Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Maliko Gulch Inverted Siphon

At the time of Haiku Sugar Company’s charter in 1858, there were only ten sugar companies in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.  Five of these sugar companies were located on the island of Maui:  East Maui Plantation at Kaluanui; Brewer Plantation at Haliʻimalie; LL Torbert and Captain James Makee’s plantation at Ulupalakua; Haiku Plantation; and Hana.

In 1869, Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin became business partners and bought 12-acres in Hāmākuapoko (an eastern Maui ahupuaʻa (land division.))  (They later formed Alexander & Baldwin, one of Hawai‘i’s ‘Big Five’ companies – and the only Big Five still in Hawai‘i.)

“The early years of the partnership of Alexander & Baldwin, represented a continual struggle against heavy odds. Haiku plantation had to have water.” (Men of Hawaii)

Then, the government granted Haiku Plantation the right to use the water flowing in streams down the broad slopes of Haleakala to the east of the plantation, and work was at once commenced on a ditch.

“The line, some seventeen miles in extent, with the exception of a few miles near the plantation, passes through the dense forest that covers the side of the mountain, and in running the levels for the work many large ravines and innumerable small valleys and gulches were encountered.”

“In the smaller of these the ditch winds its way, with here and there a flume striding the hollow, while through nine of the larger the water is carried in pipes twenty-six inches in diameter.”

“The digging of the ditch was a work of no small magnitude. A large gang of men, sometimes numbering two hundred, was employed in the work, and the providing of food, shelter, tools, etc, was equal to the care of a regiment of soldiers on the march.”

“As the grade of the ditch gradually carried the work high up into the woods, cart-roads had to be surveyed and cut from the main road to the shifting camps.”

“All the heavy timbers for flumes, etc., were painfully dragged up hill and down, and in and out of deep gulches, severely taxing the energies and strength of man and beast, while the ever-recurring question of a satisfactory food supply created a demand for everything eatable to be obtained from the natives within ten miles, besides large supplies drawn from Honolulu and abroad.”

“At the head of the work many difficult ledges of rock were encountered, and blasting and tunneling were resorted to, to reach the coveted water.” (FL Clarke, Thrum’s Annual, 1878)

Then came Maliko Gulch.

Maliko Gulch was too wide (and it was too expensive) to pipe the water via a bridge. They installed an inverted siphon in order to cross Maliko Gulch.  Maliko Gulch is a deeply incised stream valley with some sections of the valley floor more than 400 ft below the upland surface. (USGS)

“As the East Maui Irrigation Company report notes, Alexander planned to ‘pipe water across the gulch by means of a 1,110-foot-long inverted siphon.” (Witcher, Civil Engineering)

An inverted siphon uses a leakproof pipe that the ditch water flows into; the pipe is laid down, across and back up the Gulch ( and ends at a lower elevation than the where the ditch collects the water) – gravity pushes the water up the other side, into another ditch at the other side of the gulch.

“While work on the ditch was thus progressing, pipe makers from San Francisco were busied riveting together the broad sheets of iron to make the huge lengths of tube fitted to cross the deep ravines.” 

“These lengths had each to be immersed in a bath of pitch and tar which coated them inside and out, preserving the iron from rust, and effectually stopping all minute leaks.”

“The lengths thus prepared being placed in position in the bottom of the ravines, the upright lengths were fitted to each other (like lengths of stove-pipe) with the greatest care, and clamped firmly to the rocky sides of the cliffs.”

“Their perpendicular length varies from 90 feet to 450 feet; the greatest being the pipe that carries the water down into, across, and out of Maliko gulch to the Baldwin and Alexander Plantations.”

“At this point every one engaged on the work toiled at the risk of his life; for the sides of the ravines are almost perpendicular, and a ‘bed’ had to be constructed down these sides.”

“Then each length of pipe was lowered into the ravine and placed carefully in position; after which the perpendicular lengths were built up to the brink.”  (FL Clarke, Thrum’s Annual, 1878)

“When the ditch builders came to the last great obstacle, the deep gorge of Maliko, it became necessary in connection with the laying of the pipe down and up the sides of the precipices there encountered, for the workmen to lower themselves over the cliffs by rope, hand over hand.”

“This at first they absolutely refused to do. The crisis was serious.”

Just a few years before, “In 1876, while engaged in adjusting machinery at the sugar mill at the Pā‘ia plantation. Mr. Baldwin almost lost his life by being drawn between the rolls.”

“The engineer fortunately witnessed the accident and reversed the engine, but not before the right arm had been fearfully mangled almost up to the shoulder blade. The amputation was not followed by any serious results, but the handicap was a severe one to so energetic a worker as was Mr. Baldwin all his life.” (Mid Pacific, February 1912)

Back to the Maliko Gulch inverted siphon installation … while the workers initially refused, “[the one-armed] Baldwin met it by himself sliding down the rope, using his legs and his one arm, with which he alternately gripped and released the rope to take a fresh hold lower done.” (Arthur Baldwin)

“This was done before his injured arm had healed and with a straight fall of two hundred feet to the rocks below! The workmen were so shamed by this exhibition of courage on the part of their one armed manager, that they did not hesitate to follow him down the rope.”

“To keep the heart in them and to watch the progress of the work, Mr. Baldwin day after day went through this dangerous performance.” (Arthur Baldwin)

“Straining their financial resources almost to the breaking point, the young partners [Alexander and Baldwin] succeeded in bringing to completion the Hāmākua-Haiku ditch, the first important irrigation project in the islands.”

“The eventual enormous success of this enterprise made possible the great future of Alexander and Baldwin. Pā‘ia plantation was started and other extensive acreages were added to the partners’ holdings.” (Men of Hawaii)

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Ah Ping

Chun “Ah Ping left Yen Ping district, China. when onJy 20 years old and sailed to Los Angeles where he remained one year. Here he signed a three year contract to come to Hawaii with about 150 other Chinese as a laborer in Hawaii’s growing sugar industry.”

“Upon arrival he was sent to Molokai with 13 of his countrymen to work on the Kamalo sugar plantation owned by Dan McCorriston. He found only two Chinese on Molokai upon his arrival.”

“He laughs out loud when he is reminded of the first Kamalo sugar plantation mill.  This mill was wind powered and only one stalk of cane at a time could be fed to the tiny rollers.  ‘Sometime cane too big must cut in half,’ he says. …”

“After two years at this plantation, they were suddenly informed that the plantation was being closed down … Receiving no funds. the little group of Chinese disbanded in disgust and moved to other islands. From here, he went to Puunene plantation where he was employed as u camp cook for five years.”

He then went to Kipahulu plantation and became its manager. He remained there for nine years. “He then left for Honolulu in 1915, bought what is now the Nuuanu hotel and retired.  In 1921.”

“However, the urge to do things became so insistent that he moved to his present location at Kilohana where he has been operating a large store with the help of his sons.” (SB, Sep 8, 1939)  The store was “Right across the road [from] the fish pond, ‘Ualapu‘e Fishpond.” (Joseph Ah Hong Ah Ping, UH Oral History)

“I had to leave school when I was sophomore to help my father in the store, ’cause he cannot go haul freight thirteen miles from our store to Kaunakakai Wharf. Hard, eh? That’s why I left school to go home help my father.”

After Chun Ah Ping’s death (July 9, 1948), his son Joseph Ah Hong Ah Ping and his brothers ran the store – the only store on the east end of Molokai with a gasoline pump.

“Yeah, general merchandise. Working shoes, all kinds, shirt, pants, canned goods, sugar, rice, flour, all kind.  Grass knife, you know, cane knife, all the hoe and that pick and shovel.”

“All the kind people want, eh. General merchandise, mix up all kind. Country, eh. Sometimes we order nails, too. Sometimes people like paper roofing, we order paper roofing, you know, all that. Regular country store.” (Joseph Ah Hong Ah Ping, UH Oral History)

“I do regular general merchandise and the poi shop. There’s a little building on the side … We used to get our taro from Halawa Valley. Every week we grind. Sometimes ten bags, like that, twelve bags of [taro]”. (Joseph Ah Hong Ah Ping, UH Oral History)

“Early days had plenty wholesalers. Theo [H] Davies used to be grocery, American Factors had grocery department. All that. Early days, salesmen, every month they come take order.”

“We [used to] deliver [groceries]. See, cause when they buy rice, they no buy ten pound, twenty pound. They buy all hundred-pound bag rice, you know, for the whole month.”

“And feed for the hog; barley, scratch feed, and middling for the pigs or whatever it is, chicken like that. Used to get the feed from Fred Waldron Feed Store [in Honolulu]. Those feed barley come in eighty-five-pound bag.” (Joseph Ah Hong Ah Ping, UH Oral History)

“They get horse those days and get the hitching post where you tied your horse. You go in the back [of Ah Ping Store], all the old folks live in this district all behind, gambling. And they carry gun; they get their gun with them.”

“Get maybe five, six Hawaiians sitting down gambling, all talking Hawaiian and laughing. We used to go watch them. But you no see that [anymore]. Everybody owned horse in the old days. Was dirt road, yeah, over here. Never had the paved road, nothing.” (William “Billy” Kalipi, Sr, UH Oral History)

“And then that was really handy ‘cause he had liquor, too. (Chuckles) Yeah, whiskey. And [Joseph] Ah Hong [Ah Ping] was terrific. Anytime at night (he’d open up), ‘Oh, we want a bottle.’” (Laura Duvauchelle Smith, UH Oral History)

“Crack seed, too, was selling. They say ono, the crack seed. I said, ‘Honolulu get.’ The retail stores. And they say, ‘No ‘ono, Honolulu kind.’ They come they buy two pound, three pound, take Honolulu. Some of them buy about four pound to send to the states.”

“I said, ‘Why? Honolulu get.’ ‘Chee, we get from Honolulu. But funny, the taste is different.’  … Shave ice, once in a while we made. … Yeah, those days all gone.” (Joseph Ah Hong Ah Ping, UH Oral History)

“[They sold] dry goods and perishables. They (sold) all kinds (of things). Not bad. (It) was a good store.  They had everything in there. They (sold) gasoline, (crack seed from China, cans of corned beef, sardines, Vienna sausage. Also dried fish, salt salmon, butterfish, and even laahp cheung).”

“They made poi, too. You know, they (used to) grind (the taro in the) machine (to make poi. The machine was operated by gasoline using the pulley system.) People were fortunate to get the store (in ‘Ualapu‘e). They (didn’t) have to (go) all the way to Kaunakakai because the store (was) centralized.” (John K. Iaea, Sr, UH Oral History)

People used to meet at the store to talk story … “Oh, sometimes some politician come over, stop, see people there and talk. Early days. … They used to come [from Maui] on a sampan, about three miles away from our store.”

“Then get a car and come check on different county matters. Then they go back. … Yeah, all those old politicians all gone.” (Joseph Ah Hong Ah Ping, UH Oral History)

“[I]f you get good health, you like live in the country, [Molokai is] all right. If your health is not good, it’s no use. When you sick, doctor far away, no specialist. It’s hard, you know. You go on a diet, you cannot have the proper food. You shorten your life.”

“Country, mostly eat canned goods, you know, people. They don’t go hunting. Goat, deer, or what, you no can go hunting every time. Most times in country they eat canned goods, corned beef, tomato sardine. All that eat all the time. Dried codfish, all kind.”

“The doctor no recommend you eat that kind. You see, that’s why you go visit all right, but live permanent – your health not good – no use. Better stay Honolulu.” (Joseph Ah Hong Ah Ping, UH Oral History)

“Ah Ping Store was like a family store. You know, people who didn’t have money, they charge it until payday. Then they have a book that they write it down, you know, how much you charge on what day. And then when you get paid, they go down there and pay.” (Shizue Murakami Johnson, UH Oral History)

As for working in stores … “’Nough. Tired already, store life.” (Joseph Ah Hong Ah Ping, UH Oral History)

They also had knives … when I was a kid, a coveted pocketknife was the ‘Ah Ping’ knife from Molokai, at least that is what we called it. Lots of sizes, wooden handles in a regular pocketknife format (the larger was the most favored).

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Labor Day

Hawai‘i is an exceptional case in American labor history because of its workforce made up of mostly non-white and immigrant workers.

The sugar planters increased the labor supply as needed to decrease labor’s demands. The major sugar planters grew into five big companies that eventually dominated the Islands’ economy.

Alexander & Baldwin, American Factors, Castle & Cooke, C Brewer and Theo H Davies before long constituted a power in the islands that controlled virtually all business and commercial as well as public employment opportunities.

Over the years in successive waves of immigration, the sugar growers brought to Hawai‘i 46,000 Chinese, 180,000 Japanese, 126,000 Filipinos as well as Portuguese and Puerto Ricans, each one used generally to offset the bargaining power of its predecessor.

“It was advantageous to have on your plantation groups from different ethnicities so that if one of them got it in their mind to strike that you would still be able to get things done by the other groups,” says William Puette, the Director of the Center for Labor Education and Research at the University of Hawai‘i – West O‘ahu.

“That obviously, they didn’t admit to this but it laid the groundwork for them to be able to have one group pitted against the other by making sure that they didn’t play well together.”

Hawai‘i’s labor unions during this period were organized based on ethnic groups.  Sugar planters pinned these distinct groups against each other by difference in wages, hiring more workers from different countries, and used the Portuguese as a model minority.

Hawaii’s workers attempted strikes since the beginning of the sugar industry beginning in the 1800s. Some of the more significant in size occurred in 1909, 1919, 1924, and 1937. 

In 1935, President Roosevelt, as part of his New Deal legislation, passed the Wagner Act giving workers the legal right to organize unions that could demand employer recognition. (UH West O‘ahu Center for Labor Education and Research)

Some unions were able to win small gains, but most strikes were broken and workers were forced to return to the plantations with harsher treatment. (Martinez)

Hawaiian officials expressed harsher anti-union attitudes by undermining the National Labor Relations Board, canceling union contracts, and threatening workers.

Employers froze wages to show that employees would not be hired in other locations. In addition, anti-Japanese hysteria after the bombing of Pearl Harbor deepened discrimination on the islands.

Blake Clark, a professor at the University of Hawaii, wrote in 1942, “A great many mainland Americans believe that most of the Japanese in Hawai‘i are hiding around in the canefields, ready at a signal to leap out and stab us in the back.”

Intimidated Japanese Hawaiians, who made up a significant portion of plantation labor, halted organizing. Police on the islands jailed anyone who did not follow the laws and ILWU membership froze to about 900 from the start of war until 1944.

Pent-up rage made workers receptive to ILWU organizers, due to the difficult conditions of life.  Living quarters were more compressed as shacks “averaged less than 500 square feet for a family of five, with as many as eight persons living in a room of about 100 square feet,” and most homes lacked indoor plumbing.

When families requested maintenance of their housing or working facilities, managers deducted the cost from their pay. Controversy also spread about children on plantations in Hilo, working and missing school days.

The timing was ripe. Union organizers mobilized on the islands by speaking to workers’ grievance, as union power surged following the war.  Workers from different ethnic and national backgrounds were soon convinced to join the union with each other.

Members of the ILWU went door to door to explain the need to unite under their union and strike in order to gain better wages and working conditions. Union bulletins, newspapers, voting ballots, and contracts were printed in each of the workers’ native languages.

The Sugar Strike of 1946 began on Labor Day. It was the first strike to ever shut down Hawai’i’s powerful sugar industry. More than 26,000 plantation workers and their families went on strike for nearly three months, closing all but one of 34 plantations across the island chain.  (HPR)

The strike succeeded in changing the balance of power between workers and the plantation.  In collective bargaining, the ILWU secured benefits such as housing, medical, pensions, and wages, as inherent rights for workers instead of privileges granted as favors by plantation owners.

“The politics of Hawai‘i would never be the same after that. And certainly labor relations would not be the same after that,” says Puette.

“Leadership in all the different areas would not be the same because you started to see the rise of people from the different ethnic groups, not just Japanese, but Filipinos, and everybody else which you wouldn’t have seen without that landmark strike of 1946.”

Based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, noting  Union affiliation of employed wage and salary workers by state, 2019-2020 annual averages, Hawai‘i ranks #1 in 2020 with Percent of Employed – Members of Unions (23.7%) and Represented by Unions (25.7%). New York is #2.

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Metropolitan Meat Market

As early as 1871, Metropolitan Market appears to have been started as a beef marketing operation on O‘ahu by Gilbert Waller (Bergin); he had a “branch store”, Family Market (formerly the Rose Cottage Market), on the corner of Union and Hotel (that he bought at auction in 1875). (HSA and Tourist Guide, 1880-1881)

In 1872, his nephew, Gilbert Johnson Waller, acquired the Metropolitan meat company and eventually took in as partners James Campbell, James Dowsett, and Thos R Foster, prominent ranch owners on the Island of O‘ahu. (Bergin)

This meat purveying operation grew rapidly over the next two decades, with Parker Ranch being its main supplier of beef. In July 1900, the original partnership was transformed into a limited liability stock company and incorporated as the Metropolitan Meat Company, Ltd, with Gilbert J Waller serving as manager/treasurer. (Bergin)

The Metropolitan Meat Company flourished at its King Street location, with forty-seven employees providing processing  and  delivery  of  slaughtered  beef throughout Honolulu. The company eventually added a tannery as part of its broad diversification. (Bergin)

To distribute beef to ships anchored at Honolulu, in 1901. Metropolitan Meat Market purchased the ‘Fun’; the launch was operated by Young Brothers to deliver supplies. Young Brothers had a delivery contract with Metropolitan, so eighteen-year-old Jack Young had the job of getting up at 4 am to make the meat deliveries.

By 1902, the brothers were able to buy the eight-horsepower boat and take over the contract to deliver meat and other fresh supplies to ships anchored in the harbor. (YB, 100 Years)

With respect to beef suppliers, Alfred Wellington “AW” Carter (Parker Ranch Manager) sought that Metropolitan Meat company allow greater ownership interest by the actual ranchers – many of whom were neighbor island ranchers who shipped their market cattle to this consortium.  (Bergin)

Parker Ranch and other neighbor island ranchers had legitimate concerns with Metropolitan Meat Company’s autocratic and monopolistic way of doing business. Without notice, the price could drop as much as a penny per pound, or Metropolitan Meat would cancel cattle shipments to O‘ahu at the last minute. (Bergin)

A federal antitrust lawsuit was filed October 2, 1906 (and decided in 1917) to restrain the operation of alleged unlawful combinations in restraint of trade in beef and beef products.

The suit charged Metropolitan Meat (and other defendants) with “an unlawful combination, trust and conspiracy … in restraint of the trade and commerce of the Territory of Hawaii in violation of an act of Congress of July 2nd, 1890, entitled ‘An act to protect trade and commerce against restraints and monopolies’”.

During the proceedings, it was determined that “[a]bout 3,667,105 pounds weight of beef cattle produced in the Territory, of the value of $317,178.25 in money of the United States, are consumed annually by such people …”

“… and about ninety (90%) per cent of such beef cattle has been, is now and will continue to be produced and dealt in by [Metropolitan Meat] in the Territory as an object of trade and commerce therein.” (United States v Metropolitan Meat Co)

“All of such beef cattle are produced in the Territory. The defendants comprise nearly all the wholesale dealers in the Territory, who produce and deal in beef cattle and fresh beef to consumers and dealers in the Territory, and if combined together they can and do control the prices charged for fresh beef produced in the Territory.” (United States v Metropolitan Meat Co)

Under the leadership of Carter, with the participation and support of other neighbor island ranchers such as the Greenwells of Kona, the Maguires of Hu‘ehu‘e, Homers of Kuka’iau, Kohala Ranch Company, and WH Shipman, Parker Ranch announced plans to build a slaughterhouse on O’ahu (in competition with Metropolitan).

In March of 1909, Hawai‘i Meat Company was born, with the articles of incorporation signed by Carter, Robert Leighton Hind Sr., Albert Horner, JA Maguire, Maud WH Greenwell, JD Paris, JF Woods, A Morrow, and RA Cooke. Gilbert J. Waller was named manager of the new company.

Metropolitan suggested that Carter purchase the stock of the company. Carter noted: “I said I would appoint someone, they should appoint someone, both of these men to appoint a third, to put a price on the business and we would pay it.”

“That is how we got the Metropolitan Meat Co. I went to Hawaii and got the graziers together, outlined my plan and arranged with the bank to borrow $100,000. All the fellows who came in endorsed that note. No one put up a cent.” (Carter; Bergin)

The retail meant facility expanded … “Everything conceivable for perfect sanitation, convenience, attractiveness and service is embodied in the appointments of the recently remodelled Metropolitan Meat Market”.

“Situated in the heart of the city of Honolulu, at 50 King street, between Fort and Bethel streets, this thoroughly modern market, with its beautiful marble, glass and tile work would delight the heart of the most particular housewife of famous ‘Spotless Town’ itself.”

“There are larger establishments of the kind in the greater cities, to be sure, but it is absolutely safe to assert that nowhere in the world is there a cleaner, neater, more attractive, more pleasing or more wholesome appearing headquarters for the purchase of choice meats, poultry, butter, eggs, cheese, hams, bacon, sausages, delicatessen and what else one may want to procure in a well-stocked market.”

“Sanitary improvements and the utmost convenience were the main objects in the reconstruction. Rapid increase in business called for enlargement, too, and the change that has been wrought fulfills these plans to the last degree. Marble and tile finish insure perfect sanitation, so marble and tile finish were provided.”

“The same architect and builder who originated the Washington and Long’s markets in San Francisco was obtained to carry out the work for the Metropolitan Meat Market, Frank Loehr of Oakland.”

“The front of the new building is of terra cotta, the first of its kind to be used in Honolulu. The decorations are modelled after those on one of the buildings at the San Francisco Exposition, afterwards sold and used in the ornamentation of a millionaire’s new home on Knob Hill.”

“An extensive refrigerating system of coiled pipes fed by calcium chloride brine, pumped from a tank at the rear, keep a large number of rooms, as well as the show cases and windows at the required temperature.” (Paradise of the Pacific, Dec 1917)

No longer a packing house, Metropolitan Meat Company continued as a retailing concern on King and Bethel Street and finally closed its doors in 1950, a victim of the cash and carry trend. (Bergin)

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ʻŌhaiʻula

ʻŌhaiʻula (red ʻōhai shrub) is a beach at Kawaihae.  The earliest European observers of Kawaihae Bay were members of Captain Cook’s expedition. Arriving in February 1779, they were little impressed, Captain James King noting that,

“Although the NEern part of the bay which … is call’d Toe-yah-ya [Kawaihae] looks green & pleasant, yet as it is neither wooded or hardly any signs of culture, & a few houses, It has certainly some defect, & does not answer the purposes of what the natives cultivate.” (Cook’s Journal, NPS)

A little later (in the early 1800s), Isaac Iselin visited Kawaihae and noted, “This Bay of Toeigh [Kawaihae] is very open … The country around it looks like a hilly barren desert; nothing grows within ten miles of it, except a few cocoanut trees, of which a fine grove stands near the beach.”

“The inhabitants and huts are thinly scattered along the shore, far less numerous than about Karakakooah [Kealakekua], and seem more indigent, indeed, having to go so far for their subsistence, they are not seldom in want of the supports of life.” (Iselin)

Over 100 years later, in the 1920s, the Parker Ranch constructed a wagon road through the Pelekane area past Mailekini Heiau to a charcoal kiln inland of ʻŌhaiʻula Beach. It provided easier access to the beach than the shoreline trail. (NPS)

Attitudes about this area also changed. “Kawaihae is gaining in popularity. According to reports published frequently in this paper’s news columns many folks from all parts of Hawaii are availing themselves of the Kawaihae opportunity.”

“Kawaihae, unquestionably, is one of this island’s most attractive areas. The swimming beach there cannot be exceeded in this county. The chance for pleasurable picnic weather is most excellent. While it rains sometime in that district, storms, certainly, are not frequent.”

“When considering various points of beauty for week-end or holiday outings, give Kawaihae the favor that it should have. If one never has visited this beach he has not seen all of Hawaii, by any means. … We are happy to see Kawaihae gain local favor – pleased because it deserves just that.” (HTH, Sep 8, 1931)

By the 1930s and 1940s, fishermen and some hog raisers moved into the area, living along the beach in raised, temporary huts thatched with grass or coconut supplemented with odd bits of lumber, with tin or iron roofs and lanais, and with small fishponds in between.

People also came just for the weekend, including wealthy haole (whites), who erected boat houses and dry-docked their boats in the area of the coconut trees. The marine railway must have been built about that time for repairing these boats. (NPS)

ʻŌhaiʻula started to take on a new name, ‘Kawaihae Beach’ …

“Kawaihae beach will invite with its cool, peaceful setting, the sparkling water at its feet, and the wealth of its vegetation. Yet Kawaihae beach last year was a barren stretch of sand on Kohala. It was a popular week-end picnic spot because, despite the great possibility for improvement, it was the closest to ideal in that district.” (HTH, Nov 17, 1931)

“So many people go there over week-ends and on holidays that its facilities and space already are hopelessly inadequate. As we hardly need point out here, it is about the only piece of shoreline on the whole island that actually qualifies as a beach.”

“The only piece of shoreline, we should add, that qualifies as a real beach and that is open to the public.  There are, of course, other superb beaches on Big Island shores but all the best of these are either privately owned or inaccessible except by boat.” (HTH, Sep 13, 1947)

(Note: under today’s laws, beaches in Hawai‘i are generally publicly owned and accessible. As part of the public trust doctrine, they are essential public coastal recreational resources. Providing coastal recreational opportunities accessible to the public is a fundamental objective set forth in Chapter 205A, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS).)

“The end of the war, more freedom to move about, and a decent highway leading to Kawaihae beach has made that attractive spot one of the most popular on the Big Island. As a county park, it should pay big dividends in recreation.” (HTH, Sep 13, 1947)

Per Real Property Tax records, the land was owned by the Territoy of Hawai‘i and transferred to the County through Executive Order #729 for the Kawaihae Beach Park in the late-1930s.

“[T]he County operated a public park known as the Kawaihae park, near Kawaihae, district of south Kohala, and employed one Victor Laau as caretaker and custodian … the upkeep and maintenance of Kawaihae park was a ‘governmental” function’”. (Lovell v. County of Hawaii. Hawai‘i Supreme Court)

Its name changed again from Kawaihae Beach to Spencer Beach …

The park was renamed to honor Samuel Mahuka Spencer (1875–1960), the Chair of the Hawai‘i Island Board of Supervisors (equivalent to the present position of Mayor, from 1924-1944; the island’s longest serving). (McElroy)

Spencer was born in Waimea, Island of Hawaiʻi. He attended Kamehameha Schools where he was an outstanding baseball player. In 1895 he married Alice Kinimaka.

His career included Territorial Land Office clerk, deputy sheriff, bookkeeper for Henry Waterhouse Co., Parker Ranch, and deputy country clerk Country of Hawaiʻi, and in 1915, he became special auditor for the County of Hawaiʻi, then he was elected chairman of the Board of Supervisors in 1924. (Men of Hawai‘i)

Then, the ʻŌhaiʻula name returned to the place; in 2003 the park was renamed “Spencer Park at ʻŌhaiʻula Beach.”

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