Place Names | Page 25 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 5, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pūlaholaho

In former times, the area we now call downtown Honolulu was not called Honolulu; instead, each land section had its own name. (A map in the album notes many of the different areas and their respective place names. )

‘Kou’ was later used to describe the district roughly encompassing the present day area from Nuʻuanu to Alakea Streets and from Hotel to Queen Streets Street (Queen Street was, then, only a pathway along the water’s edge.)

The harbor was known as Kuloloia. It was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794. He named the harbor “Fair Haven.” The name Honolulu (meaning “sheltered bay” – with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

Kamehameha I, who had been living at Waikīkī since 1804, moved his court here in 1809. His immediate court consisted of high-ranking chiefs and their retainers.

In 1815, Kamehameha I granted Russian representatives permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor. Instead, directed by the German adventurer Georg Schaffer (1779-1836,) they began building a fort and raised the Russian flag. When Kamehameha learned of this, he sent several chiefs to remove the Russians.

The partially built blockhouse was finished by Hawaiians; they mounted guns protected the fort. Its original purpose was to protect Honolulu by keeping enemy or otherwise undesirable ships out.

By 1830, the fort had 40 guns mounted on the parapets; it was called Fort Kekuanohu (literally, ‘the back of the scorpion fish,’ as in ‘thorny back,’) because of the rising guns on the walls. (Fort Street is so named, because of the fort on the waterfront.)

One of the areas nearby was called Pūlaholaho (it is down near the old waterfront, ʻEwa side of where the fort was. (In today’s perspective, it runs from Merchant, Nuʻuanu, Queen Streets and up through the breezeway of the Harbor Court project (this used to be the location of Kaʻahumanu Street.)

April 25, 1825, Richard Charlton arrived in the Islands to serve as the first British consul. A former sea captain and trader, he was already familiar with the islands of the Pacific and had promoted them in England for their commercial potential (he worked for the East India Company in the Pacific as early as 1821.)

Charlton had been in London during Kamehameha II’s visit in 1824 and secured an introduction to the king and his entourage. By the time he arrived in Hawai‘i in 1825, instructions had already arrived from Kamehameha II that Charlton was to be allowed to build a house, or houses, any place he wished and should be made comfortable. This apparently was due to favors Charlton had done for the royal party. (Hawaiʻi State Archives)

Charlton didn’t play well with others. A report by Thrum noted, “July 13th (1827) – Last evening the English consul, in conversation with Boki told him he would cut Kaahumanu’s head off and all the residents were ready to join in it. Guards were ordered out in all parts of the village. Mr. Charlton may be ready to take up arms against the chief but few, if any, I believe would follow or join with him.” (Thrum)

In spite of that, Charlton did receive land for his home and for Consular offices. The records suggest that the land under the present Washington Place premises were part of a grant from the chiefs to Charlton in 1825-26 to provide a permanent location for a British Consulate. (HABS)

(Charlton later sold that property to Captain John Dominis (December 26, 1840,) who later built Washington Place. … By the way, Beretania Street was so named because of the British Consulate there.)

Charlton claimed this and other lands as his personal property. He also claimed land down by the waterfront. There was no disagreement over a small parcel, Wailele, but the larger adjoining parcel he claimed (Pūlaholaho) had been occupied since 1826 by retainers and heirs of Kaʻahumanu.

In making his claim for Pūlaholaho, Charlton showed a 299-lease dated October 5, 1826 issued to him by Kalanimōku. That claim, made in 1840, however, was made after Kalanimōku and Kaʻahumanu had died.

Following Charlton’s presentation of his claim to rights of the entire land section of Pūlaholaho, Kamehameha III sought a means of providing security for the native residents on the land, and claimed that Pūlaholaho belonged to the crown. (Maly)

In rejecting Charlton’s claim, Kamehameha III cited the fact that Kalanimōku did not have the authority to grant the lease. At the time the lease was made, Kaʻahumanu was Kuhina Nui, and only she and the king could make such grants. The land was Kaʻahumanu’s in the first place, and Kalanimōku certainly could not give it away. (Hawaiʻi State Archives) The dispute dragged on for years.

This, and other grievances purported by Charlton and the British community in Hawai‘i, led to the landing of George Paulet on February 11, 1843 “for the purpose of affording protection to British subjects, as likewise to support the position of Her Britannic Majesty’s representative here”.

Following this, King Kamehameha III ceded the Islands and Paulet took control. After five months of British rule, Queen Victoria, on learning the injustice done, immediately sent Rear Admiral Richard Darton Thomas to the islands to restore sovereignty to its rightful rulers.

On July 31, 1843 the Hawaiian flag was raised. The ceremony was held in area known as Kulaokahuʻa; the site of the ceremony was turned into a park, Thomas Square.

On November 26, 1845, legal title to Charlton’s land claim was secured and was sold to British businessman, Robert C Janion (of Starkey, Janion and Co – that company later became Theo H. Davies & Co and one of Hawaiʻi’s ‘Big 5.’) (Liber 3:221; Maly) Charlton stayed in Honolulu until February 19, 1846, when he left Hawai’i for the last time.

Pūlaholaho was subdivided and Janion auctioned off the properties in 1846. Captain Heinrich (Henry) Hackfeld opened a store on one of them in October 1849. His company, H Hackfeld & Co, later became American Factors, Amfac, another Hawaiʻi ‘Big 5’ company.

A lasting legacy is the Melchers Building, the oldest commercial building in Honolulu, erected in 1854, at 51 Merchant Street, built for the retail firm of Melchers and Reiner. Its original coral stone walls are no longer visible on most sides, under its layers of stucco and paint (check the makai side of the building to see the coral blocks.)

October 4, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kahikinui

Ku ka moku i Kahiki; o Kahiki nui ka moku
i olelo ia ilaila i poohina ai ka makani.

The district that resembles Kahiki, is to Kahiki-nui, the district which is said to be made silvery by the winds (descriptive of the winds bearing salty sea-spray from the ocean.) (Ka Hoku o Hawaii, March 11, 1915; Maly)

Archaeologists and historians describe the inhabiting of these islands in the context of settlement which resulted from voyages taken in canoes, across the open ocean. Some believe the first Polynesians to arrive at Hawaii came ashore at Kahikinui.

They have proposed that early Polynesian settlement happened with voyages between Kahiki (Tahiti – the ancestral homelands of the Hawaiian gods and people) and Hawai‘i, with long distance voyages occurring fairly regularly through at least the thirteenth century.

It has been generally reported that the land-sources of the early Hawaiian population – the Hawaiian “Kahiki” – were the Marquesas and Society Islands. The moku (district) of Kahikinui is named because from afar on the ocean, it resembles a larger form of Kahiki, the ancestral homeland. (Maly)

Some suggest place names illustrate the historical ties between Kahikinui (Great Tahiti) and the islands of Tahiti. Some believed there were navigational ties between the two places and that they had ancestral ties to Tahiti.

Other place names in Kahikinui include: Manawainui (The big water/river) for a big gulch where a lot of water is generated there during heavy rain; Kanaloa for a place where Kanaloa may have landed: Manamana which refers to spiritual powers: and Mahamenui which refers to Mahame trees, a hard wood, and probably prolific through the area at one time.

Some believe that along Kahikinui were given names that referred to Hawaiʻiloa, an ancient navigator. These included fishing koʻa, and astronomical and navigational sites on the mountain. (Matsuoka)

There are eight named subdivisions within Kahikinui (ahupuaʻa and/or ʻili;) from west to east, these named land units are: Auwahi, Lualaʻilua, Alena, Kāpapa, Nakaohu, Nakaaha, Mahamenui, and Manawainui. Most maps indicate that the eastern boundary of Kahikinui was Wai‘ōpai Gulch. (Pacific Legacy) However, today, most of these get joined together into a single reference to Kahikinui.

The first written description of the region was made by La Pérouse in 1786 while sailing along the southeast coast of Maui in search of a place to drop anchor:

“I coasted along its shore at a distance of a league (three miles) …. The aspect of the island of Mowee was delightful (Hāna to Kaupō.) We beheld water falling in cascades from the mountains, and running in streams to the sea, after having watered the habitations of the natives, which are so numerous that a space of three or four leagues (9 – 12 miles) may be taken for a single village.” (La Pérouse, 1786; Bushnell)

“… the sea beat upon the coast with the utmost violence, and kept us in the situation of Tantalus, desiring and devouring with our eyes what it was impossible for us to attain … After passing Kaupō no more waterfalls are seen, and villages are fewer.” (La Pérouse, 1786; Bushnell)

Then, as they passed Kahikinui, “We saw no more waterfalls, the trees were fairly sparsely planted along the plain, and the villages, consisting only of 10 or 12 huts, were quite distant from each other.”

“Every moment made us regret the country which we were leaving behind, and we only found shelter when we were faced with a frightful shore, where the lava had once run down as waterfalls do today in the other part of the island.” (La Pérouse, 1786; Kirch)

Handy observed that, “In … Kahikinui, the forest zone was much lower and rain more abundant before the introduction of cattle. The usual forest zone plants were cultivated in the lower upland above the inhabited area.”

Kahikinui was arid along the coast but well-forested above the cloud line. Fishing was good along its rugged shores. Hawaiians lived in isolated communities on the broken lava, scattered from one end of the district to the other close to the sea or slightly
inland, wherever potable water was found in a brackish well or a submarine spring offshore.

The Hawaiians of Kahikinui developed garden holes also, but their primary cultivation area was upland, just below the forest zone and where the rainfall was plentiful. There, they developed upland plots or dry taro and other edible plants. (Handy; Matsuoka)

“From…Kahikinui … the sweet potato was the staple food for a considerable population, supplemented with dry taro grown in the low forest zones. This is the greatest continuous dry planting area in the Hawaiian islands.” (Handy; Maly)

“The district was populated largely by makaʻāinana, common folk, who were derided by officials of the nineteenth-century Hawaiian Kingdom as ‘ili ulaula, “red skins,” a reference to their sunburned bodies, reflecting long hours of toil in the sweet potato patches.” (Kirch)

The ocean off Kahikinui is a wealth of marine resources that remain available for education, traditional practices, subsistence lifestyles and recreation. As its name implies Kahikinui means big Tahiti and points to ancestral directions and paths to ancestral places over the ocean. It is an important wayfinding place for places beyond the island chain. (DHHL)

“The fishermen along the coasts of Kahikinui and Honua’ula used to exchange their fish for sweet potatoes and taro grown by those living up on the kula; Hawaiian tradition gives ample evidence that the population of this now almost depopulated country was considerable…” (Handy; Maly)

As time went on, due to climate change, ranching, goats and other animals had caused the dry-land forest to recede far in-land. The Southside on Maui has now turned to mostly dust, cinder, invasive trees, cattle and a population of about less than a hundred people. Only 5% of the dry-land forest is left in the state, which can be found only on Maui and the Big Island. (KUPU)

Kahikinui is “most remote and undeveloped region;” it constituted an entire moku, an ancient political district, which had never suffered from the effects of Westernized ‘development’ … lacking in freshwater or rich soils, Kahikinui was spared the effects of sugarcane or pineapple plantations”. (Kirch)

Kahikinui is 7 miles long and 6 miles wide and ranges in elevation from sea level to 10,000-feet. Its slope at the 3,000-foot level in the forest reserve was greater than 20%, and between 10% to 20% closer to the shoreline. The land section contains several Puʻu (cinder cones.) (Matsuoka)

In 2012, the Auwahi Wind project (in the westernmost ahupua‘a of Kahikinui) installed an 8-turbine, 21-MW wind farm, with battery storage.

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October 2, 2024 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Fort Weaver

ʻEwa was comprised of twelve ahupuaʻa. Some stories, when first recorded in the 19th- Century, refer to ʻEwa as the first area populated on Oʻahu by the immigrant Polynesians. Puʻuloa or Ke Awa Lau O Puʻuloa (the many harbored-sea of Puʻuloa) is situated here.

The first known foreigner to enter the area, Captain George Vancouver, started to explore the area, but stopped when he realized that the entrance was not deep enough for large ships to pass through.

“If the water upon the bar should be deepened, which I doubt not can be effected, it would afford the best and most capacious harbor in the Pacific.” (Commodore Charles Wilkes, 1840)

Puʻuloa and Ke Awa Lau O Puʻuloa are just a couple of its traditional names. It was also known as Awawalei (“garland (lei) of harbors,”) Awalau (“leaf-shaped lagoon”) and Huhui na ʻōpua i Awalau (The clouds met at Awalau.) Today, we generally call this place Pearl Harbor.

In 1872, Major General John M Schofield, Commander of the Army Division of the Pacific, came to Hawaiʻi on a mission to evaluate the defense possibilities of various Hawaiian ports.

Recognizing the potential importance of Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor) that could be inexpensively and effectively defended, he recommended that it be developed as a military base.

As a means of solidifying a site in the central Pacific, the US negotiated an amendment to the Treaty of Reciprocity with King Kalākaua in 1887, adding a clause granting to US vessels the exclusive privilege of entering Pearl Harbor. The US then began building a coaling and repair station there.

As part of the defense of Pearl Harbor and nearby Honolulu, the US Army constructed forts and artillery batteries at the mouth of Pearl Harbor and along the southern shores of Oʻahu, beginning in the early twentieth century.

These fortifications were constructed for defense purposes and had the capability to fire ordnance (projectiles ranging in size from small arms up to 16-in) beyond the shores of Oʻahu in the event of enemy attack.

The batteries were dispersed for concealment and spaced to insure that enemy fire striking one would not thereby endanger a neighbor. They were open to the rear, to facilitate ammunition service at a rapid rate.

The Army acquired land along the ʻEwa shoreline in about 1905 to support the coastal defense. The Navy took control of the property in August 1916.

It became known as Puʻuloa Military Reservation of Oʻahu. The Navy developed this area into a small‐arms range, and by 1927, the Puʻuloa Naval Reservation became known as the Navy Rifle Range.

Until 1922, the coastal defense portion of the place was also known as Iroquois Point Military Reservation. The name “Iroquois Point” was derived from the name “USS Iroquois;” it is believed that the ship was anchored nearby while serving in the Marine Hospital Service. Her name was later changed to Ionie.

In 1922, the coastal defense facility was named Fort Weaver; named after Erasmus Morgan Weaver, Jr, a US Army Major General who served as the first chief of the Militia Bureau and the Chief of the Army’s US Army Coast Artillery Corps.

Fort Weaver consisted of Battery Williston (1924 – 1948,) Battery Weaver (1934 – 1944,) four Panama mounts and Anti Motor Torpedo Boat Battery #1 (1943 – 1945.)

Construction on Battery Williston began in October 1921 and was transferred for service on September 19, 1924. This was a two gun 16” all round fire battery emplaced in the open on circular concrete pads. These guns were mounted on long range carriages that elevated to 35 degrees for maximum range.

After activation, Battery Williston was serviced by troops who arrived by boat from nearby Fort Kamehameha (across the entrance channel into Pearl Harbor.) Later a small facility was built on site to accommodate the soldiers, there.

In 1934, Battery 155 – Fort Weaver was positioned in front of Battery Williston. This battery consisted of four 155-mm guns on mobile carriages placed on fixed concrete Panama mounts.

Located more towards ʻEwa Beach was Naval Antiaircraft Shore Battery No. 3 (1942 – 1944,) with four 5-inch naval guns, adjacent to the Navy’s Fleet Machine Gun Training School.

The fire power of coast defense remained the heavy gun, the 1919-model sixteen-inch rifle – a 79-foot, 187-ton weapon that could fire a 2,340-pound projectile over 28-miles with overwhelming accuracy.

The guns were protected only by camouflage netting and paint (they were not protected with concrete encasements, like many of the other Forts and Batteries on O‘ahu.)

Numerous training activities at the forts and artillery batteries conducted up until about 1948 involved firing into waters of the south shore in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor.

Since the guns’ barrels only had a useful life of about 120-rounds, the Army adopted a plan to store spare barrels at the various batteries.

In 1949, Fort Weaver was transferred to the Navy (as the Puʻuloa Naval Reservation) and, since the 1950s, has been used for military housing. The site of the Fort and Batteries is between the present-day USMC Pu‘uloa Rifle Range and the Pearl Harbor entrance channel.

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October 1, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka-Imu-Hoku

“Fifty thousand years ago, a meteorite came crashing to Earth near what is now Winslow, Arizona, gouging a six-story-deep crater that is named for a Philadelphia mining engineer and Law School graduate, Daniel Barringer L’1882.” (University of Pennsylvania)

Daniel Moreau Barringer was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, May 25, 1860. “It is generally recognized that my father, Daniel Moreau Barringer, by proving that Coon Butte, as it was then known, was caused by a collision between the earth and a celestial body, founded that branch of meteoritics dealing with craters.” (Brandon Barringer)

The Barringer Crater Company, founded in 1903 is a family-owned enterprise dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Barringer Meteorite Crater.

The company is now in the sixth generation and continues to promote Barringer’s pioneering research of the Crater, becoming the first scientifically proven meteorite impact crater on Earth. (Barringer Crater Company)

“The United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1220 lists 110 impact craters or suspects. Included in Category 6, “Structures for which more data are required for classification”, is “Ka-imu-hoku, Hawaii”. This listing is based on John Davis Buddhue’s (1947) note “A Possible Meteorite Crater in the Hawaiian Islands”. This, in turn, is based on Dr. Kenneth P. Emory’s (1924) references.”

Barringer’s son, Brandon, “met Dr. Emory at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and learned from him that the names Ka-hoku-nui (The Large Star) and Ka-imuhoku (The Star Oven) were among a hundred or so given him by Mrs. Awila Shaw, a blind native who was over seventy at the time and who had moved to Lahaina on the island of Maui.”

“Dr. Emory had been told that Ka-imu-hoku (The Star Oven) got its name because it was “a place where the meteor fell” and “a pit in the sand where a meteor fell”, while Ka-hoku-nui (The Large Star) was so named because “a meteor fell nearby” (Buddhue 1947, Emory 1924).”

“His map locates them on a beach on the northeast shore of the island, some 500 and 200 yards respectively west of the delta of the stream issuing from the great Maunelai gorge.”

“We flew to Lanai from Honolulu on January 31, 1967, in a small single-engine Cessna of the Royal Hawaiian Air Service. The pilot flew low over the beach on which Ka-hoku-nui is located, and we could see no trace of a circular formation anywhere in the reported vicinity of Ka-imu-hoku.”

“Later, we drove near the beach on a good road and covered its three-fourths of a mile carefully on foot. At Ka-hoku-nui, which seems to refer to a point rather than to the whole beach, there is a large Geodetic Survey marker. Twenty to thirty yards behind the beach from this marker to beyond the mouth of the Halulu gorge, 500 yards to the west, there is a dirt road.”

“Through Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Au, who run the Lanai Inn where we spent the night, we talked to Mr. Susumu Nishimura, who came to the island in 1915 and heard many stories from a blind native lay preacher named Alika, who was also well over seventy then, but gave no such account.” (Barringer)

The 1923 Geological Survey Map (scale 1/62500, 50-ft contour intervals), the 1936 Geologic and Topographic map of Harold T. Stearns (1940) and a current road map all show Ka-hoku-nui at this spot, but none show Ka-imu-hoku or any feature where it was supposed to be.”

“A survey by air and on the ground revealed no depression at the place supposedly called Ka-imu-hoku, Hawaiian for “The Star Oven,” on the island of Lanai. It had been reported as a “pit in the sand” or “the place where a meteor fell.” Reasons are given for believing the name was based on native observation of a nineteenth-century fireball.” (Barringer)

“The fact that we found no meteoric material nor any sign of impact may not be conclusive. The fact that none was found in constructing this road directly through the supposed location of the ‘crater’ would seem at least very significant.”

“So is, I feel, the naming of the beach or point for a ‘large star’. A meteorite would hardly be associated with a star by the natives.”

“It seems likely that the locality and the imagined depression got their names from a fireball thought to have been seen to fall there in the nineteenth century, but which actually fell, if it reached the surface of the earth, scores of miles to the north in the Pacific Ocean.”

“Our hope of promoting this ‘crater’ from suspected to proven impact origin was obviously disappointed. On the contrary, it should, we feel, be eliminated from any list of suspects. (Barringer)

But is that the end of the story?

Consider this … “Some say that should a person die and is buried at the edge of a river, or a spring, or a watercourse, then his soul will enter another body such as a shark’s, or an eel’s, or any other living body of the sea.”

“Those that are buried by a body of fresh water will enter that stream and become a large okuhekuhe or tailed-lizard; and if buried on dry land, then they will enter the body of an owl, and such like.”

“These things which are entered by the souls of men become guides to their friends who are living. This is what the soul which has entered these things would do: It would proceed and enter his friend, and when it has possessed him, the soul would eat regular food until satisfied, then go back. And he would repeatedly do that.”

“And this friend, should he have any trouble on land, such as war, then the owl would lead him to a place of safety; and if in fresh water, the lizard and such like would keep him safe; and if the trouble is in the ocean, the shark and such like would care for him. This is one reason why a great many people are prohibited from eating many things.”

“Another thing: The soul also lives on a dry plain after the death of the body; and such places are called ka leina a ka uhane (the casting-off place of the soul). “

“This name applies to wherever in Hawaii nei people lived. Following are the places where the souls live … for the Lanai people, at Hokunui … All these places are known as the casting-off places of souls. Should a soul get to any of these places it will be impossible for it come back again.” (Fornander V)

And, more directly to the prospect of a crater (Kaimuhoku) at Kahokunui … “It is said in the traditions of these islands from before, that there were many people, and that there were many battles which destroyed them in those days. There was much destruction in the time of Kahekili, here on Oahu.”

“It was the battle called Poloku, of which it is said that the waters of Niuhelewai were clogged to the uplands because of the great numbers of people who died in the battle.”

“It is from the battle that the house of Kaualua at Moanalua was built the bones of the people were the posts of the house, and the fence around it was all bones. It was the same with the battle at lao Wailuku, that battle was called Kepaniwai as the waters of lao were clogged with the men killed there.”

“It was the same at Kahokunui on Lanai. The deep pit was filled with many men killed in the battle called Kalaehohoma …” (Maakuia, Kaopuaua, Honolulu Mar. 18. 1862. [Maly translator; Hanohano Lanai])

September 27, 2024 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Honolua, Maui

In northwest Maui, the district the ancients called Kaʻānapali, there are six hono (bays,) which are legendary: from South to North, Honokowai (bay drawing fresh water), Honokeana (cave bay), Honokahua (sites bay,) Honolua (two bays), Honokohau (bay drawing dew) and Hononana (animated bay).

This area was likely settled between 600-1100 AD. By about the 15th century, all of Nā Hono were under the realm of Pi’ilani, the ruling chief of Maui, Kahoʻolawe, Molokai and Lānai.

During his reign, Piʻilani gained political prominence for Maui by unifying the East and West of the island, bringing rise to the political status of Maui.

Piʻilani’s power eventually extended from Hāna on one end of the island to the West, in addition to the islands visible from Honoapiʻilani – Kahoʻolawe, Molokai and Lānai.

Piʻilani (“stairway to heaven”) unified West Maui; his territory included the six West Maui bays (Nā Hono A Pi‘ilani,) a place he frequented with his court to relax, fish and surf.

One of these, Honolua, is the subject of this summary.

Settlement patterns of Honolua followed patterns elsewhere, permanent habitation around the coastal and near shore lands, as well as the inland Honolua valley land. The forested and ridge-top lands were used for gathering forest products, and for forest plantings of various utilitarian Hawaiian plants.

Ancient Hawaiian villages on Maui were generally placed at the mouths of the larger gulches or at least within sight of the sea. Both pre-contact and historic features have been identified in the coastal and nearshore lands region. It can be inferred that the coastal lands were settled since the pre-contact period and extensively used during the historic period. (Cultural Surveys)

Piʻilani had two sons, according to legend, one of whom, Kihaʻaʻpiʻilani, surfed at Honolua Bay.

Kekaulike, a descendant of Piʻilani, later became chief. He had two sons, Kauhiʻaimoku a Kama and Kamehamehanui, who engaged in civil war.

Honolua Bay was a landing site for Peleʻioholani, ruling chief of Kauai and Oʻahu (mid- to late-1700s,) an ally of Kauhiʻaimoku a Kama. Warriors would convene at Honolua Valley, prior to traveling to Honokahua Bay.

Through the Māhele, the bulk of Honolua was awarded to William C Lunalilo (later King Lunalilo) on June 19, 1852. In addition, kuleana lands were awarded to native tenants.

After Lunalilo’s death, his will established a trust to build a home to accommodate the poor, destitute and inform people of Hawaiian (aboriginal) blood or extraction, with preference given to older people.

Eventually, the land subsequently transferred several times, culminating with HP Baldwin in 1889.

Honolua (and neighboring Līpoa Point) was used in a variety of ways, coffee and cattle (Honolua Ranch, starting in late-1880s,) pineapple (Baldwin Packers and later Maui Land and Pineapple, starting in 1912,) an alternative airplane landing field (1920) and West Maui Golf Club (1926.) Later, portions were included in the Kapalua Resort area (Kapalua Land Company, 1974.)

In 1946, a tsunami was generated by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in the Aleutian Islands. This tsunami struck Hawaiʻi on April 1st. Wave run-up at Honolua was recorded at 24-feet, destroying coastal improvements.

Honolua Bay was the historic starting point for the Hōkūleʻa’s first trip to the South Pacific. As part of the US Bicentennial, on May 1, 1976, Captain Kawika Kapahulehua and Navigator Mau Pialug, departed Honolua Bay for Papeʻete, Tahiti.

Mau navigated the leg to Tahiti with only his traditional knowledge and skills while the return leg was navigated using modern methods and tools.

Following the ill-fated 1978 capsizing of Hōkūleʻa, Nainoa Thompson successfully navigated a second voyage to Tahiti – a 6,000 mile round trip – with Mau on board in 1980.

In 1979, the Honolua-Mokulēʻia Marine Life Conservation District was established to conserve and replenish marine resources in Mokulēʻia and Honolua Bays.

With the protections and management through the Marine Life Conservation District, Honolua has some of the best snorkeling on Maui.

Today, on a good day, Honolua is reportedly one of the best surfing spots in the world. Breaking wave heights associated with the largest north and northwest swells range between 10-20-feet near Honolua Bay.