Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kanuimanu (Keālia Pond)

The Island of Maui formed from two shield volcanoes that were close enough that their lava flows overlapped, forming an isthmus between them.

The oldest volcano, that formed the West Maui Mountain, is about 5,000-feet high. The younger volcano, Haleakalā, on the east side of the island is over 10,000-feet high.

The isthmus that separates the two volcanic masses is formed from erosional deposits and is the prominent topographic feature for which the island is known: “the Valley Isle.”

Keālia was once an ancient fishpond supplied with water from the Waikapū Stream in the West Maui Mountain and Kolaloa Gulch originating from Haleakalā.

Native Hawaiians may have raised awa (milkfish) and ʻamaʻama (flathead mullet) using a system of ditches and sluice gates to let nearby fish from Māʻalaea Beach into the pond.

Established in 1992, Keālia Pond National Wildlife Refuge encompasses approximately 700-acres and is one of the few natural wetlands remaining in the Hawaiian Islands. Located along the south-central coast of the island of Maui, between Kīhei and Māʻalaea.  (USFWS)

A visitor center (2012) with exhibition hall and staff offices, replacing a trailer, was dedicated and is in use at the Wildlife Refuge.  This, with the coastal boardwalk and interpretive signage, gives a great opportunity to see and learn about the Wildlife Refuge.

Seasonal conditions that occur at Keālia Pond National Wildlife Refuge make it a notable place for people to observe Hawai‘i’s endangered wetland birds, along with a diversity of feathered visitors from as far away as Alaska and Canada, and occasionally from Asia.  (USFWS)

At the turn of the century, about 40,000-ducks wintered in Hawaiian wetlands; today, that number is around 2,000. Four of the five native water birds are now classified as endangered.

Keālia Pond serves as a settling basin a 56-square mile watershed that results in seasonal intermittent flooding during winter months and dryer conditions during late summer months.

This creates open water (200-acres) and shallow mud flat areas interspersed with vegetation, which provide suitable resting, feeding, and nesting habitat for endangered water birds. During certain times of the year, the refuge supports at least half of the Hawaiian stilt population.

The pond also supports a diverse group of migratory birds from late summer (August) to early spring (April). It is one of the most important areas in the state for wintering migratory waterfowl.

Migratory shorebirds also congregate here to take advantage of the food resources along the water’s edge. As water recedes, fish are crowded into the remaining water, making them easy prey for ʻaukuʻu (black-crowned night herons).

Baitfish ponds were constructed in the early-1970s for aquaculture of baitfish species; however, the use of these ponds for waterbirds was minimal because of the thick coverage of nonnative, invasive plants on the levees and within the ponds.

This wetland is home to the endangered aeʻo (Hawaiian stilt) and ʻalae keʻokeʻo (Hawaiian coot.) The refuge is adjacent to Keālia Beach, which is a nesting ground for the endangered hawksbill turtle.  (USFWS)

The aeʻo adult males and females are mostly black above and white below, with a long, thin black bill and long pink legs.  Found generally across the Islands, they also call Keālia home.

The total aeʻo population is estimated to be between 800 to 1,100 birds, depending on the amount of rainfall in any given year. Wetlands are essential for natural foraging areas to feed juveniles.  (Goody, WHT)

With between 1,500 and 3,000 individuals, Maui’s Keālia Pond National Wildlife Refuge and Kanaha Pond Wildlife Sanctuary have the second largest population of ʻalae keʻokeʻo in the state (O‘ahu is first).

The ʻalae keʻokeʻo is dark slate gray with a white bill and a large frontal shield (extension of bill onto forehead). The frontal shield is white but some sport a small red dot which is not related to sex or age. ʻAlae keʻokeʻo have white undertail feathers that are visible when adults are defending their territory and during courtship displays.  (Lots of information here from USFWS.)

An interesting phenomenon has happened of late – the pond appears pink. “Preliminary analysis suggests that the color change appears to be the result of a single-celled organism called halobacteria. Officials with the US Fish and Wildlife Service say halobacteria are “salt-loving organisms” found in high salinity water bodies.”

“According to refuge staff, the salinity of water in the Keālia Pond outlet is currently greater than 70 parts per thousand, or twice the salinity of seawater.” (Maui Now)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

America the Beautiful

Katharine Lee Bates, was born on August 12, 1859 in Falmouth, Massachusetts; she was described as a “brilliant trail-blazing woman – poet, teacher, community builder, and patriot – who challenged Americans to make their country the best it could become in its values and literature.” (Ponder)

Bates graduated from Wellesley College in 1880; she joined the faculty just five years later. After earning her master’s degree at Oxford University in 1890, Bates became the head of the English literature department.

“It appears that in 1893 Miss Bates had been called to join the faculty of a summer school at Colorado Springs. On the way she visited the Columbian World’s Fair at Chicago.”

The end of the three-weeks’ session of the school was celebrated by the stranger members of the faculty (including Dr. Rolfe, the Shakespearean scholar; Professor Todd, the Amherst astronomer, and Miss Bates’ colleague at Wellesley, Professor Katherine Conan) with an excursion to the summit of Pike’s Peak.” (Baxter in Boston Herald)

“We strangers celebrated the close of the session by a merry expedition to the top of Pike’s Peak, making the ascent by the only method then available for people not vigorous enough to achieve the climb on foot nor adventurous enough for burro-riding.”

“Prairie wagons, their tail-boards emblazoned with the traditional slogan, ‘Pike’s Peak or Bust,’ were pulled by horses up to the half-way house, where the horses were relieved by mules.”

“We were hoping for half and hour on the summit, but two of our party became so faint in the rarified air that we were bundled into the wagons again and started on our downward plunge so speedily that our sojourn on the peak remains in memory hardly more than one ecstatic gaze.”

“It was then and there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.” (Bates)

Gazing out from the top, the view from the “purple mountain majesties” (the Rocky Mountains) captivated Bates and inspired the opening lines or her poem (it later became a song).

In the first stanza, Bates describes “amber waves of grain.” She later remarked that this lyric referred to the seas of grass and grain fields in Kansas that she could see from the top of Pikes Peak.

The final stanzas of the song offer praise for “heroes proved in liberating strife” and a vision of “nobleness,” and “brotherhood.” These lines became popular among American troops fighting overseas during World War I. (NPS)

The refrain “From sea to shining sea!” is perhaps one of the more recognizable lyrics. Yet, the first version of Bates’ poem read “And music-hearted sea!” The more familiar wording did not appear until 1910.

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America!  America!

God shed His grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

“When we left Colorado Springs the four stanzas were penciled in my notebook, together with other memoranda, in verse and prose, of the trip.”

“The Wellesley work soon absorbed time and attention again, the notebook was laid aside, and I do not remember paying heed to these verses until the second summer following, when I copied them out and sent them to The Congregationalist, where they first appeared in print July 4, 1895.” (It was first presented as a poem, “America”.)

“The hymn attracted an unexpected amount of attention. It was almost at once set to music by Silas G. Pratt. Other tunes were written for the words and so many requests came to me, with still increasing frequency, that in 1904 I rewrote it, trying to make the phraseology more simple and direct.” (Bates, Museum on the Green)

“America the Beautiful” has been called “an expression of patriotism at its finest.” It conveys an attitude of appreciation and gratitude for the nation’s extraordinary physical beauty and abundance, without triumphalism.  (LOC)

Katharine Lee Bates died March 28, 1929 and is buried in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Radiocarbon dating indicates that Clovis people were the first to inhabit the area, roughly around 11,000 BC. More recently, Ute, Comanche, Arapaho and Cheyenne also frequented the area.  The Utes called Pikes Peak “Sun Mountain Sitting Big” and believed that it was here that the Great Spirit created the world.

Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Pikes Peak became part of the United States. In 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike, after whom the peak is named, was sent on an expedition to locate the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red Rivers.

The expedition also aimed to explore the new territory and its natural resources, as well as establish friendly relations with Native American nations. On November 15 he spotted the peak and referred to it as “the Grand Peak.”  (Colorado Encyclopedia)

Pikes Peak is the 31st highest peak out of 54 Colorado peaks (at 14,115 feet). It is the farthest east of the big peaks in the Rocky Mountain chain, which contributed to its early fame among explorers, pioneers and immigrants.

 During the 1850s and 1860s an estimated 100,000 people moved to Colorado in search of gold and were known as “Fifty-Niners”, a reference to 1859, the year the rush to Colorado peaked.

The initial gold discoveries were made below confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, which is now the location of downtown Denver. Denver City was established near the gold discoveries in late 1858.

The first “bonanza” of rich gold placers was discovered by a prospecting party from Georgia led by John Gregory, at a site that was first named “Gregory Gulch” and would soon be the site of the Central City mining district.  Other gold discoveries were made and news reports back East caused the frenzied rush to the Pikes Peak region.

It was the symbol of the 1858 Gold Rush to Colorado with the slogan, “Pikes Peak or Bust”, reference to the prominent mountain at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains that guided many early prospectors to the region westward over the Great Plains.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ala Wai Boat Harbor

Waikīkī was well-suited for Hawaiian shallow-draft canoes that did not require deep water and could be easily beached.

Deeper-draft Western ships anchored off-shore, “it is unquestionably the most eligible anchoring place in the island.”  Its advantages were sandy bottom, soft coral, irregular reef and mild surf. Nonetheless, while foreign ships did anchor at Waikīkī, it was not the perfect harbor.  (Vancouver 1793)

“…On rounding Diamond hill the village of Wyteetee (Waikīkī) appears through large groves of cocoanut and bread-fruit trees … A reef of coral runs along the whole course of the shore, within a quarter of a mile of the beach, on which the sea breaks high; inside this reef there is a passage for canoes. Ships frequently anchor in the bay, in from sixteen to twenty fathoms, over a sand and coral bottom.”  (Corney, 1818)

On shore, Waikīkī was famous for its fishponds with one listing citing 45 ponds.  The ten fishponds at Kālia were loko puʻuone (isolated shore fishponds formed by a barrier sand berm) with salt-water lens intrusion and fresh water entering from upland ʻauwai (irrigation canals.)  These were later used as duck ponds.

Following the Great Māhele in 1848, many of the fishponds and irrigated and dry-land agricultural plots were continued to be farmed, however at a greatly reduced scale (due to manpower limitations.)

In the 1860s and 1870s, former Asian sugar plantation workers (Japanese and Chinese) replaced the taro and farmed more than 500-acres of wetlands in rice fields, also raising fish and ducks in the ponds.

Toward the beginning of the 1900s, downtown Honolulu was the destination for Hawaiian visitors, who numbered only about 3,000. While Honolulu had numerous hotels, there were few places to stay in Waikīkī.

In 1891, at Kālia, the ‘Old Waikiki’ opened as a bathhouse, one of the first places in Waikīkī to offer rooms for overnight guests. It was later redeveloped in 1928 as the Niumalu Hotel; the site eventually became the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

In 1906, the US War Department acquired more than 70-acres in the Kālia portion of Waikīkī for the establishment of a military reservation to be called Fort DeRussy.

The Army started filling in the fishponds which covered most of the Fort site – pumping fill from the ocean continuously for nearly a year in order to build up an area on which permanent structures could be built.  Thus, the Army began the transformation of Waikīkī from wetlands to solid ground.

As part of the government’s Waikīkī Land Reclamation project, the Waikīkī landscape was further transformed with the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal – begun in 1921 and completed in 1928 – resulted in the draining and filling in of the ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

During the 1920s (before Ala Moana Park,) a barge channel was dredged parallel to the shore through the coral reef to connect Kewalo Basin to Fort DeRussy.

Part of the dredge material helped to reclaim wetland that was filled in with dredged coral; this created the area now known as Ala Moana Park (completed in 1934.)

Smaller boats, moored in the dredged area, also traveled along this channel to Kewalo Basin to get out to sea.  While no formal facilities were built, boats anchored in the nearshore waters; this was the beginning of the Ala Wai Boat Harbor.

Portions of the coastal area were used as a public park (1936-1947.)   Around this time, the land was conveyed from the City to the State (1949) and some land-based boat-related uses started popping up.

Ala Moana Park grew in popularity as swimming beach; with growing use and concern for interaction between Park users and boaters, in 1951, a channel was dredged directly out to sea.  The reef rubble that was dredged was used to fill in this old navigation channel (between Kewalo and the Ala Wai Harbor.)

Over the years, the Harbor grew incrementally.

The Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor is the State’s largest recreational boat harbor, among about fifty small boat harbors, launching ramps, jetties, wharves and landings statewide transferred from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation.

It consists of about 700 berths. There are also dry berthing spaces, a harbor agent’s office, comfort stations, showers, paved parking, a launching ramp and pier.

In 2022, there were nearly 333.3-million people in the US. There were close to 12-million registered recreational water vessels in that year, meaning that about 4% of our population owns a recreational watercraft of some sort.

Hawaiʻi, the only island state completely surrounded by water, ranks last (50th) in the number of boats, as well as boats per capita in the country (Florida ranks 1st in the number of boats; Minnesota ranks 1st per capita.)

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Muliwai

Water flowing from the mountainside is called a kahena wai or a kahawai, a watercourse or stream. The spot from which water begins to flow is the po‘owai, it is the source of the water. The bank on either side is called kapana wai or kaʻe no ka wai or ikana wai, and the water amid-stream is called the holomoku or ihiakala.

Where the water of a slow moving stream, a muliwai, meets the sea is called a nuku muliwai, and the mouth of a shallow rushing stream, a kahawai, is called a nuku kahawai.

Water flowing over a cliff is called a wailele, waterfall. If the water divides in falling (kahe makawalu), it is called a waihi, cascade; if the water sprays (kulu makaliʻi) in falling over a cliff it is called hunawailele or wai puhia or wai ehu.   (Kamakau; Maly)

There are several types of muliwai (muli, the remains; and wai, water – estuarine systems) in Hawai‘i. The two most common are at stream mouths or where surface flow is absent but with significant groundwater discharge.

Whether they’re called a stream mouth, bay, harbor, inlet or lagoon, muliwai are the transition zones between and connecting two major land/sea habitats – the mauka forest and the ocean.

They are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth.  The muliwai is an essential nursery habitat for certain fish species in their larval and juvenile growth stages.

The muliwai is the brackish area between the stream (land) and the sea and hosts many different species of fish, birds, plants and other biodiversity and helps to filter the stream before it empties into the ocean; and, is an important area for certain fish to gather and grow.

When the ocean was rough for the fishing canoes to go out, the families would catch fish like awa, ʻaua and ʻāholehole.  (Maly)  “The families fished for ʻoʻopu nākea and ʻakua and ʻōpae in the streams and muliwai; in the muliwai had plenty ʻoʻopu, the head big like this (the size of a fist.)” “Young awa, ʻamaʻama were abundant.”  (Chun, Davis; Maly)

Some familiar examples of estuary ecosystems include Kāneʻohe Bay, Oʻahu; Keālia Ponds, Maui; Waipiʻo Bay, Hawaiʻi and Wainiha Bay, Kauai.

Threats to muliwai/estuaries are real and diverse, including development (draining, filling, damming and dredging,) fishing, recreational use, pollutants and excess nutrients, invasive species, etc.

While I was at DLNR, the issue of muliwai/estuary protection was a growing concern.  As the Hawaiʻi representative to the Coastal States Organization, we had ongoing discussions with the NOAA and others on a national level.

Locally, through the inspiration and actions by Bob Nishimoto at DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources, there were discussions on establishing a Center for Stream and Estuarine Research, while a partner, the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, would focus on marine issues.

On a national level, NOAA established the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR,) a network of 29 areas representing different biogeographic regions of the United States, to protect estuaries and provide long-term research, water-quality monitoring, education and coastal stewardship.

Each research reserve is made up of a core area and a buffer area. The core area around the estuary is managed for long-term research, water-quality monitoring, education and coastal stewardship.

The reserves are run cooperatively with governmental and local partners. The goal of the reserve system is to support local knowledge and management decisions pertaining to the coastal resources of the region.

Site Selection committee members picked Heʻeia Estuary in Kāneʻohe Bay to be Hawaiʻi’s first NERR site (Hilo Bay was also considered, but, apparently, the decision was to move forward with only one, at this time.)

Designated as the 29th site in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System in 2017, Heʻeia NERR represents a partnership among federal, state, and community-based entities, all committed to a vision of resilient estuaries and coastal watersheds where human and natural communities thrive.

He‘eia National Estuarine Research Reserve encompasses 1,385 acres of unique and diverse upland, wetland, stream, estuarine, coastal, and marine habitats within the He‘eia ahupua‘a.

It encompasses He‘eia State Park to the north, He‘eia Fishpond in the center, the wetlands of Hoi to the west and south, Moku o Lo‘e (Coconut Island) to the east, and a large expanse of marine waters with patch and fringing reefs. 

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Moʻoheau Bandstand

It had a rough start.

The name “Moʻoheau,” which the legislature directed by concurrent resolution without consulting the people of Hilo or their representative in the Legislature, gave rise to a great deal of dissatisfaction.

Hilo papers put ballots in their papers and readers were encouraged to cut them out, note their preference and take them to the Board of Trade.  (Hawaiian Star, May 7, 1904)

The namesake for the park, Chief Kaʻaiawa I Moʻoheau, is a relative of Admiral George Charles Moʻoheau Kauluheimalama Beckley.  (Hawaiian Star, May 7, 1904; Boy Scouts)

Beckley was grandson of George C Beckley (one of “Kamehameha’s Haoles” and first commander of Fort Kekuanohu.)  Like his grandfather, “for forty years he followed the sea” and later was decorated with the Order of the Crown of Hawaiʻi and the Star of Oceania by King Kalākaua.

Beckley also received the honorary title of “The Admiral of Honolulu Harbor” from the Association of Masters, Mates & Pilots No. 54″, of which he was a member.

Among other park names suggested were “Ocean Park,” “Seaside Park,” “Hilo Park,” “Recreation Park,” “Lihi-kai (seaside) Park,” “Ponahawai Park,” “Piopio Park” and “Liholiho.”  (Hawaiian Star, May 7, 1904)

In defense of the park name, Beckley noted, “I will build in Moʻoheau park at my own expense a pavilion for the band. I claim I have an interest in Hilo second to none.  I leave it to the public.”

Moʻoheau Park and Bandstand were dedicated in January 2, 1905.  “The arrangements for the opening of the Mooheau Park are practically complete. … It is not expected that the park can be laid out by a landscape gardener before the opening exercises.”  (Hawaiian Star, December 12, 1904)

“The trustees of the parks and public grounds of Hilo have intimated a desire to have each citizen plant a tree or shrub in the park grounds at noon, and this, too, may be a part of the program. Visitors will be requested to bring their own garden tools and trees.”  (Hawaiian Star, December 12, 1904)

“The dedication of Moʻoheau hall presented to Hilo by Admiral George Beckley, was an imposing and very enjoyable affair. The pavilion was luxuriously decorated with the American and Hawaiian flags and streamers of all national colors. Forests of fern and palm adorned the Interior.”  (Evening Bulletin, January 3, 1905)

A frequent user of the bandstand was the Hilo Band (later known as Hawaiʻi County Band;) Moʻoheau Park Bandstand has been the band’s performing home ever since its completion.  (Wong)

The band started as a family band in 1883 by brothers, Joaquin and Jules Carvalho, immigrants from the Azores Islands, who made their living as barbers in Hilo. On concert days, they closed up the shop; Joaquin would take the baton to lead the band while Jules played the cornet. After the concert, they would re-open the barbershop and go back to cutting hair.  (Wong)

In 1911, “(t)he bandstand at Moʻoheau Park has been converted into a schoolroom by the county fathers, on account of the fact that the accommodations at the Riverside School are inadequate and the County has no funds at present with which to build an addition.”  (Hawaiian Star, February 27, 1911)

“This class formerly occupied the basement of the Riverside building and it was so damp in the present weather that it was thought best to make the change.”  (Hawaiian Star, February 27, 1911)

A little later, the Waiolama Reclamation Project included the draining and filling of approximately 40-acres in the area between the Hilo Railway tract, Wailoa River, and Baker and Front Streets.  It included diversion of the Alenaio Stream.  (1914-1919)

Moʻoheau Bandstand also has an ongoing modern history.

When the Republican Party was in control of Hawai‘i from 1900 to 1954, the GOP fielded candidates of Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese and Chinese Hawaiian ancestries, particularly in racially-mixed neighborhoods.  (Chou)

The goal of ethnic balance in political slates received major impetus in the Democratic Party, especially in the case of American Japanese veterans of World War II who joined under John A Burns’ leadership.  (Chou)

According to Democratic Party lore, in 1954, Hawaii Republicans attempted to foil the growing Democratic Party by reserving all the large public spaces for election-eve rallies.  (star-bulletin)

Reportedly, every election since 1954, Hawaiʻi’s Democrats come to Hilo and the bandstand at Moʻoheau Park for the rally to end their primary campaign.  (1954 was the year they took over the Territorial Legislature from the Republicans.)

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