General | Page 59 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

September 11, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

McGrew Point

“A name that will stand out prominently in Hawaiian history as long as history endures, is that of Dr John S McGrew, famous physician and esteemed citizen of the old Hawaii …”

“… whose long activities in promotion of a political union between the islands and the United States won him the title of ‘The Father of Annexation.’”

“Dr McGrew is believed to have been the first proponent of the proposition that Hawaii should be American, the first man to realize that under the American flag the islands and their people would find their greatest opportunity and the fullest realization of their destiny.”

“‘Annexation’ McGrew, he was called by King Kalakaua, who, although naturally enough opposed to Dr McGrew’s political program, often expressed his admiration for the doctor’s sincerity and honesty of purpose.”

“Dr McGrew was an earnest advocate of annexation long before the Hawaiian monarchy was destroyed by revolution, and not for an instant did he waver from his purpose.”

“When annexation finally became an accomplished fact in 1898, five years after the revolution, Dr McGrew was hailed as ‘The Father of Annexation’ …”

“… just as Judge Sanford B. Dole, president of the Republic of Hawaii and first governor of the American Territory, became known in later years as ‘The Grand Old Man of Hawaii.’ Two heroic figures in the evolution of Hawaii were Dole and McGrew.” (Nellist)

His first wife died in 1851. “At the close of the [Civil] war, Dr McGrew married Pauline Gillet at Washington, DC, and the couple started on a world tour which brought them to Hawaii in 1866, where Dr McGrew abandoned the tour and decided to enter medical practice in Honolulu.”

“Upon their arrival in Hawaii, Dr and Mrs McGrew became established in a homestead located on the present site of the Alexander Young Hotel. Their home became a Honolulu landmark and was a famous social center of the city.”

“Dr McGrew was widely known for his hospitality, entertaining visitors from all parts of the world. Kate Field, the noted woman writer, died at the McGrew home while making a tour of Hawaii.”

“The old mansion was built in the 40’s by Dr RAS Wood and was owned at the time of Dr McGrew’s arrival in Hawaii by General McCook, one of the “Fighting McCook’s” of Civil War fame. Dr McGrew and family later purchased the JF Hackfeld home at Lunalilo and Emerson Streets”.

“For many years he was in charge of the Marine Hospital. He served as the first president of the Honolulu Medical Society. Maintaining the practice of his profession at a high standard, he amassed a considerable fortune, acquiring real estate and stock in growing business concerns.”

“Dr McGrew was a member of the commission which cooperated with Generals Alexander and Schofield in making a survey for an American naval base at Pearl Harbor, as provided for by the Reciprocity Treaty. He assisted in making plans for the coaling station and lived to see a portion of the harbor improvements completed.”

“McGrew family has owned 44-acre McGrew Point at Aiea for the past 70 years [since about the 1870s]. The area has a mile of waterfrontage on the Waianae side of the peninsula and the home of [McGrew’s grandson] on the other side.”

“The family devoted years of effort of establishment of a plantation of fruit trees and other general improvements. Dignitaries from around the world, including top ranking army and navy officers, have been guests at the Cooper home.”

“[Katherine McGrew was born in Honolulu in February, 1873 is the daughter of Dr John S McGrew. She married Charles Bryant Cooper on March 24, 1897.]” Adv, Aug 21, 1946)

In 1944, “An order giving the federal government possession of about 49 acres at McGrew point in the Pearl Harbor area has been signed by Judge J Frank McLaughlin.” (Hnl SB, July 18, 1944)

The Loko Pa‘aiau Fishpond is located at McGrew Point Navy housing, Oahu, Hawaii. It is one of only three fishponds out of an original 22 in the Pearl Harbor area which are still relatively intact. (Navy)

Efforts are underway to restore it. Currently located on land leased for Navy housing, Aliʻi Pauahi Hawaiian Civic Club and the ʻAiea Community Association see Loko Paʻaiau as a place where local community members, visitors, and military families can come together to build relationships to the land and each other.

In partnership with the Navy, local community groups involved in the restoration of Loko Paʻaiau have focused their efforts on bringing people together to raise cultural awareness of the fishponds and connect people to the history and culture of the area. (McDaniel) McGrew Point now has military housing.

September 10, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiians Away From The Islands

“So many Hawaiians living in California! 1863.”

“O Kamaaina of my dear land of birth; Aloha oukou: – I was just in California, and came back. I had much interaction with Hawaiians living there, and I saw most of them who are living in that large land; and by asking, I obtained the names of some who I have not seen.”

“You maybe want me to tell you those who I came across there? You all answer, “‘Yes, that is a good thing indeed; we will find there brethren that were lost to us, who we mistakenly thought were dead; come to find out they are living in California.’”

“Yes, I will tell you, and I will also where they live; so that you all can write to them. Look carefully at the names of the places below, and that is what to write outside of the letter so that it goes straight; and one more thing, affix a Postage Stamp (Poo Leta), of five cents price.”

“The majority of Hawaiians in California move from place to place, and do not settle in one place, therefore accuracy of the list of names stated below is not certain, because some people may have moved away at this time.”

“There is one more thing before I stop. With the grace of the Lord, I intend to return to California next week, to carry on the word of God amongst the Indians and the Hawaiians in that land, and I ask of you, all of your brethren of this archipelago, pray hard to God that he makes the work progress among the kamaaina and malihini who live in California.”

“With much aloha, Gulick Jr. [Kulika Opio]. Honolulu, September 2, 1863.” (Kuokoa, 9/12/1863

The town of Vernon, located just south of the junction of the Feather and Sacramento Rivers and roughly eighteen miles to the north of Sacramento, was originally established as a trading center in 1849 for miners of the Feather and Yuba Rivers.

It was centrally connected to the various towns and mining communities in the gold-mining region by a network of rivers. Within a few short years it was superseded by Marysville in the north, a town that became an important metropolis of the Feather and Yuba river mines. (Farnham)

However, Vernon remained an active agricultural town until the late 19^th century. The evolution of Vernon as a Kanaka “fishing” colony appears to have its origins on the opposite side of the Sacramento River, at the former town known as Fremont in Yolo County.

In the nineteenth century Kanaka laborers were moving between the two neighboring communities regularly, up until 1870. (Farnham)

On April 17, 1861, just days after the US Civil War had commenced, an editor with Ka Hae Hawaii requested that immigrants in California respond to accusations by “Dr. Frick,” a Honolulu foreigner, that labor conditions in California mimicked the conditions of “na keiki hookaumahaia o Aperika” (burdened African children).

The editor asked:

Are you experiencing difficulties in your living conditions in Caifornia with regards to the justice system of the country?
Do you suffer difficulty due to the cold and the heat?
Do you suffer from famine and going without food or due to bad food in that country?
Are you without proper clothing, wool clothes and blankets?
Are you exhausted from the work you do there?
Do your foreign bosses burden you with difficulties?
Are you sad, lonely, uncomfortable in your living conditions there or not?
Are there sicknesses and vices that tempt the soul and body of man in that country, more so than the vices found here [in Hawaii]?

Only one Hawaiian, a fisherman by the name of Thomas B Kamipele (Campbell) living in Vernon, California, answered the newspaper’s inquiry. He wrote in part:

“I offer you an olive flower. Will you please take it to the four corners of your country so that parents, friends of those living here in California may know. . . “

“Life here is tiresome and one works hard, and you work hard everyday but do not realize expansion [wealth], but experience hunger as your reward for the day.”

“Recent years have seen better times here in California.”

“These years in which we live, everyone living up in the mountains digs for gold, but do not get a worthy pay for the effort. What they earn is the pangs of hunger and a want of food and fish.”

“And because of this lack [of pay] they cannot return to their homeland. It is just as it is said in letters of the those who write to their friends living here in California.” (Ka Hae Hawaii, July 3, 1861, Farnham)

“Perhaps more importantly, Kamipele indicated that many immigrants had become frustrated with contract employment in California. “Ka hana hoolimalima me na haku haole, ua pili aku no i ke ano o na kauwa hooluhi” (The act of contract labor with white owners is very much like hard slavery), he explained.”

“He cited as an example: ‘One white man, Coneki, brought some Hawaiians from the homeland, about fifty of them in total. Among that group was Kekuaiwahie and Kapua‘a who worked with their boss for six months. They were not paid at all for their labor. They left and each went their separate ways.” (Farnham)

“Just as in Hawaii, Kanaka Hawai’i laborers in California were beginning to reject contract work with haole employers in favor of independent work in more ideal environments. The Sacramento River of the Central Valley offered one such environment.” (Farnham) (Lots here is from April Farnham.)

September 8, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Queen Elizabeth II

On her first visit to the Islands, she had to ask for a ‘garland.’ (February 1, 1963)

“There were no flowers, hula girls or Hawaiian music waiting for the royal couple during a 1 hour and 7 minute visit. It had been thought the Queen and the Prince would remain in their chartered 707 jetliner during refueling.”

“The Honolulu stopover was in keeping with the royal flight that has been delayed and diverted because of bad weather. The British monarch originally was to fly to Vancouver, B.C., from London. Snow forced the plane to land at Edmonton, Alta.”

“The Queen got halfway across the Pacific last night to Hawaii but had to turn around because of heavy winds in Honolulu. Gusts were registered at 60 mph at Honolulu International Airport.”

“When the royal pair finally made it today, the plane had to wait 10 minutes while their arrival spot was vacated by a loading commercial jetliner. Then there was another delay until Burns showed up. He had been Informed the Queen and Prince were due 30 minutes after they actually arrived. Smiling but tired, the Queen waved to a crowd of 400 on arrival.”

Elizabeth, however, “left the plane with her husband, chatted with Gov. John A. Burns and looked at Honolulu’s new airport terminal. As she reboarded the royal aircraft, she remarked that she’d like to have a lei.”

“The American security chief for British Overseas Airways Corporation John Buckley of New York, dashed 100 yards to a florist shop in the terminal, picked up a red carnation lei for the Queen and a pink carnation garland for the Prince. They were presented to the couple in the plane. A box of orchids also was taken aboard.” (Hawaii Times, Feb 2, 1963)

She came back a month later, on a refueling stop on her way back from Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand and Australia. 4,500 people were waiting to see her.

On this return, “Conch Shells blew”, “An eight-man honor guard from Kamehameha ROTC” greeted her and “Hawaii gave a radiant Queen Elizabeth of England a Royal Hawaiian welcome” – including “Governor Burns greeted Britain’s reigning monarch at planeside with a four-strand, golden-orange ilima lei.”

“Governor Burns presented Elizabeth with the Hawaiian Flag boxed in a koa chest.” ““Noting the Union Jack which is a part of the Hawaii state flag, Burns termed it a token of our ‘love and respect for the British people of whom you are the reigning monarch.’” (Advertiser, March 28, 1963)

On their next Island visit (March 3, 1970), “It was the voices of young Hawaii that enchanted three members of Britain’s royal family when they stopped for an hour at Honolulu International Airport”. They “slowed their pace when they heard 45 members of the Kamehameha Girls Concert Glee Club singing an old Hawaiian song, ‘Waialae.’”(Adv, Mar 4, 1970)

Then, in 1975, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip came to the Islands for a 2-day visit, “they were en route to Japan for a state visit after a Commonwealth meeting in Jamaica.” “This was the first time the British monarch ever has stayed overnight in Hawaii.”

“Elizabeth and Philip originally had planned to rest on Guam but changed plans hastily after Guam became the site for housing thousands of South Vietnamese refugees.” (SB, May 1, 1975)

They dined at Washington Place, “At the Queen’s request, the dinner guest list was limited to 24. …The songs of Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii’s last monarch who lived in Washington Place, were featured in the entertainment provided by Kawai Cockett and his Lei Kukui group and Noelani Mahoe’s Leo Nahinahi group.” (SB, May 2, 1975)

“British Vice Consul John Houlton said the royal couple spent much of their vacation time relaxing in their suite at the Kahala Hilton.

“England’s Queen Mother Elizabeth came to Hawaii in 1966 and won admirers around the world as she wore a pikake lei and danced the hula with Duke Kahanamoku. Queen Elizabeth II came to Hawaii on Lei Day and accepted a bouquet of flowers because, she explained the British Consul, a lei would be clumsy for the queen as she walked the receiving line” (Adv, May 2, 1975)

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born on April 21, 1926, the first child of Albert, Duke of York, second son of George V, and his duchess, the former Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. She was educated at home; despite not attending school, Elizabeth proved adept at languages and made a detailed study of constitutional history.

In 1939, the 13-year-old princess accompanied the King and Queen to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. Together with her sister Margaret, she was escorted by one of the cadets, her third cousin, Prince Philip of Greece.

She kept his picture in her room and they exchanged letters. By 1944, when she was 18, Elizabeth was clearly in love with him. On November 20, 1947 the couple married in Westminster Abbey. Their first child, Charles, was born in 1948, followed by a sister, Anne, who arrived in 1950.

But her father King, having suffered considerable stress during the war years, was terminally ill with lung cancer, brought about by a lifetime of heavy smoking.

Elizabeth heard of the death of the King while staying at a game lodge in Kenya and the new Queen immediately returned to London. Her Coronation in June 1953 was televised, despite the opposition of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

World War Two had served to hasten the end of the British Empire, and by the time the new Queen set off on a lengthy tour of the Commonwealth in November 1953, many former British possessions, including India, had gained independence.

Throughout the 1950s, more countries hauled down the union flag and the former colonies and dominions now came together as a voluntary family of nations.

Encouraged by her husband, notoriously impatient with the court’s stuffiness, the Queen began to adapt to the new order. The practice of receiving debutantes at court was abolished and the term “the Monarchy” was gradually replaced by “the Royal Family”.

On September 9, 2015 she became the longest reigning monarch in British history, surpassing the reign of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria. In typical style she refused to make any fuss saying the title was “not one to which I have ever aspired”. Less than a year later, in April 2016, she celebrated her 90th birthday.

On the occasion of her Silver Jubilee, she recalled the pledge she had made on a visit to South Africa 30 years before. “When I was 21, I pledged my life to the service of our people and I asked for God’s help to make good that vow. Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgement, I do not regret, or retract, one word of it.”

Officially known as ‘Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith’ served as queen from February 6, 1952 until to her death on September 8, 2022. (BBC)

September 3, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Irwin Park

The Honolulu Waterfront Development Project, introduced by Governor Lucius E Pinkham and the Board of Harbor Commissioners in 1916, was declared to be the “most important project ever handled in Honolulu Harbor.”

The project began in 1916 with the construction of new docks; it continued in 1924 with the construction of Aloha Tower as a gateway landmark heralding ship arrivals.

On September 3, 1930, the Territory of Hawaiʻi entered into an agreement with Hélène Irwin Fagan and Honolulu Construction and Draying, Ltd. (HC&D), whereby HC&D sold some property to Fagan, who then donated it to the Territory with the stipulation that the property honor her father and that it be maintained as a “public park to beautify the entrance to Honolulu Harbor.”

The Territory of Hawai‘i agreed to accept the donation from Hélène Irwin Fagan. The deed restrictions and conditions stated that if any portion of the Property was ever abandoned as a public park, the Property would revert back to Fagan and “her heirs and assigns”.

On March 13, 1931, through Executive Order No. 472, the Territory set aside the Property as a public park and noted that the Territory owned the Property subject to the restrictions and conditions set forth in the deed from Fagan to the Territory.

The Honolulu Waterfront Development Project was completed in 1934 with the creation of a 2-acre oasis shaded by the canopies of monkeypod trees; Irwin Memorial Park is located mauka of the Aloha Tower Marketplace bounded by North Nimitz Highway, Fort Street, Bishop Street and Aloha Tower Drive.

In 1939, the Territory and Fagan entered into a Supplemental Agreement “to permit the parking of vehicles of whatsoever nature, whether with or without the payment of a fee or fees on that portion of (Irwin Park) now set aside for the parking of vehicles”. A later (1951,) agreement allowed for widening of Nimitz Highway. (Hawaii ICA)

In 1981, the Legislature enacted Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (HRS) Chapter 206J, which created Aloha Tower Development Corporation (ATDC) as an agency of the State, and which provides that “Irwin Memorial Park shall be retained as a public park subject to the reservations and conditions set forth in the deed”. In 1999, Irwin Park was placed on the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places. (Hawaii ICA)

William G Irwin was born in England in 1843; he was the son of James and Mary Irwin. His father, a paymaster in the ordnance department of the British army, sailed with his family for California with a cargo of merchandise immediately after the discovery of gold in 1849. The family then came to Hawaiʻi.

Irwin attended Punahou School and as a young man was employed at different times by Aldrich, Walker & Co.; Lewers & Dickson; and Walker, Allen & Co.

In 1880, he and Claus Spreckels formed the firm WG Irwin & Co; for many years it was the leading sugar agency in the kingdom and the one originally used by the West Maui Sugar Association.

In 1884, the firm took over as agent for Olowalu Company. William G Irwin and Company acted as a sales agent for Olowalu’s sugar crop as previous agents had done. It also was purchasing agent for plantation equipment and supplies and represented Olowalu with the Hawaiian Board of Immigration to bring in immigrant laborers.

In 1885, Irwin and Spreckels opened the bank of Claus Spreckels & Co., later incorporated under the name of Bank of Honolulu, Ltd., that later merged with the Bank of Bishop & Co.

In 1886, Mr. Irwin married Mrs. Fannie Holladay. Their only child, Hélène Irwin, was married to industrialist Paul Fagan of San Francisco.

A close friend of King Kalākaua, Irwin was decorated by the King and was a member of the Privy Council of Hawaiʻi in 1887.

In 1896, the Legislature of the Republic of Hawaiʻi put Kapiʻolani Park and its management under the Honolulu Park Commission; William G Irwin was the first chair of the commission.

In 1901 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government in recognition of his services as Hawaiʻi’s representative to the Paris Exposition.

By 1909, William G Irwin and Company’s fortunes had declined and, reaching retirement age, Irwin reluctantly decided to close the business. In January 1910, the firm of William G. Irwin and Company merged with its former rival C. Brewer and Company.

Irwin moved to San Francisco in 1909 and served as president and chairman of the board of the Mercantile Trust Company, which eventually merged with Wells Fargo Bank.

In 1913, Mr. Irwin incorporated his estate in San Francisco under the name of the William G. Irwin Estate Co., which maintained large holdings in Hawaiian plantations. He had extensive business interests in California, as well as in Hawaiʻi, and was actively associated with the Mercantile National Bank of San Francisco in later years.

William G Irwin died in San Francisco, January 28, 1914.

Irwin had a CW Dickey-designed home makai of Kapiʻolani Park. In 1921, the Territorial Legislature authorized the issuance of bonds for the construction, on the former Irwin property, of a memorial dedicated to the men and women of Hawaiʻi who served in World War I. It’s where the Waikīkī Natatorium War Memorial now sits.

Aloha_Tower-Irwin_Park-PP-40-5-028-1932-Park noted

Fort St. and Irwin Park from Aloha Tower, Honolulu.PP-39-4-001-1937

Audience at fashion parade to select the best dressed lei seller in Honolulu-at Irwin_Park-PP-33-9-019-1936

Fort St. from Aloha Tower, Honolulu-before Irwin Park-PP-38-9-003-1928

Fort St. Irwin Park and Honolulu from Aloha Tower-PP-39-5-002-1940

Honolulu from Aloha Tower-over Irwin Park-PP-39-7-025-1953

Aloha_Tower-Irwin_Park-PP-40-4-020-1930

Aloha_Tower-Irwin_Park-PP-40-4-022-1930

Aloha Tower under construction-before Irwin Park-PP-38-9-011-1925

Oahu_Honolulu_IrwinMemorialPark_photo_byIanClagstone

Irwin-Park

Irwin-Park-(honoluluadvertiser)

Irwin_Park-(historichawaii)

September 1, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Carrington Event

The great geomagnetic storm of August 28 through September 3, 1859 is, arguably, the greatest and most famous space weather event in the last two hundred years.

For the first time observations showed that the sun and aurora were connected and that auroras generated strong ionospheric currents. A significant portion of the world’s 124,000 miles km of telegraph lines were adversely affected, many of which were unusable for 8 hours or more which had a real economic impact.

In addition to published scientific measurements, newspapers, ship logs, and other records of that era provide an untapped wealth of first hand observations giving time and location along with reports of the auroral forms and colors.

At its height, the aurora was described as a blood or deep crimson red that was so bright that one “could read a newspaper by.” At its peak, the Type A red aurora lasted for several hours and was observed to reach extremely low geomagnetic latitudes on August 28–29 (~25°) and on September 2–3 (~18°).” (Green and Boardsen)

On September 1, English astronomer Richard C. Carrington was studying a group of sunspots (through dark filters that protect his eyes, of course). Around 11 am, he saw a sudden flash of intense white light from the area of the sunspots.

Seventeen hours later, the night sky in North America and as far south as Panama in Central America lights up like daytime. It is another wave of even brighter Auroras. People read newspapers by the light. Gold miners in the Rocky Mountains wake up and make coffee, bacon and eggs at 1:00 AM, thinking the Sun has risen on a cloudy morning. (NOAA)

This has been referenced as the Carrington Event, a large solar storm that took place at the beginning of September 1859, just a few months before the solar maximum of 1860.

In August 1859, astronomers around the world watched with fascination as the number of sunspots on the solar disk grew. Among them was Richard Carrington, an amateur skywatcher in a small town called Redhill, near London in England.

On September 1, as Carrington was sketching the sunspots, he was blinded by a sudden flash of light. Carrington described it as a “white light flare” according to NASA spaceflight. The whole event lasted about five minutes.

The flare was a major coronal mass ejection (CME), a burst of magnetized plasma from the sun’s upper atmosphere, the corona. In 17.6 hours, the CME traversed over 90 million miles (150 million km) between the sun and Earth and unleashed its force on our planet. According to NASA spaceflight, it usually takes CMEs multiple days to reach Earth. (Space)

The Advertiser of Sept. 8th, 1859, states: “There was quite a display of the Aurora Borealis a few nights since, visible at Honolulu. Broad fiery streaks shot up into and played among the heavens, almost as beautifully as those which are sometimes seen in more northern climes.”

The Advertiser of September 17th contained the following letter from SE Bishop, dated Lahaina, Sept. 9th. “Your statement that the Aurora was seen in Honolulu enabled me to account for the phenomenon I observed here a few nights since.”

“At 10 PM I noticed a bright, unsteady crimson glow upon the sky, extending from NE to N, and about 35° of altitude. It resembled the reflection of a great conflagration at twenty or thirty miles distance, and I attributed it to heavy fires on the other side of the mountain.”

“I was puzzled however by the fact that the clouds which rested on the mountain did not give the slightest reflection of the supposed fire. Moreover the light was far and rich a crimson to have been caused by a fire.”

“The solar flare of 1 September 1859 was observed and reported by Carrington [1859] and Hodgson [1859] in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and became the best known solar event of all times.”

“Of particular note was the intensity of the event as quoted in the articles: ‘For the brilliancy was fully equal to that of direct sunlight [Carrington, 1859].’ ‘I was suddenly surprised at the appearance of a very brilliant star of light, much brighter than the sun’s surface, most dazzling to the protected eye …’ [Hodgson, 1859].” (Tsurutani)

“For a few nights before and after this remarkable event, the aurora was intermittently widespread over the globe, in the subauroral and subtropical belts. The period was one of exceptional activity on the sun, as indicated by great sunspots and solar flares.”

“It is interesting to note that the first recorded observation of a solar flare was made visually by Carrington in the forenoon of 1859 September 1.”

“Carrington pointed out that a moderate but very marked magnetic disturbance (which was of the type now known as a crochet) was shown on the Kew magnetograms at the time of observation.”

“Toward four hours after midnight a great magnetic storm commenced. Carrington’s observation is almost unique, for a flare must be of exceptional intensity to be observed in integrated light.” (Chapman in Kimball)

Back then, the telegraph was just about the only communication technology they had. Today, such a storm could severely damage satellites, disable communications by telephone, radio, and TV, and cause electrical blackouts over whole continents. It could takes weeks or longer to fix the damage.

Solar storms like the one in 1859 happen only about every 500 years—thankfully. But smaller storms happen frequently, and storms half as intense as the 1859 storm happen about every 50 years. (NOAA)