Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Wahaʻula Heiau

No keia heiau oia ke kapu enaena.
(Concerning this heiau is the burning tabu.)

‘Enaena’ means ‘burning with a red hot rage.’ The heiau was so thoroughly ‘tabu,’ or ‘kapu,’ that the smoke of its fires falling upon any of the people or even upon any one of the chiefs was sufficient cause for punishment by death, with the body as a sacrifice to the gods of the temple.  (Westervelt)

Oral traditions trace the origin of Hawaiian luakini temple construction to the high priest Pā’ao, who arrived in the islands in about the thirteenth century. He introduced several changes to Hawaiian religious practices that affected temple construction, priestly ritual, and worship practices.

Prior to his coming, the prayers, sacrifices, and other ceremonial activities that the high chief and his officiating priest performed could be observed by the congregation, who periodically responded as part of the ceremony.

After Pā’ao’s arrival, temple courtyards, which were sometimes built on hillsides to add to their massiveness, were enclosed with high stone walls, preventing the masses from participating as freely in the worship ceremonies.

In addition, new gods; stronger kapu; an independent, hereditary priesthood; wooden temple images; and human sacrifices became established parts of the religious structure. Pā’ao erected the first luakini (Wahaula) at Puna, Hawaiʻi, followed by Moʻokini Heiau at Kohala. These structures signaled a new era in Hawaiian religious practices.  (NPS)

On the southeast coast of Hawaiʻi near Kalapana is one of the largest, oldest and best preserved heiau. Its walls are several feet thick and in places ten to twelve feet high. It is divided into rooms or pens, in one of which still lies the huge sacrificial stone upon which victims – sometimes human – were slain before the bodies were placed as offerings.  (Westervelt, 1915)

“At our visit to the scene we were shown the small cove, deep down the jagged bluffs of Puna’s coast line, at the southern end of Wahaʻula premises, where the bones of the slain were washed, and to this day is known as Holoinaiwi.”  (Thrum, 1904)

This heiau is now called Wahaʻula (red-mouth). In ancient times it was known as Ahaʻula (the red assembly), possibly denoting that at times the priests and their attendants wore red mantles in their processions or during some part of their sacred ceremonies.  (Westervelt)

“The Heiau of Wahaʻula is built on an ʻaʻa flow, and the ascent to it is by terraces. Upon the first terrace the female members of the royal family brought their offerings which were taken by the priests. Beyond this first terrace no female was allowed to pass.”

“Two more terraces brings one to the enclosure or temple, in the shape of a quadrangle 132 feet long, by 72 feet wide. A stone wall encloses the temple, 6 feet high and 4 feet wide. The main entrance faces the East, flanked on either side by two smaller entrances. Immediately in front of this entrance stand the remains of the old temple, which was destroyed by the ʻaʻa flow on which the present one stands.”

“Across the southern end extends a stone platform some 3 feet high built in the shape of two semi-circles connected by a straight platform. Between these semi-circles was placed the presiding deity, and on either hand were placed the offerings of fruits, etc., while immediately in front, on a small raised platform were placed the human sacrifices, which were always slain in the main entrance to the heiau.”

“Immediately in front of this altar for human sacrifices, and extending across the enclosure, stood the priests’ house. sacred to them alone. In the rear of this was the royal house, where the members of the royal family assembled during the days devoted to the sacrifices. The rest of the enclosure was paved.”  (Thrum)

“Water-worn pebbles were carried from the beach and strewn over the floor, making a smooth place for the naked feet of the temple dwellers to pass without injury from the sharp-edged lava. Rude grass huts built on terraces were the abodes of the priests and high chiefs who visited the places of sacrifice.”

“Elevated, flat-topped piles of stones were built at one end of the temple for the chief idols and the sacrifices placed before them. Simplicity of detail marked every step of temple erection.”  (Westervelt)

“(I)in the original enclosure of the heiau of Wahaʻula was a sacred grove, said to contain one or more specimens of every tree growing on the Hawaiian group, a number of which, or their descendants, had survived when he visited the place in 1869. … It was built in the quadrangular or parallelogram form which characterized all the heiaus built under and after the religious regime introduced by Pāʻao.”  (Fornander)

Beyond the heiau, on the makai side of the trail, is pointed out the footprint of Niheu, a demi-god, as well as the mark of an arrow which he shot at another demi-god who came to fight him. Further west, makai of the place where the trail turns mauka, is Kamoamoa, where the ranch driving pens are.

Here are two wells with fair water, and also a fine natural arch by the sea. Here are also a few interesting rock carvings. The most easily found of these is about a hundred yards from the paddock extension towards Kalapana, and may be located by following the line of this extension’s makai wall in an easterly direction.

The trail is straight, with a bad grade, but paved, until it has reached well up the bluff, where it passes the Pea house, the last habitation before the Crater Hotel is reached. From Pea’s it is a good eight miles to the Makaopuhi crater. The trail is narrow, passes through splendid forest, and is, though seldom used, quite easily followed.  (Kinney, 1913)

“Tradition credits a rebuilding of the temple to Imaikalani, a famous chief of Puna, and Kaʻū, in the time of Keawenui-a-umi, in the sixteenth century. It was repaired again in the time of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, about 1770, and in the time of Kamehameha I, it had its final renovation.”  (Thrum)

“This was the last heiau destroyed when the ancient tabus and ceremonial rites were overthrown by the chiefs just before the coming of Christian missionaries. At that time the grass houses of the priests were burned and in these raging flames were thrown the wooden idols back of the altars and the bamboo huts of the soothsayers and the rude images on the walls, with everything combustible which belonged to the ancient order of worship. Only the walls and rough stone floors were left in the temple.  (Westervelt)

Kīlauea’s ongoing Puʻu ʻŌʻō eruption started on January 3, 1983 when ground fissures opened up and “curtains of fire” (long thin fountains of molten lava) issued from a 3½-miles long discontinuous fissure system in the remote rainforest of the middle east rift zone of the volcano.

Since then, about 500-acres have been added to the Big Island (that volume of lava could have filled 1.5-million swimming pools. The coastal highway has been closed since 1987, as lava flows covered 8 miles to as great a depth as 80 feet. 214-homes were destroyed.

“The apprehensions uniformly entertained by the natives, of the fearful consequences of Pele’s anger, prevented their paying very frequent visits to the vicinity of her abode; and when, on their inland journeys, they had occasion to approach Kirauea, they were scrupulously attentive to every injunction of her priests, and regarded with a degree of superstitious veneration and awe the appalling spectacle which the crater and its appendages presented.”

“The violations of her sacred abode, and the insults to her power, of which we had been guilty, appeared to them, and to the natives in general, acts of temerity and sacrilege; and, notwithstanding the fact of our being foreigners, we were subsequently threatened with the vengeance of the volcanic deity, under the following circumstances.”  (Ellis, 1831)

The Wahaʻula Heiau was threatened three times in 1989 and once in 1990, but the lava flowed only up to the walls before diverting around them, but destroyed the visitor center and related facilities (built by the National Park Service in 1964, was destroyed by lava in June 1989.)  However, a subsequent 1997 flow breached the walls and covered the heiau. (star-bulletin)

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Richard Henderson Trent

“During [WW I], Richard Henderson Trent was the local representative of the Alien Property Custodian and his responsibility, of course, was to take over property owned by German interests here in the Islands.” (Theodore Frederick Trent, oral history)

“Ready to stir the cauldron which was now bubbling nicely was Dixie Doolittle, whose paid advertisements appeared from November, 1917, to February, 1918. Dixie made it his practice to attack Germanism wherever he found it.”

“One day he found it in the Elks Lodge, and the ensuing libel trial unveiled Dixie Doolittle as none other than Richard H. Trent, president of Trent Trust Company, of whom more will be said later.”

“Trent had attacked the Elks, because their club served liquor, and he considered liquor a German weapon. … The editorial response of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin drove home the point that ‘nothing but the most ceaseless vigilance will serve to protect Hawaii . . . from the ceaseless conspiracies of the enemy.’”

“Everyone now knew the ‘faithlessness of the German word.’  “J. F. Brown in a letter to the Bulletin added the thought that ‘Americans must regard every German as a potential spy unless loyalty proven beyond doubt.’” The court acquitted Trent of the charges, but the advertisements did not reappear.” (Wagner-Seavey)

Born September 11, 1867, in Somerville, Fayette County, Tennessee, Richard Henderson Trent was the son of William Clough and Mary Virgin (Bonner) Trent.

Trent only attended public school until he was 12-years of age, and was a self-educated and self-made man.  He arrived in the Islands in 1901, and almost immediately joined the staff of the Evening Bulletin, but left after several months to become bookkeeper for Henry Waterhouse & Co., and later treasurer of the Henry Waterhouse Trust Co., Ltd.  (Men of Hawaii)

Trent Trust Company, Ltd was  formed on June 20, 1907 (Hawaiian Star, Jul 1, 1907); Town and Country Homes was formed by Trent and others in November 1924, “the purpose of which is to acquire and develop lands and build houses and roads”. (SB, Nov 13, 1924)

“With the Incorporation came an even greater growth, both in the amount, of business and in the number of departments handled by the concern. … Trent Trust Company handles real estate, insurance, stocks and bonds, renting, building, loans and mortgages, and its trust department has well equipped safe deposit vaults.”

“Every department has men who are experts in their line, as efficiency is the keynote of the firm and to which it owes Its rapid growth. It has a very loyal body of clients and good will is one of its biggest assets.” (SB, Jun 30, 1917)

Charles Russell Frazier (the head of Town and Country Homes, Ltd., which was the real estate division of the Trent Trust Co.)  was primarily a marketing man, but was also developer and chief promoter).

In 1924, Harold Kainalu Long Castle sold land on the Windward side to Trent and Frazier and they developed what we call “Lanikai”.  As a marketing ploy to entice wealthy buyers looking for a vacation home at the development they also referenced is as the “Crescent of Content”.

In naming it Lanikai they believed it translated ‘heavenly sea;’ however, they used the English word order.  In Hawaiian the qualifier commonly follows the noun, hence Lani-kai means ‘sea heaven,’ ‘marine heavenʻ.  (Ulukau)

Trent’s company was publisher of TrenTrusTics, a financial journal much in demand by investors and others interested in Hawaiian industries and securities; was first treasurer of County of Oahu and twice re-elected, serving three terms from 1905-1910; president Honolulu Y. M. C. A., 1908-1915, member Territorial Board of Public Lands, 1910-1914. (Men of Hawaii)

Trent was a member of the Board of Regents, University of Hawaiʻi, for several years, as well as served as a trustee of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate and the Bishop Museum.

In 1928, while Trustee of the Kamehameha Schools (1917-1939,) a junior division was created for the Kamehameha School for Boys annual song contest; Trent donated the contest trophy.  The original school for boys contest cup, the George A Andrus cup, was designated as the trophy for the senior division winner and the Richard H Trent Cup for the junior division winner.

Trent was also owner of the only private zoo in the Territory. (Men of Hawaii)  “Mr. Trent’s zoo is practically a public institution, maintained at his personal, private expense for the public’s pleasure.” (PCA, 8/21/1916)  At one point, it appears the zoo was a little too ‘open.’

“Dogs frightened the two animals brought from Australia for Trent’s private zoo and they jumped against their cage with enough force to break through it … A young one, thrown from its mother’s pouch, was killed by the dogs, but the pair of old ones managed to get away and have not been seen since.”  (Star-Bulletin, August 21, 1916)

 “Richard H. Trent, Honolulu’s animal impresario, issues a call to all citizens of Oahu today to join in a mammoth, personally conducted wallaby hunt, the first of its kind ever held in the Hawaiian archipelago.”

“Two of the three small kangaroos which he obtained last week from Australia, at great trouble and expense, escaped from the Trent zoological gardens on Alewa Heights Saturday night and at latest reports last night were roaming at will in the Oahu forests.”

“Inhabitants are warned hereby that the animals positively are not dangerous; will not bite anything more meaty than grass, leaves or succulent forest shrubbery. The unfortunate owner offers a reward of twenty-five dollars for their capture and return alive.”

“Unless the animals are caught they may be come permanent denizens of the mountain districts and, like their distant cousins, the Australia rabbits, may propagate and produce eventually a breed of Hawaiian wallabies.”

“But meantime the public would be deprived of gazing upon them at close range and observing the peculiarities of the unusual, antipodean animals. … The wallabies are perfectly harmless, it is said, but they may prove exceedingly difficult to capture.” (PCA, 8/21/1916)

While the wallabies once roamed from Nuʻuanu to Hālawa, they are now known to live in only one valley, the ʻEwa side of Kalihi Valley, which has a series of sheer cliffs and narrow rocky ledges.  (earlham-edu)

The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DLNR-DOFAW) no longer keeps track of the population, since they believe the animals are nonthreatening.

Wallabies are designated as protected game mammals by DLNR (§13-123-12,) which means no hunting, killing or possessing, unless authorized.  (The same rule applies to wild cattle.) In 2002, a wallaby was captured in Foster Village; DLNR released it back into Kalihi Valley.

The last state survey of Kalihi wallabies was in the early-1990s; at the time, the estimated population was as high as 75-animals.

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Mōkapu Peninsula

“I learnt, that their present king’s name was Taheeterre [Kahekili], and that he was also king of Morotoi [Molokai] and Mowee [Maui]. The old man informed me, that his residence was in a bay [Kāne‘ohe Bay] round the West point, and importuned me very much to carry the ships there, as that place, he said, afforded plenty of fine hogs and vegetables.”

“Indeed, I had some reason to think, that the inhabitants on that part of the island were more numerous than in King George’s Bay [Maunalua Bay], as I observed most of the double canoes came round the West point; but as the people now brought us plenty of water, I determined to keep my present situation, it being in many respects a very eligible one …”

“… for we hitherto had been favoured with a most refreshing sea breeze, which blows over the low land at the head of the bay; and the bay all round has a very beautiful appearance …”

“… the low land and vallies being in a high state of cultivation, and crowded with plantations of taro, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, &c. interspersed with a great number of cocoa-nut trees, which renders the prospect truly delightful. …”

“Potatoes and taro are likewise met with here-in great plenty, but I never observed any bread-fruit, and scarcely any yams; so that there is reason to suppose they are not cultivated by the inhabitants of Woahoo [O‘ahu].” (Capt Nathaiel Portlock, June 1786)

Mōkapu received its basic formation when volcanic eruptions of the southeast end of the Ko‘olau mountain range produced many lava flows and much falling rock. These same eruptions produced secondary tuff cones now known as Diamond Head, Koko Head and Punchbowl. (Steele, MCBH)

 Like Lē‘ahi (Diamond Head), Ulapa‘u tuff is a volcanic rock made up of a mixture of volcanic rock and mineral fragments (they were likely explosive volcanic eruptions).  (SOEST)

“The ahupua‘a of Heeia and its sources of foods such as the sea pond of Heeia, the large mullet of Kalimuloa and Kealohi, the reef of Malauka‘a where octopus were found, the travelling uhu and ohua fishes, and the wooden bowls of Mokapu, belonged to Maui-kiikii (Top-knot Maui).” (Kamakau in Sterling & Summers)

Mōkapu Peninsula encompasses portions He‘eia and Kāne‘ohe – these are extensions of the ahupua‘a across the large basin of Kāne‘ohe Bay.  Mōkapu peninsula is further sub-divided into six sections.

The tip of the left lobe of the peninsula was called Mōkapu and was in the He‘eia section, while Heleloa, Kuwa‘aohe, Ulupa‘u, Halekou-Kaluapuhi, and Nu‘upia, rested in the Kāne‘ohe district. (Sterling & Summers)

“The two divergent lobes of Mo-kapu possess distinctive features. The left lobe … is marked by Hawaii Loa crater, the coral bluffs, lava sheets, Pyramid Rock, and stone ruins.  The right lobe is dominated and terminated by the Ulu-pa‘u crater. This is a broad, shallow, saucer-shaped vent, a truncated hollow cone, very similar in appearance and structure to Le-ahi.” (MacCaughey, 1917)

‘Mōkapu’ is the contraction of ‘Mōku Kapu’ … ‘mōku’ (island) and ‘kapu’ (sacred or restricted),  which means “Sacred or Forbidden Island.”

The sea and bays around Mōkapu were kapu in pre-contact days. The right to fish in the surrounding waters was granted only to the high chiefs and servants of the king. These fishing grounds were called ko‘a.  (Steele, MCBH)

Fishing was confined to certain types of fish native to certain sections of the ocean. Persons were assigned to areas with the task of feeding the fish two or three times a week.  (Steele, MCBH)

Though Mōkapu Peninsula had only limited fresh water, ‘uala (sweet potatoes) and ipu (gourds) were cultivated there. It is also likely that other mulched dryland crops such as kalo (taro), ko (sugar canes), niu (coconuts), ‘ulu (breadfruit), and the pia (arrow root) also grew there.

However, the most important resource of the peninsula were its loko i‘a (fishponds). There were at least five loko i‘a on Mokapu Peninsula, including Ka-lua-puhi (literally: The eel pit), Nu‘u-pia (interpretively: arrow root mound) …

… Hale-kou (interpretively: House surrounded by kou trees), Hele-loa (literally: Distant travel), Muli-wai-‘olena (interpretively: Turmeric [yellowish] estuary), and Pa-‘ohua (literally: Fish fry enclosure). (Maly)

Prior to Polynesian settlement, the ponds were thought to be a shallow open channel between Kāneʻohe and Kailua Bays, making Mōkapu an island, connected to Oʻahu by a thin coastal barrier dune.

Kaneohe Ranch began in 1893, when Nannie Rice leased 15,000 acres to JP Mendonca and C Bolte for cattle ranching.  Incorporated as Kaneohe Ranch Company, Ltd. in 1894, the lands were leased and primarily used for raising pineapple, processing sugar, and cattle operations.

In 1905, James Bicknell Castle acquired the cattle ranching interest of Mendonca and Bolte, and in 1907 he purchased large blocks of shares in the cattle operations of the Kaneohe Ranch Company.

In 1917, Harold Kainalu Long Castle, son of James B Castle, purchased the title to 9,500 acres of land from Mrs. Rice, which included the ‘iii of Heleloa. (HABS No. HI-311-L)

The United States’ military presence on the Mōkapu Peninsula area initially began in 1918. It was through President Woodrow Wilson’s Executive Order No. 2900 that the Kuwa‘aohe Military Reservation was established. (HABS No. HI-311-L)

Use and ownership has been shared and alternated between the Army and Navy over the years. Following the Base Realignment and Closure Committee’s decision to close NAS Barbers Point, the Kāne‘ohe base acquired 4 Navy P-3 patrol squadrons and one SH-60 Anti-Submarine squadron in 1999.

Today, there are almost 10,000 active-duty Navy and Marine Corps personnel attached to the base.  The Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i (MCBH) on Mōkapu maintains and operates the airfield and other training facilities in support of the readiness and global projection of DoD and military operating forces. (MCBH)

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Lānaihale

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.

Lānai has thirteen ahupua‘a (native land divisions), three of which are fairly unique in the larger island group, as they cross the entire island from Kona (leeward) to Koʻolau (windward) regions.

The tallest peak on Lānai is Lānaihale.

The name of the summit is associated with the traditional story of a young chief, Kauluaʻau, son of Aliʻi nui Kākaʻalaneo, a ruler of Maui during the early-1400s.

Kauluaʻau, because of his misdeeds (pulling up breadfruit plantings) in Lāhainā, was banished to Lānai (then known as Kaulahea.) (Maly)

At that time, Lānai was known for being haunted by ghosts. This summit area is where the ghosts of Lānai would gather. The story recounts Kaululaʻau’s plot to kill the ghosts.

According to the account, Kauluaʻau built a house on the summit of Lānai and held a housewarming party, and invited the ghosts.  When they entered the house, Kauluaʻau killed the ghosts and ridded Lānai of their presence.

This story serves as the basis for the name of the island, Lānai (day of victory, day of conquest,) as well as the name of the summit, Lānaihale (house of Lānai.)  (Maly, PBS)

“The land rises with an ascent more or less steep … all around the island, and is at first dry and rocky, with an abundance of thatching pili. A mile or two up it becomes smoother, and patches of brushes appear, and vegetation generally is more luxuriant.”

“Higher up small trees grow, and on the very top of the island, timber is found for good-sized native houses.” (The Polynesian, August 6, 1853; Lānai Culture & Heritage Center)

To get there, you travel on the Munro Trail, a single-lane dirt road (with periodic pull-outs) built in 1955 (generally running north-south and follows a traditional foot trail, later used by island cowboys as a horse trail before improvement as a road.)

It was named after the former ranch manager, George C Munro, who was responsible for planting the numerous Cook Island pines in the summit region.

“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)

Sitting in the rain shadow of Maui, Lānai has always been stressed for want of water.  It was a lone Norfolk Island Pine, planted by Walter M Gibson at Koele in 1878, that in 1911, alerted Munro to the importance of the fog coming off of Lānaihale as a producer of valuable water in the form of fog (cloud) drip.

Hearing the constant drip of water on the corrugated roof of the ranch house situated alongside the Norfolk Pine, Munro realized that the pine boughs collected water from the fog and clouds.

As a result, Munro initiated a program of planting pines across the island.  (Lanai Culture & Heritage Center)

Munro ordered seeds for Norfolk Pines (he received Cook Island Pine seeds instead) and by 1913, initiated a tree planting program on Lānaihale, and outer slopes of the island.

In 1956, Hawaiian Pineapple Company ran catchment experiments, and found that in a 24 hour period, one pine tree could produce 240 gallons of water from fog-drip.

This upland area contains most of the remaining native dominated forest and is habitat for the ʻuaʻu (Hawaiian petrel,) ʻapapane and rare land snails.  (DLNR)  A large colony of the Hawaiian petrel is known to exist near the summit of Lānaihale.

The name of the nearby peak of Haʻalelepaʻakai (salt left behind or discarded) relates to a story of two fishermen who come across from Maui, laden down with their fishing gear and salt.

Early in the morning, they rose up to this second summit and look down into Palawai Basin, and they could see a bed of white “Ae no ka paʻakai” (There’s salt down there.)

So they decided to throw away their salt away at the summit and planned to gather the salt below. They made it down, they found that the salt was gone (what they saw from the summit was mist.) (Maly, PBS)

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Wai O Keanalele

“Wai o ke ola! Wai, waiwai nui! Wai, nā mea a pau, ka wai, waiwai no kēlā!”  (Water is life! Water is of great value! Water, the water is that which is of value for all things!) (Joe Rosa; Maly)

Water was so valuable to Hawaiians that they used the word “wai” to indicate wealth. Thus, to signify abundance and prosperity, Hawaiians would say waiwai.

“Kekaha wai ‘ole na Kona” (“waterless Kekaha of the Kona district”) speaks of Kekaha, the portion of North Kona extending north of Kailua Bay from Honokōhau to ʻAnaehoʻomalu.  It is described as “a dry, sun-baked land.”)

Kamakau notes during the 1770s, “Kekaha and the lands of that section” were held by descendants of the Nahulu line, Kameʻeiamoku (living at Kaʻūpūlehu) and Kamanawa (at Kīholo,) the twin half-brothers of Keʻeaumoku, the Hawai‘i island chief.

It is the home of Kamanawa, at Kīholo, and its fresh water resources that we look at today.

Situated within the ahupuaʻa of Puʻuwaʻawaʻa, this area has ancient to relatively recent (1801 Hualālai eruption and the 1859 Pu‘u Anahulu eruption.)

Kīholo (lit. the Fishhook) refers to the legend which describes how in 1859 the goddess Pele, hungry for the ‘awa and mullet, or ʻanae, which grew there in the great fishpond constructed by Kamehameha I, sent down a destructive lava flow, grasping at the fish she desired.  (DLNR)

This place name may have been selected as a word descriptive of the coastline along that part of the island where the east-west coast meets the north-south coast and forms a bend similar to the angle between the point and the shank of a large fishhook.

There is no confirmation for this theory, except for our knowledge that Hawaiian place names have a strong tendency to be descriptive.  (Kelly)

While only a handful of houses are here today, in ancient times, there was a village that with many more that called Kiholo home.

“This village exhibits another monument of the genius of Tamehameha (Kamehameha I.) A small bay, perhaps half a mile across, runs inland for a considerable distance. From one side to the other of this bay, Tamehameha built a strong stone wall, six feet high in some places, and twenty feet wide, by which he had an excellent fish-pond that is not less than two miles in circumference.”

“There were several arches in the wall, which were guarded by strong stakes driven into the ground so far apart as to admit the water of the sea; yet sufficiently close to prevent the fish from escaping. It was well stocked with fish, and water-fowl were seen swimming on its surface.” (Ellis, 1823)

Where it was feasible, sometimes in small embayments, and other times directly on the coastal reefs, Hawaiians built walled ponds (loko kuapā) by building a stone wall, either in a large semicircle – from the land out onto the reef and, circling around, back again to the land—or to connect the headlands of a bay, they enclosed portions of the coastal waters, often covering many acres.

These ponds provided sanctuaries for many types of herbivorous fish. One or more sluice gates (mākāhā) built into the wall of a pond allowed clean, nutritious ocean water and very young fish to enter the pond. This was the type of fishpond that was reported to have been built at Kīholo by early visitors to the area.  (Kelly)

While Ellis credits Kamehameha with building Ka Loko o Kīholo (The Pond of Kīholo,) it is more likely that the fishpond was built in the fifteenth to the early part of the seventh centuries and that Kamehameha later repaired and rebuilt it.  (Kelly)

It was in operation well after that.  “Took the road from Kapalaoa to Kailua on foot. Passed the great fish pond at Kīholo, one of the artificial wonders of Hawaiʻi; an immense work! A prodigious wall run through a portion of the ocean, a channel for the water etc. Half of Hawaii worked on it in the days of Kamehameha.”  (Lorenzo Lyons, August, 8, 1843; Maly)

Fishing and fish from the pond provided much of the food for the villagers.  In addition, due to the limited rainfall and no surface streams, they also planted sweet potatoes, at least seasonally (probably just before the winter rains were expected, whatever soil was available was piled in heaps and nourished with leaves and other vegetable matter.)  (Kelly)

Kīholo and other ponds (ie Pā‘aiea (once where the Kona Airport is situated)) would have supplied food for Kamehameha’s warriors when they sailed off in the great canoe fleet to conquer the chiefs on the Islands of Maui, Moloka‘i and O‘ahu in 1794 and 1795. (Kelly)

“The natives of this district (also produced) large quantities of salt, by evaporating sea water. We saw a number of their pans, in the disposition of which they display great ingenuity. They have generally one large pond near the sea, into which the water flows by a channel cut through the rocks, or is carried thither by the natives in large calabashes.”  (Ellis, 1823)

“After remaining there some time, it is conducted into a number of smaller pans about six or eight inches in depth, which are made with great care, and frequently lined with large evergreen leaves, in order to prevent absorption. Along the narrow banks or partitions between the different pans, we saw a number of large evergreen leaves placed.”

“They were tied up at each end, so as to resemble a shallow dish, and filled with sea water, in which the crystals of salt were abundant. … it has ever been an essential article with the Sandwich Islanders, who eat it very freely with their food, and use large quantities in preserving their fish.”  (Ellis, 1823)

“Salt was one of the necessaries and was a condiment used with fish and meat, also as a relish with fresh food. Salt was manufactured only in certain places. The women brought sea water in calabashes or conducted it in ditches to natural holes, hollows, and shallow ponds (kaheka) on the sea coast, where it soon became strong brine from evaporation. Thence it was transferred to another hollow, or shallow vat, where crystallization into salt was completed.”  (Malo)

The 1850s saw several outbreaks of lava from Mauna Loa: in August 1851; in February 1852 (it came within a few hundred yards of Hilo;) and in August 1855, when it flowed for 16-months.

Then, in 1859, activity shifted to the northwestern side of the mountain. A flow started on January 23rd at an elevation of 10,500 feet; it came down to the sea on the northwest coast in two branches, at a point just north of Kīholo. On January 31st the stream had reached the sea, more than thirty-three miles in a direct line from its source – the first eruption in historic times from a high altitude to accomplish the extraordinary feat.  (Bryan, 1915)

The 1859 flow basically destroyed Kīholo and transformed it from a former residence of chiefs to a sparsely populated fishing village.  In the early 20th century, Kīholo became the port for Puʻuwaʻawaʻa Ranch, some 10 miles inland near Puʻuanahulu. Cattle were shipped from Kīholo to Honolulu until 1958. The construction of Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway in 1975 ended Kīholo’s former isolation.  (Kona Historical Society)

What about the water?

Today, evidence remains of the fresh groundwater flow through subterranean lava tubes and chambers out into the bay.   There is a series of caves in Puʻuwaʻawaʻa that was formed from lava tubes. The ceilings of lava tubes often collapsed in some places and were left intact in others, forming caves with relatively easy access through the collapsed areas.

Such caves were used for shelters by Hawaiians, perhaps during the summer months when they came to gather salt or to fish. The place name Keanalele (the discontinuous cave) is descriptive of caves found just inland of the coast in the ahupua‘a of Pu‘uwa‘awa‘a between Kīholo and Luahinewai.

Some of the caves contain fresh or brackish water, particularly those located toward the makai (seaward) end of the cave series. Caves that contained water were precious to the inhabitants of the area, even if the water in them was slightly brackish.  (Kelly)  One of these is identified as Wai O Keanalele, with three feet of almost fresh water..

On January 25, 2002 the Board of Land and Natural Resources transferred responsibility for State-managed lands within the ahupua‘a of Pu‘uwa‘awa‘a and Pu‘u Anahulu from its Land Division to the Divisions of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) and State Parks.

The portion that was made the responsibility of the Division of State Parks was designated the Kīholo State Park Reserve.  The Kīholo State Park Reserve is comprised of 4,362 acres and includes an 8-mile long wild coastline along the Kona Coast of the Island of Hawai‘i (bounded by Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway on the east, the Pu‘uwa‘awa‘a/Kaʻupulehu district boundary on the south, the shoreline on the west and the Pu‘u Anahulu/ʻAnaehoʻomalu ahupua‘a boundary on the north.)

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