea to the sea.”

“Throughout most of its length the Great Crack has the general appearance of a steep-sided trench 20 to 30 feet wide. A few yards north of the head of the Keaiwa flow the crack breaks up into many smaller ones.”

“There are also graben areas [an elongated block of the earth’s crust lying between two faults and displaced downward] which seem to have been produced by the separation of the fissure into two cracks for a short distance and the later collapse of the narrow slices thus formed, with the subsidence of the magma.”

“In other places the graben is due to the collapse along the walls bordering the fissure when the region settled down after the extrusion of the lava. In a few places, especially near the sea, the Great Crack decreases in width to about 2 feet, and it finally dies out in echelon fashion at the coast. The cracks beyond the area of extravasation are only a few inches wide.”

“The Great Crack … differs from the others only in its continuity; it can be traced continuously for about 8 miles, and before it was buried by the flow of 1920 it must have been traceable still farther toward Halemaumau.”

“However, the mere fact that the Great Crack is continuous does not necessarily indicate that it was all opened at one time. There is ample evidence to show that it belongs to a system of fissures from which lava has poured out again and again.” (Stearns)

The Great Crack “is the result of crustal dilation from magmatic intrusions into the rift zone and not from the seaward movement of the south flank. There is no evidence that the Great Crack is getting bigger at this time or that the island is tearing apart along this seam.”

“Where the crack is narrow enough that opposing walls can be compared, matching features fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. This suggests that a simple widening caused the crack. Opposite walls also have no vertical offset, so south flank subsidence did not influence the formation of the crack.”

“The total breakaway of the south flank block of Kīlauea … is not taking place at this time.” (USGS)

Notable features in the Great Crack are caves. Most of the floor of the open crack is littered with breakdown, but there are occasional gaps where cave entrances and pit craters lead to greater depths within the Great Crack System. It is believed there are more than 20 of these.

“The National Park Service has acquired a nearly 2,000-acre Big Island property containing a chasm known as ‘The Great Crack.’ The oceanfront property adjacent to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was purchased for $1.95 million in a recent foreclosure sale”.

“The park has been interested in the property northeast of Pahala for more than five decades, said Ben Hayes, the park’s director of interpretation.” (Associated Press, 2018)

The National Park is working to create a long-term plan for managing the Great Crack area. The park is exploring future public use options for these areas, with a community meeting in Fall 2023 to learn from local residents about the site’s resources and past uses. (NPS)

February 20, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Birds of a Feather

“Wherever the lehua and certain other trees flourished and bloomed, there some, if not all of these birds, made paradise. While the moist woodlands of Hilo were perhaps his favorite, the fowler also found happy hunting grounds in Hamakua, Kohala, Kona and Puna, as well as on the other islands of the group.” (Emerson)

“Feathers from certain birds were made into the highly-prized feather work artifacts of the alii – capes, cloaks, helmets, kahili, etc.” (Holmes)

“The plumage-birds, like everything else in Hawaii, were the property of the alii of the land, and as such were protected by tabu; at least that was the case in the reign of Kamehameha I, and for some time before.”

“The choicest of the feathers found their way into the possession of the kings and chiefs, being largely used in payment of the annual tribute, or land tax, that was levied on each ahupuaa.”

“As prerequisites of royalty, they were made up into full length cloaks to be worn only by the kings and highest chiefs. Besides these there were capes, kipuka, to adorn the shoulders of the lesser chiefs and the king’s chosen warriors, called hulumanu, not to mention helmets, mahiole, a most showy head-covering.”

“The supply needed to meet this demand was great, without reckoning the number consumed in the fabrication of lei and the numerous imposing kahili that surrounded Hawaiian royalty on every occasion of state.”

“It is, therefore, no surprise when we learn that in the economic system of ancient Hawaii a higher valuation was set upon bird feathers (those of the mamo and o-o) than upon any other species of property, the next rank being occupied by whale-tooth, a jetsam-ivory called palaoa pae, monopolized as a prerequisite of the king.” (Emerson)

“Amongst the articles which they brought to barter this day, we could not help taking notice of a particular sort of cloak and cap, which, even in countries where dress is more particularly attended to, might be reckoned elegant.”

“The first are nearly of the size and shape of the short cloaks worn by the women of England, and by the men in Spain, reaching to the middle of the back, and tied loosely before.”

“The ground of them is a net-work upon which the most beautiful red and yellow feathers are so closely fixed that the surface might be compared to the thickest and richest velvet, which they resemble, both as to the feel and the flossy appearance.”

“The manner of varying the mixture is very different; some having triangular spaces of red and yellow, alternately; others, a kind of crescent; and some that were entirely red, had a broad yellow border, which made them appear, at some distance, exactly like a scarlet cloak edged with gold lace.”

“The brilliant colours of the feathers, in those that happened to be new, added not a little to their fine appearance; and we found that they were in high estimation with their owners; for they would not at first part with one of them for anything that we offered, asking no less a price than a musket.”

“However, some were afterward purchased for very large nails. Such of them as were of the best sort were scarce; and it should seem that they are only used on the occasion of some particular ceremony or diversion; for the people who had them always made some gesticulations which we had seen used before by those who sung. …” (Cook’s Journal, Jan 1778)

“The scarlet birds, already described, which were brought for sale, were never met with alive; but we saw a single small one, about the size of a canary-bird, of a deep crimson colour; a large owl; two large brown hawks, or kites; and a wild duck.” (Cook’s Journal, Feb 1778)

“The feathers of Hawaiian plumage-birds may be divided, as to color, into several classes:

1. Pure yellow. The yellow feathers were taken either from the o-o or from the coat of the still rarer mamo.

Those of the mamo were of a deeper tint, but of shorter staple than the former, and as the bird was shy and difficult of capture, they were greatly coveted for the richest articles for feather-work, cloaks, capes and necklaces. It is a question still in dispute whether this rare bird is not extinct.

The o-o, though a proud and solitary bird, was more prolific than the mamo. Its coat was of deep black, set off with small tufts of clear yellow under each wing and about the tail and in some varieties about the neck and thighs.

Those from the axial were called e-e and were the choicest, and being of a longer staple were in the greatest demand for the lei. No swan’s down can surpass, in delicacy of texture, the axilliary tufts of the o-o.

2. Red. Scarlet, or red feathers were obtain from the body of the i-iwi and the akakani (akakane or apapane).

It may be disputed whether one or the other of these is not to be designated as common. The color-tone of the feathers varies. They were song-birds, and when on the wing, displaying their plumage of black and scarlet, were objects of great brilliancy.

There was, I am told, another red-feathered bird called ulaai-hawane, a beautiful thing in scarlet, wild and shy, a great fighter, a bird very rarely taken by the hunter. Its plumage would have been a welcome addition to the resources of Hawaiian feather-workers had it been obtainable.

3. Green. Feathers of an olive green were obtained from the o-u, and from the amakihi those of a greenish-yellow.

Though of less value than some others, the green feathers were an important resource in adding variety to Hawaiian feather-work. This color, however, was not used in the richest and most costly cloaks and capes.

4. Black. Feathers of black were obtained from the o-o, mamo, i-iwi and akakani, not to mention numerous other sources, including the domestic fowl, which also contributed feathers of white.

While this list is not intended to be exhaustive, mention should be made of the koaʻe (bosen, or tropic bird), which furnished two long feathers from its tail used in making kahilis.

Although this bird took its prey from the ocean, its nest was in the face of the steep mountain palis and in the cliff of the small, rocky island, Kaula, Nihoa, Lehua, and Necker. There are two varieties of this feather.” (Emerson)

February 18, 2024 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)