Place Names | Page 2 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 9, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lāhainā Canal

Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands. Rich whaling waters were discovered near Japan and soon hundreds of ships headed for the area.

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands. Whalers needed water and food, and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands.

The whaling industry was the mainstay of the island economy for about 40 years. For Hawaiian ports, the whaling fleet was the crux of the economy.

More than 100 ships stopped in Hawaiian ports in 1824. Over the next two decades, the Pacific whaling fleet nearly quadrupled in size and in the record year of 1846, 736-whaling ships arrived in Hawai‘i.

While it lacked a natural “harbor,” Lāhainā became one of the Islands’ leading whaling ports. Whalers’ small “chase boats” had to come in from the deep-water offshore anchorage to trade.

While the name Lāhainā means “cruel sun” and the area only averages 13 inches of rain per year, spring-fed, freshwater streams and canals once flowed through it .

Reportedly, during the 1790s, British captain George Vancouver visited this part of Maui and called it “the Venice of the Pacific.”

In 1826 the ship “Wellington”, a British whaling or trading ship, arrived at Lahaina, Maui. Seeking fresh water, the crew dumped the water they had in a river and refilled the barrels.

Then, “(missionary William) Richards was returning home to Lahaina one evening about dusk and met a native who informed him that there was a new ‘fly’ in the place.”

“He described it as being a very peculiar ‘fly’ that made its presence known by ‘a singing in the ear.’” (the story as told by Prof. WD Alexander; Hawaiian Gazette, April 17, 1903)

Later, “(missionary) Dr. Judd was called upon to treat a hitherto unknown kind of itch, inflicted by a new kind of nolo (fly) described as ‘singing in the ear.’”

“The itch had first been reported early in 1827 by Hawaiians who lived near pools of standing water and along streams back of Lahaina [Maui].” (Warner)

“To the Reverend William Richards, their descriptions of the flies suggested a pestiferous insect, from which heretofore the Islands were fortunately free. Inspection confirmed his fears. The mosquito had arrived!”

By the 1840s, Hawaiʻi was the whaling center of the Pacific. Lāhainā became a bustling port with shopkeepers catering to the whalers – saloons, brothels and hotels boomed.

The whalers would transfer their catch to trade ships bound for the continent, allowing them to stay in the Pacific for longer periods without having to take their catch to market.

In the 1840s, the US consular representative recommended digging a canal from one of the freshwater streams that ran through Lāhainā and charging a fee to the whalers who wanted to obtain fresh water.

A few years after the canal was built, the government built a thatched Marketplace with stalls for Hawaiians to sell goods to the sailors.

Merchants quickly took advantage of this marketplace and erected drinking establishments, grog shops and other pastimes of interest nearby. Within a few years, this entire area reportedly became known as “Rotten Row.”

In 1859, an oil well was discovered and developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania; within a few years this new type of oil replaced whale oil for lamps and many other uses – spelling the end of the whaling industry.

At about this same time, the sugar industry in Hawaiʻi was beginning to boom. With the growing importance of sugar (and the thirsty crops’ need for water,) waters were diverted to the service of sugar production.

Eventually, the Lāhainā area was drained of its wetlands. In 1913, the canal was filled in to construct Canal Street and the Market is where King Kamehameha III Elementary school used to be.

Later, eleven-and a-half acres of Lāhaina “swamp land” (near the National Guard Armory,) drainage canals and storm sewers were part of the Lāhaina Reclamation District. (1916-1917) Mokuhinia Pond was filled with coral rubble dredged from Lāhaina Harbor.

By Executive Order of the Territory of Hawaii in 1918, the newly-filled pond was turned over to the County of Maui for use as Maluʻuluʻolele Park.

October 8, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Boondocks

“The 1890s were a troubled time for the Philippines and marked by several conflicts, and the 1896 Philippine Revolution marked the start of the country’s fight for independence from Spain.”

“The United States would go on to acquire the Philippines from Spain in 1898 following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War.” (Gandhi, NPR)

“In the 1898 treaty ending the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States despite the fact that the islands had declared their independence the previous year.”

“The American military’s attempts to take possession was quickly met with violent resistance from a populace ready to throw off three centuries of colonial rule.”

“Many American troops in the Philippines had begun their combat careers in the so-called Indian Wars, domestic suppression of tribal insurgencies on the wide-open prairie lands of the Great Plains.”

“While American forces acclimated to prairies might still feel in control along the edges of an island, they found they were less safe as they proceeded inland, up into the dense forests and rugged terrain of an island’s mountains. (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society)

“The Philippine-American War was a brutal conflict, resulting in the deaths of more than 4,200 American soldiers and over 20,000 Filipino fighters.”

“The Filipino combatants, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, adopted guerrilla warfare tactics in late 1899 after more traditional warfare tactics proved ineffective to them. The combatants would retreat into the jungles and mountains after the surprise attacks.” (Gandhi, NPR)

“Well over a hundred indigenous languages are spoken in the Philippine archipelago, but the 1930s Commonwealth government deemed Tagalog, language of the Manila area, a ‘national language.’”

“Filipino or Pilipino, a standardized form of Tagalog, is the lingua franca of the nation today, with English as the other of the Philippines’ two official national languages.” (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society)

Veterans of the Philippines conflict took a Tagalog term to describe the jungles and rugged regions – “The Tagalog word bundok translates literally as “mountain,” but its larger meaning as wilderness bears the inscription of global forces of war and empire.”

“Bundok is plentiful in the Philippines. A volcanically active archipelago, the nation consists of a cluster of hundreds of tiny islands, many little more than a rocky peak, interspersed with large islands where steep-sided, forested ranges loom over the coastlines.” (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society)

That term morphed into ‘the boondocks’ and the military brought that term back to the US with them. The term began to be used by military personnel both in the US and the Philippines. (Gandhi, NPR)

“‘Boondocks’ is a marine word that is as puzzling as it is pure. A marine is ‘out in the boondocks’ when he is practicing his profession in far places which are meanly endowed with comforts, overgrown with vegetation and overpopulated with savage enemies.”

“Recent marine boondocks are Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Gavutu, Tannabóga, Tasimbogo and other islands of the Solomon group, hitherto known chiefly to missionaries, lady explorers and soap manufacturers in need of coconut oil.”

“Although most of them are now in other boondocks, a few marines have returned from the Solomons, and these are mainly wounded. Some of them will never fight again.” (NY Times, Sep 12, 1943)

By 1944, the phrase ‘out in the boondocks’ was firmly entrenched in the lingo of the armed forces. “But while the phrase would occasionally appear in newspaper coverage of the military in the early 1950s, it wasn’t until the aftermath of the events of April 8, 1956, that the average American heard of ‘the boondocks.’”

“That night, Staff Sgt. Matthew McKeon roused his platoon and ordered the men to march to Ribbon Creek on Parris Island, in South Carolina. The sergeant then jumped into the creek and ordered the recruits to follow, forcing them to march across the creek with him.” (Gandhi, NPR)

Recruit Richard W. Asker, who was 17 at the time, gave this description of what happened: “We were all sitting around the barracks. The lights were on. Then the instructor said we were going out in the boondocks.”

“We thought he was kidding, because we were all laughing. Then he told us to fall out. We fell out in front of the barracks and went out through the dark”. (Daytona Beach Morning Journal – Apr 10, 1956)

“Chaos soon followed when many of the recruits were swept away. Six of the young Marines drowned.” (Gandhi, NPR) “The Ribbon Creek drownings created a media firestorm and a national conversation about how Marines were trained.”

“Several newspapers and magazines covered every detail of McKeon’s subsequent court-martial and trial. McKeon was charged with manslaughter, cruelty and drinking in violation of regulations.”

“The word ‘boondocks’ was frequently used in the coverage of the incident, with newspapers noting that McKeon led his platoon ‘out into the boondocks and eventually into tragedy.’” (Gandhi, NPR)

“Brought into nonmilitary use by returning soldiers, boondock was soon stripped of its military connotations. Boondock transformed into a descriptor of mysterious and remote, but not necessarily hostile, hinterlands.”

“Today, the American term boondock [or ‘boonies’] retains little of the specific ecological and topographical descriptiveness that it had in its military context.”

“Boondock’s wilderness today is societal and cultural rather than environmental. The wilderness of bundok, however, remains both mountainous and culturally remote, wild in spirit as well as in ecology.” (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society)

September 20, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Papa Koa Lumber Company

“The marketing of a quantity of koa lumber will prove a noteworthy event in the history of our exports, it is to be regretted that so little is known on the mainland of the commercial woods of these islands.”

“A complete collection of Hawaiian economic woods, is greatly to be desired. In many cases the beauty of their texture is only equalled by their possibilities of utility.”

“Not only are hard woods of beautiful grain, capable of retaining a splendid polish, well represented in Hawaii, but also others whose peculiar properties would make them valuable tor special purposes. Notable among the latter is the wood of the wili-wili tree, whose extreme lightness will no doubt some day find an economic application.”

The ‘ōhi‘a forms the major part of the forest in South Kona and in many places the trees attain good height and fairly large diameter. The ‘ōhia forest extends up to an elevation of about 4,000 feet.

“Above that the character of the forest changes, the ‘ōhi‘a being replaced by koa in fairly pure stand, with less undergrowth. The koa occurs in groves more or less connected, rather than as a dense forest cover.”

The upper part is much rougher than that lower down, but nevertheless there are many pockets and little islands of good soil in the lava in which the koa develops well and reaches good size. Where the soil is scant the trees are short and spreading. (Hawaiian Forester and Agriculturalist, 1905)

Between 1906 and 1919, Papa Koa Lumber Company, owned by Cristel Bolte, was the major supplier of koa lumber for Hawai‘i and the US. (Jenkins)

Bolte was a German national who became a naturalized Hawaiian subject. He was a merchant in the corporation of Grinbanm & Co. and was connected with the Planters’ Labor and Supply Association and a sugar shareholder; “There is hardly any person of property in this country who is not an owner of some sugar stocks.”

Bolte leased about 600-acres of koa forest lands in Papa, South Kona, and in 1906 he negotiated a contract to supply koa logs to the American-Hawaiian Mahogany Company in Petaluma, California. He shipped 30,000 feet of unsawed logs to the American-Hawaiian Mahogany Company in the first year of operation.

In 1909, Bolte purchased sawmill equipment on the mainland and entered into a partnership with EH Cant to harvest ‘ōhi‘a in Pahoa. Cant and Bolte, Ltd. had picked up part of the Santa Fe Railroad contract that the Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company had. but lost.

By 1914, the once large market for ‘ōhi‘a in the US had all but disappeared and by 1915 Bolte consolidated his lumber business back at Papa, South Kona, now on approximately 1,200 acres.

He added a band saw and forty-two-inch circular saw used for sawing the logs. There was also a machine shop, a complete woodworking shop, a manager’s home, and six to ten workers’ cottages on the site. It was a modern sawmill, employing whatever machinery was practical in the rugged, steep terrain.

Two old lumber wagons with ‘wood wheels’ were also used for hauling lumber down to the Ho‘opuloa Village landing for shipment

Transporting the lumber to the shipping point was as difficult and costly as it had been 100 years earlier. The tortuous roads over the rugged lava were essentially wagon trails, and the lumber vehicles were in constant need of repair.

The company was a major supplier of koa lumber to Honolulu’s largest koa furniture manufacturer, Fong Inn Company. The Papa Koa Lumber Company was in fact the main source of all commercial koa lumber during that time.

Bolte died in April 1919 at the age sixty-five; two of his sons, Ernest and Fred, continued the business as Bolte Brothers Sawmills. In September 1919, only five months after Bolte’s death, Mauna Loa volcano erupted, destroying much of the company’s forest lands, but stopped short of the sawmill.

The lava continued around and past the mill, destroying more forest lands on its way to the sea. The Bolte Brothers continued for two more years, until May 1921 when the Security Trust Company foreclosed on a loan made the year before.

In September, the sawmill and land were sold to neighboring landowner CQ Yee Hop, who also took the name of the defunct Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company. The new company then became the major supplier of koa lumber in the territory. (Lots of information here is from Jenkins, Daughters of Hawaii.)

September 4, 2026 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

‘And Now I Must Pay’

“Ten minutes to eight. Margaret died instantly. She did not suffer. And now I must pay.”

(So said the note found on the seat of a car at the edge of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater at Volcano.) (Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1932)

The next day (June 3, 1932,) an 8.2 earthquake off the coast of Colima and Jalisco in Mexico produced a tidal wave which was recorded strongly at Hilo, Hawaii (little damage and no deaths were recorded.) (Seismicity of the Earth)

“Natives construe the tidal waves which swept the mouth of the Wailoa river and lower Kūhiō bay yesterday as an omen that Pele resents having two lifeless mortals at the threshold of her fiery kingdom.”

“They expressed fear that the tragedy which ended the lives of Sylvester (William) Nunes, 20, and Margaret Enos, 17, may lead to some dire calamity.” (Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1932)

Whoa … let’s look back ….

“The tragedy had its inception when Nunes, a Portuguese, wished to take the young high school student (Enos) in marriage. She declined to consider matrimony.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

“The twenty-year-old youth (Nunes) was educated in American schools and had started a promising business career.”

“About a year ago Sylvester met Margaret Enos. She was a laughing, gay native girl and he loved her smile and bubbling spirits.”

“Occasionally she accompanied Sylvester on motor rides in his smart red roadster. Sometimes they rode to nearby beaches, swam and went surf-riding, a sport at which both were adept.”

“Some weeks ago he proposed to Margaret, ‘I am too young to marry and settle down,’ she told him. ‘Wait a few years – then perhaps who can tell about such things.’”

“But she would accept none of the many gifts Nunes tried to shower on her and refused to commit herself (to) marrying him. … To the seventeen-year-old Hawaiian beauty life was too happy and joyous a thing to be spoiled by the moody bursts of temper of a disappointed admirer.”

“Margaret in a very short time became an obsession with him. He couldn’t eat, was unable to sleep. He bombarded her with impassioned love-letters.”

“When she went out with other native boys he followed them and watched in agony the girl’s flashing eyes and listened to her laughter. The things he saw were innocent enough. Margaret was a respectable girl but the sight of a rival’s arm on the back of her chair and her gayety at parties shot poison into his heart.”

“Several times he warned her boy-friends, “Margaret is engaged to me. Leave her alone!””

“In the end Sylvester, with his spying, his letters and his jealous protests, became such a nuisance that the girl told him she never wanted to see him again. He threatened, cajoled and pleaded, but the girl merely shook her little head.”

“After that final quarrel Nunes disappeared temporarily from Hilo, where both lived. For a week no one saw or heard from him. … Then one late afternoon, the jilted admirer reappeared in Hilo.”

“In his red roadster he drove straight to the home.” (Fresno Bee, July 24, 1932) “Margaret’s sister, Mrs. Manuel Furtado, with whom she lived, grappled with Nunes.” (Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1932)

”‘I will go,’ said Margaret with assumed placidity … Obviously she thought she could quiet him once they were outside. But Mrs. Furtado stood in the doorway. ‘You will not go with him,’ she announced. Taking Margaret by the hand, Nunes tried to push past her older sister. But Mrs. Furtado seized him by the coat and would not let go.”

“In a rage, the young Hawaiian shot the woman through the hand. While Mrs. Furtado screamed with rage, Nunes picked up the girl and carried her to his waiting car. She fought, bit and scratched, but his superior strength proved too much for her.”

“‘I will kill you unless you keep still,’ he told the girl. Terrified, she allowed him to drive her away. The revolver he kept by his side as they drove through the sleepy streets of Hilo.”

“As police later reconstructed the story, Nunes drove about the country for several hours. Again and again he begged the beautiful girl to marry him.” (Fresno Bee, July 24, 1932)

“Taking Margaret to the volcano, where sweethearts are in the habit of keeping trysts, it is presumed he again made his protestations of love and asked her to marry him. She evidently refused, for evidence indicates he shot her and, clasping her in his arms leaped into the fiery pit.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

“Park rangers found Nunes’ rented motor car on the brink of the firepit at noon. It was spattered with blood. On a seat was an automatic pistol and a note which read:”

“‘Ten minutes to eight. Margaret died instantly. She did not suffer. And now I must pay.’” (Chicago Tribune, June 3, 1932)

“With powerful glasses Hawaiian National Park rangers located the bodies of the pair on a ledge 800 feet below the brink of the 1,200 foot deep pit.” (Stanford Daily, June 3, 1932)

“One of the strangest rescues ever attempted was effected successfully today when Rikan Konishi, a Japanese weighing 85 pounds, took the bodies of a despairing lover and the sweetheart he killed from the troubled kingdom of the fire goddess Pele in the smoking crater of the volcano Halemaumau.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

Aided by dozens of helpers, Konishi worked night and day building platforms and used 3 tractors and 2 caterpillars to help string a mile of cable – the effort dragged on for more than a week. The gondola was 30-inches wide and 6-feet long (with 3-foot sides.) (Farabee)

“Lighting a cigaret, Konishi entered a cage he had constructed at 9 o’clock this morning. He sat on a low stool with his head almost hitting the roof, while paraphernalia was packed all around him.”

“He protected himself as best he could against the gaseous fumes of the crater and tied himself with a slipknot to guard against falling out. He also had a telephone contact with his brother-in-law, who remained on the crater’s rim.”

“Konishi phoned directions for raising or lowering the cage, which was manipulated by a winch. As the descent started rocks were dislodged and thundered down as he swung out over the 1,200 foot chasm and descended slowly until he reached Talus slope, 800-feet down, where the bodies lay.”

“Landing about thirty feet from the nearest body, that of the young girl, the midget Japanese wrapped it in canvas. He then walked on loose rocks, holding on to a guide rope, to the body of Nunes, which he prepared in like manner.”

“The bodies were too heavy for the slight rescuer to move, so he attached them to ropes from the cage. He ordered the cage raised until both were dangling together. He then had it lowered until they lay upon a ledge, side by side.”

“He secured them to the bottom of his conveyance, unfurled a white flag to signal success, took a drink of water, and sat calmly in the cage as it made its ascent.”

“He reached the rim from the pit shortly after 6 o’clock this evening with both bodies wrapped in canvas. The entire operation took about eight hours, throughout which Konishi displayed the calm courage of his Japanese ancestors. … Konishi, who is a contractor, will collect $1,000 for his work.” (Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1932)

Benefits and fund-raising efforts over the next two weeks added $1,114 to the $1,000 guaranteed by the National Park so that Konishi could meet his expenses. (Farabee)

Newspaper_account_of_bodies_recovered_at_Halemaumau_Firepit_Hawaii-auburn

August 31, 2026 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Sloggetts

Henry Charles Sloggett was a medical doctor. He first visited the Islands in 1875 while travelling on the Challenger Expedition (a British circumnavigation of the world, studying the deep sea and distribution of life at different depths.)

Following that (1883,) the family (wife, Annie Ellery (1850-1900;) son Henry Digby (1876-1938) and daughter Myra (1878-1944)) moved from England to the US and Canada.

Yearning to return and live in the Islands, the Sloggetts came to the Islands in about 1895. For a while, Digby remained on the continent, working in the salmon industry at Puget Sound, Washington.

In 1898, daughter Myra married Johann (John) Friedrich Humburg, a German merchant working for the Hackfeld Company (forerunner to AmFac.) He was later VP of operations in San Francisco.

Upon arriving in the Islands, Dr Sloggett opened an office on Beretania Street, specializing in eye and ear disorders. “A few years after beginning practice here, Dr. Sloggett was appointed by President Dole of the Republic a member of the Board of Health.”

“Then, when Dr Cooper resigned the presidency of that body on departing for the States to visit his old home and attend the grand council of the Elks, Dr Sloggett was appointed to succeed him (as President of the Board of Health.)” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 25, 1905)

Annie Sloggett died in 1900, “She had been in ill-health for some time but no fears that she would not recover had been felt by her family. Heart disease was the cause of Mrs Sloggett’s death. She was fifty one years of age.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 30, 1900)

“After the death of his wife … Dr Sloggett resigned from the Board of Health and went to Shanghai In the service of the Oriental Insurance Co.”

“He returned to Honolulu In 1903 and was immediately appointed Superintendent of the Insane Asylum.” (Evening bulletin., March 25, 1905) (Dr Sloggett died in 1905.)

Digby Sloggett came to the Islands in 1896. He first worked at BF Ehlers & Co in Honolulu (forerunner to Liberty House,) then took “the responsible post of assistant bookkeeper of Lihue plantation, on Kauai.”

“Mr Sloggett had been with Ehlers & Co. a year and a half, and the management was loth to see him depart, though he goes to a better position.” (Honolulu Republican, September 28, 1900)

He remained until 1900 when he left to join the staff of the Maui Agricultural Co at Paʻia, Maui. He, later, resigned that post to become assistant manager of GN Wilcox’s Grove Farm plantation in 1920.

Digby married Lucy Etta Wilcox. Etta was daughter of Samuel Whitney and Emma Washburn Lyman Wilcox, and granddaughter of missionaries Abner and Lucy Wilcox. Digby and Lucy had five children.

Over the years, Digby Sloggett was manager of the Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital for tubercular patients at Kealia, Kauai; director of the Lihue Soda Co., Ltd.; director and secretary of the Kauai Telephone Co.; director of the Garden Island Publishing Co.; treasurer of the Grove Farm Co., Ltd., and Lihuʻe Hospital, and a member of the advisory boards of Lihue Branch Bank of Hawaii, Ltd., and the Lihue branch of the Salvation Army.

A lasting legacy of Henry Digby and Lucy Etta Wilcox Sloggett is Camp Sloggett in Kokeʻe on Kauai. It started as a family mountain retreat for hiking, horseback riding and relaxation.

After the Digby and Etta’s deaths, the Sloggett children maintained the camp for their own use. They later transferred the Camp to the YWCA.

The YWCA had long associations with the Sloggett family. Elsie and Mabel Wilcox, sisters of Etta, started the YWCA on Kauai. Etta Wilcox Sloggett was also a former president of the Kauai YWCA. (nps)

In addition to Camp Sloggett, other Kokeʻe camp lots surveyed and staked by Charles S Judd in 1918 who was then Superintendent of Forestry.

He modeled these lots and their intended uses after recreation cabins and campsites that were being established on the continental United States in the US National Forests at that time. It grew to a total of 135-lots.

In addition to Sloggett, the Boy Scouts run the Camp Alan Faye and Hui O Laka controls the former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp. Numerous other individuals have family cabins leased from the state.