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December 18, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Shoreline Certifications – Some Interesting Issues

In prior posts, I previously discussed some aspects of shorelines and their impact on shoreline access and shoreline hardening (i.e. seawalls and revetments.)
 
Today, I want to bring up an interesting quirk about shoreline certifications – the impact of ancient fishponds and other artificial structures on certifying where a “shoreline” should be.
 
Remember, shorelines are “certified” for County setback purposes; they do not determine ownership. They serve as points of reference in determining where improvements may be placed on coastal property.
 
When the State surveyor is satisfied with the location of the shoreline, after reviewing the public comments, the maps and photos prepared by the private surveyor and site inspection, he forwards the shoreline maps to the Chairperson of DLNR, for final review and approval.
 
When I was Chair at DLNR, I signed each of the maps and certified the shorelines.
 
Certified shorelines also serve as managerial and jurisdictional dividing lines. Issues mauka of the certified shoreline fall under the County jurisdiction (zoning, SMA and setback regulations;) lands makai of the line are under control of the State (and are automatically “conservation”.)
 
Consistent with the overarching purpose behind shoreline certifications, certified shorelines sometimes deviate from the CZMA definition (HRS §205A-1) of “shoreline.”
 
Example where “shoreline” is makai of boundary line: State law (HRS §205A-42(a)) provides that where legally constructed artificial structures are involved, the shoreline is certified not at the upper reaches of the wash of the waves, but, instead at the “interface between the shoreline and the structure,” i.e., at the seaward edge of the artificial structure.
 
“Artificial structures” include such things as seawalls, piers, boat ramps, groins, revetments and harbor facilities. When such structures are placed on state lands with the State’s permission and consent, but are for private use, the State charges the private user for the use of state lands.
 
Thus, even though the certified shoreline may be makai of the artificial structure, the State’s property boundary, as acknowledged by the State and the private user, is somewhere mauka of the certified shoreline.
 
Example where “shoreline” is mauka of boundary line: On the other end of the spectrum, the lands makai of the upper reaches of the wash of the waves are not always the property of the State.
 
Some coastal fishponds, although on submerged lands makai of the upper reaches of the wash of the waves, are privately owned. Nevertheless, the certified shoreline is at the natural shore and not the artificial wall of the fishpond.
 
Hawai’i Administrative Rule §13-222-16(7) states: “Where an artificial wall seaward of the natural shore is used to create a fishpond, the shoreline shall be at the natural shore and not at the artificial outer wall.”
 
That is because the existence of a coastal fishpond does not alter the rationale for not allowing developments too close to the coast. In these cases, therefore, the certified shoreline is mauka of the property boundary line.
 
To illustrate this, I am using a Google Earth image of the coastal area from our old neighborhood on Kaneohe Bay, where I grew up as a kid. There is a former fishpond fronting some of the lots.
 
In the image, the parcel boundaries are shown; note the boundary line (blue arrow) of the parcels goes out to the end of the seawall of the old fishpond.
 
The “shoreline” in this case, would be along the coast (white arrow,) rather than at the fishpond wall.
 
(BTW, this image also shows the two properties that I grew up in on Kaneohe Bay; both houses that I grew up in have been replaced.)
 
© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: General, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, DLNR, Fishpond, Shoreline, Certified Shoreline

December 16, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whaling Ship Anchor at +4,000 Feet?

The plaque inscription states, “Found by the salvage ship ‘USS Beaufort ATS-2’ in July 1972 off Lahaina, Maui.  This anchor is believed to have been made around 1850 and used by one of the whaling ships of that era. Presented to the men of the Kilauea Military Camp by the officers and crew of USS Beaufort ATS-2”

The anchor was a gift, so it is appropriate wherever it is; likewise, the gift of a whaling anchor found off Lahaina (at a location 4,000-feet above the ocean) helps tell some of the stories of Hawai‘i’s military and economy – I think questioning why it’s there and looking into it a bit is helpful, and not something necessarily out of place.

The USS Beaufort (named for Beaufort, South Carolina) was the Navy’s largest and most capable submarine rescue and deep-ocean search-and-recovery ship. She was built in the late-1960s and commissioned on January 22, 1972 and spent most of her service in the Western Pacific. She was decommissioned on March 8, 1996.

Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands.  At that time, whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

Whalers’ aversion to the traditional Hawaiian diet of fish and poi spurred new trends in farming and ranching.  The sailors wanted fresh vegetables and the native Hawaiians turned the temperate uplands into vast truck farms.

There was a demand for fresh fruit, cattle, white potatoes and sugar.  Hawaiians began growing a wider variety of crops to supply the ships.

In Hawaiʻi, several hundred whaling ships might call in season, each with 20 to 30 men aboard and each desiring to resupply with enough food for another tour “on Japan,” “on the Northwest,” or into the Arctic.

The whaling industry was the mainstay of the island economy for about 40 years.  For Hawaiian ports, the whaling fleet was the crux of the economy.  More than 100 ships stopped in Hawaiian ports in 1824. 

“At present the whale ships visit the Sandwich Islands in the months of March and April and then proceed to the coast of Japan, the return again in October and November remain here about six weeks, and then proceed in different directions …”

“… some to the Coast of California, others cruise about the Equator when they return thither again in March and April and proceed a second time to the Coast of Japan; it usually occupies two seasons on that coast to fill a ship that will carry Three Hundred Tons.”  (Jones report to Henry Clay, Secretary of State, 1827)

“The number of hands generally comprising the Company of a whale ship will average Twenty Five; and owing to the want of discipline, the length and the ardourous duties of the voyage, these people generally become dissatisfied and are willing at any moment to join a rebellion or desert the first opportunity) that may offer …”

“… this has been fully exemplified in the whale ships that have visited these islands, constant disertions have taken place and many serious mutinies both contributing to protract and frequently ruin the voyage.”  (Jones report to Henry Clay, Secretary of State, 1827)

The effect on Hawaiʻi’s economy, particularly in areas in reach of Honolulu, Lāhainā and Hilo, the main whaling ports, was dramatic and of considerable importance in the islands’ history. Over the next two decades, the Pacific whaling fleet nearly quadrupled in size and in the record year of 1846, 736-whaling ships arrived in Hawai‘i.

Then, whaling came swiftly to an end.  In 1859, oil was discovered and a well was developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania; within a few years this new type of oil replaced whale oil for lamps and many other uses – spelling the end of the whaling industry.

At volcano … in 1898, Lorrin Thurston owner of Volcano House and head of the Hawai‘i Promotion Committee (forerunner to the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau) worked closely with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company to create an excursion business from Honolulu to his hotel at Kīlauea.

Although he sold his interest in Volcano House to hotelier George Lycurgus (1858–1960) in 1904, Thurston continued to promote Kīlauea and Hawai‘i’s other natural sites.

He helped with the establishment of the Hawaiʻi National Park, an entity to encompass both Kīlauea and Haleakalā.  Hawai‘i’s new National Park, established August 1, 1916, was the thirteenth in the new system and the first in a US territory.  (Chapman)

The history of the Park generally mirrors the history of Kīlauea Military Camp (KMC.) Interest in Kīlauea as a military training and rest area began in September 1911, when Companies A and F, Twentieth Infantry, arrived. They were followed two years later by one hundred men from Company D, First Infantry, who camped near the Volcano House.  (Nakamura)

Thurston helped negotiate a lease for about 50-acres of land from Bishop Estate; trustees held the lease (they included Ex offico the Commander of the Army Department of Hawaii; Ex officio the Commanding General of the National Guard of Hawaii; Lieut Col John T. Moir, National Guard, Island of Hawaiʻi; GH Vicars of Hilo and LA Thurston of Honolulu and Hilo).

In the early years, to get there, off-island folks took steamer ships to either Hilo or Punaluʻu (from Hilo they caught a train to Glenwood and walked/rode horses to Volcano. From Ka‘ū, a five-mile railroad took passengers to Pahala and then coaches hauled the visitors to the volcano. Later, the roads opened.

The Kilauea Military Camp is located at an elevation of 4,000-feet, directly on the belt road around the island (the road was later relocated mauka of the Camp.)

KMC greeted its first group of US Army Soldiers from Company A, 2nd Infantry, November 6, 1916. Three buildings for dining and recreation were still unfinished, so the visiting Soldiers were expected to provide their own sleeping tents. A couple weeks later, November 17, KMC was officially opened, and many Soldiers came to this unique site.

Then, WWI broke out and virtually all of the troops in Hawai‘i had transferred to the continental US, many of them then moving on in succeeding months to the trenches of France and Belgium.  (Chapman)

To keep the place going, school summer programs and Boy Scouts stayed at the camp.  Following WWI, the trustees transferred their KSBE lease to the Park Service.  By late-1921, soldiers on recreation leave started to return to the Camp and the facilities started to expand.

As part of the original agreement, the Navy built its own rest and recreation camp on a 14-acre parcel adjacent to KMC in 1926. The Navy camp was transferred to KMC’s control in 1935.  (KMC)

On July 1, 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.  The relationship between the military and Park Service was not always smooth. 

Today, Kīlauea Military Camp is open to all active and retired armed forces, Reserve/National Guard, dependents, other uniformed services, and current and retired Department of Defense civilians, including Coast Guard civilians and sponsored guests.

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: General, Military, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks, Economy Tagged With: USS Beaufort, Hawaii, Volcano, Whaling, Kilauea Military Camp, Visitor Industry, Economy

December 13, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Tom Moffatt

Thomas Ervin Moffatt was born on December 30, 1930 in Detroit, Michigan.  “I didn’t like the city, and I had relatives who lived outside of Detroit, so in my eighth grade, my folks let me work for this cousin of ours who had a mink ranch in a little town called Waterloo, Michigan. So I spent my eighth grade in this little town, in a one-room schoolhouse.”

After eight grade he “returned to Detroit to go to school.”  But as Moffatt describes, “And again, I wasn’t too happy. I got a job washing dishes in a restaurant called Curly’s. And the people who owned it had a farm about forty miles outside of Detroit. And they took me out there one day, and I fell in love with it.”

“And so they needed somebody to work on the farm, so I talked to my folks, and they let me go into high school working on the farm.” At South Lyon High School, he “played football and basketball there, and … [got  a scholarship] to play football for a very famous coach [George Allen] [and] played tackle.”

Not getting a clear answer to his questions about “If I get hurt in football, will my scholarship still be in effect? I couldn’t get a definite answer. So I decided to go to work for a while in a factory and earn enough money to go to college.” (Moffatt, PBS)

“One day, I’m in the corner drugstore in South Lyon, on my way to the tube company to work, and it was a steel mill. And I found this little book about colleges in the United States. The last page was University of Puerto Rico, and University of Hawaii. So I wanted to travel and go to school, and I got interested in University of Hawaii, and that’s how I ended up in Honolulu.”

“I wanted to be a lawyer. And in my first year, I had a speech teacher who said, You have a nice voice, you should get in the radio guild. … So I joined the radio guild, and got interested in being a radio announcer. So the end of my first year, I auditioned for KGU, and didn’t make it as a junior announcer.”

“I went back to school. And I’d go home every night and read the newspaper aloud, and talk, and read stories. Nobody was around, I’d just read every night aloud. So anyway, come the following June, I went back to KGU and got a job. I really got into it. I became a staff announcer at KGU. This was before disc jockeys really.”

“I remember being nervous the first time the microphone opened, and I had to say, This is KGU in Honolulu, high atop the Advertiser Building.”  (Moffatt, PBS)

Shortly thereafter, he was drafted into the Army and “reported to Schofield for sixteen weeks of basic training. This was during the Korean War, and we were all being shipped off to Korea. So just when we concluded our basic training, this tough old sergeant called me in and said, Look, he said, you don’t want to go off to this war.”

“He just kinda said, Hey, you got a talent, and they need a radio announcer at Armed Forces Radio at Tripler Hospital. I’ll lend you my car. He gave me the keys, and I drove to Tripler Hospital. And since I’d had some training in commercial radio, they grabbed me up right away. So I spent the next two years defending my country at Tripler Hospital.”

“I stayed there for the rest of my Army career. And then I went back to KGU. And I started at KIKI also, so I was working at three radio stations, really. I’d do my … Army duty at Tripler and worked my eight hours, and then I’d work in the other stations. So I began my disc jockey career, really, at KIKI. It was kind of fun.” (Moffatt, PBS)

There were no music videos, no iTunes, it was just you and a disc jockey, the faceless voice spinning the hottest hits from artists like the Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Paul Revere & the Raiders. (PBS Hawaii)

“All of a sudden, I started listening to this music, and getting requests for a guy with a funny name. Elvis Presley. And I started playing his music. And that’s where it exploded. All of a sudden, every kid on the island was listening, and I was the only one playing in the islands, really, I was the only one playing rock and roll.” (Moffatt, PBS)

In 1957, Moffatt was approached by entrepreneurs Ralph Yempuku and Earl Finch with a deal too good to pass up. “They were looking to bring in some performers and wanted me to be their adviser.”

“They said if the show makes money, I’d make money; if it doesn’t make money, I wouldn’t lose anything. And I didn’t have to put up any money. That’s how I learned the business.” (Moffatt, Hawaii Business)

Moffat’s name is synonymous with entertainment in Hawai‘i. Tom Moffatt Productions produced live concerts, sporting events, ice shows, fundraisers, hotel and corporate parties and international attractions.

Though he will forever be known as the man who brought Elvis to Hawai‘i, it is his promotion of the state of Hawai‘i that has distinguished him from his peers. His productions have helped to put the state on the global map as a legitimate international entertainment venue, bringing superstars such as Michael Jackson, Elton John and the Rolling Stones.

In addition to his work in promoting Hawai‘i to the world, Moffatt has also been a dedicated supporter of local entertainers. From the Brothers Cazimero May Day concerts to the Brown Bags to Stardom talent contest, Moffatt has helped to nurture and promote homegrown talent. (UH)

When Hawai‘i became the 50th state in 1959, Honolulu’s fourth-oldest radio station, KHON, became KPOI. A crew of young broadcast vets known as the ‘Poi Boys’ came on and played the Top 40 hits mixed in with outrageous fun and games. The Poi Boys included ‘Uncle’ Tom Moffatt, Bob ‘The Beard’ Lowrie, ‘Jumpin’’ George West, Sam Sanford and ‘Whodaguy’ Ron Jacobs.

Moffatt received a Na Hoku Hanohano lifetime achievement award in 2002, was named by Honolulu magazine as among the 100 most influential people in Honolulu in 2005, was nominated to the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2009, and in 2014, the city proclaimed a “Tom Moffatt Day” in honor of the 50-year anniversary of his first show at the Blaisdell Center. (HNN)  “Uncle Tom” died December 12, 2016.

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Economy, General, Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, KPOI, Tom Moffatt, Poi Boys

December 8, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Building Breakwaters

In 1899, Herbert, William, Jack and Edgar Young were at Catalina Island; the year before they started taking fishing parties out daily and conducting excursions to the coral gardens.

Then the Hawaiian Islands attracted their attention, and, as William put it, they “went with high hopes and the spirit of a pioneer toward strange lands and all the beauty of sky and sea in the blue Pacific.” (Herb and William were headed to Hawai‘i.)  “On January 9, 1900, we sailed out of Golden Gate toward the Great adventure …”

“For years we had heard tales of Hawaii; now at last we were to see it for ourselves. Every passing hour, every wave curling under our bows brought us so much nearer, and the eyes of youth, straining ahead of the ship, seemed almost to glimpse a palm-fringed shore where life was gay and living carefree.”

“At last, on January 19, after a fine voyage, we sighted Honolulu. The green shores. the white beach and coral formations, the boats of the Kanakas, the town rising at the harbor edge to be lost in the verdure of the tropical plants …”

“… the great forest of masts and spars in the harbor, the clear water and brilliant coloring of everything within eyeshot made a picture that the years could not dim. Here at last was the land of my dreams, the real El Dorado, the place which one may leave, but to which he will always return, the enchanting isles where there is no good-bye, but only Aloha.”

“We dropped anchor at quarantine and stood on deck, silently, in wonder at the natural beauty of the island. Would our dreams come true here?”

Most associate Young Brothers as an inter-island barge company.  But, in their early years in the Islands, Young Brothers did a lot of things.  Young Brothers was given a contract to help with the original dredging of Pearl Harbor. They engaged to tow mud scows out to sea and dump them.

They also got involved in the construction of a couple substantial breakwaters that continue to protect some significant bays.

In the late 19th century, the growing sugar industry in East Hawai’i demanded a better and more protected port, and a breakwater was constructed on Blonde Reef in Hilo Bay to shield ships from rough waters as they entered Hilo Harbor.

 In 1911, Young Brothers contracted with the Lord Young Construction Co. to tow barges to build the breakwater at Hilo harbor on the Big Island.

They bought the tug Mikiala and went to work towing barges of huge rocks from the Hamakua coast and dumping them to build the long breakwater which protects the harbor today. Building it took many long months.

Jack Young was in charge of the work at Hilo and spent the better part of a year skippering the Brothers (the name of their tug) as it towed a scow loaded with rock to be dumped on the breakwater extension.

Dangerous conditions that developed during the Hilo breakwater construction were somewhat inevitable, given the unpredictable ocean swells and enormous load carried by the rock scow.

A news article appearing in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser on December 25, 1911, provides some insights into the job of building the breakwater as the Young Brothers’ crew experienced it:

“The sea had been rough for several days, and finally made it impossible to work. On Monday, the … scow was taken out in tow of the Hukihuki, having on board about 125 tons of rock, which it was to dump on the bottom ….”

“Here the substructure, which has been laid by Lord & Young, forms a kind of artificial reef over which the waves break in stormy weather. On the day in question, the breakers were thundering in at a great rate, and great combers were continually sweeping the deck of the scow.”

“Nevertheless, the Hukihuki bucked through the swirling water, and she had just brought the scow over the substructure, though not in the exact place where the load was to be dumped, when trouble began.”

“The heavy scow was let down, in the trough between two big waves, to such a depth that one of her edges struck the rock of the substructure with such a force that the timbers were splintered and broken, and the water began to pour in through the leak.”

“All thought of depositing the load had to be abandoned, and the Hukihuki maneuvered the disabled craft out of the breakers. The scow was sinking so rapidly that it was impossible to save the load, and good Kapoho rock was jettisoned.”

“By good seamanship the scow was towed to safety, where she is being repaired.”

Contrary to urban legend, the Hilo breakwater was built to dissipate general wave energy and reduce wave action in the protected bay, providing calm water within the bay and protection for mooring and operating in the bay; it was not built as a tsunami protection barrier for Hilo.

It was while they were engaged in building the Hilo breakwater that Captain Jack Young met and fell in love with Alloe Louise Marr. She had come to Hilo from Oakland, California, in 1909 with her father, Joseph Thomas Marr, to visit his cousin, Jack Guard.

John Alexander (Jack) Young and Alloe Louise Marr were married in a double wedding ceremony with her cousin, Stephanie Guard and John Fraser on September 20, 1911 at Hilo.  They returned to Honolulu to live.  The couples remained friends and co-workers in shipping.

In 1922, Young Bros. Ltd. contracted the towing to build the breakwater at Nawiliwili harbor hauling by barge the 6-ton rocks from the quarry on the coast of Maui to build the base of the breakwater.

The waterfront community was shocked when Captain Jack Young died of a heart attack at his home on October 23, 1946.  Alloe Louise Young was afflicted with a brain tumor in 1945 and died October 9, 1947 at her home on McKinley Street.

I am the youngest brother of the youngest brother of the youngest brother of Young Brothers.  Jack and Alloe Young are my grandparents.

We never met them, and they never knew they had grandchildren from their son Kenny; they both had died before they knew my mother was pregnant with my older brother. (Lots of information here is from Young Brothers: 100 Years of Service and a Young family background and genealogy.)

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Economy, General, Place Names, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Young Brothers, Nawiliwili, Hilo Bay, Hilo Breakwater, Breakwater, Nawiliwili Bay, Hawaii, Hilo

December 3, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Trail of the Whispering Giants

Peter Wolf Toth (rhymes with ‘oath’) was born in 1947 (one of eleven children) into poor circumstances in the newly formed Republic of Hungary.  His early years were marked by injustice and violence.

During the 1956 uprising, the Hungarian borders were open, briefly (before the Soviet tanks rolled in), and the Toth family took the opportunity to flee. After two years of being shuttled from refugee camp to refugee camp, Toth and his family eventually immigrated to the United States, and settled in Akron, Ohio. (Quahog)

As Toth grew up in his new country, he developed a deep interest in native North American culture and history. He saw in their story a parallel to the violent repression he had experienced in Hungary.

Although he studied art briefly at the University of Akron, and learned a lot from watching his father (also an artist), Toth considers himself to be self-taught.

In 1971 at age 24, Toth carved a statue of a native American (locally dubbed “the scarfaced Indian”) into a sandstone cliff in La Jolla, California – the first of what he referred to his ‘long Trail of the Whispering Giants.’

In Peter Wolf Toth’s words, “my monuments are made to remind people of the contributions of the Indians of this country. Statues to honor the plight of the Native Peoples of North America.”

“I study the indigenous people of that state, that province, or even that country or island, and once I have a good visual image of who they are … that’s how I come up with these statues. I even try to intertwine the spirit of the tree and the spirit of the (native).” (Toth, Johnson City Press)

“The purpose of my work is to honor the (Native American) people, to honor all people facing injustice.” (Toth)

“Peter Wolf Toth had just dropped out of college and was traveling around the country when he found himself in La Jolla, where his brother has resided for decades.”

“Seeing a ‘haunted face’ in the stone set him on a lifelong mission to honor legendary Native Americans and the plight of occupied indigenous nations. Today, his Trail of Whispering Giants includes 74 sculptures, all of which he carved by hand.” (San Diego Reader)

“Toth is an artist in many senses of the word. … First, he was a painter. Then, he etched his first sculpture into a cliffside in California in 1972.”

“He returned to his home in Ohio in search of another cliff to place his second statue. While he didn’t find any cliffs, he came across a dead elm tree, and from then incorporated wood carving into his repertoire as a sculptor. For his Native American pieces, he strives to use wood native to the area in which he creates each piece.” (Johnson City Press)

Traveling the United States in his ‘Ghost Ship’ (a modified Dodge maxi-van), he spent summers in the north and winters in the south, stopping wherever local officials would allow or invite him to carve one of his ‘Whispering Giants.’

“From Alaska to Florida he has sculpted giant memorials to native Americans. Forty-nine states have welcomed him so far. One state has not. Hawaii.”

“‘I’ve committed myself to honoring the native peoples of this country,’ says Toth who fled Hungary in 1956, and found a home in what he believes is the greatest country in the world.”

“In appreciation, Toth, 37, has devoted the past 17 years to chiseling whole trees into gargantuan 20-ton likenesses which he calls ’Whispering Giants.’”

“These colossal achievements, for which Toth accepts no money, have been featured on all three television networks and in The New York Times.”

“‘Not that it matters, but some of my statues have been valued at up to $100,000 – which is the least of the meaning here,’ says Toth, who lives on the money he earns from the sale of less intimidating icons and books. ‘My biggest obstacle has usually been getting the log.’” (Honolulu Advertiser, Jan 1, 1988)


Later that year, “The Church of Hawaii Nei invited Toth to carve the giant statue on its property at 59-254 Kamehameha Highway in Sunset Beach. … Weyerhaeuser Paper Co donated a huge redwood tree trunk for the statue. …[T]he statue is named Maui Pohaku Loa, after ‘the demigod Maui … from the beginning of time to the end of time.’”

During Toth’s sculpturing, “A city building inspector … happened to drive by there Friday and stopped his car to see what was on the roadside. He got out his tape and measured the statue’s two parts; the face is 16 feet long and the pedestal 4 feet.”

“Based on his measurements and description of the statue, the city Department of Land Utilization determined yesterday that no permit was necessary to erect it.” (It was considered a work of art and not a structure.) (Star Bulletin, May 11, 1988) The Hawai‘i sculpture is no longer standing near Sunset Beach.

What is now dubbed the Trail of the Whispering Giants, a collection of Toth’s sculptures, ranging in height from 20 to 40 feet, and are between 8 and 10 feet in diameter.  There was at least one in each of the 50 US states, as well as in Ontario and Manitoba, Canada, and one in Hungary. (Wright)

Because the statues are made from wood (each is carved from a single log and is hand-chiseled (no power tools)), many have been damaged by storms, rot, termites, and winds. He has replaced several of them.  The Hawai‘i statue is no longer displayed and the property that it was on has sold. (Lot of information here is from quahog, memorialogy and postcardhistory.)

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: General, Prominent People Tagged With: Peter Wolf Toth, Hawaii, Mauii Pohaku Loa

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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