Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Waipiʻo Kimopo

At the time of Captain Cook’s arrival (1778,) the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokai, Lanai and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauai and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

Kahahana was high-born and royally-connected. His father was Elani, one of the highest nobles in the ʻEwa district on Oʻahu, a descendant of the ancient chiefs of Līhuʻe.  While still a child, Kahahana was sent to Maui to live in the court of his relative, Kahekili.  (Fornander)

Then Oʻahu chiefs selected Kahahana to be their leader (this was the second king to be elected to succeed to the throne of Oʻahu, the first being Māʻilikūkahi, who was his ancestor.)

Kahahana left Maui and ruled Oʻahu.  When war broke out between Kalaniʻōpuʻu of Hawaiʻi Island and Kahekili in 1779, Kahahana had come to the aid of Kahekili.

Later, things soured.

“At that time Kahekili was plotting for the downfall of Kahahana and the seizure of Oʻahu and Molokaʻi, and the queen of Kauaʻi was disposed to assist him in these enterprises.” (Kalākaua)

In the beginning of 1783, King Kahekili from Maui sought to add Oʻahu under his control.   Kahekili invaded Oʻahu and Kahahana, landing at Waikīkī and dividing his forces in three columns (Kahekili’s forces marched from Waikīkī by Pūowaina (Punchbowl,) Pauoa and Kapena to battle Kahahana and his warriors.)

Kahahana’s army was routed, and he and his wife fled to the mountains. For nearly two years or more they wandered over the mountains, secretly aided, fed and clothed by his supporters, who commiserated the misfortunes of their former king.

Weary of a life in hiding, Kahahana sent his wife, Kekuapoʻiʻula, to negotiate with Kekuamanohā (her brother, and chief under Kahekili) for their safety.  Kekuamanohā sent messengers to Kahekili at Waikīkī informing him of the fact.

Kahekili immediately ordered the death of Kahahana, and he sent a double canoe down to ʻEwa to bring the corpse to Waikiki.  This order was faithfully executed by Kekuamanohā.  Kahahana and Alapaʻi were killed in Waikele.

Some of the remaining Oʻahu chiefs sought revenge and devised a wide-spread conspiracy against Kahekili and the Maui chiefs.  The conspiracy was led by Elani, father of Kahahana and included a number of Oʻahu chiefs.

At the time, Kahekili and his chiefs were quartered in various areas around the island.  Kahekili was in Kailua, while others were in Kāneʻohe and Heʻeia, and the remainder in ʻEwa and Waialua.

The plan was to kill the Maui chiefs on the same night in the different districts.

The conspiracy and revolt against Kahekili on Oʻahu was called Waipio Kimopo, (the “Waipiʻo Assassination” – named such, having originated in Waipiʻo, ʻEwa.)

However, before they could carry out their plan, Kalanikūpule found out their intentions and informed his father, Kahekili.  Messengers were sent to warn the other chiefs, who overcame the conspirators and killed them.  (Apparently the messenger to warn the chiefs in Waialua was too late and the Maui chiefs there were killed.)

It was found to be the best policy for a newly conquered people to give prompt and zealous allegiance to Kahekili, lest his piercing eyes should detect a want of aloha in his newly acquired subjects. For such delinquency he had given the people of a whole town to midnight slaughter.  (Newell)

Gathering his forces together, Kahekili overran the districts of Kona and ʻEwa, and a war of extermination ensued. Men, women and children were killed without discrimination and without mercy.  This event was called Kapoluku – “the night of slaughter.”  (Newell)

The streams of Makaho and Niuhelewai in Kona (Oʻahu,) and that of Hōʻaeʻae in ʻEwa, were said to have been literally choked with the corpses of the slain. The Oʻahu aristocracy had almost been entirely killed off.

Kalaikoa, one of the Maui chiefs, scraped and cleaned the bones of the slain and built a house for himself entirely from the skeletons of the slaughtered situated at Lapakea in Moanalua.  The skulls of Elani and other slain Oʻahu chiefs adorned the doorways of the house. The house was called “Kauwalua.” (Lots of information from Fornander and Bishop Museum.)

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Kumukahi

Mai ka hikina a ka Ia i
Kumukahi a ka welona a ka Iā i Lehua.

From the sunrise at Kumukahi to
the fading sunlight at Lehua.

From sunrise to sunset. Kumukahi, in Puna, Hawai‘i, was called the land of the sunrise and Lehua, the land of the sunset. This saying also refers to a life span-from birth to death.  (Pukui, #258)

Kumukahi is a place of importance and a place of healing. Practitioners of la‘au lapa‘au often prayed to Kumukahi and his brother Palamoa as “deities of healing” when gathering and applying traditional Hawaiian herbal medicine. These practitioners would face the Hikina (East) and chant their prayers at sunrise from where ever they were living in the islands. (Lopes)

Kumukahi is translated as the ‘beginning/first source, chief, or teacher,’ in reference to the “first source” of wisdom, knowledge or of knowing.

This is because of its location in relation to the sun, Kānehoalani (an akua who is, in one story, Pele’s father) and what the sun represents, as the easternmost point of Hawaiʻi.

It is the beginning of our collective consciousness as people of Hawaiʻi, which establishes Kumukahi as a wahi pana (living and celebrated place) and a wahi moʻolelo (a storied place). (Hawai‘i County)

Kumukahi was also noted as a “leina a ka uhane,” a place where the soul of a person would leap from this world into the next after death. (Lopes)

Kumukahi was named for a migratory hero from Kahiki (Tahiti) who stopped here and who is represented by a red stone. Two of his wives, also in the form of stones, manipulated the seasons by pushing the sun back and forth between them. One of the wives was named Ha‘eha‘e. Sun worshipers brought their sick to be healed here. (Pukui)

In some accounts, Kumukahi is a kolea bird and is referred to as “the messenger of the gods.” According to Pukui, Kumukahi was the name of a “kanaka aiwaiwa,” a divine being who loved sports, especially holua sledding.

For this reason Pele, the akua wahine of the volcano, was fond of him. Kumukahi often produced sporting events in which his people participated. Pele often joined in on these particular festivities in the form of an attractive woman.

However, on one such occasion, Pele, disguised as an old woman, requested to participate and was denied. In her anger, she chased Kumukahi to the sea where she covered him with her lava. (Lopes)

At the tip of Cape Kumukahi were a number of stone cairns, built of the rough lava from the surrounding flow, which are said to have been built by the various monarchs of the Hawaiian kingdom upon assuming the throne. Some reference them as Ki‘i Pōhaku Ali‘i – King’s Pillars.

In 1823, William Ellis and members of the ABCFM toured the island of Hawai‘i seeking out community centers in which to establish church centers for the growing Protestant mission.

Settlement patterns in Puna tend to be dispersed and without major population centers. Villages in Puna tended to be spread out over larger areas and often are inland, and away from the coast, where the soil is better for agriculture.  (Escott)

This was confirmed on William Ellis’ travel around the island in the early 1800s, “Hitherto we had travelled close to the sea-shore, in order to visit the most populous villages in the districts through which we had passed.”

“But here receiving information that we should find more inhabitants a few miles inland, than nearer the sea, we thought it best to direct our course towards the mountains.”  (Ellis, 1823)

Ellis noted, “The population of this part of Puna, though somewhat numerous, did not appear to possess the means of subsistence in any great variety or abundance; and we have often been surprised to find the desolate coasts more thickly inhabited than some of the fertile tracts in the interior …”

“… a circumstance we can only account for, by supposing that the facilities which the former afford for fishing, induce the natives to prefer them as places of abode; for they find that where the coast is low, the adjacent water is generally shallow.”

When the Lighthouse Board assumed control of Hawai‘i’s lighthouses in 1904, it began work on a plan to erect major lights to better mark approaches to the islands. Funds for Makapu‘u Lighthouse were secured in 1906, money for Molokai lighthouse was obtained in 1907, and Congress made an appropriation for Kilauea Point Lighthouse in 1908.

These aids to navigation were seen as “material benefit to the business .community, to shipping interests, insurance interests and mercantile interests. … [T]he next one we have recommended is for a first order light at Cape Kumukahi, the easternmost point on the Island of Hawaii.”  (PCA, Nov 4, 1908)

“There is at present no landfall light for vessels bound to Hawaii by way of Cape Horn. Several vessels have within recent years gone ashore on Kumukahi Point. This is the first land sighted by vessels from the southward and eastward.”

“The shipping from these directions now merits consideration, and with the improvement of business at Hilo the necessity for a landfall light on this cape grows more urgent. It is estimated that a light at this point can be established for not exceeding $75,000, and the Board recommends that an appropriation of this amount be made therefor.” (Report of the Lighthouse Board, 1908)

On December 31, 1928, the US government purchased fifty-eight acres on Cape Kumukahi from the Hawaiian Trust Company for the sum of $500. During the following year, a thirty-two-foot wooden tower capped with an automatic acetylene gas light was built at the cape for local use.  It was replaced in 1933 by a 125-foot pyramidical galvanized steel tower. (Lighthouse Friends)

“Life was peaceful for several years along the Puna coastline until a lava flow threatened Kapoho in 1955. [Kumukahi lightkeeper Joe] Pestrella stayed at his post to watch over the lighthouse as the lava advanced.” 

“The following year, he received the “Civil Servant of the Year” award from the U.S. Coast Guard for his bravery in staying at his post. At the time, Ludwig Wedemeyer, leader of the Hilo Coast Guard station, noted it was the first time a Hawai‘i Island resident had received such an award from the Coast Guard.” (Laitinen)

On January 12, 1960, over 1,000 earthquakes were recorded near Kapoho Village, just above Kumukahi. The earthquakes grew in size and frequency, creating large fractures along the Kapoho Fault overnight.  The 1960 Kīlauea eruption began on the night of January 13.

For the first two weeks, Kapoho village remained virtually intact except for a blanket of pumice and ash that covered everything. The lava flow issuing from the growing cinder cone was moving in the opposite direction of town.

Things changed on January 27th when very fluid lava poured from the vents and fed massive ‘a‘ā flows that moved southwestward through the streets of town. By midnight, most of Kapoho had been destroyed.

By January 28, lava destroyed Coast Guard residences near Cape Kumukahi, but the lighthouse was spared. The Koa‘e Village fell victim to lava flow progression, losing the community hall, a local church and one residence.  The eruption stopped February 19. (USGS)

“After the 1960 eruption ended, an electric line was run from Kapoho Beach Lots to the lighthouse to restore power, and the light became automated. Joe was transferred to a lighthouse on O‘ahu, and when he retired in 1963, he was the last civilian lighthouse keeper in Hawai‘i.”  (Laitinen)

With prevailing NW trade winds and nothing between it and the America continents, except thousands of miles of open ocean, Kumukahi has some of the cleanest air in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Kumukahi light tower is also used as a monitoring station to test air quality. Since 1993, scientists have been taking ambient air samples every week for chemical analysis.

The long-term data records supplied by these samples are fundamental to understanding changes in atmospheric composition of gases affecting stratospheric ozone, climate and air quality, and provide an avenue to detect unexpected changes in these chemicals.

The 2018 eruptions interrupted the sampling efforts and NOAA scientists have undertaken novel development of an uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) “hexacopter” that will enable the lab to not only recommence a long-standing mission that was recently forced to halt, but paves the way toward enhanced operations in the future.  (NOAA)

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Nānākuli

There are lots of theories are out there about what Nānākuli means – several suggest it relates to looking at knees – others reference other body parts.

A common perception is that Nānākuli was a poor land with little agriculture, leading the few residents to instead rely on marine resources. One translation of the naming of the ahupua‘a, which seems to support this perception, is that Nānākuli means, “to look deaf”.

This is said to refer to the behavior of Nānākuli residents, who, embarrassed about not being able to offer food to passing strangers, pretended to be deaf.  (Cultural Surveys)

The ahupua‘a of Nānākuli encompasses a little over 1,000-acres and is bounded on the east by Honouliuli in the ‘Ewa District and on the west by Lualualei in the Waiʻanae District

This leeward area is especially noted for its susceptibility to drought and famine. In valleys such as Nānākuli, where perennial streams are lacking, agricultural resources would have been sparse due to poor water and land resources.

It is probable that there were small, scattered settlements here and there whose main subsistence was the ‘uala (sweet potato.)  (Cultural Surveys)

“The eastern slopes of the southern end of the Waiʻanae Mountains below Pu‘u Puna were famous for sweet potato growing. Although there was a little taro grown in the valleys of Wai‘anae-uka, sweet potatoes grown on the kula lands were the main food of the people here.”

“On the other side of the Waiʻanae Mountains sweet potatoes were planted on the dry slopes of Nānākuli, Lualualei, Waiʻanae-kai, and the other small valleys as far as Mākua. With the exception of Waiʻanae-kai, the sweet potato was the staple for the inhabitants of this dry section.”  (Handy, Cultural Surveys))

Pukui related a story told to her by Simeona Nawaʻa in 1945: “In the olden days, this place was sparsely inhabited because of the scarcity of water. The fishing was good but planting very poor. When it rained, some sweet potatoes would be put into the ground, but the crops were always poor and miserable.”

“There were a few brackish pools from which they obtained their drinking water and it is only when they went to the upland of Waiʻanae that they were able to get fresh water. They carried the water home in large calabashes hung on mamaka or carrying sticks and used their water very carefully after they got it home.”

“They spent most of their time fishing and most of the fish they caught were dried as gifts for friends and relatives in the upland. Sometimes they carried dried and fresh fish to these people in the upland and in exchange received poi and other vegetable foods. As often as not, it was the people of the upland who came with their products and went home with fish.”  (Cultural Surveys)

To make up for this agricultural deficit, the coastal areas were rich in marine resources and there was always an abundant supply of fish.

Accounts of early foreign observers give only a generalized picture of the late pre-contact/early historic patterns of population and activity within the Waiʻanae District and Nānākuli Ahupua‘a. Captain George Vancouver, sailing along the Waiʻanae Coast in 1793, noted:

“The face of the country did not…promise an abundant supply (of water;) the situation was exposed.” He described the coast as “one barren rocky waste nearly destitute of verdure, cultivation or inhabitants”.

The only village Vancouver observed was “at Waianae, located in a grove of coconut and other trees on the southern side of a small sandy bay”. It is probably this village that was visited in 1815 by John B. Whitman, who described the western coast of O‘ahu between Waiʻanae and Honolulu:

“After proceeding for some time over an uncultivated plain, we arrived at small village situated on the sea shore. It consisted of about twenty huts occupied by fishermen”.  (The “uncultivated plain” Whitman observed before reaching Waiʻanae likely encompassed Nānākuli.)

In 1816, Boki was made governor of O‘ahu (and chief of the Waiʻanae district) and served in that capacity until 1829, when he sailed in search of sandalwood.

In the mid-1800s, the back of Nānākuli Valley used primarily for ranching purposes and probably did not support permanent habitation. Tax records from the mid-1800s for coastal Nānākuli indicate that possibly as many as 50-people resided along the shore.

The population in the area dropped precipitously during the 1800s, and in 1888, the Hawaiian Island Directory referenced only four residents of Nānākuli.

O‘ahu Railway and Land Company’s Benjamin Dillingham, a prominent business man and developer, envisioned populating the western side of O‘ahu by introducing agriculture; however, the lack of water proved to be an obstacle until the discovery of artesian water solved the issue in the early 1880s.

Dillingham saw that reliable transportation was needed to move crops from the west side of the island into Honolulu; he formed the O‘ahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L) in February 1889 and the rail stretched around Kaʻena Point as far as Kahuku by 1899.

The families returned.  In 1895, the Republic of Hawai‘i decided to open up lands for homesteading.  The Dowsett-Galbraith ranch lease was set to expire in 1901, and the Hawaiian Government intended to auction off these lands to the highest bidder.

There were two waves of homesteading on the Waiʻanae Coast. The first had more of an impact on Lualualei, while the second resulted in development of Nānākuli as a residential area.

The early wave of homesteading passed by dry, barren Nānākuli; however, despite an insufficient water supply, Nānākuli was an attraction to some people:  Because of its water shortage, parched Nānākuli had never attracted many residents. It remained a kiawe wilderness.

Yet, the very fact that nobody wanted it turned the area into a kind of informal public park. Some came for the summer; others camped all year round.

In 1916, Benjamin Zablan was appointed as Waiʻanae District Manager. He moved his family to Nānākuli and made his home on a beach stretch, now the stretch adjacent and south of Nānākuli Avenue. The southeastern end of this stretch was a safe swimming spot and was soon known as “Zablan’s Beach”.

The beach was eventually named Nānākuli Beach, but local residents wished to give it a more specific name. In 1940, local residents petitioned the board of supervisors to name the park Kalanianaʻole, in honor of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, the “father of the Hawaiian Homestead Act.” In recent years, Kalanianaʻole was combined with nearby Piliokahe Park to the south to form the Nānākuli Beach Park.

In 1917, the US Government set aside land located where Nānāikapono Elementary School is presently located as ‘Camp Andrews.’  It was used as a rest and recreation (R&R) area for military personnel, both prior to and during World War II.

The retreat at Camp Andrews consisted of cabins, cook house, a canteen, septic systems, a barber shop, armory, etc.   The Navy acquired the property from the Army in 1952. All structures on the property were demolished. The Navy transferred the property to the State of Hawai‘i in 1962.

World War II greatly affected the Waiʻanae coast. Military troops were sent in to train and practice maneuvers. Concrete bunkers and gun emplacements were built on the beaches and ridges, and barbed wire was strung along the beaches.

After WWII ended, the lower portions of Nānākuli and Lualualei Valleys were further developed into residential lots after Chinn Ho bought the Waiʻanae Sugar Plantation.

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Ala Wai Canal

A son of Mā’ilikūkahi (who ruled about the time Columbus crossed the Atlantic) was Kalona-nui, who in turn had a son called Kalamakua. Kalamakua is said to have been responsible for developing large taro fields in what was once a vast area of wet-taro cultivation on Oʻahu: the Waikiki-Kapahulu-Mōʻiliʻili-Mānoa area.

The early Hawaiian settlers gradually transformed the marsh above Waikīkī Beach into hundreds of taro fields, fish ponds and gardens.  For centuries, springs, taro lo‘i, rice paddies, fruit and vegetable patches, duck ponds and fishing areas were a valuable means of subsistence for native Hawaiians and others.

Formerly the home of Hawaiian royalty, including King Kamehameha, Waikīkī, meaning “spouting waters,” once covered a much broader area than it does today.

The ahupuaʻa, or ancient land division, of Waikīkī actually covered the area extending from Kou (the old name for Honolulu) to Maunalua (now referred to as Hawai’i Kai).

Waikīkī’s marshland, the boundaries of which changed seasonally, once covered about 2,000-acres (about four times the size of Waikīkī today) before the marshes were drained.

During the first decade of the 20th-century, the US War Department acquired more than 70-acres in the Kālia portion of Waikīkī for the establishment of a military reservation called Fort DeRussy.

They drained and filled the area, so they could build on it.  Thus, the Army began the transformation of Waikīkī from wetlands to solid ground.

In the early-1900s, Lucius Pinkham, then President of the Territorial Board of Health and later Governor, developed the idea of constructing a drainage canal to drain the wetlands, which he considered “unsanitary.”  This called for the construction of a canal to reclaim the marshland.

The Waikīkī Reclamation District was identified as the approximate 800-acres from King and McCully Streets to Kapahulu Street, near Campbell Avenue down to Kapiʻolani Park and Kalākaua Avenue on the makai side (1921-1928.)

The dredge material not only filled in the makai Waikīkī wetlands, it was also used to fill in the McKinley High School site.

During the 1920s, the Waikīkī landscape would be transformed when the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal, begun in 1921 and completed in 1928, resulted in the draining and filling in of the remaining ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

The initial planning called for the extension of the Ala Wai Canal past its present terminus and excavate along Makee Island in Kapiʻolani Park, connecting the Canal with the ocean on the Lēʻahi side of the project.

However, funds ran short and this extension was contemplated “at some later date, when funds are made available”; however, that never occurred.

By 1924, the dredging of the Ala Wai Canal and filling of the wetlands stopped the flows of the Pi‘inaio, ‘Āpuakēhau and Kuekaunahi streams running from the Makiki, Mānoa, and Pālolo valleys to and through Waikīkī.

Walter F. Dillingham’s Hawaiian Dredging Company dredged the canal and sold the material he had dredged to create the canal to build up the newly created land.  The canal is still routinely dredged.

During the course of the Ala Wai Canal’s initial construction, the banana patches and ponds between the canal and the mauka side of Kalākaua Avenue were filled and the present grid of streets was laid out.  These newly created land tracts spurred a rush to development.

With construction of the Ala Wai Canal, 625-acres of wetland were drained and filled and runoff was diverted away from Waikīkī beach.  The completion of the Ala Wai Canal not only gave impetus to the development of Waikīkī as Hawai‘i’s primary visitor destination, but also expanded the district’s potential for residential use.

During the period 1913-1927, the demand for housing in Honolulu grew along with the city’s population.  Waikīkī helped satisfy this demand; the large kamaʻāina landholdings virtually disappeared and the area started to be subdivided.

Before reclamation, assessed values for property were at about $500-per acre and the same property was reclaimed at ten cents per square foot, making a total cost of $4,350-per acre.  The selling price after reclamation, $6,500 to $7,000-per acre, showed the financial benefit of the reclamation efforts.

From an economic point of view, without the Ala Wai Canal, Waikīkī may never have developed into the worldwide tourist attraction it is today.

In 1925, the City Planning Commission requested the citizens of Honolulu to submit suitable Hawaiian names for the renaming of the Waikīkī Drainage canal; twelve names were suggested.

The Commission felt that Ala Wai (waterway,) the name suggested by Jennie Wilson was the “most euphonic”.  (An engineer with the Planning Commission was quick to note that, “the fact that Mrs. Wilson is the mayor’s wife had nothing to do with the choice of the name.”)

In November 1965, a storm, classified as a 25-year event, overflowed the Ala Wai Canal banks and flooded Ala Wai Boulevard.

Ala Wai Canal and the historic walls lining the canal are owned by the State of Hawaiʻi. The promenades on the mauka side of the Ala Wai Canal are owned by the State, and by, Executive Ordered to the City and County of Honolulu, the promenades on the makai side are owned by the City.

The promenades on both sides of the Ala Wai Canal are maintained by the City Department of Parks and Recreation.  The Ala Wai Canal is listed in the National and State registers of historic places.

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Waikīkī Streams

The present Waikīkī has a land area of approximately 500-acres; it once was a vast marshland whose boundaries encompassed more than 2,000-acres.

Consistent with the character of the swampy land of ancient Waikīkī, where water from the upland valleys would gush forth from underground, the name Waikīkī, which means “water spurting from many sources.”

Three main valleys Makiki, Mānoa, and Pālolo are mauka of Waikīkī and through them their respective streams (and springs in Mānoa (Punahou and Kānewai)) watered the marshland below.

As they entered the flat Waikīkī Plain (and merge and separate,) the names of the streams changed; the Mānoa became the Kālia and the Pālolo became the Pāhoa (they joined near Hamohamo (now an area mauka of the Kapahulu Library.))

While at the upper elevations, the streams have the ahupuaʻa names, at lower elevations, after merging/dividing, they have different names, as they enter the ocean, Pi‘inaio, ‘Āpuakēhau and Kuekaunahi.

The Pi‘inaio (Makiki) entered the sea at Kālia (near what is now Fort DeRussy as a wide delta (kahawai.))

The ‘Āpuakēhau (Mānoa and Kālia,) also called the Muliwai o Kawehewehe (“the stream that opens the way” on some maps,) emptied in the ocean at Helumoa (between the Royal Hawaiian and Moana Hotels.)

The Kuekaunahi (Pālolo) once emptied into the sea at Hamohamo (near the intersection of ‘Ōhua and Kalākaua Avenues.)  The land between these three streams was called Waikolu, meaning “three waters.”

The early Hawaiian settlers, who arrived around 1000 AD, gradually transformed the marsh into hundreds of taro fields, fish ponds and gardens.  Waikīkī was once one of the most productive agricultural areas in old Hawai‘i.

Beginning in the 1400s, a vast system of irrigated taro fields and fish ponds were constructed.  This field system took advantage of streams descending from Makiki, Mānoa and Pālolo valleys which also provided ample fresh water for the Hawaiians living in the ahupua‘a.

By the time of the arrival of Europeans in the Hawaiian Islands during the late eighteenth century, Waikīkī had long been a center of population and political power on O‘ahu.

Following the Great Māhele in 1848, many of the fishponds and irrigated and dry-land agricultural plots were continued to be farmed, however at a greatly reduced scale (due to manpower limitations.)

In the 1860s and 1870s, former Asian sugar plantation workers (Japanese and Chinese) replaced the taro and farmed more than 500-acres of wetlands in rice fields, also raising fish and ducks in the ponds.

By 1892, Waikīkī had about 550-acres planted in rice, representing almost 12% of the total 4,700-acres planted in rice on O‘ahu.

Nearly 85% of present Waikīkī (most of the land west of the present Lewers Street or mauka of Kalākaua) were in wetland agriculture or aquaculture.

However, drainage problems started to develop in Waikīkī from the late nineteenth century because of urbanization, when roads were built and expanded in the area (thereby blocking runoff) and when a drainage system for land from Punchbowl to Makiki diverted surface water to Waikīkī.

During the 1920s, the Waikīkī landscape would be transformed when the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal, begun in 1921 and completed in 1928, resulted in the draining and filling in of the remaining ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

Soon after, in 1928, the construction of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was completed (joining the Moana Hotel (1901,) marking the beginning of Waikīkī as a world-class tourist attraction.

The image shows a Google Earth base image with the streams, ponds and loʻi/rice fields that were noted on an 1893 map of the region.

(The dark blue notes the streams (Piʻinaio, Āpuakēhau and Kuekaunahi (L to R)) – the far right water feature is part of Kapiʻolani Park, including McKee Island.)  The light blue notes the fishponds and the green notes the areas that were once in taro loʻi and then rice cultivation.  The yellow line notes the shoreline in 1893.)

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