Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Nonopapa Landing

O‘ahu was the first Hawaiian island sighted by Captain James Cook in January, 1778. Driven off from an anchorage there by winds and currents, Cook came upon Kauai and Niihau, where he spent a few days replenishing stores.  The natives eagerly traded their yams and salt for pieces of iron, and relations were cordial all through Cook’s brief stay.

When he stood away to the north on February 1, he left behind sheep and goats and the good seed of melons, pumpkins, and onions, “being very desirous of benefitting these poor people, by furnishing them with some additional articles of food.” (Dawes and Head)

“In 1847 the king, Kamehameha III, was presented with ‘a plaid-figured blanket’ woven from the wool of Kauai sheep. And one of the first premiums given by the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society in Honolulu was a silver medal awarded in 1851, the report states, for ‘twenty yards of woolen cloth, the sheep raised, and the wool shorn and woven by Joseph Gardener of Kauai.’” (Damon)

In the 1850s the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society pointed out the great potentialities of the Islands for wool production. Sheep ranches were soon established on the Waimea plains of Hawai‘i and on Molokai, Lanai, and Ni‘ihau. (Diversified Agriculture of Hawaii)

In a report by GS Kenway on Sheep Situation in 1852 before the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society Mr. Kenway stated that two Merino ewes imported from Sydney were exhibited at a fair and “two large black beasts of a foreign breed and very mysterious pedigree.” (CTAHR)

“During the nineteenth century, the massive expansion of sheep pastoralism in Australia, New Zealand, the western United States, South Africa, South America, and in less predictable locales such as the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) and Rapa Nui (Easter Island), fueled the alienation of Indigenous peoples from their lands.“

“Hawaiian wool, for example, was purchased during the American Civil War by the Stevens Woolen Mills in Massachusetts, engaged in manufacturing textiles for the Union Army.” (Shaw & FitzSimons)

“Perhaps the largest and longest-lived sheep ranch was the island of Niihau, purchased by the Sinclair family, emigrants from Scotland via New Zealand, in 1864.”

“They introduced sheep, at the same time moving about half of the 500 native inhabitants, and the native dog population, off the island. This left the land clear for their flock of (by 1885) about 40,000 sheep.”

“The extended Sinclair family (including Gays and Robinsons) and their descendants owned sheep runs on other Hawaiian islands, and ran sheep on Niihau until well into the 20th century.” (Shaw & FitzSimons)

In 1863, the Sinclairs decided to sell the Pigeon Bay farm and settle in Canada.  Eliza and 13 members of her family sailed for Canada via Tahiti (captained by her son-in-law, Thomas Gay.)  California was considered as an alternative place to settle, but they were persuaded to try Hawaiʻi. They travelled to Honolulu via Los Angeles.  (Joesting)

On September 17, 1863, the three-hundred-ton ‘Bessie’ anchored in Honolulu Harbor, bearing fine Merino sheep, a cow, hay and grain, chickens, jams and jellies, books and clothing, a grand piano, and thirteen members of the Sinclair family. (Dawes and Head)

The family was anxious to find land on which to settle and they were offered several large tracts on Oʻahu (at Kahuku, Ford Island and ʻEwa.)  When King Kamehameha IV heard the family might leave the Islands, the King offered to sell them the island of Niʻihau.  (Joesting)

But Kamehameha IV died on November 30 before the closing, so Royal Patent No. 2944 shows his brother, Kamehameha V, completed the transaction in 1864.

As he signed the contract, the king said: ‘”Niihau is yours. But the day may come when Hawaiians are not as strong in Hawaii as they are now. When that day comes, please do what you can to help them.’”  (New York Times)

Before the purchase, Ni‘ihauans largely raised dogs for food. But since the Sinclairs intended to use the island for cattle and sheep ranching, they ordered that all the dogs be killed to protect the new livestock. Many islanders refused to kill their animals and so they migrated to Lehua and Kauai. (Tava and Keale)

Unsatisfactory for Hawaiian wet agriculture, Ni‘ihau offered better prospects for livestock. It had one great advantage. Elsewhere in Hawaii the ubiquitous dogs of the Polynesians were a menace to sheep and cattle; on Ni‘ihau, bounded by coast line rather than fences, this problem was quickly mastered. They raised sheep and cattle.  (Dawes and Head)

The Sinclairs “bought sheep and cattle from the big ranches on Hawaii, and took them, with some fine sheep (they) brought with (them) from New Zealand, (began a) new ranch on Niihau.”  (Von Holt) 

In the letters of the Interior Department is one from Charles Gordon Hopkins of the Home Office to Hoffschlaeger and Stapenhorst, agents for Captain Thomas Gray, Commander of the British Barque ‘Bessie’ under date of April 2, 1864, in which permission was granted to carry 3,000 sheep from Molokai to Ni‘ihau.

This apparently was quite unusual to permit a foreign vessel to interfere with the inter-island carrying trade, but was granted because of the likelihood of sheep getting disease or scab from inter-island vessels as well as to encourage the industry just as sugar had been encouraged. (CTAHR)

Sheep raising was concentrated at two places – the Humu‘ulu Sheep Station of the Parker Ranch and the Island of Ni‘ihau. The sheep are kept primarily for wool production-practically all of them being of the Merino breed. (CTAHR)

Parker Ranch wool always brought good prices in Boston where it was marketed. Shearing was done early in the Spring before the kikania burrs had a chance to mature and harden and stick to the wool. For this reason also Parker Ranch wool was always preferred in the Islands as padding for the Hawaiian quilts. (Maly)

“Perhaps the largest and longest-lived sheep ranch was the island of Niihau, purchased by the Sinclair family, emigrants from Scotland via New Zealand, in 1864. They introduced sheep, at the same time moving about half of the 500 native inhabitants, and the native dog population, off the island.”

“This left the land clear for their flock of (by 1885) about 40,000 sheep. The extended Sinclair family (including Gays and Robinsons) and their descendants owned sheep runs on other Hawaiian islands, and ran sheep on Niihau until well into the 20th century.” (Shaw & FitzSimons)

On Ni‘ihau, the only commercial shipping point was Nonopapa Landing situated on the west side of the island. There were four buildings, a small dock and a derrick for loading cargo. Steamers of the Inter-island Steam Navigation Co call here upon request.

The principal products shipped from the island are cattle, sheep, wool, and honey. These are lightered out to the ships in whale boats. (US Coast and Geodetic Survey, Register 4242, 1927)

Nonopapa, also spelled Lonopapa, was the location of the hale pale hulu hipa, the “sheep wool bailing house.” (Clark)  Sheep were sheared at Nonopapa, where the wool was graded, sorted and put in sacks for shipment to the mainland markets (Boston or other Eastern centers). (CTAHR)

Shearing was done with electric shears powered by a generator. Wool was sometimes stained by the red dirt on the island, making it difficult to sell. Sheep were also sold to other ranches, or sold for meat off-island. (Tava and Keale)

“There is a carriage road through from Ki to the ranch house and Nonopapa. From the road you get a view of the most fertile portion of the island. On the occasion of this visit, although it was a dry season, the grass and other vegetation looked wonderfully healthy, and the cattle and horses were sleek and in good condition.” (Hawaiian Directory, 1896-7; Evening Bulletin, Apr 5, 1899)

“The natives on Niihau … call Mrs (Sinclair) ‘Mama.’ Their rent seems to consist in giving one or more days’ service in a month, so it is a revival of the old feudality. … It is a busy life, owing to the large number of natives daily employed, and the necessity of looking after the native lunas, or overseers.”  (Isabella Bird, 1894)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Gilberts and Marshalls

“During more than a century and a half (1606-1762), the South Pacific was almost empty of ships. Europeans preferred to trade with the Far East by way of the Cape of Good Hope. … Interest in the broad reaches of the Pacific revived after 1762.”

“Twenty years elapsed, in which important discoveries were made in the South Pacific by three French navigators, Bougainville, La Perouse and D’Entrecasteaux, and by the great Captain James Cook. …” (Morison, Life, May 22, 1955)

“Europeans’ knowledge of the central Pacific developed most rapidly after the establishment of a penal colony at Botany Bay [Australia], and the adoption of the ‘outer passage’ for the return voyage to Europe via Canton.”  (Macdonald)

“Then came two obscure English seamen, not otherwise known to fame, who have left their names, probably for all time, on the Gilberts and Marshalls.”

“William Marshall was master of the Scarborough, and Thomas Gilbert of the Charlotte. Both sailed from England as part of the convoy under Captain Arthur Phillip, RN, first governor of New South Wales, which brought the first convict settlement to Australia.”

“Their vessels, the Charlotte and Scarborough, were English merchant ships chartered by the Honourable the East India Company to take 334 convicts with a Royal Marine guard, and the marines wives, to Botany Bay, Australia, and thence to Canton in order to load tea for England.  The convoy arrived at Botany Bay Jan. 18, 1788.” (Morison, Life, May 22, 1955)

“With their prisoners discharged and their holds empty, the ships of the First Fleet disbanded and struck north for Canton to pick up cargoes of oriental goods for the return voyage to England a practice that came  to be followed by most British convict vessels in succeeding years.” (Hezel)

Two of the more enterprising captains, Gilbert and Marshall, after discharging their unwilling passengers at Botany Bay, viewing the foundation of Sydney, and taking in wood, water, jerked kangaroo meat and such other provisions as aboriginal Australia afforded, sailed for Canton on May 6, 1788. (Hezel and Morison)

They “brought their ships well around to the east on a course that took them through the archipelagoes that now bear their names.”  (Hezel)

Gilbert was the first European to name and describe what is now Kiribati, arriving on June 20, 1788: “The southernmost island of the chain, I left first for Captain Marshall to name, which he thought proper to name Gilbert’s Island …”

“… the middle, I named Marshall’s Island; and the northernmost, Knox’s Island; – to the large island with the cluster, I gave the name of Mathews’s Island, in honour of the owner of the Charlotte; – the bay, I called Charlotte’s Bay …”

“… the south point, which terminates the beautiful cluster of islands, I have named Charlotte’s Point; and the north point of the island, which forms the bay, Point William.” (Gilbert, Voyage from New South Wales to Canton)

Mathews’s Island, now known as Tarawa, is part of sixteen coral atolls in the part of the Pacific known as Micronesia (the region of “small islands”). Lying across the equator, they form the middle of a long chain which includes the Marshall Islands to the northwest and the Ellice Islands to the southeast.

They are typical atolls (An atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef, island, or series of islets. The atoll surrounds a body of water called a lagoon. (National Geographic)), with few notable features: “the low horizon, the expanse of the lagoon, the sedge-like rim of palm-tops, the sameness and smallness of the land, the hugely superior size and interest of sea and sky.”

“The atoll, like the ship, is soon taken for granted; and the islanders, like the ship’s crew, become soon the centre of attention.  The isles are populous, independent, seats of kinglets, recently civilised, little visited.”

“In the last decade many changes have crept in; women no longer go unclothed till marriage; the widow no longer sleeps at night and goes abroad by day with the skull of her dead husband; and, fire-arms being introduced, the spear and the shark-tooth sword are sold for curiosities.” (Robert Lousi Stevenson)

After making a number of discoveries in the Gilbert Islands, Gilbert and Marshall crossed the equator at 175 degrees east and cruised up along the eastern chain of the Marshalls. (Hezel)

The Marshall Islands, north of the equator and west of the International Date Line, include 29 coral atolls and over 1200 islands and islets, situated in two island chains extending over 800 miles in length. (Kwajalein Atoll is the largest atoll in the Marshall Islands, and the world.)

While their total land area is about 70 square miles, barely larger than Washington, DC, the Marshall Islands have the largest portion of territory made of water of any sovereign state, at over 97%. (NPS)

When Gilbert and Marshall headed to Canton, their route “was probably the first time that anyone had attempted to sail from Australia to China. It may seem strange that the two captains should make such a wide sweep to the eastward as to encounter the Marshalls”. (Morison)

“But the passage through the Torres Strait was one that baffled even Cook; the Moluccas were full of pirates; China Strait between New Guinea and the Louisiades was not discovered until 1873 by Captain Moresby.”

The “captains probably figured on making a good easting in the westerly winds of south latitudes, in order to enjoy a fair slant in the northeast trades to Canton.” (Morison, Life, May 22, 1955)

They made Macao; “The city of Macao, which is situated on an island, at the entrance of the river of Canton, belongs to the Portuguese. It was formerly richer, and more populous than it is at present, and totally independent of the Chinese; but it has lost much of its ancient consequence …”

“… for though inhabited chiefly by the Portuguese, under a governor appointed by the King of Portugal, it is entirely in the power of the Chinese, who can starve or dispossess the inhabitants whenever they please. …”  (Gilbert)

“No occurrences worthy of insertion happening during my stay in China, I shall only add, by way of conclusion, that I was dispatched with the same regularity and expedition as the established Indiamen usually are …”

“…  and proceeded to England with a valuable cargo of teas and china-ware. And here I must not omit to mention, with grateful remembrance, the repeated civilities and attention I received from the supercargoes of the East- India Company, resident there.” (Gilbert)

“When Otto von Kotzebue sailed from Russia in 1813 on the brig Rurick with instructions to search for the Northeast Passage that hypothetical waterway from the Bering Sea into the Atlantic he was ordered to spend the winter months exploring the little-known Marshall Islands.”

“For almost three months in early 1817 he did just this, visiting many of the islands in the Ratak or eastern chain. He returned late in the same year for a shorter visit to the islands before sailing westward on his homeward voyage to Kronstadt.”

“Eight years later, Kotzebue was back in the Pacific on a second voyage of exploration with a higher rank and a larger ship, the Predpriatie. [H]e found time to spend a few weeks in the Marshalls on two separate occasions in 1824 and 1825, renewing old acquaintances and observing the progress of the people there.”

“Culturally speaking, the Marshall Islands were still virgin territory when Kotzebue first visited them in 1817. The people recalled a couple of old stories of ships passing the islands and showed the Russian commander a few scraps of iron that they had presumably salvaged from driftwood washing ashore, but otherwise they were altogether untouched by Western influence.”

“Kotzebue very swiftly learned that he could quickly dispel the initial fear of the islanders with small presents of iron, and he was soon on friendly terms with the people wherever he went.” (Hezel)

“In the 1820s Adam von Krusenstern, the Russian explorer and cartographer, brought together all known information on the Pacific in an atlas and a series of commentaries that were the best of their day.  It was he who named the archipelago stretching  from Makin to Arorae in the Gilbert Islands in recognition of the 1788 sightings by Gilbert and Marshall.” (Macdonald)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Molokini

“Uluhina then was called upon,
The navel of the little one was cut,
The afterbirth of the child that was thrown
Into the folds of the rolling surf;
The froth of the heaving sea,
Then was found the loin cloth for the child.
Molokini the island
Is the navel string,
The island is a navel string.” (Fornander)

When Walinuu gave birth to Kahoolawe, Uluhina was called upon to come and cut the navel of the child Kahoolawe, and when he came and had cut the navel he took the placenta and girt it on as a loin cloth.

He then threw it into the sea and Molokini arose formed from the afterbirth of Kahoolawe and the loin cloth of Uluhina, the very name Molokini being a contraction of the words malo and Uluhina. (Fornander)

Molokini erupted about 230,000 years ago (90,000+/-;) it’s a tiny, crescent-shaped island in the ‘Alalakeiki Channel, 3-miles offshore of Haleakala volcano, East Maui.

The volcanic cone rises about 500-feet from the submarine flank of Haleakala to a summit of only 162-feet above sea level. The cone is capped by a 1770-foot crater, although the northern rim is below sea level and the crater is flooded by the sea.

Molokini is similar to cinder cones elsewhere along the southwest rift zone, except that it erupted through water. When magma erupts explosively in shallow water, the liquid water heats, expands rapidly, and changes to steam, adding to the eruptive force.

The extra force shatters the extruded lava, which exposes more hot material–and hence more steam and more force as the eruption grows. Near-shore eruptions are some of the most dangerous that Hawaiian volcanoes can produce.

Shallow marine eruptions have two consequences for the appearance of the resulting cone. The first is grain size (marine eruptions leads to finer-grained deposits;) the second is the abundance of volcanic glass (because the lava fragments are quickly cooled by water before crystals can form.)

Molokini deposits are basanite, a type of basalt with fairly low amounts of silicon and high concentrations of sodium and potassium. (USGS)

The shallow inner cove is the crater’s submerged floor. Black coral was once found in abundance in the deeper waters around Molokini, but was harvested extensively. (Harvesting is now restricted, and small colonies can be found on the islet’s back wall.)

There is no sand beach on Molokini. The cove area slopes off from the shoreline to a depth of about 100 feet before dropping off. The bottom consists of sand patches, coral and basaltic boulders

A shallow reef in less than thirty feet of water extends from the shoreline northward at the islet’s northwestern point. It is a very popular snorkeling area with tour boats packing people in.

It is part of a Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD.) The diversity of fishes and other marine life within the MLCD is among the most impressive in the state. Even humpback whales have been known to enter the cove. (DLNR-DAR)

Molokini was part of prior military training; in 2006 & 2007, a 250-pound bomb, a 105mm projectile and a 5-inch rocket were found during surface surveys by the Navy.

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Kaʻau

“Go hence to your father,
‘Tis there you find line and hook.
This is the hook-‘Made fast to the heavens’
‘Manaia-ka-lani’ – ‘tis called.
When the hook catches land
It brings the old seas together.
Bring hither the large Alae,
The bird of Hina.”

(Queen Liliʻuokalani, in a translation of the Kumulipo, Hawaiʻi’s creation chant, speaks of Hina’s advice to her son Maui.)

The demi-god Maui is the subject of extraordinary stories throughout Polynesia. In many of the accounts he is a mischievous trickster, stealing the secret of fire and helping his mother to dry kapa by lassoing the sun to slow its progression across the sky. (Bishop Museum)

“The most audacious terrestrial undertaking of the demigod Maui was his attempt to rearrange the Islands of the group and assemble them into one solid mass.”

“Having chosen his station at Kaʻena Point, the western extremity of Oʻahu, from which the island of Kauai is clearly visible on a bright day, he cast his wonderful hook, Mana-ia-ka-Iani, far out into the ocean that it might engage itself in the foundations of Kauai.”

“When he felt that it had taken a good hold, he gave a mighty tug at the line. A huge boulder, the Pōhaku O Kauai, fell at his feet.”

“The mystic hook, having freed itself from the entanglement, dropped into Pālolo Valley and hollowed out the crater, that is its grave.” (Manaiakalani, therefore, formed Kaʻau Crater.)

“This failure to move the whole mass of the island argues no engineering miscalculation on Māui’s part. It was due to the underhand working of spiritual forces.”

“Had Maui been more polite, more observant of spiritual etiquette, more diplomatic in his dealings with the heavenly powers, his ambitious plans would, no doubt, have met with better success.” (Emerson)

Another story of Kaʻau relates to how Helumoa at Waikiki got its name. It involves Kakuhihewa, Maʻilikukahi’s descendent six generations later, ruling chief of O‘ahu from 1640 to 1660 (Maʻilikukahi is honored as the first great Chief of O‘ahu and legends tell of his wise, firm, judicious government.)

It is said that the supernatural chicken, Kaʻauhelemoa one day flew down from his home in Kaʻau Crater in Pālolo and landed at Helumoa.

Furiously scratching into the earth, the impressive rooster then vanished. Kākuhihewa took this as an omen and planted niu (coconuts) at that very spot.

Helumoa (meaning “chicken scratch”) was the name he bestowed on that niu planting that would multiply into a grove of reportedly 10,000-coconut trees.

This is the same coconut grove that would later be called the King’s Grove, or the Royal Grove, and would be cited in numerous historical accounts for its pleasantness and lush surroundings.

Kamehameha and his warriors camped near there, when they began their conquest of O‘ahu in 1795. Later, he would return and build a Western style stone house for himself, as well as residences for his wives and retainers in an area known as Pua‘ali‘ili‘i.

Kamehameha I resided at Helumoa periodically from 1795 to 1809. He ended Waikīkī’s nearly 400-year reign as O‘ahu’s capital when he moved the royal headquarters to Honolulu (known then as Kou) in 1808 (to Pākākā.)

Here’s a little geological background on Kaʻau Crater …

The Hawaiian Islands were formed as the Pacific Plate moved westward over a geologic hot spot. Oʻahu is dominated by two large shield volcanoes, Waiʻanae and Koʻolau that range in age from two to four-million years old.

The younger volcanic craters formed after Oʻahu had moved well off the hot spot and the main shield volcanoes had gone dormant for at least two-million years.

Somewhat more than half of the craters of southeast Oʻahu are arranged in linear groups, those dominated by the craters Tantalus, Diamond Head and Koko Crater. In the Diamond Head group is the main Diamond Head vent, Kaimuki crater and Mauʻumae crater. Kaʻau is an extension of this line of craters up into the Koʻolau range.

The Koko group crater line extends for a distance of about six miles, through the Koko Crater vent and from Mānana Island to Koko Head. It includes no less than fourteen separate vents and dikes, of which most are distant from a straight line but a few yards. (Bishop Museum)

“The Kaʻau tuff and basalt flows were erupted during a high stand of the sea (probably during plus 95-foot (Kaʻena) stand of sea)” (about 1-million years ago – a ‘youthful’ volcanic outburst.) (USGS)

Rising magma encountered groundwater and generated steam explosions. Kaʻau crater was probably blasted out by the explosions. Its walls are Koʻolau basalt, overlain by tuff and mudflow debris.

Toward the end of the eruption, lava rose in Kaʻau crater, probably forming a lava lake. Slight recession of the lava in the crater at the end of the eruption left a poorly drained hollow forming a swamp that sometimes contains an open pond. (Volcanoes in the Sea)

(Kaʻau Crater is reached from the end of the Pālolo valley. The trail (muddy and wet) is a closed trail and is not open to the public – news reports note people are repeatedly rescued from there and a couple people recently died on the trail (portions of the trail involve ascending the waterfalls along the way.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Tree-named Hotels

Edward Payson Irwin was born in DeWitt, Iowa, May 7, 1875; he graduated from the University of Kansas in 1897.  After enlisting and serving in the US Army during the Spanish-American War, he came to Hawai‘i in 1906 to be a reporter for the Bulletin. (HSA)

“Irwin was an accomplished newsman who acted as a gadfly over many years against the establishment and its press and against the fiscal ‘extravagance’ of the government. Progressive in politics and social issues.” (Guide to newspapers of Hawaiʻi, 1834-2000, Chapin)

Irwin served as City Editor and later Editor for the Advertiser. He later founded and was editor for the Weekly Times (also called the Honolulu Times). (Hawai‘i Sate Archives) He worked at other publications.

Irwin developed an interest in Waikīkī.  Historically, Waikīkī encompassed fishponds, taro lo‘i, coconut groves and a reef-protected beach that accommodated Hawaiian canoes.

Waikīkī shifted from agricultural to residential uses, with private residences for the Hawaiian royalty and the well-to-do.  Near the turn of the 20th century, some of these homes were converted into small hotels and eventually into world-class resorts.

Robert Lewers (whose firm Lewers & Cooke supplied much of the lumber for O‘ahu homes) built a two-story wooden frame bungalow with an open veranda overlooking a coconut grove in 1883. 

In 1907, Irwin leased the Lewers’ house and converted the structure into a small hotel called the Hau Tree, in honor of the many trees that shaded the beachside lawn. (Halekulani)

Irwin had another tree-named hotel; this time in central O‘ahu.

“Wahiawa is 25 miles from town by rail. It is the original pineapple district founded by a colony of American agriculturists in 1899. It is a small village surrounded by pineapple fields, and being of an elevation of 1000 feet offers to pleasure-seekers and those seeking the cool atmosphere, recreation and rest.” (Aloha Guide, 1915)

It “also (has) several stores, markets, shops, laundry, etc., and two pineapple canneries. Now that the mails come twice a day by rail instead of twice a week by stage from Pearl City, as was the case formerly, a number of Honolulu people have built country houses.”  (Paradise of the Pacific, Oct/Nov 1905)

Mr and Mrs Henry C Brown converted their Wahiawa home into the “Malukukui, their home-hotel among the pineapples at Wahiawa.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, September 29, 1909)

“(I)ll health sent them to seek a quiet country life. They settled in Wahiawa, the largest pineapple country in the world, where they bought several acres of ground and built their home, evolving from it a small country inn in which they are now able to accommodate some fifty guests.”

“Every room has a fine view either over the restful pineapple fields or down the deep ravine on the edge of which the house is built. In the distance can be seen magnificent mountain ranges and glimpses of the Pacific ten miles distant.”  (The Craftsman, 1909)

Then, in 1911, Trent Trust Co placed advertisements offering the Malukukui and its 10-acres of land for sale or lease. This was followed by, “The lease giving EP Irwin the control of the Wahiawa country resort formerly the Malukukui Hotel was signed yesterday by the trustees of the Atherton estate and the new proprietor took possession at once.”

“Numerous expensive additions and repairs about the place have been already planned and will be immediately executed increasing the capacity of the hotel and making it cosier and nearer the standards of the comfort in city hostelries.”

“An automobile will meet the trains at Wahiawa from the hotel and in its off moments act as a link between the Hau tree Irwins Waikiki Hotel and his new Wahiawa enterprise.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 7, 1911)

“The Kukui Tree, formerly known as Malukukui, at Wahiawa, is now open and ready to receive guests. Extensive Improvement are under way and will soon be completed. No place in Hawaii is as suitable to spend a week end at as the Kukui Tree.”

“Run up today or tomorrow and stay over Sunday and see if this is not true. If you try it once, The Kukui Tree will become a habit with you. The table is excellent, as are the accommodations. Inquiries may be made of EP Irwin, at the Hau Tree, phone 1389.” (Hawaiian Star, March 24, 1911)

“The necessity for a place such as Mr Irwin has reopened exists and he deserves all the patronage his enterprise should bring him. As managers of the Hau Tree at Waikiki, Mr and Mrs Irwin have demonstrated the fact that they know how. (Hawaiian Gazette, March 24, 1911)

However, “The Kukui Tree would pay big in the hands of anyone who could get a liquor license, or who would run a blind pig. … EP Irwin has decided to close the Kukui Tree, at Wahiawa. …”

“The place has not been paying. Mr. Irwin will devote all his attention now to his Waikiki place, the well known Hau Tree.”  (Hawaiian Star, July 17, 1911) 

However, Irwin’s Waikīkī enterprise also faltered, his lease expired, and the landowners ran an ad for new tenants. (Halekulani)

 “Despite its location and modest rent, the business they took over was little better than a boarding house. There were three guests the day they moved into their 40-guest capacity hotel.” (From “Hali‘a Aloha o Halekulani”; Halekulani)

Nearby, the J Atherton Gilman family bought 3-acres and built a two-story house from a man named Hall.  La Vancha Maria Chapin Gray rented the Gilman house in 1912 and converted it into a boarding house and named it Gray’s-by-the-Beach.  The sandy area fronting it was soon referred to as Gray’s Beach.

In 1917, Clifford and Juliet Kimball acquired the Hau Tree Inn near Gray’s Beach and, in the late 1920s, they decided to expand and bought the Gilman property, including Gray’s-by-the-Sea and an adjacent parcel belonging to Arthur Brown.

When their expansion project was completed, the Kimballs had acquired over five acres of prime Waikīkī beachfront for their resort, which they named Halekūlani, or “house befitting heaven.” 

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