Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Seven Sisters

Nā-Huihui-O-Makaliʻi, “Cluster of Little Eyes” (Makaliʻi) (a faint group of blue-white stars) marks the shoulder of the Taurus (Bull) constellation.  Though small and dipper-shaped, it is not the Little Dipper.

Traditionally, the rising of Makaliʻi at sunset following the new moon (about the middle of October) marked the beginning of a four-month Makahiki season in ancient Hawaiʻi (a sign of the change of the season to winter.)

In Hawaiʻi, the Makahiki is a form of the “first fruits” festivals following the harvest season common to many cultures throughout the world. It is similar in timing and purpose to Thanksgiving, Oktoberfest and other harvest celebrations.

Something similar was observed throughout Polynesia, but it was in pre-contact Hawaiʻi that the festival reached its greatest elaboration.  As the year’s harvest was gathered, tributes in the form of goods and produce were given to the chiefs from November through December.

Various rites of purification and celebration in December and January closed the observance of the Makahiki season. During the special holiday the success of the harvest was commemorated with prayers of praise made to the Creator, ancestral guardians, caretakers of the elements and various deities – particularly Lono.

Makaliʻi is also known as the Pleiades; its common name is the Seven Sisters.

But it is not these seven sisters that is the subject of this summary; this story is about Mellie, Kulamanu, May, Einei, Lucy, Kathleen and Lani – the seven daughters of Curtis and Victoria Ward.

Curtis Perry Ward was born in Kentucky and arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1853, when whaling in the Pacific was at its peak. Curtis worked at the Royal Custom House, which monitored commercial activity at Honolulu Harbor for the kingdom.

Victoria Robinson was born in Nuʻuanu in 1846, the daughter of English shipbuilder, James Robinson and his wife Rebecca, a woman of Hawaiian ancestry whose chiefly lineage had roots in Kaʻū, Hilo and Honokōwai, Maui.

Ward started a livery with headquarters on Queen Street and expanded into the business of transporting cargo on horse-pulled wagons. The size of Ward’s work force became just as big as the harbor’s other major player, James Robinson & Co. (Victoria’s father.)

Curtis and Victoria married in 1865 and for many years they made their home near Honolulu Harbor on property presently occupied by the Davies Pacific Center.

The Wards bought land on what was then the outskirts of Honolulu, eventually acquiring over 100-acres of land running from Thomas Square on King Street down to the ocean.

They built the “Old Plantation” in 1882, a stately, Southern-style home on the mauka portion of the property.  It featured an artesian well, vegetable and flower gardens, a large pond stocked with fish, and extensive pasturage for horses and cattle. Self-sufficient as a working farm, Old Plantation was surrounded by a vast coconut grove.

Here’s a link to a video of “Old Plantation” with Anna Machado Cazimero, Kanoe Cazimero, Rodney Cazimero, Melveen Leed and Tito Berinobis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtPTv1QENC0

That year, Curtis Ward died (at age 53,) leaving Victoria to raise seven daughters and manage the estate.  Here’s a little bit about the girls.

Mary Elizabeth “Mellie” Ward (February 16, 1867 to July 26, 1956) – married Frank Hustace September 30, 1886; Frank worked with, then succeeded his father-in-law in the draying business.

May Augusta Ward (May 10, 1871 to January 6, 1938) – married Ernest Hay Wodehouse in 1893; he was a prominent figure in the business world of Hawaiʻi; former president of Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association and the Sugar Factors Co, Ltd.

Annie Eva Theresa “Einei” Ward (March 13, 1873 to July 19, 1934) – married Wade Armstrong (Einei was the first of the Ward sisters to die, living to the age of 61.)

Keakealani Perry “Lani” Ward (May 27, 1881, December 31, 1961) – married Robert Booth; in 1966, Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children completed a new four-story Lani Ward Booth wing on Punahou Street.

Three sisters never married, and Lucy and Kathleen lived their lives at Old Plantation:
Hattie Kulamanu Ward (March 26, 1869 to March 2, 1959)
Lucy Kaiaka Ward (August 27, 1874 to March 20, 1954) (one of the founding members of the Hawaiian Humane Society)
Victoria Kathleen Ward (February 27, 1878 September 12, 1958)

Victoria Ward established Victoria Ward Ltd. in 1930 to manage the family’s property, primarily the remaining 65-acres of Old Plantation, now part of the core of Kakaʻako real estate adjoining downtown Honolulu.  Victoria Ward died April 11, 1935.

Victoria Ward was loyal to the Kingdom (Queen Liliʻuokalani was her personal friend) and she died under the flag much in the same way her husband passed under the Confederate flag more than 50 years before.  (Command)

Three sisters, Lucy Kathleen and Kulamanu, took control of the Victoria Ward Estate, with Kathleen becoming president and Lucy the secretary.

All was not always happy in the family.

In 1951, sisters Lucy and Kathleen sued to establish guardianship for sister Kulamanu.  At the hearing, evidence of insanity was undisputed and proved to the judge’s satisfaction that Kulamanu was mentally incapable of managing her estate. On evidence of suitability the probate judge found that Hawaiian Trust Company, Limited, is “a fit and proper person to be appointed” as guardian of her estate.  (Circuit Court Records)

Later (1957,) the Supreme Court decided on sisters Lani and Mellie (and nephew Cenric Wodehouse) petition for the appointment of a guardian for their sister, Kathleen, alleging that Kathleen was seventy-seven years of age, mentally infirm and unable to manage her business affairs.

The court found Victoria Kathleen Ward was incompetent to manage her business affairs (but not insane) and appointed Chinn Ho, Mark Norman Olds and George H Vicars, Jr guardians of the property.  (Supreme Court Records)

In 1958, the city bought the mauka portion of the Old Plantation Estate and tore it down to build the Honolulu International Center (later re-named Neal S. Blaisdell Center (after Honolulu’s former Mayor.))

The Blaisdell Center has been in operation since 1964 and in 1994 was remodeled and expanded.  The Blaisdell Center complex includes a multi-purpose Arena, Exhibition Hall, Galleria, Concert Hall, meeting rooms and parking structure.

On April 8, 2002, General Growth Properties, Inc announced the acquisition of Victoria Ward, Limited; this included 65-fee simple acres in Kakaʻako, with improvements of over one-million square feet of leasable area (Ward Entertainment Center, Ward Warehouse, Ward Village and Village Shops.)

General Growth later (2004) acquired the Howard Hughes Corporation.  With excessive debt, General Growth was pushed into bankruptcy in 2009; then, in 2010, it spun off the Ward assets into the Hughes entity (General Growth was out of bankruptcy by the end of that year.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Twain and the Volcano

“Early in 1866, George Barnes invited [Mark Twain] to resign [his] reportership on his paper, the San Francisco Morning Call, and for some months thereafter, [he] was without money or work; then [he] had a pleasant turn of fortune.”

“The proprietors of the Sacramento Union, a great and influential daily journal, sent [Twain] to the Sandwich Islands to write four letters a month at twenty dollars a piece.”

He also wrote books about some of his travels (that included a visit to Hawai‘i) … one such, Roughing It.  Here are some of his comments about a visit to Kilauea Volcano – from that series, as well as his other writing.

“Monday morning we were close to the island of Hawaii.  Two of its high mountains were in view – Mauna Loa and Hualaiai. The latter is an imposing peak, but being only ten thousand feet high is seldom mentioned or heard of.”

“The rays of glittering snow and ice, that clasped [Maua Loa’s] summit like a claw, looked refreshing when viewed from the blistering climate we were in.”

“One could stand on that mountain (wrapped up in blankets and furs to keep warm), and while he nibbled a snowball or an icicle to quench his thirst he could look down the long sweep of its sides and see spots where plants are growing that grow only where the bitter cold of Winter prevails …”

“… lower down he could see sections devoted to production that thrive in the temperate zone alone; and at the bottom of the mountain he could see the home of the tufted cocoa-palms and other species of vegetation that grow only in the sultry atmosphere of eternal Summer.”

“He could see all the climes of the world at a single glance of the eye, and that glance would only pass over a distance of four or five miles as the bird flies!”

We “sailed down to Kau, where we disembarked and took final leave of the vessel.  Next day we bought horses and bent our way over the summer-clad mountain-terraces, toward the great volcano of Kilauea (Ke-low-way-ah).”

“We made nearly a two days’ journey of it, but that was on account of laziness.  Toward sunset on the second day, we reached an elevation of some four thousand feet above sea level, and as we picked our careful way through billowy wastes of lava long generations ago stricken dead and cold in the climax of its tossing fury …”

“… we began to come upon signs of the near presence of the volcano – signs in the nature of ragged fissures that discharged jets of sulphurous vapor into the air, hot from the molten ocean down in the bowels of the mountain.”

“I was disappointed when I saw the great volcano of Kilauea to‐day for the first time. It is a comfort to me to know that I fully expected to be disappointed, however, and so, in one sense at least, I was not disappointed.”

“I said to myself ‘Only a considerable hole in the ground ‐ nothing to Haleakala ‐ a wide, level, black plain in the bottom of it, and a few little sputtering jets of fire occupying a place about as large as an ordinary potato‐patch, up in one corner ‐ no smoke to amount to anything.’”

“I reflected that night was the proper time to view a volcano … I turned my eyes upon the volcano again (now, at night.)”

“Perched upon the edge of the crater, at the opposite end from where we stood, was a small look-out house – say three miles away.  It assisted us, by comparison, to comprehend and appreciate the great depth of the basin – it looked like a tiny martin-box clinging at the eaves of a cathedral.”

“Arrived at the little thatched look out house, we rested our elbows on the railing in front and looked abroad over the wide crater and down over the sheer precipice at the seething fires beneath us.”

“The view was a startling improvement on my daylight experience. I turned to see the effect on the balance of the company and found the reddest-faced set of men I almost ever saw.”

“In the strong light every countenance glowed like red-hot iron, every shoulder was suffused with crimson and shaded rearward into dingy, shapeless obscurity! The place below looked like the infernal regions and these men like half-cooled devils just come up on a furlough.

“I turned my eyes upon the volcano again.  The ‘cellar’ was tolerably well lighted up.  For a mile and a half in front of us and half a mile on either side, the floor of the abyss was magnificently illuminated …”

“You could imagine those lights the width of a continent away – and that hidden under the intervening darkness were hills, and winding rivers, and weary wastes of plain and desert – and even then the tremendous vista stretched on, and on, and on!–to the fires and far beyond!”

“You could not compass it – it was the idea of eternity made tangible – and the longest end of it made visible to the naked eye!”

“The greater part of the vast floor of the desert under us was as black as ink, and apparently smooth and level; but over a mile square of it was ringed and streaked and striped with a thousand branching streams of liquid and gorgeously brilliant fire!”

“It looked like a colossal railroad map of the State of Massachusetts done in chain lightning on a midnight sky.  Imagine it–imagine a coal-black sky shivered into a tangled net-work of angry fire!”

“Here and there were gleaming holes a hundred feet in diameter, broken in the dark crust, and in them the melted lava–the color a dazzling white just tinged with yellow–was boiling and surging furiously …”

“… and from these holes branched numberless bright torrents in many directions, like the spokes of a wheel, and kept a tolerably straight course for a while and then swept round in huge rainbow curves, or made a long succession of sharp worm-fence angles, which looked precisely like the fiercest jagged lightning.”

“These streams met other streams, and they mingled with and crossed and recrossed each other in every conceivable direction, like skate tracks on a popular skating ground.”

“Sometimes streams twenty or thirty feet wide flowed from the holes to some distance without dividing –and through the opera-glasses we could see that they ran down small, steep hills and were genuine cataracts of fire, white at their source, but soon cooling and turning to the richest red, grained with alternate lines of black and gold.”

“Some of the streams preferred to mingle together in a tangle of fantastic circles, and then they looked something like the confusion of ropes one sees on a ship’s deck when she has just taken in sail and dropped anchor–provided one can imagine those ropes on fire.”

“Through the glasses, the little fountains scattered about looked very beautiful.  They boiled, and coughed, and spluttered, and discharged sprays of stringy red fire–of about the consistency of mush, for instance–from ten to fifteen feet into the air, along with a shower of brilliant white sparks–a quaint and unnatural mingling of gouts of blood and snow-flakes!”

“We had circles and serpents and streaks of lightning all twined and wreathed and tied together, without a break throughout an area more than a mile square (that amount of ground was covered, though it was not strictly “square”) …”

“… and it was with a feeling of placid exultation that we reflected that many years had elapsed since any visitor had seen such a splendid display …”

“I forgot to say that the noise made by the bubbling lava is not great, heard as we heard it from our lofty perch.  It makes three distinct sounds–a rushing, a hissing, and a coughing or puffing sound …”

“… and if you stand on the brink and close your eyes it is no trick at all to imagine that you are sweeping down a river on a large low-pressure steamer, and that you hear the hissing of the steam about her boilers, the puffing from her escape-pipes and the churning rush of the water abaft her wheels.  The smell of sulphur is strong, but not unpleasant to a sinner.”

“We left the lookout house at ten o’clock in a half cooked condition, because of the heat from Pele’s furnaces, and wrapping up in blankets, for the night was cold, we returned to our Hotel.”

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William Edward Young

John and Eleanor Young had a family of five children: Annie Edith Young was born December 28, 1868 (in San Francisco), then in San Diego, Herbert Gray Young, on March 21, 1870; William Edward Young, on April 24, 1875; John Alexander ‘Jack’ Young, on January 2 1882; and Edgar Nelson Young, on July 21, 1885.

John’s father was a chair and cabinetmaker, and John followed in his father’s footsteps.  The family supplemented their income with produce from their garden; John often took the older boys fishing mackerel and bottom fish in San Diego Bay.

Eleanor Young developed rheumatoid arthritis when she was in her early forties.  She died on February 16, 1894 at age forty-five, leaving minor children Jack, 12, and Edgar, 10, and granddaughter Belle, 8.

John Young suffered from tuberculosis in the 1890s. After Eleanor died, he traveled extensively trying in vain to find a more suitable climate. He finally returned to San Diego. There, he died September 13, 1896 at age fifty-seven.

John Young’s sons, Herb and Will had a business in the summers of 1898 and 1899 at Catalina Island (the Island was then owned by the Banning Brothers).

They set up a concession to provide sightseeing excursion boats circling the Island and fishing for the tourists. They also got permission to take tourists out in glass-bottomed boats to view the fish and undersea creatures. It was a very successful venture.

Will was a good storyteller and kept the tourists amused, while Herb went diving under the boat and excited the fish. Once he found a hammerhead shark with a lot of curiosity. Herb played with the shark and put on a good show for the viewers who thought he might be in mortal danger. The glass-bottomed boat trips became very popular.

Then Herb and Will saw opportunity for business in Honolulu. Herb thought it looked good and persuaded Will to join him there in December. In January 1900, Herb and Will started Young Brothers.

They purchased a small launch, the Billy, and made a business running lines for the ships, delivering foodstuffs to the crews, and ferrying passengers. They were joined in October by their younger brother, John Alexander ‘Jack’ Young, who was then eighteen years old.

From their first days in Honolulu, the Young brothers were fascinated by the big sharks that infested the waters just outside the harbor where the garbage was dumped.

While the three brothers were involved in their daily harbor activities, they came to befriend boat captains, passengers and interested bystanders who were fascinated by tales of sharks, and more particularly whether they attacked humans.

This led to a small side-business in shark hunting that quickly earned William the nickname ‘Sharkey Bill.’ Fishing parties would he formed from among hotel guests, who were taken out on the Billy for a day of shark fishing.

“[W]e got the contract for towing garbage out and dumping it daily. But despite the numbers of horses ashore, only once in a while was a carcass available for our uses.”

“We had our best opportunity to study the sharks as they fought over the floating body, literally going into frenzies with snapping jaws and lashing tails, whipping the water white with foam.” (William Young)

“Little by little we began to suspect that there might be profit in our old friend the shark. Passengers and visitors were very curious about the tigers of the sea and often became rabid partisans, as they do to this day, over the question of whether sharks attack and eat human beings.”

“What would have been rather gruesome stories, save for the fact that they were matched by many in our own daily experience, were recounted to make or discredit a point.”

“Our opinions were sought, but we could not say for sure, never having actually seen a shark devour a man. But we could and did offer to take anyone shark fishing who wanted to go, and many went.”

“Our method was always the same, except when circumstances beyond our control arose, to which we had to adapt our [shark] hunting …”

“It was great sport to take a small party of fishermen out, and using a carcass for bait, attract sharks close enough to catch or kill.”

“But it does not attack at once. A shark is above all cautious, for all his curiosity. He swims around the carcass, sniffing and sizing up the situation.”

“He comes close to the boat and sticks up one cold, expressionless eye, and winks at us in his ghostly way. Then, once more he returns to the alluring meal spread so invitingly before him. He cannot seem to make up his mind. Finally he disappears.”

“Gone? Wait a bit and see. In twenty minutes or half an hour he is back, this time with four or five of his friends whom he has informed of the free meal that he found. They circle about, hungrily. … What is the matter, don’t they want it? Have patience, this is their custom.”

On February 27, 1904, Herbert Young caught a monster gray shark off Ewa in the harbor. Measuring fourteen feet long, it was the largest shark ever seen there. When opened, the stomach contained the remains of three big pigs and a quantity of horse flesh.

The body of one of the pigs was nearly intact and had apparently been just gulped down whole. The shark could easily have swallowed a man.

It was put on display at the Navy wharf. Then it was skinned by Fish Inspector Berndt and, after preparation, the skin was sent off to the fish commission as an outstanding specimen of gray shark.

On another adventure, “Professor PM Stewart who occupies one of the chairs of language in Cambridge University, England, has had an experience during his visit to Honolulu that probably never came to him before. He went shark fishing.”

“On Friday he caught a shark. His wife who has attracted much attention in this city on account of being a very tall striking looking blonde with very ultra English appearance, accompanied him and to catch the first shark.”

“He hooked one shark yesterday morning and drew the shark close to the boat and then started to dispatch the sea wolf with a spade.  The weapon was bent and then Professor Stewart took a hatchet to strike the monster. In his excitement the professor struck the line with the hatchet cutting the line and allowing the shark to escape.”

“Later in the day a second shark was caught near the bell buoy. This time the shark was dispatched without cutting the line and was towed in shore. The shark measured about 14 feet in length and was of the man eating variety.”

The boys “have hit on a new scheme for shark fishing. They are able now to take the sharks with a hook and line instead of harpooning them as was done formerly. Some very successful expeditious have been taken out by tile young men.”  (Hawaiian Star, June 2, 1906)

Shark jaws would sell for $5 apiece and were prized as souvenirs for mounting and display by members of the party, while the fins were taken away to be made into soup by the many Chinese who frequented the wharves.

On March 19, 1904, the Waikiki Aquarium opened.  “The land and the building at Waikiki were donated by prominent citizens, and the traction company had the job of maintenance.”

[William]I applied for the position of manager, having previously caught and tended many fish with Herb for the Aquarium at Catalina. My application was accepted, and so for a year I herded fish. I not only nursed, fed and attended to their wants, but also, with the help of a native fisherman, caught all the specimens exhibited in the building.”

“Many were caught within a stone-throw of the building wall. There were big ones, little ones, brilliantly colored tropical fish, squid, shark and surgeon fish, which carries the sheathed spine near his tail for a weapon.” (William Young)  He also continued to help run Young Brothers until the demands of Young Brothers compelled him to return full time.

William decided to make a little extra money by harpooning a large shark to show at the County Fair, held in Honolulu each September.

The Elks Club was in charge of the amusement concession, so for a booth rental of $60, William set up a display of a shark packed in ice and charged ten cents a look. By the end of the week, he had collected $1,500.

Herbert sold his interest in the Young Brothers business and went to the mainland to look for work as a diver.  Jack Young and Will Young incorporated the business in 1913 as Young Bros. Ltd; Will no longer took an active part in the business.

In the years that followed incorporation, it was necessary for the Young Brothers’ fleet to continue growing in order to meet the needs of business that paralleled the expanding territorial economy.

Will preferred to pursue his fascination with sharks and eventually left the islands for good in 1921 to become a well-known international shark hunter.

“A business proposition that looked promising came along about this time, but it meant that I would leave Honolulu for New York to be gone an indefinite time. Nothing of a business nature held me in Hawaii, and so I made arrangements to sail aboard the President Harrison.”

“I went aboard just as I had boarded all the big ships for so many years in the harbor, but this time there would be no hurried climb over the side to the towboat as the vessel swung out the channel. Once she had warped out of the dock, I was aboard for good, headed for the States and a new future.”

“Good-bye to Honolulu! A passenger at my elbow sighed and said, ‘I hate to go,’ which, I realized, summed up my case, but inadequately.”

William left Young Brothers in the hands of Jack, the last founding member of the company to remain in Hawai‘i. (Lots of information here is from William Young’s book Shark Shark, Young Brothers: 100 Years of Service, and a Young family background and genealogy.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Jack London and Waipio

In 1906, Jack London announced he was planning a trip on a boat – the Snark – he was to build and do blue-water sailing on a round-the-world cruise.  (The Snark was named after one of Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poems.)

“‘Honolulu first,’ said London yesterday. ‘After that we are not very definite. Everybody’s in good health, the bourgeoise tradesmen have finally freed us, the boat is staunch, the weather fine. What more a man wants I don’t know.’”

“‘Meet me in Paris,’ called Mrs. Jack London back through the megaphone as the boat disappeared. ‘Isn’t it glorious? Good-by, everybody!” [April 23, 1907] Jack and his wife Charmian came to the Islands twice, 1907-09 & 1915-16.

Later, Charmian wrote of Jack London’s impression of the Islands, “Jack, with his unquestionable love of natural beauty,

was ever impressed with man’s lordly harnessing of the outlaw, Nature, leading her by the mouth to perform his work upon earth.”

“‘’Do you get the splendid romance of it?’ he would say. ‘Look what these engineers have done – reaching out their hands and gathering and diverting the storm wastage of streams over the edge of this valley thousands of feet here in the clouds. …”

“[O]ne day, riding in a drizzle, Jack and I happened upon the broad, steep trail of the 2500-foot eastern scarp, into Waipio, and mushed through its mud down into a sunnier level, meeting strings of ascending mules laden with garden produce.”

“An old chronicler referred to the condition of the ‘roads’ hereabout as ‘embarrassing.’ Our horses tried very fractiously to refuse the descent.”

“This was one of the prettiest little adventures we two ever had together, dropping into the sequestered vale that opened wondrously as we progressed to the lovely banks of a wooded river that wound to the sea, widening to meet the surf that thundered upon a two-mile shingle.”

“On the banks of the stream we could see wahines at their washing, and hear the ringing sweet voices of children at play-survivors of a once thick population, as evidenced by remains that are to be found of fish-ponds, taro-patches, and the like. Here the last Hawaiian tapa cloth was made.”

“That same chronicler says: ‘There was something about that valley so lovely, so undisturbed … it seemed to belong to another world, or to be a portion of this into which sorrow and death had never entered.’”

“At the head of this great break in the coast nestles the half-deserted, half-ruined village of Waipio, and behind it there wedges into the floor of the valley a tremendous rock bastion veiled in waterfalls to its mid-hidden summit.”

“A second river curved from beyond its feet, and joined the one that flowed into the sea. We rode on across reedy shallows to a pathway once sacred to the sorcerers, kahunas, the which no layman then dared to profane with his step.”

“Only approaching twilight held us back from the beach trail that leads to a clump of tall coconuts, marking the site of a onetime important temple of refuge in this section of Hawaii, Puuhonua, built as long ago as the thirteenth century by a Kauai king.”

“There is reason to believe that there were several lesser temples in the neighborhood. They do say that Kamehameha the Great was born here in Waipio.”

“One would like to think that first seeing the light of day in so superlatively grand and beautiful a vale might make for greatness!”

“That day, moving along the bases of the cloud-shadowed precipices, we planned happily how we should some day come here, restore one of the abandoned cottages and its garden, and live for a while without thought of time.”

“What a place for quietude and work!”

“For once Jack seemed to welcome the idea of such seclusion and repose. Little as he ever inclined toward folding his pinions for long, Hawaii stayed them more than any other land.”

“‘You can’t beat the Ranch in California – it’s a sweet land,’ he would stanchly defend, ‘but I’d like to spend a great deal of my time down here.’”

“We bemoaned the weather that prevented us from climbing the zig-zag stark above our heads into Waimanu.” (London, Our Hawaii)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kahuku Pali

Kahuku is the largest of the 1300 ahupuaʻa (traditional land divisions) in Hawaiʻi. Located in the vast Kaʻū district, the ahupuaʻa of Kahuku originally extended from the summit caldera of Mauna Loa to the sea. (NPS)

The oldest dated feature within Kahuku is from about 1400 AD, though older evidence has been found nearby near Ka Lae (South Point).

Widespread settlement in this dry, volcanic area came later than in most parts of Hawai’i. By the mid-1400s, Ka‘ū (and perhaps Kahuku) had intensively managed agricultural fields in mid-elevation land with adequate rain and soil. Food crops included sugar cane, ʻuala, and maiʻa (bananas). (NPS)

Kahuku pali has two Hawaiian names: Pali o Mamalu, for its mauka (inland) section, and Pali‘okūlani, for its makai (seaward) section.  It was formed by a geologic fault. Its average height is 400 ft, but its maximum height, which is equal to the amount of offset (movement) on the fault, is approximately 560 ft.

The origin of the Kahuku pali is still debated. One hypothesis is that the pali is a scissors fault, with zero offset above Highway 11 and increasing amounts of offset toward the south—similar to the way the two cutting surfaces of scissors get farther apart as you move from hinge to tip. On the Kahuku pali, the west side of the fault dropped down relative to the east side.

An alternate hypothesis is that the submarine portion of the pali is the headwall of a catastrophic landslide, with the west side falling away and leaving the mile-high scarp. Both hypotheses have pros and cons, and today, there is no definitive answer as to the origin of the pali. (USGS)

“In the lee of the great cliff (which was caused by a geologic fault) named Pali-o-Mamalu (Cliff-of-Protection) is Wai-o-‘Ahu-kini. The trade winds pass a thousand or more feet above it, which gives it a scorching desert climate in the daytime; but when the sun goes down it cools rapidly and the nights are cool.”

“Southerly cyclonic storms sweep in over the low shore, inundating the whole area. That is why there is, and has been, no permanent habitation here.” (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

“(T)he population settled in the two western ahupua‘a of Ka‘ū. Wai-o-‘Ahu-kini (Water of Ahukini) close by, with its spring, pond, and canoe haven, and the best fishing ground in all Hawaii …”

“… was awarded in the ancient land allotment to Pakini, then one of the most verdant of the plains areas of cultivation. Doubtless it was Pakini’s numerous population, which gave its ali‘i power, that was responsible for this award.”

“From the cliff above Wai-o-‘Ahu-kini and from the trail going down can be seen a stagnant pool close to the shore; this was evidently the ‘water’ of ‘Ahu-kini.” (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

Cooks’ journal entry for January 5, 1779; reported his ship had rounded the south point of the island … “On this point stands apritty large village, the inhabitants of which thronged off to the Ship with hogs and women … As we had now got a quantity of salt I purchased no hogs but what were fit, for salting, refuseing all that were under size …”

“… in general they being no other at first, but when they found we took none but the large ones, several went a shore and returned with some, however we could seldom get one about 50 or 60 Ib weight.”

“As to fruit and roots we did not want and it was well we did not for it was very little of either they brought with them, indeed the Country did not seem capable of producing many of either having been destroyed by a Volcano.” (Cook’s Journal)

“Some of the canoes that greeted Cook’s ship may have come not only from the South Point village, but also from those at Wai‘ahukini and Ka‘iliki‘i to the west and Keana and Kaalualu to the east.”  (Kelly)

“One of the earliest foreigners to visit Ka‘ū was Archibald Menzies, the surgeon and naturalist on Vancouver’s voyage. Menzies had been in the Hawaiian Islands previously as surgeon on the furtrader Prince of Wales under Captain Colnett in the years 1787 and 1788, but he had not kept a journal of that visit.”

“Vancouver’s ships were in the Islands three times – 1792, 1793, and 1794. “On the 1794 trip Menzies was able to get to the top of Hualālai and of Mauna Loa. His successful ascent of Mauna Loa was on a trail that leads up from Kapāpala.”

“The approach to this trail from Kona, where Vancouver’s ships were anchored, was by canoe to Ka‘iliki‘i, or Wai‘ahukini in Pi‘ikini, Kalli, and then overland on foot to Kapāpala.” (Kelly)

Menzies, on his way to be the first white man to reach the summit of Mauna Loa, climbed the pali … “we left our canoes at Pakini and set out early on the morning of the 10th [of February 1794] to prosecute the remainder of our journey by land.”

“We had not travelled far when we found we had to ascend an elevated steep rugged bank that took its rise at the south point of the island and running along the southern side of Pakini Bay continued its direction inland behind the village.”

“On gaining its summit, which was not an easy task, an extensive tract of the most luxuriant pasture we had yet seen amongst these islands rushed at once upon our sight, extending itself from the south point to a considerable distance inland.”

“It was cropped with fine soft grass reaching up to our knees, and naturally of a thick bottom that would afford excellent feeding for cattle, where herds of them might live at their ease, if it was not for scarcity of fresh water, which we experienced in all the low grounds we had yet visited….”

“Close by us was a fine plantation belonging to Kamehameha, called Kahuku, where our purveyor was particularly ordered to demand supplies for our journey …” (Menzies)

“In the afternoon we resumed our journey and soon after reached the upper plantations, when instead of ascending directly up the mountain as we expected, they led us across these plantations to the north-eastward at a distance of five or six miles from the shore by a narrow winding path which in some places was very rugged and seldom admitted more than one person at a time …”

“… so that we followed one another in a string, and occupied a considerable space in length from the number of our party and the crowds that followed us from village to village through curiosity and flocked to see us, from far and near.”

“This path we found to be the public road leading to the east end of the island, and at small eminences here and there, we met cleared spots for resting on, where the wearied travellers generally sit down to chew sugar cane and admire the surrounding prospect.” (Menzies)

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