Place Names | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

November 2, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Haleakalā Trail and Highway

On the morning of November 26, 1778, Captain James Cook awoke to the sight of the northern coast of Maui. “Next morning there lay the land, the island of Maui, with its ‘elevated saddle hill’ – the extinct 10,000 foot volcano Haleakala …”

“… rising to its summit above the clouds, and descending gently towards the deep ravines and falling waters of that steep rocky coast, where the trade wind hurled other waters into perpetual surf.” This was the first documented sighting of the island. (Fredericksen)

“[T]he chief pride of Maui is her dead volcano of Haleakala”. (Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1866) “The object which usually attracts strangers to Maui is the great dead volcano of Haleakala, ‘The house of the sun’. (Isabella Bird, 1873)

“This mountain … is the largest extinct volcano in the world, its terminal crater being nineteen miles in circumference at a height of more than ten thousand feet. It, and its spurs, slopes, and clusters of small craters form East Maui.” (Isabella Bird, 1873)

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)

“According of Abraham Fornander, the name Haleakala is a “misnomer”. He explains the ancient name of is Ahelekala. “The ancient name of Maui’s famous crater which means ‘rays of the sun’ …”

“… and it was these which the demigod Maui snared and broke off to retard the sun in its daily course so that his mother might be able to dry her kapas.” … He goes on to say that the word `alehe is a variant form of `ahele—both of which literally mean “to snare”. (Fredericksen)

The first visit to Haleakalā by non-Hawaiians occurred in August 1828 when missionaries Lorrin Andrews and Jonathan Green, along with Dr. Gerrit P. Judd, physician, visited the crater.

They were followed by a US Navy expedition led by Commander Charles Wilkes in 1841, and later, others. Significant public interest was generated by written accounts of these visits that determined that Haleakalā would eventually become a destination for tourism. (NPS, CCC Oral Histories)

Until 1935, the primary means of getting to Haleakalā was walking or on horseback, and this continued to be the case for the first three decades of the twentieth century. As late as 1932, the Inter-Island Steamship Company and the Maui Chamber arranged trips on horseback to Haleakalā Crater. (NPS, CCC Oral Histories)

Thomas Vint (NPS Chief Landscape Architect) described the trip by horseback that he made in 1930: “The trip is now made from the town of Wailuk[u] which contains the principle [sic] hotel on the island of Maui that caters to tourist travel …The combined auto and horse back trip to the 10,000-foot summit may be made from noon to noon from Wailuku, spending the night at the top.”

“Trips into the crater are made from the rim rest house as a base.” Vint concluded that “another rest house at the far end of the crater is needed. To see the crater properly, one should camp overnight, making a two-day trip from the present rest house.” (NPS, CCC Oral Histories)

“Without a paved road to the summit, however, Haleakalā remained distant and inaccessible for the vast majority of the Maui public, except for adjacent property owners, tourists of means, and hunters who lived in the upcountry or Kula region of the island.”

“The need for a road to Haleakalā had been the subject of interest by the local press as well as Maui politicians since 1912, when the Hawaiian Promotion Committee had to use ‘fourteen pack and saddle animals’ to reach the summit from Olinda.” (NPS, CCC Oral Histories)

AH Ford of Mid-Pacific Magazine was quoted in the local press as stating: “In a little while [the] Haleakalā trips are going to adjust themselves to the purses of the tourist and there will be sufficient traffic to encourage regular excursions to Haleakalā [and] through the crater…a wonder trip, unsurpassed by any three or four [hour] outing to be had in any other portion of the globe.” (Maui News, August 9, 1913)

“After a failed attempt by motorcar in 1917, the first vehicle, a tractor driven by Joaquin Souza, finally reached the summit of Haleakalā on July 4, 1931. The stunt, which took two hours and thirty minutes to complete, was part of the local U.S. Independence Day festivities”.

It “was reported by the newspaper beneath the headline, “First Vehicle [to] Ever Reach Top” (Maui News, July 8, 1931). (NPS, CCC Oral Histories)

Haleakalā Road (now known as Haleakalā Highway) was finally completed in 1935; it opened with great fanfare. “All Maui was up in the air today, 10,032 feet up! … Whole Mainland Hears Road Opening by Radio … The story came over radio station KGU … The ceremony was caught up in Honolulu and taken to San Francisco, then distributed over the vast NBC hook-up.” (Maui News Feb 24, 1935)”

“On November 30, 1929, work began. On February 21, 1935, the last surfacing was laid.” “An official checker clocked 304 automobiles into the world’s highest parking spaces and those autos are estimated to have carried 1500 excursionists and local residents to the two-hour program.” (Maui News Feb 24, 1935)

The number of visitors to Haleakalā increased substantially, reaching 16,300 within a year. In 1938, the numbers decreased slightly to 14,156 because of a maritime and shipping strike, but continued to rise in the following years until reaching 29,935 in 1940. (NPS) (National Park Records show approximately 853,700 recreation visits in 2025,)

The increase in visitors was “greatly in excess of expectations…compared with the few hundreds who visited the crater before construction of the Haleakalā [R]oad. (Hawaii National Park Superintendent Annual Report 1935, NPS)

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) began in 1937, succeeding the Emergency Conservation Work agency (which started in 1933). In 1939, the CCC became part of the Federal Security Agency. It was eliminated in 1943. (UH Mānoa)

From April 1934 until May 13, 1941, the CCC operated a “side camp” in the Haleakalā Section of the Hawaiʻi National Park; CCC participants were housed in tents and moved to where the work areas were. (NPS)

Major park improvements through the CCC program on Haleakalā included the construction of the approximately 11-mile Haleakalā Road, Haleakalā Observation Station, two Comfort Stations (public toilets) and the Checking Station and Office at the park entrance. Several trail projects were completed within the Park. (NPS)

November 1, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Koa House

In 1840, John Joseph Halstead sailed to Hawai‘i on a whaling ship bringing with him from New York carpentry and cabinet-makings skills. He set up a shop in Lāhainā. (Martin) He was said to be the first man to put up a frame house in Lāhainā.

With the news of the discovery of gold in California in 1848, came orders from San Francisco merchants for Irish potatoes and other food supplies for those heading to the gold fields.

Halstead did not join the pioneers of 1849; He moved over to Kalepolepo, along the Kihei shoreline, with his family and shortly thereafter built a new house for himself. (Wilcox)

It was a large Pennsylvania Dutch style house made entirely of koa, built next to the south wall of Koʻieʻie Loko I‘a (fishpond) (also called Kalepolepo Fishpond.)

Halstead’s three story house/store was nicknamed the ‘Koa House.’ With the mullet-filled fishpond, the Koa House became a popular retreat for Hawaiian royalty such as Kamehameha III, IV, V and Lunalilo. (Starr)

No one remembers the actual date of construction of Koa House, but the fact that King Liholiho (Kamehameha IV), visited Kalepolepo on a royal tour immediately after accession to the throne in the fall of 1854, and stayed overnight as the guest of Halstead, its owner, is proof it was built before that time. (Wilcox)

Its timbers were from saw mills in East Makawao and from Kula, partly hewn and whip-sawed by hand Into shape, for labor was cheap In the good old days. Also pine and other material brought around Cape Horn by early traders.

When finished the first floor was fitted up with koa wood counters and shelves, and used for a store. The upper floors were used for living quarters. Many of the larger pieces of furniture were made of koa wood by Halstead himself. (Wilcox)

He opened a trading station on the lower floor. Whalers came ashore to buy fresh produce that was brought in by the farmers via the Kalepolepo Road.

He promoted the Irish potato industry in Kula, which even then was a thriving industry for provisioning whale ships in their seasonal voyages after whales.

At Halstead’s Kalepolepo Store a cartload of potatoes – thirty to forty bags – could readily be exchanged for a bolt of silk or other provisions.

During the Irish potato boom of those days any native farmer with an acre or two of potatoes would sell his crop, and as soon as he received payment in fifty-dollar gold pieces he would hurry off to the nearest store to buy a silk dress for his wife or a broadcloth suit for himself.

Halstead held his share of the Irish potato trade against more promising cash offers made by his business rivals. So lively was the competition that LL Torbert of ʻUlupalakua conceived the idea of an Irish potato corner.

He sent out his men and bought up all the Irish potatoes in sight, paying as high as five dollars for a bag of potatoes, a fabulous price for those days when native labor was plentiful at twenty-five cents a day.

Having cornered all the potatoes to be had, he shipped about $20,000 worth by the bark Josephine for San Francisco. The bark proved leaky, water got into the potato-filled holds and rotted them so that on arrival at San Francisco not enough good potatoes were left in the cargo to pay the freight bill.

At that time Kalepolepo was a thriving village, with two churches, a Mormon church where George Cannon or Walter Murray Gibson expounded the Christian doctrines of Joseph Smith against Christian Calvinism as preached by the Reverend Green and David Malo.

Reportedly, Halstead’s old house at Kalepolepo was Rev Green’s granary during the wheat boom of the 1850s and early-1860s, when the upper Makawao country from Maliko to Waiohuli was cropped to wheat.

Possibly some wheat may have been shipped from Kalepolepo in those days, for from early times to the late-1860s it was a shipping port for Wailuku and Kula. Halstead had one or two big warehouses standing makai of his residence.

In the late sixties the Irish potato trade had become unimportant and later ceased altogether. In 1876, Halstead closed his store and moved to ʻUlupalakua, where he died eleven years later, May 3, 1887. (Wilcox)

The koa house remained standing until it was burned down in 1946 by the Kihei Yacht Club. (NPS) (Lots of information here is from NPS and Wilcox.)

John Joseph Halstead-Koa House-Paradise of the Pacific-1921

October 29, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kīlauea

“A little farther on we entered groves of hala, through which we continued to ride for the rest of our journey. We turned from the road to see the falls of the Kāhili River.”

“Though not large they are beautiful. Here the river falls in a jet of foam over a precipice of about 40 feet into a broad clear basin below….” (Alexander, 1849; (Kīlauea Stream is universally referred to as “Kāhili Stream;”) Cultural Surveys)

Pukui suggests “Kīlauea means “spewing, much spreading;” associated references relate to volcanic eruptions at the place of like name on the Island of Hawaiʻi – typically referring to the rising smoke clouds.

Wichman explains the name as referring to “spewing many vapors” and traces it rather generically to the streams of Kīlauea that flow between the Makaleha Mountains and the Kamo‘okoa Ridge. The name may have originally been in reference to Kīlauea Falls itself. (Cultural Surveys)

The relatively large volume of water flowing over a relatively wide and high drop against the prevailing trade winds (blowing approximately straight up the lower stretch of the valley) can create a large volume of diffuse mist that may have inspired the name of the land. (Cultural Surveys)

In the Māhele, all of Kīlauea ahupuaʻa was retained as government lands; apparently no claims were made by native tenants, although there were several in a low, wide terrace along the stream in the adjoining Kāhili ahupuaʻa.

In January 1863, the approximate 3,016-acres of the Kīlauea ahupuaʻa were purchased by a former American whaler named Charles Titcomb. Titcomb already had land holdings at Kōloa and Hanalei. He was cultivating silkworm, coffee, tobacco, sugarcane and cattle.

Adding other leased land, he and partners Captain John Ross and EP Adams formed the Kilauea Plantation (1863,) and by 1877 the started a sugar plantation, “one of the smallest plantations in the Hawaiian Islands operating its own sugar mill”. (Cultural Surveys)

Hawaiʻi’s earliest history with railroads is often credited to Kīlauea Plantation, whose first system opened in 1881 on three miles of narrow-gauge track to haul sugar cane. Princess Lydia Kamakaeha (Lili‘uokalani) drove in the first spikes for the railroad bed. The plantation infrastructure grew over the next twenty years.

“The transportation system consists of twelve and a half miles of permanent track, five miles of portable track, 200 cane cars, six sugar cars and four locomotives.”

“(Kīlauea) is situated three miles from the landing at Kāhili, with which it is connected by the railway system. Sugar is delivered to the steamers by means of a cable device at the rate of from 600 to 800-bags an hour.” (San Francisco Chronicle, July 18, 1910) The town of Kīlauea originated as the center of the sugar plantation operation; Kīlauea Sugar Plantation closed in 1970.

The Kīlauea School was founded in 1882 as an ‘English School.’ Its 54-pupils were primarily workers’ children from Kīlauea Sugar Plantation. As the Board of Education of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi owned no land in the district, school was held in a Protestant Church and partly in an old building that belonged to the Board.

In 1894, the Board of Education of the Republic of Hawaiʻi was able to obtain a two-acre parcel of land from the plantation and a two-room school and teacher’s cottage were erected (it was situated near Kūhiō Highway and Kalihiwai Road.)

By 1920, the educational facilities were greatly strained as the school boasted 239-students and 7-teachers for grades one through eight. At the end of 1921, Kauai County purchased the present school site and the new school opened September 11, 1922; it has been in use since that time. (NPS)

By the 1890s, much of the old kalo-growing areas of this portion of Kaua‘i were now producing rice, farmed by Chinese immigrants. There were 55-acres of land in rice production in the Kīlauea-Kāhili area in 1892 and eventually a rice mill on Kīlauea Stream.

The mill is known to have been on the stream terrace east of Kīlauea Stream. Rice and vegetable cultivation was also noted along the banks of Kīlauea Stream, circa 1925. (Cultural Surveys)

Built in 1913 as a navigational aid for commercial shipping, the Kīlauea Lighthouse was credited with saving lives, not only of countless sailors lost at sea, but of two fliers on a historic trans-Pacific flight.

When Lt Albert Hegenberger and Lt Lester Maitland were on the first trans-Pacific airplane flight in history (June 29, 1927,) they overshot their course to Oʻahu and became lost.

They heard a strange signal and interpreted it as a radio beacon originating in the Islands. They used the signal to calculate their exact position and made the necessary adjustments to put them on course, thus enabling them to land the ‘Bird of Paradise’ safely at Hickam Field on Oʻahu. (NPS)

Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, surrounding the Lighthouse, was established in 1985 to preserve and enhance seabird nesting colonies and was expanded in 1988 to include Crater Hill and Mōkōlea Point. The refuge is home to some of the largest populations of nesting seabirds in in the main Hawaiian Islands.

Nearby, Hawaiian Islands Land Trust (HILT) added to an existing preserved property to form the Kāhili Coastal Preserve. The property provides public access to Kāhili Beach while safeguarding the shoreline ecosystem. (HILT)

October 24, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kiawe Corps

Following the annexation of the Republic of Hawai‘i by the United States in 1898, the US Army viewed the Islands in a strategic context. They were seen to be the advance outpost in the western defenses of the mainland United States. (Bennett)

Martial law was declared within hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and it lasted, with some modifications, for nearly three years, until October 24, 1944. (Densho)

After the Japanese attack on O‘ahu, the top army and navy commanders in Hawai‘i were seriously concerned about a possible invasion of the Hawaiian Islands. The two northernmost populated islands of O‘ahu and Kauai were the probable targets for such an enemy landing. (Bennett)

In general, all Hawai‘i residents were subjected to blackouts and gasoline and food rationing. Moreover, residents of Japanese ancestry, whose loyalty were questioned, were subjected to suspicion and scrutiny and were under the threat of internment.

Japanese culture was dismantled; language schools, religious institutions, and business and social associations were closed. (Kauai Historical Society)

The military shut down all 22 language schools and 14 other cultural associations on Kauai. Eight of 19 Buddhist temples were dissolved and five more were closed, leaving four licensed to operate and two in question. (Tom LaVenture; Discover Nikkei)

The Kauai Morale Committee of WWII served as the army’s liaison with the Japanese community on Kauai.

The goal of the committee was to alleviate fear and misunderstanding among the Japanese citizenry and to direct efforts toward the war effort and victory. (Kauai Historical Society)

During WWII, from June 1942 through 1944, the Kauai Kiawe Corps, a volunteer civilian labor battalion overwhelmingly composed of able-bodied persons of Japanese ancestry, assisted the Army in defense of Kauai.

They cleared kiawe thickets that could provide cover for possible invaders, strung barbed wire, built trails, opened areas for military camps, and helped build evacuation centers. (Soboleski)

“The Kiawe Commando corps was organized … by the Kauai morale committee to give Americans of Japanese ancestry and alien Japanese an opportunity to do actual work to assist in winning the war.” (SB, Jan 1, 1943)

“Work crews of more than 1,000 of us Japanese, including women and the elderly, turned out every Sunday to clear away the brush and undergrowth, primarily kiawe, between Kekaha and Mana on the west side of the island.”

“It was an area that the military suspected of being scouted as secret Japanese naval landing sites, due to the thick vegetation,” Ikito “Ike” Muraoka says. Clearing the brush made secret landings impossible.” (Kauai Stories)

“On Kauai, where the Kiawe Corps was a project of the Emergency Service Committee, the volunteers, most of whom were alien Japanese, continued the work for two years, giving an average of three Sundays a month for a total of 58,000 man-days.”

“In addition to hacking at brush with cane knives and burning the rubbish, they strung barbed wire, built trails, cleared areas for military camps, and helped build evacuation centers.” (Allen, Hawaii’s War Years)

“Volunteers also did much guard duty, they were primarily ‘last ditch soldiers,’ organized to repel an invasion.”

“Although volunteers who had trained for a war emergency never had to repel an invader, various groups were called to duty during air raid alarms and other alerts.”

“They also assisted following several wartime accidents.” (Allen, Hawaii’s War Years) (Other Islands also had their own Kiawe Corps.)

“The Army airfield which became Barking Sands Air Base (AB) in World War II was originally known as “Mana Airfield,” built on land acquired from the Knudsen family by Kekaha Sugar Company located nearby at Kekaha. The grassy airstrip first came into being around 1921.” (Bennett)

During the 1930s, Inter-Island Airways, later Hawaiian Airlines, served the airport. (Shettle) “The US Army acquired 549 acres, including the grass airstrip in 1941 which became “Mana Airport Military Reservation”.

“Additional land was acquired for a total of 2,058 acres. The airport experienced a great deal of military flight operations upon the onset of World War II.” (Bennett)

“The Army added 14 barracks and four mess halls. For the next two years, the Army continued to improve the airport by adding 23 revetments for heavy bombers and permanent accommodations for 1500 men.”

“When the Navy needed additional aircraft facilities in late 1943, the Army turned a portion of the base over to the Navy on January I, 1944. “

“Hawaiian Airlines continued to use the airport until 1949, when the Lihue Airport opened on the other side of the island. In 1954, the airfield was officially renamed Bonham [Air Force Base].” (Shettle)

ln 1962, the Navy officially commissioned the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands and two year later, the Air Force transferred the ownership of the property to the Navy.” (Bennett)

There were many name changes for the facility: Mana Airport, Mana Airfield Military Reservation, Barking Sands Military Reservation, Kekaha Military Reservation, Barking Sands Airfield, Bonham Airfield, Bonham Air Force Base, Bonham Air Base, and Auxiliary Landing Field (ALF) Bonham.

By 2008, Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) was the world’s largest instrumented multi-environment range capable of supporting surface, subsurface, air, and space operations simultaneously. (Hawaii Aviation)

October 22, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kaumana Cave

Hilo is situated on lava flows from two of the five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaiʻi. In the northern part of Hilo near the Wailuku River (that forms the approximate boundary between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa Volcanoes,) Mauna Loa flows overlie much older ash deposits and flows from Mauna Kea.

Twenty-seven Mauna Loa flows (pāhoehoe and ʻaʻa) have been identified in and near Hilo. The youngest flow is from the historic Mauna Loa eruption of 1880-81, and the oldest flow yet found lies near Hoaka Road, with an age of more than 24,000 years. (USGS)

The 1881 lavas reached just north of the present University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo campus. After crossing the present Komohana and Kumukoa Streets, a very narrow section crossed what is now Mohouli Street, about 300 yards above the intersection with Kapiʻolani Street.

Several hundred homes are now built on pāhoehoe lavas of the 1881 flow and can easily be recognized by their ubiquitous “rock gardens” (no soils have yet formed on this flow). Kaumana Cave was formed at this time and was a major supply conduit for the lavas that threatened Hilo. (USGS)

Lava Caves (more commonly called lava tubes) are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow. Tubes form by the crusting over of lava channels and pāhoehoe flows.

When the supply of lava stops at the end of an eruption or lava is diverted elsewhere, lava in the tube system drains downslope and leaves partially empty conduits beneath the ground. (USGS)

Kaumana Cave is located up the hill from the downtown area on Kaumana Drive (Saddle Road,) stretching for almost two miles. When you get to the Cave you can see a concrete stair case which leads through the old skylight down to the entrance to the Cave.

The Kaumana Cave, part of a 25-mile-long lava tube, is the centerpiece of a small park maintained by the County of Hawaiʻi. Above Hilo, near the 4-mile marker along Kaumana Drive, the cave’s entrance – actually a skylight formed when part of the lava tube collapsed – is open to curious visitors who want to explore the inside.

The roof of the tube is 20 to 25 feet thick in most places and most of the rubble on the floor fell during or shortly after the eruption, when the skylight entrance fell.

The tube was initially filled with fast-moving lava then the level dropped and a long period of flow along the floor took place and from time to time slopped over to the side creating the bench-like features seen near the cave entrance. Roof blocks fell and became embedded and coated with basalt. The lava stream later emptied leaving the evacuated tube. (Hostra)

A steep staircase leads into a collapse pit. Here the cave roof collapsed and allows entry into the lava tube. From here you can enter different sections of the cave, going mauka (uphill) or makai (downhill) paths.

Going makai, a short path leads to the entrance. There are a few boulders to step carefully through, after which sections of smooth and mostly level surfaces allow a bit easier access. About 50 yards into the downhill section you reach a choke point, a little scrambling and a bit of duck-walk is necessary to get through.

After the narrow, the cave opens back up again. After another hundred yards there are a series of ledges, old crusts left by cooling lava when it half-filled the cave. To continue from here requires crawling through another very low passage. (Cooper)

“Long ʻōhiʻa tree roots hang from overhead … Sides of Cave have dribbles of lava from above forming odd stalagmitelike objects on floor. (There is a) very noticeable slope which is quite easy to travel.”

“Another junction. This one has three branches. There are two shallow rimmed lava cones filled with water. Wedge-shaped overhang is off to one side.” (1953 Loins Club; DOI)

In periods of normal rainfall, running water sometimes is audible beneath the floor of the cave. Rainfalls of 8 to 12 inches produce waterfalls spouting from cracks high on the wall of one cave section.

They form a small stream that runs on or just beneath the floor for several hundred yads before finally sinking into cracks. Its flow is augmented by several small bubbling springs at or just above floor level and part of its flow also is lost into small floor-level cracks. (Halliday)

Kaumana Cave is an example of a lava tube cave that carries floodwater for over half-a-mile. The lower end of Kaumana Cave opens into a drainage ditch several yards below the roadway of Edita Street.