Place Names | Page 139 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 13, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Māhukona

Māhukona (lit., leeward steam or vapor,) a seamount on the northwestern flank of the island of Hawai‘i, is the most recently discovered shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands.

A ‘gap’ in the chain of regularly-spaced volcanoes in the sequence of younger shield volcanoes forming on the southernmost portion of the Hawaiian-Emperor chain was first noticed in 1890. Māhukona filled that gap.

Māhukona is one of the smallest Hawaiian volcanoes – it grew to at least about 1,000-feet below sea level, but never formed an Island and went extinct prematurely. (Garcia, et al)

But this is not about a lost volcano; this is about harbor that the volcano was named, Māhukona, the nearby port on the Island of Hawai‘i. Let’s look back …

Māhukona Harbor was developed and expanded as a port for the sugar plantations in Kohala and as a landing for interisland steamers. (Pukui)

Competitors Wilder Steamship Co (1872) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co (1883) ran different inter-island steam ships routes between the Islands, but decided to not engage in head to head competition, here.

Wilder’s steamers left Honolulu and stopped at the Maui ports of Lāhainā, Māʻalaea Bay and Makena and then proceeded to Māhukona and Kawaihae.

From Kawaihae, the steamers turned north, passing Māhukona and rounding Upolu Point at the north end of Hawaiʻi and running for Hilo along the Kohala and Hāmākua coasts, stopping at Laupāhoehoe. (Visitors for Kīlauea Crater took coaches from Hilo through Olaʻa to the volcano.)

The Treaty of Reciprocity (1875) between the US 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.

In the late nineteenth century, sugar plantations were prospering on the Big Island. Six plantations in North Kohala, the area that includes the island’s north shore, used a couple of crude landings along that rugged coastline for exporting their products.

Steers would pull heavy wagons full of sugar or molasses to the landings where, braving high surf and swell, men loaded the cargo onto flatboats, which would transport the goods offshore to awaiting steamers.

In winter, the use of the landings was often too risky due to large breakers, so the sugarcane byproducts were transported over the hill to Māhukona, a protected small cove on the leeward side of the island.

Then, Samuel G Wilder secured a charter for a narrow gauge railroad from the port of Māhukona for 20-miles along the north coast of Hawaii in Niuliʻi. Wilder, who was the minister of interior of the Kalākaua government at that time, signed his own charter on July 5, 1880.

An amendment signed by King Kalākaua on August 13 gave the company a subsidy of $2,500 per mile on the completion. Wilder left the government the following day and organized Hawaiian Railway on October 20. Construction started April 1881. (Hilton)

Wilder also started with improving Māhukona port through the addition of numerous wharfs and a storehouse. By March of that year, the first section of ties and tracks had been laid.

In January 1883, the tracks covered almost twenty miles, reaching the northernmost sugar mill at Niuliʻi, and the Hawaiian Railroad was complete.

Raw sugar manufactured in the Kohala mills was bagged, transported by rail to Māhukona, and stored in warehouses until the arrival of a freighter. When a freighter moored offshore, lighters carried out the bags. (Pukui)

In May 1883, the Hawaiian Railroad Company earned a claim to fame hosting a ceremonial train ride for King Kalākaua. The original statue of King Kamehameha I which had been lost at sea, then found and restored, was waiting in Kapa‘au to be unveiled.

Kohala outdid itself in preparation for the King’s stay. The King thrilled Kohala by arriving in a Russian gunboat which fired him a royal salute. King Kalākaua and his entourage rode the first Big Island train. The teak passenger cars in which they were seated earned their new name, the ‘Kalākaua cars.’ (Schweitzer)

The steam locomotives traveled twelve miles per hour; the train was a novelty for locals, and tourists were visiting from Hilo to take a ride. Plantation owners were also pleased with the new railroad as their revenues started to surge. (LighthouseFriends) (Samuel Wilder died in 1888.)

In 1889, Charles L. Wight, president of the Hawaiian Railroad Company, noted “Foreign vessels call here about every three weeks and they often lose much time not knowing where to come in. In thick weather it is also hard for steamers to find the place. In addition it will be of material assistance to the vessels bound up the channel.” (LighthouseFriends)

In 1897 the rail name was changed to the Hawai‘i Railway Company. In 1899, during the first year of existence of the Territory of Hawaii, the Wilder family withdrew from the railroad and shipping business and sold the Hawai‘i Railway to the four principal plantations it served: Union Mill Co, Hālawa Plantation, Kohala Plantation and Niuliʻi Plantation.

In April of 1937, Kohala Sugar Co bought out the other plantations, acquired all of the stock in the Hawai‘i Railway Company and reincorporated (September 30, 1937) as Māhukona Terminals Inc.

Kohala Sugar laid spur tracks to the mills and their corresponding fields. This marked the first physical connection of the railroad to the sugar cane operations. Previously, trucks hauled the raw cane to the mills where the sugar cane was processed and put in sacks which were then loaded onto trains.

The Māhukona harbor was closed when the US declared war against Japan on December 8, 1941. Business gradually declined and in 1945 the Hawai‘i Railway was abandoned. (OAC)

Māhukona Harbor was the major port serving the Kohala Sugar Company and North Kohala people until it closed in 1956. Houses, a store and recreational facilities stood near the harbor.

Until the mid-1960s, the regional highway system left North Kohala as one of the most physically isolated places on the island. The only highway into or out of North Kohala was the 22-mile road over the Kohala Mountain into Waimea.

A 6-mile road from Hawi to the Māhukona harbor was the only penetration into the dry side. On the other side, the highway stopped at the Pololu Valley lookout. North Kohala formed an ‘end at the road community’ in all respects. (Community Resources) Kohala Sugar closed in 1973.

North Kohala legislator (from 1947 to 1965) Akoni Pule advocated strongly for a second access road into his district. The Akoni Pule Highway (named for him) was dedicated in 1973. (South Kohala CDP) (In 1975, the Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway was completed from the Keāhole Airport to Kawaihae Harbor.)

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Railroad tracks and harbor at Mahukona Landing, Kohala, Hawaii-(HSA)-PP-88-3-025-1882

Mahukona_Harbor,_Island_of_Hawaii,_T.H_-_NARA_-_296066-1904

Kinau-nearing Mahukona with a narrow gauge train loaded with sugar – 1882

Number Five is seen climbing the three percent grade out of Mahukona

Hawaii Railway-SugarTrains

Hawaii Railway-SugarTrains-1925

Hawaiian Railroad Company locomotive and train on the James Wood trestle, Mahukona, Hawaii-(HSA)-PP-88-3-024-1882

Mahukona-Hawaii_Railway_Co

Mahukona light house – 1904

Mahukona_Lighthouse

Mahukona-(c) marinas

Hawaii Railway-Mahukona-Niulii-1911

Mahukona- filling in the gap-Garcia-et_al

Mahukona_Volcano-SOEST

January 10, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1840s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1840s – first Hawaiian Constitution, the ‘Paulet Affair,’ Whaling and Great Mānele. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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January 9, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ward Airport

‘Bud’ Mars brought the first airplane to Hawaiʻi and on December 31, 1910 staged an exhibition flight at Moanalua Park. Some 3,000 persons paid a dollar each to watch the flight which cost the promoter, EH Lewis, some $5,000. (Mitchell)

When Mars brought the biplane ‘Skylark’ to Honolulu and managed to get it into the air long enough to make several short exhibition flights from Moanalua Polo Field, the die was cast for Hawaii’s interest in and use of aircraft.

“Spectacular as these flights were, at the same time island men were going ahead in a quiet manner, laying the foundation for commercial aviation here.”

“The first airdrome (airport) was the Ward airport near the shore, not far from the steamship piers”. (1920s) (Noel; Flying Magazine, March 1930) It was just behind Kewalo Basin across Ala Moana on the Waikiki side of Ward Avenue. (Krauss)

“Announcing his desire to have permanent airplanes in our islands within sixty days of him stepping once again on Hawaii nei, EH Lewis landed in Honolulu nei on the morning of Friday of this past week with two pilots who will fly the two planes he purchased in America.”

“These men brought by Lewis are experts. The planes did not arrive with Lewis, but according to him, should there be no complications, the planes will arrive in Honolulu within 60 days.”

“The crafts can carry ten passengers at a time, and these will be the planes that fly regularly between Honolulu and Hilo and from Hilo back to Honolulu nei.” (Alakai o Hawai‘i, November 5, 1928)

“Ed Lewis, operating automobile tours on Oahu, early saw the possibilities of airplanes for sightseeing. For several years he operated ‘Lewis Air Tours’ with a number of small open cockpit planes flying from Ward airport on Ala Moana.” (Kennedy; Thrum, 1936)

“The company lasted only three years, but other tour services proved more successful. Interisland travel really picked up in the 1950s with the introduction of package tours, all-inclusive vacations that often included trips to Oahu’s neighbor islands.” (Smithsonian)

From this same airport two former army fliers named Anderson and Griffin started a flying school and a limited air service (Western Pacific Air Transport) between the islands.

Using two small craft, these pilots trained a number of fliers and at one time expanded their activities to the point where they carried newspapers from O‘ahu to Maui. After continuing their school for a year the pilots returned to the mainland and Ward airport was discontinued.

While these flights were taking place in the latter part of the 20s, the early part of the decade saw alert, progressive business men looking forward to the day when inter-island commercial flying would be feasible. Even at that time they recognized the coming need for island airports. (Kennedy; Thrum, 1936)

In 1929, Newton Campbell, 18, a student pilot at Ward Airport, received the first civilian private pilot license issued by the Department of Commerce in Hawai‘i.

However, some were concerned about the location of Ward Airport – repeated entries in minutes of meetings of the Territorial Aeronautical Commission complain of flights from there. Such as:

The “field so centrally located there would be considerable tourist trade … (However,) the type of flying done by Lewis Tours (mostly sightseeing flights) is very risky …”

“… not only because of the condition of the field but also because many more landings would be made daily than a transport plane operating for John Rogers Airport.” (Territorial Aeronautical Commission, February 18, 1929)

“(L)ast Sunday Mr Lewis’s plane was flying over the Aloha tower and the city at a very low altitude. Other complaints have also come to us about Mr Lewis’s activities. It was decided that a letter be addressed to Mr Lewis prohibiting the use of Ward Airport for any but emergency landings.” (Territorial Aeronautical Commission, April 29, 1930)

On July 1, 1929, a steamship line moved decisively to provide interisland flying. The Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., of Honolulu, announced possibilities of commercial flying between the major islands.

Two visiting airline representatives soon returned to the mainland and it looked like “competition” would be local, Ed Lewis and the steamship company.

Lewis gave way to his powerful competitor, saying, “There’s no room for two such companies.” Under the leadership of World War I Navy pilot, Stanley C Kennedy, president and manager of the steamship company, Inter-Island Airways, Ltd, was formed. (hawaii-gov)

Attention to aviation activity moved to John Rodgers Airport (dedicated March 21, 1927 and placed under the jurisdiction of the Territorial Aeronautical Commission – then, construction began.)

In 1929, a runway 250-300 feet wide and 2,050-feet long was completed as well as considerable clearing on the balance of the area.

Over the next few years, the facility faced various stages of expansion, on land and in the water – the layout included a combined airport and Seadrome, with seaplane runways in Keʻehi Lagoon adjacent to John Rodgers Airport.

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Kewalo-Ala_Wai_aerial-(UH_Manoa)-1927-noting site of Ward Airport

January 6, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pauka‘a Lighthouse

The US Lighthouse Service had the earliest impact on the maritime histories of Alaska and Hawai‘i. In 1716, the first North American lighthouse was established, but it was not until 1852 that the first light towers were built on the West Coast.

When the US bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, a light was already established at Sitka. In 1898, just over 20 years after acquiring Alaska, the US annexed Hawai‘i. The territorial government was first responsible for aids to navigation. (USCG)

Between 1824 and 1848 Hilo became a significant center for foreign activities, primarily as a result of the establishment of religious mission stations by American missionaries.

Passengers and cargo landed at Hilo in the surf along the beach until about 1863, when a wharf was constructed at the base of present day Waiānuenue Street.

By 1874, Hilo ranked as the second largest population center in the islands, and within a few years shortly thereafter Hilo with its fertile uplands, plentiful water supply and good port became a major center for sugarcane production and export.

Hilo Bay is partially protected by a reef located in 10 to 20 feet of water (later named Blonde Reef after Lord Byron’s vessel, HMS Blonde, which successfully anchored there in 1825.) (The Blonde had carried the bodies of Liholiho (who was born in Hilo) and Kamāmalu back from London, where they died from measles during a visit there.)

Several sites were suggested for the first light to mark Hilo Bay, but the one finally selected was on the shore at Paukaʻa, two-and-a-half miles north of Hilo. The light was erected and first lit on August 13, 1869.

The local sheriff was responsible for overseeing Paukaʻa Light, and in 1871 he sent a report to the Hawaiian minister of the Interior. “I visited the lighthouse yesterday and find that the Chinaman in charge is very negligent in his duties, not trimming the light properly. I showed him the proper way and tonight it shows finely from here.” (Lighthouse Friends)

In 1873, the light structure nearly blew over in a strong wind, prompting the sheriff to send another report to the minister. “This is a very valuable light to vessels coming into Hilo and it should not be allowed to go out of repair; $100 will put it in good condition. I have lately bought an excellent safety lamp for it, which throws a light visible at sea from 10 to 12 miles.”

Incoming vessels from abroad were being charged three dollars for lighthouse dues, and the sheriff requested that some of the collected money be used to elevate the light to make it more visible.

To justify his proposal, he included the following account of an exchange he had when requesting payment of the lighthouse fee. “One captain when charged for lights wanted to know where the lighthouse was and said he had not seen anything around that looked like a lighthouse.”

In 1890, a new Pauka‘a Light was built on the bluff above the original site. Adding the height of the bluff, the new Pauka‘a Light had a focal plane of 159 feet. After the Lighthouse Board took control of Hawaii’s lights in 1904, a thirty-eight-foot mast was erected in place of the tower.

The government wharf at Waiākea was constructed at Kalauokukui Point between 1897 and 1899, and was upgraded in 1902. Hilo Bay was still unprotected from high winds and storm surges that caused ships to break loose from their moorings and risk grounding.

Early sailing directions into Hilo bay were: “From Eastward – Give Leleiwi Point a berth of 1 mile in rounding it and steer 280° true (W 1/8 N mag) for 4 ½ miles, heading for Pauka‘a light until ½ to ¾ mile from shore …”

“… then steer 184° true (S ½ E mag,) keeping this distance offshore and taking care to pass westward of Blonde Reef whistling buoy. Anchor southward of the black can buoys, marking the south-westerly edge of Blonde Reef, with the Hilo Sugar Company’s mill bearing 279° true (W mag,) in 7 to 8 fathoms.”

“From Northward.—After rounding Pepe‘ekeo Point steer 184° true (S ½ E mag,) keeping ½ to ¾ mile offshore and taking care to pass westward of Blonde Reef whistling buoy, anchor as directed in the preceding paragraph.”

“Dangers – The lead is generally a good guide on the south side of the bay, but the shoaling is abrupt to Blonde Reef and the reefs around and eastward of Coconut Island.” (Coast Pilot Notes on Hawaiian Islands, USGS, 1912)

The present pyramidal concrete tower, exhibiting a green flash every six seconds at a height of 145 feet, was placed at the point in 1925. (Lighthouse Friends)

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

In 1908, construction began on a breakwater along the shallow reef, beginning at the shoreline east of Kūhīo Bay. The breakwater was completed in 1929 and extended roughly halfway across the bay. In 1912, contracts were awarded to construct Kūhiō Wharf, to dredge the approach to the new wharf, and to lay railroad track into the new harbor facility.

Between 1927 and 1928, the approach to Pier 3 was dredged and the pier was widened. In 1929, the 10,080-foot long rubble mound breakwater was completed.

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

In fact, in 1946, Hilo was struck by a tsunami generated by an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands; it was struck again in 1960 by a tsunami generated by the great Chilean earthquake – both tsunami overtopped the breakwater and Hilo sustained significant damage, including to the breakwater.

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Paukaa Lighthouse-1904 (LighthouseFriends)

Hilo_illustration,_c._1870s

View_of_Hilo_Harbor,_circa_1901

Hilo Harbor-1890

Hilo_Black_Sand_Beach

Hilo Wharf, Hilo, Hawaii island-PP-29-4-002

Hilo Landing, Hilo, Hawai‘i, early 1890s

Paukaa-Lighthouse

Paukaa_Lighthouse

Paukaa_Lighthouse (LighthouseFriends)

Paukaa Lighthouse (LighthouseFriends)

Hilo_Breakwater-(USACE)

Hilo Bay-Paukaa Lighthouse-GoogleEarth

January 4, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Pōhaku Lele

The Haʻi ʻolelo (oral history) of Waimea, according to Hawaiian historian Sam Kamakau (who was from Waialua, O‘ahu,) begins with the high chief Kamapuaʻa. Kamapuaʻa, according to traditional history, was given a gift from the Kahuna Nui (high priest) Kahiki‘ula.

The gift was all the lands that begin with the word Wai. The word Waimea means “sacred water.” Prior to the eleventh century, little is known about the kanaka (people) who lived in the ahupuaʻa of Waimea. The valley may have been settled a lot earlier. (pupukeawaimea)

“The Valley of the Priests,” gained its title around 1090, when the ruler of O‘ahu, Kamapuaʻa (who would later be elevated in legend to demigod status as the familiar pig deity) awarded the land to the high priest Lono-a-wohi.

From that time until Western contact and the overturn of the indigenous Hawaiian religion, the land belonged to the kahuna nui (high priests) of the Pa‘ao line. (Kennedy)

After Captain Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay in 1779, Captain Charles Clerke took command of his ships, Resolution and Discovery. Searching to restock their water supply, they anchored off Waimea Bay in 1779. This was the first known contact of the white man on the island of Oʻahu.

Cook’s lieutenant, James King, who captained the Resolution, commented that the setting “… was as beautiful as any Island we have seen, and appear’d very well Cultivated and Popular.” (HJH)

King noted that the vista on this side of Oʻahu, “was by far the most beautiful country of any in the Group … the Valleys look’d exceedingly pleasant … charmed with the narrow border full of villages, & the Moderate hills that rose behind them.” (HJH)

Clerke wrote in his journal: “On landing I was reciev’d with every token of respect and friendship by a great number of the Natives who were collected upon the occasion; they every one of them prostrated themselves around me which is the first mark of respect at these Isles.” (Kennedy, OHA)

Clerke further noted, “I stood into a Bay to the W(est)ward of this point the Eastern Shore of which was far the most beautifull Country we have yet seen among these Isles, here was a fine expanse of Low Land bounteously cloath’d with Verdure, on which were situate many large Villages and extensive plantations; at the Water side it terminated in a fine sloping, sand Beach.”

“This Bay, its Geographical situation consider’d is by no means a bad Roadsted, being shelterd from the (winds) with a good depth of Water and a fine firm sandy Bottom, it lays on the NW side of this island of Wouahoo … surrounded by a fine pleasant fertile Country.” (HJH)

Kamehameha took the island of O‘ahu in 1795, and he gave Waimea Valley to Hewahewa, his Kahuna Nui. He was the last Kahuna to preside over the heiau (temples) in the valley. Hewahewa died in 1837 and is buried in Waimea Valley. (pupukeawaimea)

In 1826, Hiram Bingham, accompanied by Queen Kaʻahumanu, visited Waimea to preach the gospel and noted, “Saturday (we) reached Waimea … the residence of Hewahewa, the old high priest of Hawaiian superstition, by whom we were welcomed ….”

“The inhabitants of the place assembled with representatives of almost every district of this island, to hear of the great salvation, and to bow before Jehovah, the God of heaven.”

“There were now seen the queen of the group and her sister, and teachers, kindly recommending to her people the duties of Christianity, attention to schools, and a quiet submission, as good subjects, to the laws of the land.” (Bingham)

Reportedly, Waimea was a favored sandalwood source during the 1800s; cargo ships would anchor offshore to load sandalwood. However, by the 1830s, sandalwood was disappearing and soon the trade came to a halt.

From 1894 to 1898, a series of floods devastated the valley including homes and crops of approximately 1,000 native Hawaiians. In 1929, Castle & Cooke acquired the land and leased it to cattle ranchers.

In the 1950s, sand was trucked from Waimea Bay Beach to replenish eroding sand at Waikiki Beach. Reportedly, over 200,000-tons of sand at Waimea Bay was removed to fill beaches in Waikiki and elsewhere.

1884 maps note a ‘Table Rock,’ completely surrounded by sand near the water’s edge on the Haleiwa side of the bay. They say, before the sand excavation, if you would have tried to jump off that rock, you would have jumped about six feet down into the sand below. (Early photographs of the area illustrate that.)

Some reference it as Pōhaku Lele (literally, fly or jump rock – however, given the prior context of the beach, that doesn’t sound like a traditional name.)

Folks now tend to call it “Jump Rock;” when we were kids, we called it something else. There was a certain element with an attitude that also liked to jump off the rock – occasionally, they exerted pressure and precluded others from climbing on.

It’s on the west side of the bay. In summer, when there is no surf, it is a popular place for folks to stand around and eventually jump off (during the winter, the surf is too high to even think of going onto it.)

It’s about 25-feet high and the water is deep enough on the outer edge to cautiously jump. Most people look at this as a rock-jumping thrill.

What people may not know is that there is an underwater natural tunnel through the center of the rock that you can swim through. I did it … once. No mask, no fins. With the blur of the salt water without a mask, you can only see light on the other side and that guides you through.

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