General | Page 95 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 22, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Gardens of the World Highway

“In 1945 Governor Ingram Stainback requested that Director of Institutions, Thomas B. Vance, concentrate his efforts on developing self-supporting prison industries.”

“The industries established had to be almost entirely in noncompetitive fields and organized such that specific responsibilities, in the nature of long or short term contracts, could be given to the prisoners.”

“With that in mind, Kulani Prison Camp opened in 1945 as the successor to Waiakea Prison Camp, operated a lumbering enterprise producing logs and milled lumber of native hardwoods as materials to be processed and sold from Oahu Prison’s industrial area.” (Department of Institutions Summary 1939-1958)

The development of Kulani Camp and its means of access, the Stainback Highway, fell under the management of Vance. (Maly)

“Also established were agricultural, horticultural, and floricultural programs built around temperate zone crops, with the emphasis on crops not grown locally (apples, plums, dahlias, etc.).”

“Kulani … provided a reservoir of manpower for the construction of public roads on Hawaii …. – roads that would have been economically prohibitive if built under contract.” (Department of Institutions Summary 1939-1958)

Vance wanted to build a road to the top of Mauna Loa. (The reason Mr. Vance gave for choosing Mauna Loa was the resources of the Kulani area.)

A road like that didn’t command the funds necessary for ordinary people to do the job. Territorial law did not authorize appropriations for building roads by prison labor, but after some cajoling by Mr. Vance, the legislature allowed him to make labor available to nonprofit community service organizations.

In 1949, Vance went to the Lions Clubs of Hawaii and the Hilo Lions was specifically chartered to build a road to the summit of Mauna Loa. The Lions held their convention in Honolulu in the spring and came up with $300 for the project.

With this amount and other Lions Clubs’ money and some Mr. Vance had collected by selling small lava rocks from the slopes of Mauna Loa for a dollar apiece to anyone coming into his office.

He made nine miles of road above Kulani which became a show place. Contractors kept in contact to find out when a machine operator might be up for release so that they could hire him.

Funds were finally appropriated for building roads on most of the islands by Mr. Vance’s people. Actually, the inmates began to thin out with so many projects and civil service employees of the group, called instructors, not guards, did most of the work, helping with unemployment problems.

The US Secretary of Interior visited Hilo that year. Vance so enthralled him with another scheme he had that it was agreed to. This was the double idea of having short ski runs scrapped out on the lava fields up near the summit and having some of the “wayward boys” brought out of the institutions and given Park Service shirts and hats and have them act as ski guides and teachers when the snow came.

This, he said would restore a sense of purpose to these youths. The ski runs were just leveled off places at about 10,000 feet where one could use anything to slide on the snow like an old piece of roofing metal which was stacked for this purpose nearby. (Ellis)

In 1951, a weather station was set up by the Weather Bureau near the summit of Mauna Loa mountain on the island of Hawaii. An instrumented building was dedicated there as the Mauna Loa Observatory on December 12. (Ellis)

Also in 1951, members of the East Hawaiʻi business community approached Vance with a proposal meant to draw visitors to the Island of Hawaiʻi. The proposal was for the development of the “Gardens of the World Highway.”

As proposed, the highway would ascend the slopes of Mauna Loa, ending at the summit, near Mokuʻāweoweo. The idea was enthusiastically adopted by Vance, and supported by Governor Stainback. (Maly)

“When completed it will enable motorists to travel rapidly from a tropical wonderland through the projected Gardens of the World planned by the Hilo Women’s club, up to the 13,000 foot reaches of Mauna Loa into the atmosphere reminiscent of Lake Placid, NY.”

“Mr Vance said this road will serve two major purposes, each of which encompasses other secondary values. Running to the rim of Mokuaweoweo crater, it will, first of all, open up a winter sports area for the territory. From this would emerge an advertising and promotional value that would add to Hawaii’s fame as a resort area.”

“Ice skaters in grass skirts or snowball fights amid the palms are just fantastic enough to grip the public imagination.”

“But even though they sound unreal, they are in the process of coming to reality.”

“Not that such frivolous activities would in themselves justify the road now being pushed up the side of Mauna Loa on the Big Island.”

“But they will be a couple of the many by-products of the project to heighten tourist interest in the territory.”

“This was the substance if the report by Thomas B Vance, director of territorial institutions, yesterday. Mr Vance appeared before the territorial affairs committee of the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce.” (Star-bulletin, October 18, 1951)

“A garden of the world, to stretch from Hilo to the summit of Mauna Loa, was discussed at the business meeting of the Hilo Woman’s club yesterday afternoon at YWCA activities building.”

“The highly imaginative plan with its practical basis as a big boost to the tourist industry was endorsed by the Woman’s club.”

“A group of citizens, including Mrs Leo Lycurgus, chairman of the Woman’s club outdoor committee, Thomas Vance, head of the department of institutions, and persons interested in both the Kulani project and the beautification of the Hilo area had met informally at Hilo hotel and formulated the idea, which was written for the presentation to the Woman’s club and will be sent to all other civic groups here.”

“The garden, according to the plan, would follow the path the new Mauna Loa highway. Since the climate varies as the highway progresses up the mountain, the plan pointed out that ‘flowers from Argentine to the Arctic could flourish in the various sections of the area.’”

“The soon-to-be-completed Hilo waterfront area would be the base of the world garden while sectors near Hilo and the Panaewa forest reserve could be used for the long-talked-about botanical garden of island flowers.”

“Next would come an area of tropical trees, the flowering plumeria, the purple-budded jacquaranda, and the red African tulip. All these would be interspersed with the lush native tropical jungles which now border the highway. Flowers from temperate and cold climates would be planted at their proper growing levels.”

“Mrs. Lycurgus, who presented the plan to the Woman’s club, explained that ‘while it is a visionary idea which will take years of work before it can be completely realized, the plan for a garden of the world on the Big Island is a possibility.’”

“She said that the labor in planting and upkeep could be partially done by utilizing the prisoners at Kulani. In addition, she pointed out that the Hawaii Vocational school is beginning landscape courses and the training of professional work and set up a new profession on the island.”

“‘The big thing is the impetus such a garden would give us to the tourist industry,” Mrs Lycurgus declared.”

“‘People have gone to visit beautiful gardens all over the world. A great deal of interest would be generated by a long drive in which would be combined all the types of gardens throughout the world.’”

“‘We’ve always complained about the rains of Hilo,’ she continued. ‘Yet this idea offers us an opportunity to harness the fain for our benefit, to make it produce some of the world’s best flowers in the world’s most varied and all-inclusive garden.’” (Hawaii Tribune Herald, March 15, 1951)

Nina Lycurgus subsequently stated that the project was the work of many people and organization, and should not be solely attributed to her.

“I was not the originator of this wonderful Mauna Loa project. For many years the women of Hilo. Always interested in plans for beautifying their city, have supported and sponsored projects for beautification, and this idea for the Mauna Loa gardens is the final result to which many people and organizations have contributed. “

“The Lions club in particular has already started with their silversword gardens on Mauna Loa.” (Nina (Mrs Leo) Lycurgus, Star-bulletin, March 24, 1951)

By 1954, the Territory had spent about $100,000 for the road above 10,000 feet and had not gotten very close to either the “Gardens of the World,” a “snow road,” or a drive in volcano, not to mention the employment opportunities that had been expected. (Ellis)

On June 28, 1956, a larger building at 11,150 feet was dedicated as the Mauna Loa Slope Observatory, which in time became known as the Mauna Loa Observatory.

Mr. Vance was administrator of the Hilo Hospital from 1960 through 1965. He and the Hilo Lions Club were active in supporting the observatory from their strong political base during this period. (Ellis)

They, ultimately, did rough grade a road from Kulani to the top of Mauna Loa; however, “the three-hour ride up the road was enough to shake out what little enthusiasm they might have had.”

A four-mile link to the Saddle Road was made and opened on April 27, 1963. Thereafter, this was the route used to get to the observatory, with the road through Kulani not being used for this purpose anymore.

April 19, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kona in the Early 1820s and 1830s

Artemas Bishop and his family were first permanently stationed at Kailua, Hawaii, in 1824, being transferred to Ewa, Oahu, in 1836, and to Honolulu in 1855, where Mr. Bishop died, Dec. 18, 1872.

Mrs. Bishop died at Kailua, Feb. 28, 1828, the first death in the mission band. She left two infant children, including Sereno Edwards Bishop, who was born at Ka‘awaloa, Hawaii, Feb. 7, 1827. The following are some of Bishop’s “Reminiscences of Old Hawaii” that he included in his book named such.

“Kailua In The 1820s … Kailua was the capital of the Island. It is situated on the west coast, twelve miles north of Kealakekua, where Captain Cook perished. It lies at the base of the great mountain Hualalai, 8,275 feet high.”

“The entire coast consists of lava flows from that mountain, of greater or less age. Here and there in the village were small tracts of soil on the lava, where grew a few cocoanut, kou, and pandanus trees.”

“There were no gardens, for lack of water. Heat and general aridity characterized the place. But it pleased the natives, on account of the broad calm ocean, the excellent fishing, and the splendid rollers of surf on which they played and slid all day.”

“North of the town, the whole region seemed to be occupied by an ocean of black billowy lava which at some recent period had flowed down from the mountain. This bounded that end of the village.”

“A vast breadth of this lava-sea had invaded the ocean for miles, beyond the older shore line of Kailua. A wide tongue of lava had bent around and partially enclosed the little cove with its deep sand beach where was the chief landing of the town.”

“Surfing And Canoes … This was a universal sport of the chiefs and common people alike. The ponderous chiefs had very large boards of light wood.”

“In the Bishop Museum may be seen today an immense surf board of the cork-like wili-wili wood, on which the famous Paki used to disport himself at Lahaina fifty years ago. I doubt whether Kuakini, with his 500 pounds, was agile enough to attempt it.”

“In handling canoes the natives were most adroit. Kona, with its great koa forests inland abounded in canoes. There were no boats. The people were skilled fishermen and often went many miles to sea, in pursuit of the larger deep-deep-sea fish.”

“A name given to Mt. Hualalai behind us, was “Kilo-waa,” or Canoe-descrier. The canoes were of elaborate form and smoothness. Most of them were single canoes with outriggers. Many large ones, however, were rigged double, six or eight feet apart, with a high platform between them.”

“All the fastenings were of carefully plaited sinnet or cocoanut fiber, the lashings being laid with great care and skill. The mast was stepped in the platform. The common people had mat sails. Those of Kuakini’s canoes were of sail-duck.”

“Appearance Of Chiefs And People … The relative rank of other natives could be approximately estimated by their stature and corpulence. There were quite a number of large fat men and women of some rank among our neighbors.”

“The leading women met weekly at our house, most of them wearing the lei-pa-Iaoa, consisting of a thick bunch of finely plaited hair passed through a large hole in a hooked polished piece of whale-tooth, and tied around the neck, forming an insignium of rank.”

“They also carried small kahilis to brush away the flies. Any chief of high rank was attended by one or more fly-brushers, by a spittoon-bearer, and other personal attendants.”

“The spittoon holder was the most honored, being responsible to let none of the spittle fall into the possession of an evil-minded sorcerer, who might compass the death of the Alii therewith. Broad, elastic cocoanut leaf fans were in constant play.”

“Hawking and spitting were continued in any gathering of natives, and were apt seriously to disturb public worship at church. But the great crowd of the common people were miserably lean, and often very squalid in appearance. “

“They were too much in the sea to appear filthy, although the heads of both high and low were thoroughly infested. It was a daily spectacle to see them picking over each other’s heads for dainties. Their vicinity rendered necessary the frequent use of a fine-toothed comb on us children, much to our discomfort. But I believe our ancestors at no remote period were little better off.”

“Styles Of Clothing … The common multitude wore no foreign cloth. Their few garments were wholly of tapa. The younger women were rarely seen uncovered beyond decency, although old crones went about with the pa-u only. The smaller children had nothing on. The men always wore the half-decent malo, and nothing more.”

“At meetings, they wore the little kihei, or shoulder cape. Before 1836, simple cotton shirts would not unfrequently be seen in the church. I never saw but two Hawaiians wearing trousers in Kailua. One was Kuakini and the other Thomas Hopu, from the Cornwall School, who came out with Bingham and Thurston.”

“The national female costume was the pa-u, which was worn by all at all times. It was a yard wide strip of bark-cloth wound quite tightly around the hips reaching from the waist to the knees, and secured at the waist by folding over the edges. Foreign cloth was also used. At one great ceremonial, a queen had her body rolled up in a pa-u of one hundred yards of rich satin.”

“Sources Of Drinking Water … The drinking water of the people was very brackish, from numerous caves which reached below the sea level.”

“The white people, and some chiefs had their water from up the mountain where were numerous depressions in the lava, full of clear, sweet rain water.”

“There were also many tunnel-caves, the channels of former lava-streams. The air from the sea, penetrating these chill caverns, deposited its moisture, and much distilled water filled the holes in the floor.”

“Sometimes the fine rootlets of ohia-trees penetrating from above, festooned the ceilings of these dark lava-ducts as with immense spider webs. If in a dry season, water was lacking on the open ground, it could always be found higher up on the mountain in such caves.”

“Twice a week one of our ohuas or native dependants went up the mountain with two huewai, or calabash bottles, suspended by nets from the ends of his mamaki or yoke, similar to those used by Chinese vegetable venders.”

“These he filled with sweet water and brought home, having first covered the bottles with fresh ferns, to attest his having been well inland. The contents of the two bottles filled a five-gallon demijohn twice a week.”

“Source Of Food Supply … The people had ample cultivable land in the moist upland from two to four miles inland at altitudes of one thousand to twenty-five hundred feet.”

“It is a peculiarity of that Kona coast that while the shore may be absolutely rainless for months gentle showers fall daily upon the mountain slope.”

“The prevailing trade-winds are totally obstructed by the three great mountain domes and never reach Kona. There are only the sweet land breeze by night, and the cooling sea-breeze by day.”

“The latter comes in, loaded with the evaporations of the sea, and floats high up the mountain slopes. As it rises, the rarification of the air precipitates more and more of its burden of vapor, so that at two thousand and three thousand feet, there are daily copious rains, and verdure is luxuriant.”

“The contrast is immense and delicious between the arid heat of the shore, and the moist cool greenness of the near-by upland. The soil is most fertile, being formed from the decay of recent lava flows.”

“There the natives found their chief means of subsistence, and, in good seasons, were sufficiently fed. In bad seasons there were drought, and more or less of ‘wi,’ or famine. The uala or sweet potatoes, and the taro, which constituted their chief food grew best on the lower and warmer ground, where was more liability to drought.”

“How Fire Was Obtained … The people commonly procured fire by friction of wood, although some of them had old files, from which they elicited sparks by strokes from a gun-flint. It was common to carry fire in a slow-burning tapa-match, especially when they wanted to smoke.”

“I first saw fire obtained from wood at our camp on Mauna Kea. A long dry stick of soft hau or linden wood was used. A small stiff splinter of very hard wood was held in the right hand, and the point rubbed with great force and swiftness in a deep groove formed in the soft wood by the friction.”

“A brown powder soon appeared in the end of the groove, began to smoke and ignited. This was deftly caught into a little nest of dry fibre and gently blown into a flame, which soon grew into an immense camp-fire.” (Bishop)

View of Kailua from Laniakea-1836

Persis_Goodale_Thurston_Taylor_–_Kailua_from_the_Sea,_1836

Kaawaloa, Kealakekua Bay. A copperplate engraving from a drawing by Lucy or Persis Thurston about 1835

April 16, 2022 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hilo Railroad Company – Hawaiian Consolidated Railway

The Treaty of Reciprocity (1875) between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market. Through the treaty and its amendments, the US obtained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into US markets for their sugar.

At the industry’s peak in the 1930s, Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

Sugar cultivation exploded on the Big Island. As a means to transport sugar and other goods, railroading was introduced to the Islands in 1879.

On March 28, 1899, Dillingham received a charter to build the original eight miles of the Hilo Railroad that connected the Olaʻa sugar mill to Waiākea, that was soon to become the location of Hilo’s deep water port.

Rail line extensions continued. Extensions were soon built to Pāhoa, where the Pahoa Lumber Company was manufacturing ʻōhia and koa railroad ties for export to the Santa Fe Railroad.

Although not the first railway on the Big Island, the Hilo Railroad was arguably the most ambitious. The Olaʻa line was completed in 1900, immediately followed by a seventeen mile extension to Kapoho, home of the Puna Sugar Company plantation.

Immediately after that two branch lines were constructed (also to sugar plantations,) and then the railroad was extended north into Hilo itself.

All the sugar grown in East Hawaiʻi, in Puna and on the Hāmākua Coast, was transported by rail to Hilo Harbor, where it was loaded onto ships bound for the continent.

An early account stated that the rail line crossed over 12,000 feet in bridges, 211 water openings under the tracks, and individual steel spans up to 1,006 feet long and 230 feet in height.

Some of the most notable were those over Maulua and Honoliʻi gulches, the Wailuku River and Laupāhoehoe. Over 3,100 feet of tunnels were constructed, one of which, the Maulua Tunnel, was over half a mile in length.

While the main business of the railroad remained the transport of raw sugar and other products to and from the mills, it also provided passenger service.

A chiefly tourist line, branching from Olaʻa, was built inland 12.5 miles up the mountain to Glenwood where visitors to the Volcano House near Kilauea Volcano would then transfer to buses. Due to stiff competition from motor vehicles, the Glenwood extension was scaled back to Mountain View in 1932.

Between 1909 and 1913, the Hāmākua Division of the railroad was constructed to service the sugar mills north of Hilo. Unfortunately, the cost of building the Hāmākua extension essentially destroyed the Hilo Railroad, which was sold in 1916 and reorganized as the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway.

Targeting tourists to augment local passenger and raw sugar transport, the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway ran sightseeing specials under the name “Scenic Express.”

Not for the faint of heart, these trips included a stop on the trestles, where passengers disembarked to admire the outstanding scenery.

The Great Depression saw a decrease in business, but business picked up in the 1940s, when thousands of battle-weary troops packed the passenger cars en route to Camp Tarawa, in Waimea, to rest, recuperate and prepare for another campaign.

But the end was near for the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway. Early in the morning of April 1, 1946, a massive tsunami struck Hawaiʻi. The railroad line between Hilo and Paʻauilo suffered massive damage; bridges collapsed, trestles tumbled and one engine was literally swept off the tracks.

The expensive option of rebuilding the railway was rejected. Hawaiʻi Consolidated offered the rights-of-way, tracks and remaining bridges, trestles and tunnels to the Territory of Hawaiʻi, but the offer was refused, and finally the company sold the entire works to the Gilmore Steel and Supply Company.

Shortly thereafter, realizing its error, the Territory bought it all back. Much of the current highway along the coast follows the route of the old railroad; five original railroad trestles have been converted into highway bridges. (This route averaged better than one bridge per mile over its 40-mile length.)

At the time of the tsunami, plantations were already phasing out rail in favor of trucking cane from the field to the mill. It was inevitable that trucking would also replace rail as the primary means of transporting sugar to the harbor. The tsunami accelerated that transition.

Most sugar from Hāmākua was trucked to Hilo Harbor, although the Hāmākua Sugar Company continued to use its offshore cable landing at Honokaʻa until 1948.

A few remnants of the railway are still visible. Hawaiʻi Consolidated’s yards were in the Waiākea district of Hilo, where the roundhouse still stands today, next to the county swimming pool on Kalanikoa Street.

In Laupāhoehoe, a concrete platform remains where Hula dancers once performed for tourists. And the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum is housed in the former home of Mr. Stanley, the superintendent of maintenance.

Today, the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum and Visitors Center keeps the memory of Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway alive. Although the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum is among the state’s smallest museums, it attracts an estimated 5,000 visitors a year. The admission fee is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors, and $2 for students. Special rates for tours are also offered.

The museum is open weekdays from 9 am to 4:30 pm and on weekends from 10 am to 2 pm. The address is 36-2377 Māmalahoa Highway, Laupāhoehoe, Hawaiʻi 96764. (Lots of information here for Laupāhoehoe Train Museum and Ian Birnie.)

April 8, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Island Summits

He ‘Ohu Ke Aloha; ‘A‘ohe Kuahiwi Kau ‘Ole
Love is like mist; there is no mountaintop that it does not settle upon

“… as the sun shining in his strength dissipated the clouds, we had a more impressive view of the stupendous pyramidal Mauna Kea, having a base of some thirty miles, and a height of nearly three miles. Its several terminal peaks rise so near each other, as scarcely to be distinguished at a distance.”

“These, resting on the shoulders of this vast Atlas of the Pacific, prove their great elevation by having their bases environed with ice, and their summits covered with snow, in this tropical region, and heighten the grandeur and beauty of the scene, by exhibiting in miniature, a northern winter, in contrast with the perpetual summer of the temperate and torrid zones below the snow and ice.”

“The shores along this coast appeared very bold, rising almost perpendicularly, several hundred feet, being furrowed with many ravines and streams. From these bluffs, the country rises gradually, for a few miles, presenting a grassy appearance, with a sprinkling of trees and shrubs.”

“Then, midway from the sea to the summit of the mountain, appeared a dark forest, principally of the koa and ʻōhia, forming a sort of belt, some ten miles in breadth-the temperate zone of the mountain.” (Bingham at first sight of the Islands, 1820)

And when you think about high elevation places in the Hawaiian islands, of course you have to talk about that basic dichotomy between the lower elevation places where people live.

And in old times, the lower elevations would have been called the Wao Kanaka. Wao being a word that means “zone” and “Kanaka” being a person. So the Wao Kanaka is a zone in which people belong.

When you rise above that zone, you enter into a realm in which all of the living things there are not there because of human activity. They flourish as the result of the activity of the gods, or the Akua. And so that zone is called the Wao Akua. And the transition from Wao Kanaka to Wao Akua is not taken lightly. (Gon)

The Islands’ peaks are considered the piko (summit or center of the land) and are considered sacred. The places upon which clouds nestle are considered wao akua, the realm of the gods. Clouds cover the actions of the gods while they walk the earth. The higher the piko, the closer to heaven, and the greater the success of prayers. (Maly)

Let’s look at Hawaiʻi’s peaks, the highest point on each Island as we move down the Island chain.

Niʻihau – Pānīʻau (1,281-feet)

Ni‘ihau was formed from a single shield volcano approximately 4.89-million years ago, making it slightly younger in age than Kaua‘i. It is approximately 70-square miles or 44,800-acres. It’s about 17-miles west of Kauaʻi.

Pānīʻau, the island’s highest point, is 1,281-feet; approximately 78% of the island is below 500-feet in elevation. Located inside Kauai’s rain shadow, Ni‘ihau receives only about 20 to 40-inches of rain per year. Ni‘ihau has no perennial streams. (DLNR)

Kauai – Kawaikini (5,243-feet)

Geologically, Kauai is the oldest of the main inhabited islands in the chain. It is also the northwestern-most island, with Oʻahu separated by the Kaʻieʻie Channel, which is about 70-miles long. In centuries past, Kauai’s isolation from the other islands kept it safe from outside invasion and unwarranted conflict.

Near the summit (Kawaikini) is Waiʻaleʻale; in 1920 it passed Cherrapunji, a village in the Khasi hills of India, as the wettest spot on Earth (recording a yearly average of 476-inches of rain.)

Oʻahu – Kaʻala (4,025-feet)

The Waiʻanae Mountains, formed by volcanic eruptions nearly four-million years ago, have seen centuries of wind and rain, cutting huge valleys and sharp ridges into the extinct volcano. Mount Kaʻala, the highest peak on the island of Oʻahu, rises to 4,025-feet.

Today, only a small remnant of the mountain’s original flat summit remains, surrounded by cliffs and narrow ridges. It’s often hidden by clouds.

Molokai – Kamakou (4,961-feet)

The island was formed by two volcanoes, East and West, emerging about 1.5-2-million years ago. The cliffs on the north-eastern part of the island are the result of subsidence and the “Wailua Slump” (a giant submarine landslide – about 25-miles long that tumbled about 120-miles offshore – about 1.4-million years ago.)

Kamakou is part of the extinct East Molokai shield volcano, which comprises the east side of the island. It and much of the surrounding area is part of the East Maui Watershed partnership and the Kamakou Preserve. A boardwalk covers part of the rainforest and bog to protect the hundreds of native plants, birds, insects and other species there.

Lānai – Lānaihale (3,337-feet)

The island of Lānai was made by a single shield volcano between 1- and 1.5-million years ago, forming a classic example of a Hawaiian shield volcano with a gently sloping proﬁle. (SOEST) The island of Lānai is about 13-miles long and 13-miles wide; with an overall land area of approximately 90,000-acres, it is the sixth largest of the eight major Hawaiian Islands.

“At the very summit of the island, which is generally shrouded in mist, we came upon what Gibson (an early (1861) Mormon missionary to the islands) called his lake – a little shallow pond, about the size of a dining table. In the driest times there was always water here, and one of the regular summer duties of the Chinese cook was to take a pack mule and a couple of kegs and go up to the lake for water.” (Lydgate, Thrum)

Maui – Haleakalā (10,023-feet)

Haleakalā was thought to have been known to the ancient Hawaiians by any one of five names: “Haleakalā,” “Haleokalā,” “Heleakalā,” “Aheleakalā” and “Halekalā.” (Hawaiʻi National Park Superintendent Monthly Report, December 1939)

Haleakalā is best known in stories related of the demi-god Māui; he is best known for his tricks and supernatural powers. In Hawaiʻi, he is best known for snaring the sun, lifting the sky, discovering the secrets of fire, fishing up the islands and so forth. (Fredericksen)

Kahoʻolawe – Lua Makika (1,477-feet)

Kahoʻolawe is the smallest of the eight Main Hawaiian Islands, 11-miles long and 7-miles wide (approximately 28,800-acres;) it is seven miles southwest of Maui. The highest point on Kahoʻolawe is the crater of Lua Makika at the summit of Puʻu Moaulanui, which is about 1,477 feet above sea level.

Located in the “rain shadow” of Maui’s Haleakalā, rainfall has been in short supply on Kahoʻolawe. However, nineteenth century forestry reports mentioned a “dense forest” at the top of Kahoʻolawe. Historically, a “cloud bridge” connected the island to the slopes of Haleakalā. The Naulu winds brought the Naulu rains that are associated with Kahoʻolawe (a heavy mist and shower of fine rain that would cover the island.)

Hawaiʻi – Mauna Kea (13,796-feet)

Nani Wale ʻO Mauna Kea, Kuahiwi Kūhaʻo I Ka Mālie (Beautiful is Mauna Kea, standing alone in the calm) expresses the feeling that Mauna Kea is a source of awe and inspiration for the Hawaiian people. The mountain is a respected elder, a spiritual connection to one’s gods. (Maly)

A significant pattern archaeologists note in their investigations is the virtual absence of archaeological sites at the very top of the mountain. McCoy states that the “top of the mountain was clearly a sacred precinct that must, moreover, have been under a kapu and accessible to only the highest chiefs or priests.” (Maly)

ʻĀina mauna, or mountain lands, reflects a term used affectionately by elder Hawaiians to describe the upper regions of all mountain lands surrounding and including Mauna Kea. (Maly)

April 6, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Helen Keller

Helen Keller (1880–1968) became blind and deaf due to illness before she was two. At seven she began learning language through an alphabet spelled into her hand by her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

On March 3, 1887, Sullivan went to Keller’s home in Alabama and immediately went to work. She began by teaching six-year-old Keller finger spelling, starting with the word ‘doll,’ to help Keller understand the gift of a doll she had brought along. Other words would follow.

In 1890, Keller began speech classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. She would toil for 25 years to learn to speak so that others could understand her. Keller had mastered several methods of communication, including touch-lip reading, Braille, speech, typing and finger-spelling.

Polly Thompson was her assistant after the death of Sullivan in 1936. Thomson spent 46 years with Keller. Mary Agnes (Polly) Thomson was born in Glasgow, Scotland on February 20, 1885. In 1913, Thomson came to the United States for a long visit to an uncle who worked as a shoe manufacturer in Swampscott, Massachusetts.

On October 20, 1914, Thomson joined the household as secretary, eventually becoming Keller’s companion and interpreter. Polly helped Helen to communicate with the world despite her blindness and deafness.

Thomson and Keller formed a tremendous bond. They traveled together all over the world and spent countless hours at home responding to correspondence. The pair also, however, settled into a mostly quiet life. They were happy to escape to their respective rooms after dinner to spend the night reading their books.

In 1937 Helen Keller received a request to speak before the Hawai’i legislature for the blind of Hawai’i. Helen and Polly were already planning a trip to Japan so, she noted, “I shall comply, as the boat stops there for a day.”

“A long cablegram from Honolulu, where [our boat] is to stop for a day. I am to speak before the legislature, urging them to provide a Bureau of Welfare for the blind of Hawaii and an adequate appropriation, and arrangements are being made for me to give an informal talk to the Honolulu Lions at a luncheon.”

“The welcoming committee at Honolulu sent me a cordial ‘Aloha’ by wireless this afternoon. Three times an inquiry has been cabled from there whether I would permit a broadcast of my speech for the people on seven other islands beside Hawaii, and three times I have signified my consent.”

“Whatever the trouble may be, the nearness of Hawaii is now a thrilling reality. Polly is whetting my impatience to reach that Blest Isle by recalling the blue, blue mountains round Honolulu which she saw years ago on a world cruise.”

“We arrived at Honolulu 6 A.M [April 6, 1937]. I was hardly up when a Braille copy of the program for the day was brought to me. I noted that two extra meetings had been put in between that of the legislature and the Lions’ luncheon. That meant remarks to be made on the spur of the moment.”

“Polly and I were on deck at 7 A.M. A committee headed by Commander Todd, aide to the governor of Hawaii, and including representatives of the blind, the deaf and the Lions, welcomed us.”

“The leis – veritable living jewels to my enraptured touch – were heaped upon me until my dress was completely hidden. From Polly’s enumeration of colors they must have had a rainbow glory-white, red, pink, orange, gold.”

“Their blended fragrances intoxicated me-gardenia, pekokee (very much like the scented wisteria), plumeria, mock orange – so that I forgot the weight and the heat of the flowers on my neck. The music of ‘Aloha Oe’ was in every word spoken, every kindness shown, on my first visit to Honolulu.”

“As we drove through the wide, pleasant streets I knew by smell it was a garden city. … Senators Elsie Wilcox, Mrs Cudingham and WJ Heen escorted Polly and me to the governor’s office in the building which was formerly the royal palace. Governor Poindexter greeted us cordially. I was touched to learn that he had come out of hospital for the occasion.”

“He told me the office used to be Queen Liliuokalani’s bedroom, and that the representatives met downstairs in the sometime throne room. I said I had read her pathetic story as a young girl, and told how I shed tears hearing that the Hawaiians had shut themselves up and wept after her abdication.”

“Again the view from the windows held Polly entranced, and I could imagine how Her Majesty’s eyes must have rested upon their soft, luxuriant greenness with a poet’s intense love.”

“From the office several representatives escorted Polly and me to the House, where we were to speak.” She started her talk, “For the first time, I know the full meaning of Hawaii.” “Speaking through Miss Thomson, Miss Keller voiced a plea for adequate legislative appropriations for work among the blind of the territory.”

“The response was encouraging, and I am sure the blind of Hawaii will obtain the Bureau of Welfare they need. I felt handsomely complimented when the legislature passed a long resolution extending to me a welcome on behalf of the people of Hawaii.”

“It was very interesting to address a legislative body representing widely different groups on the island – Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiians, Portuguese and Anglo-Saxon.”

“I believe they are working out slowly but surely a solution of interracial problems. Hawaii is fortunate in a geographical situation that sets it somewhat apart from the fettering prejudices and rabid nationalism which retard endeavors to achieve permanent peace.”

“As Polly and I were coming out of the palace we were surrounded by a large crowd of schoolboys and girls, and I was asked to say a few words to them from the balcony.”

“Afterwards we were taken to the Territorial School for the Blind and the Deaf, and fresh leis were rained upon me by delegates from the Honolulu Junior League, the Japanese Junior League, the Hospital Social Service, the Chamber of Commerce and the students.”

“Then I learned what those works of art meant – the wreath weavers rising at dawn, picking masses of blossoms and spending hours threading them together petal by petal. What a lavish, colorful welcome to bestow upon a visitor! And I counted between twenty and thirty leis round my neck.”

“I am sorry that the blind and the deaf are taught in the same school. The combination method does not produce the best results. For it imposes a heavier burden upon those who teach two entirely different groups of handicapped, and it is not possible to give each group the special attention it requires.”

“But I was delighted to find the Territorial School in spacious grounds where the students can exercise freely and develop happily, with beauty calling to the eye or the ear in mountain, sea, bird songs and brilliant vegetation.”

“The luncheon with the Honolulu Lions and the Business and Professional Women’s Club took place at Fuller Hall. Before I spoke the orchestra, led by one of my sightless fellows, sent out deep, sweet vibrations that I could feel a long way off.”

“Our charming hostess was the governor’s daughter, Helen Poindexter. His Excellency placed his automobile at our disposal for a ride round Honolulu. It had grown quite hot, and I was glad when we stopped at the pineapple factory, where we enjoyed the coolest, most delicious pineapple juice I had ever tasted.”

“To my regret I found we did not have time to pay our respects to the active volcano, Kilauea, but we drove far enough into the mountains to be overpowered by their magnificence. Polly said they seemed to float in an ocean of unearthly blue, and the rounded green slopes were beyond description.”

“I felt the car zigzag up corkscrew roads between hibiscus hedges, groves of palm and bamboo, pineapple fields and homes built on the summit or near it for the fascinating view in every direction.”

“Mr Palmer, who teaches the deaf, was of the party. Between his wealth of legend, history and Hawaiian names liquid with vowels, Polly’s color-filled fingers and the smells that flooded my nostrils I received a Niagara of impressions which I have not yet formulated.”

“We got out to visit Queen Emma’s summer palace with its wide cool rooms. I was permitted to touch the enormous beds on which the natives sleep, the cradle of the queen’s heir, her sewing table and her mat-weaving loom.”

“Then we walked into the ‘grass hut’ or pavilion where the king sought refuge from the cares of state. It had many windows as well as dry grass between strong, smooth bamboo logs.”

“What romance it suggested – revelers under the tender dreaming evening sky, graceful slender hula dancers, the ukulele sending its wistful notes out over the sea until the stoutest hearts succumbed to the love spell!”

“We drove on to the great Pali, or cliff, where Laihahee towered majestically close by; and the masses of white surf beating against the rock caught a rainbow glory in the sun.”

“On the exposed side a furious blast buffeted the car. Its vibration, which caused the windows to rattle, was startlingly like the roar of Niagara Falls which I have visited several times. I was told that wind had turned over a number of automobiles.”

“As we returned down the mountain a sudden pungent whiff made my heart jump with delight – the fragrance of eucalyptus trees which mingles with all my memories of Los Angeles.”

“Miss Poindexter drove us to the dock. Reluctantly we said good-by to the warmhearted friends who had made the day a sunburst of hospitality and pleasure for us, but their Alohas cheered us with the knowledge that we would be welcome if we came back for a longer stay.”

“Although Polly and I could scarcely stand from fatigue we went on deck for a glimpse of the beautiful harbor and Laihahee. People were waving to the ship, singing, shouting, the very automobiles seemed to honk ‘Aloha!’ until we were a long way from the shore.”

“When we entered our hot stateroom and saw leis piled high on our beds we groaned – in fact, I could have screamed. I was so surfeited with sweet smells and crazy to stretch out, I simply threw the wreaths on the floor. I understood as I had never before the painful effect of a dazzling spectacle too prolonged upon the eyes of those who see.”

“While we were having dinner in bed two boxes were brought in filled with an odorous miscellany of flowers which I was about to send away when a Braille label caught my finger tips. These are some of the lovely flowers that grow in Hawaii. Territorial School For The Deaf And The Blind.”

“I found they had with Aloha thoughtfulness fastened a Braille card to each blossom, giving its name and colors … All night I dreamed that I was being smothered with sweetness, and this morning I ache every time I recall the leis pressing upon my shoulders.”

“With twitching fingers Polly has done her best to spell the endless pen-written Honolulu messages, and with hands quite as tired I have gone over the Braille Alohas. Now I am oppressed by the prospect of thank you letters I am to write to Governor Poindexter, the school and many others ….”