Place Names | Page 4 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 2, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

It was a dark and stormy night …

Until the time of English astronomer Edmond Halley (1656-1742), comets were believed to make only one pass through the solar system. But in 1705, Halley used Isaac Newton’s theories of gravitation and planetary motions to compute the orbits of several comets.

Halley is often called the most famous comet because it marked the first time astronomers understood comets could be repeat visitors to our night skies.

Halley correctly predicted the comet would return in 1758. History’s first known “periodic” comet was later named in his honor. The comet has since been connected to ancient observations going back more than 2,000 years. (NASA)

King Kamehameha was prophesied to unite the Hawaiian Islands from the night of his birth. A comet streaked across the sky fulfilling an ancient prophesy that the child born under this phenomenon would one day rise up as a ruler. (OHA)

“It was said that on a certain night of heavy down pouring rain – the lightning struck its wrathful flashes into the sky – the thunder pounded with all its might – the stormy wind veered every which way – the red water churned in the streams.” (Poepoe, Ahlo)

The child born that night was of royal blood, and was destined to become not only the king of Hawaiʻi, but the conqueror and sovereign of the group.

They say the child was poʻolua, “that is, a child of two fathers, (it) was considered a great honor by chiefs of that period.” (Luomala) Some say that his mother, Kekuʻiapoiwa (married to Keōua,) had a liaison with Kahekili (ruler of Maui.)

Though Kahekili was thought to possibly be his biological father, he was raised by his parents (and was considered the son of Kekuʻiapoiwa and Keōua.)

Kamehameha was said to be born at Kokoiki (”little blood,” referring to the first signs of childbirth – Kokoiki is one of the star names listed in the Kumulipo chant.)

Another notes, “(A) bright and beautiful star, appeared at Kokoiki on the night before the child was born and is hence called Kokoiki.” (Kūʻokoʻa Home Rula, Ahlo)

“Dr. Maud Makemson, plotting the position of Halley’s comet as it appeared December 1, 1758, finds that it corresponds in position and movement with the description given by the Hawaiian observer of the star called Kokoiki.” (Ahlo and Kamakau footnote)

Keʻāulumoku predicted that he “would triumph over his enemies, and in the end be hailed as the greatest of Hawaiian conquerors.” (Kalākaua)

Word went out to find and kill the baby, but the Kohala community conspired to save him.

“A numerous guard had been set to wait the time of birth. The chiefs kept awake with the guards (for a time,) but due to the rain and the cold, the chiefs fell asleep, and near daybreak Kekuʻiapoiwa went into the house and, turning her face to the side of the house at the gable end, braced her feet against the wall.”

“A certain stranger (Naeʻole) was outside the house listening, and when he heard the sound of the last bearing-down pain (kuakoko), he lifted the thatch at the side of the house, and made a hole above.”

“As soon as the child was born, had slipped down upon the tapa spread out to receive it, and Kekuʻiapoiwa had stood up and let the afterbirth (ewe) come away, he covered the child in the tapa and carried it away.” (Kamakau)

The young child, Kamehameha, was carried on a perilous journey through Kohala and Pololū Valley to Awini. (KamehamehaDayCelebration)

Hawi, meaning ”unable to breathe,” was where the child, being spirited away by a servant, required resuscitation and nursing. Kapaʻau, meaning ”wet blanket,” was where heavy rain soaked the infant’s kapa (blanket.) Halaʻula (scattered blood) was the town where soldiers were killed in anger. (Sproat – (Fujii, NY Times)) Some believe Kamehameha also spent much of his teen years in Pololū (long spear.)

“Kamehameha (Kalani Pai‘ea Wohi o Kaleikini Keali‘ikui Kamehameha o ‘Iolani i Kaiwikapu Kaui Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea) was a man of tremendous physical and intellectual strength. In any land and in any age he would have been a leader.” (Kalākaua, ROOK)

While still in his youth, Kamehameha proved his right to rule over all the islands by lifting the Naha Stone at Pinao Heiau in Pi‘ihonua, Hilo (c. 1773.) (ROOK)

By the time of Cook’s arrival (1778,) Kamehameha had become a superb warrior who already carried the scars of a number of political and physical encounters. The young warrior Kamehameha was described as a tall, strong and physically fearless man who “moved in an aura of violence.” (NPS)

(Halley was last seen in Earth’s skies in 1986 and was met in space by an international fleet of spacecraft. It will return in 2061 on its regular 76-year journey around the Sun. (NASA))

November 26, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Anuenue

It was created by the filling of the reef flats during incremental dredging of Honolulu harbor and Ke‘ehi lagoon. The village of Kou, inland of it, had a long history of settlement.

It originally consisted of marginal sandy lands on an elevated coral reef platform named Kahololoa. This reef was cut by stream channels on the west and east which were later developed into the Kalihi channel and the Honolulu harbor channel on the east.

In the 1840s, there were several islands or dryland areas on the off shore reef flats. In late-1868 a visiting ship unloaded passengers who were exposed to smallpox on Kahololoa reef.

A few months later, in early 1869, a small island on the reef, Kamoku‘akulikuli, was leased by Kamehameha III’s government and used as a quarantine station. By 1888 the island which had been enlarged was known as Quarantine Island.

In 1902 title to Quarantine Island was transferred to the US after the establishment of a marine hospital by the US Public Health Service. Over the next few years dredged materials from improvements to Honolulu harbor had enlarged the island again and by 1906 the island was encircled by a seawall.

In 1916, Sand Island Military Reservation was established on the reclaimed land of the quarantine station. Subsequent episodes of harbor improvements resulted in enlarging the island and, by 1925 the reef around Sand Island had been removed and the island was completely surrounded by water.

During the early 1940s, Sand Island became the headquarters of the Army Port and Service Command and in the early 1940s the island was further enlarged with fill materials from the dredging of the seaplane runway.

It is approximately 520 acres in area and shelters Honolulu Harbor from the open ocean. It is connected to the island of O’ahu by a bascule bridge at the western end of the island. (DLNR)

In 1959, by Executive Order 10833, the Department of the Army transferred the Island to the Territory of Hawaii. In 1963 ownership was transferred to the State of Hawaii (Star Bulletin, March 12, 1991). (Dye)

For a time it was called Anuenue Island. That changed in 1969 when a proclamation by memorandum of the Governor declared the Island shall be named Sand Island and that name is shall be used on all official state maps, documents and correspondence. (§6E-36)

One of the few lasting legacies of the Island’s former name is Anuenue Fisheries Research Center (AFRC,) a base yard, hatchery and culture center for DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources – it’s still operating on the Island.

The AFRC is involved in all aspects of our fisheries and aquaculture programs. Activity there involves the production of channel catfish and rainbow trout for stocking of public fishing areas at Nuʻuanu (Oʻahu) and Kokeʻe (Kauai.) Moi is also raised there and released at Waikīkī and elsewhere.

The physical facilities include: (1) an office complex; (2) a 7,000 square feet complex that houses a biological-chemical laboratory, freshwater fish hatchery, workshop and storage areas for fisheries survey gear, equipment and boats; (3) a 19,000 square feet thermos-controlled hatchery building; (4) the Chief Biologist’s residence; and (5) quarantine facility for aquatic animal disease studies. (DLNR)

The Anuenue Fisheries facility served to help battle the invasive seaweeds at Kāneʻohe Bay. Seaweed is threatening to smother coral patch reefs in the area; sea urchins eat seaweed.

AFRC reared 250,000-sea urchins that have been placed on selected reefs in the Bay. As a result of the urchins, “we are seeing a reduction of invasive alien seaweeds in the targeted areas.” (DLNR; KITV)

Alien invasive seaweed has plagued Kaneohe Bay for more than 30 years. While I was at DLNR, in 2005, DLNR, The Nature Conservancy and the University of Hawaiʻi developed a two-tier approach to the problem.

First they removed the algae, typically using the ‘Super Sucker’ (a mobile vacuum system that removes algae using suction generated from a pump system housed on a pontoon barge. Divers gently remove the invasive algae from reefs and feed it into a long hose attached to the pump.)

The pump sucks the algae back to the barge and onto a sorting table where it is bagged. Bags of algae are delivered to local farmers who use the nutrient rich algae as fertilizer on crops such as taro and sweet potatoes. Smothering Seaweed is high in potassium and is believed to repel insects from crops. (Super Sucker)

The Super Sucker has been working in the Bay since 2006. The pump system can remove hundreds of pounds of algae an hour, and in 2010 removed over 98,000 pounds of invasive algae.

Then, native sea urchins are placed on the cleared reef patches to eat and keep down the remaining seaweed as a biocontrol of invasive algae.

“These native, herbivorous urchins maintain the areas like ocean gardeners or little goats of the sea. They keep the seaweed in check and give the corals a chance to recover.” (David Cohen, DLNR; KITV)

Oh, some of the other names for what is now called Sand Island? … Anuenue; Akulikuli; Kahakaʻaulana; Kahololoa; Kamokuʻākulikuli ; Mauliola; Moku Akulikuli; Quarantine Island and Rainbow Island.

November 25, 2025 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Kazumura Cave

The ʻAilaʻau eruption is considered the longest memorable eruption of Kilauea.

(Before Pele, there was ʻAilaʻau (Ai means the ‘one who eats or devours.’ Laʻau means ‘tree’ or a ‘forest.’) ʻAilaʻau was, therefore, the fire-god devouring forests. When Pele came, she took over as fire goddess, ʻAilaʻau left.) (Westervelt)

The ʻAilaʻau eruption took place from a vent area just east of Kilauea Iki. The eruption built a broad shield. The eastern part of Kilauea Iki Crater slices through part of the shield, and red cinder and lava flows near the center of the shield can be seen on the northeastern wall of the crater.

The eruption probably lasted about 50-years, from about 1420 to 1470 AD. The large volume of lava covered a huge area, about 166 square miles (106,240-acres) – larger than the Island of Lanaʻi (140-square miles.)

Lava covered all, or most, of what are now Mauna Loa Estates, Royal Hawaiian Estates, Hawaiian Orchid Island Estates, Fern Forest Vacation Estates, Eden Rock Estates, Crescent Acres, Hawaiian Acres, Orchid Land Estates, ʻAinaloa, Hawaiian Paradise Park and Hawaiian Beaches.

The pahoehoe flows did leave rather large kipuka south of Keaʻau and in the forest southwest of ʻAinaloa, as well as small kipuka in Hawaiian Paradise Park and elsewhere.

This eruption and lava flow may be described in the Pele-Hiʻiaka chant. Hiʻiaka, late on returning to Kilauea from Kauai with Lohiau, sees that Pele has broken her promise and set afire Hiʻiaka’s treasured ʻohiʻa lehua forest in Puna.

Hiʻiaka is furious, and this leads to her love-making with Lohiau, his subsequent death at the hands of Pele, and Hiʻiaka’s frantic digging to recover the body.

The ʻAilaʻau flows seem to be the most likely candidate to have covered so much of Puna that they were worthy of commemoration in the chant.

The timing seems right, too – after the Pele clan arrived from Kahiki, before the caldera formed (Hiʻiaka’s frantic digging may record this), and before the encounters with Kamapuaʻa, some of which probably deal with explosive eruptions between about 1500 and 1790. (USGS)

Reminders of past eruptions are lava tubes. Lava tubes are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow. Tubes form by the crusting over of lava channels and pāhoehoe flows.

When the supply of lava stops at the end of an eruption or lava is diverted elsewhere, lava in the tube system drains downslope and leaves partially empty conduits beneath the ground. (USGS)

One such, as a result of the ʻAilaʻau eruption, is Kazumura Cave – it has been called the longest (over 40-miles) and (to some) deepest lava tube in the world and the deepest cave in the US. (Cultural Surveys)

According the Hawaiian Government Surveyors in 1891 (related to ‘The New Puna Road:’) “An interesting feature of this locality is the large number of lava caverns and long subterranean passages abounding upon it, especially between the 9th and 11th miles, in fact this whole tract is so thoroughly penetrated by caverns that hollow sounds are often heard beneath ones footsteps when traversing the region.”

“These subterranean passages are generally entered through some opening made by the falling in of the roof and prove to be regular arched ways, ranging as much as 25 feet in width and 15 feet high and extending for long distances.”

“The floors have that corrugated ropy appearance such as are seen on any viscid mass if drawn out as it hardens. The roofs and sides are covered with stalactites, the whole producing a wonderful effect when lit up.”

“These caverns evidently served as burial places in ancient and comparatively modern times in view of the fact that the benches here and there were covered in human remains.” (Cultural Surveys)

“Its average inclination was found to be 1.75 degrees, less in its lower section and considerably more in the upper sections. Passage cross-sections also were found to be different in the different areas.”

“While considerable local variation exists, its lower end tends to be wide and comparatively low while the upper section tends to be high and narrow. Locally, slip slopes and cut banks were found at sharp bends. Lavafalls up to about 15 m are numerous, especially in the upper sections.” (Halliday)

I have asked everyone who I thought should know who Kazumura was (the apparent namesake of the cave/lava tube.) Any insight into who Kazumura was is appreciated.

November 22, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘Where America’s Day Really Begins’

An island is a body of land surrounded by water. (Continents are also surrounded by water, but because they are so big, they are not considered islands.) 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)

Wake is a small tropical coral atoll in the Pacific Ocean consisting of three islands (Peale, Wake, and Wilkes) enclosing a shallow, central lagoon and surrounded by a narrow fringing reef.

From reef to reef, the atoll is approximately 5 miles long and 2.5 miles wide. The atoll is about 2,460-miles west of Hawaiʻi, 1,600-miles east of Guam and 700-miles north of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.

Oral traditions claim that the Marshallese knew of Wake Atoll prior to contact with European navigators. The Marshallese name for the atoll was Eneen-Kio or Ane-en Kio, “Island of the kio flower.”

The atoll was a source of feathers and plumes of seabirds. Prized were the wing bones of albatross, from which tattooing chisels could be made. In addition, the rare kio flower grew on the atoll.

Bringing these items to the home atolls implied that the navigators had been able to complete the feat of finding the atoll using traditional navigation skills of stars, wave patterns and other ocean markers. (Spennemann)

Today, it is more commonly referred to as ‘Wake Island’ or ‘Wake Atoll’ (rediscovery of Wake and its naming is usually credited to Captain William Wake of the British trading schooner Prince William Henry, enroute from Port Jackson, Australia to Canton in China in 1792). (NPS)

Wake, to the west of Honolulu, Hawaii, is the northernmost atoll in the Marshall Islands geological ridge and perhaps the oldest living atoll in the world. Wake Atoll was claimed by the United States in 1898; formal possession of Wake was made by the US on January 17, 1899.

Pan American Airways applied in 1935 for permission to establish a seaplane base at Wake for its “Clipper” flying boats, the pioneer trans-Pacific air route: San Francisco, Hawaii, Midway, Wake, Guam, Manila, and later, Hong Kong.

Pan Am commenced its profitable transpacific airmail delivery service on November 22, 1935, and its transpacific passenger service nearly a year later on November 4, 1936. (HALS UM-1) The flight across the Pacific then took six days. (NPS)

Pan Am the blasted over one hundred coral heads from within Wake’s lagoon to prepare a suitable landing area for its “Clippers”. Pan Am passengers debarked at the lagoon-end of a long docking pier and passed through a pavilion on the shore side of the pier on their way to the Pan Am hotel. (HALS UM-1)

Just as a prefab hotel was built on Midway, a prefabricated hotel building was built on Wake. The hotel was Y-shaped, with the lounge and dining room in the center and 20 rooms in each of the two flanking wings. It was sited to take advantage of views across the lagoon.

Between 1935 and 1941, the Pan Am seaplane station on Peale Island consisted of a landing docking and shelter, a single-story hotel, crew and personnel quarters, recreation building, sick bay, shop and warehouse buildings, utility structures and communication facilities. (HALS UM-1)

The location of Wake Island made it a strategic location for both the US and Japan. It was recognized that if war broke out between Japan and the US, Wake could: …

… provide for a defensive outpost; enable long range reconnaissance deep into enemy territory; enable the disruption of shipping; serve as staging ground for offensive operations; and be utilized as an emergency air station. (Butowsky)

Wake was substantially modified by the US to create a military base before WWII. As part of the WWII build-up, by mid-1941, construction of the Naval Air Station seaplane base included a seaplane ramp and parking area on the lagoon side of central Peale Island.

The Japanese declared war on the US with its attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the same day in another time zone attempted to seize Wake Island.

The Japanese opening attack of Wake came swiftly by air at 11:58 am (local time) on December 8, 1941; Wake was defended by about 500-military personnel (about one-quarter of its intended size.) In addition, there were about 1,200-civilian workers on the atoll.

Despite the earlier preparations, none of the defensive installations were sufficiently completed by the time of the Japanese attack. (The facilities were estimated to have been only 65-percent finished.)

The island finally fell on December 23, 1941; with the fall of Wake Island to the Japanese in late-December 1941, Midway became their westernmost US outpost in the central Pacific. More than 700-Japanese were killed during the attacks, while only 52-US military personnel lost their lives.

The Japanese took approximately 1,600 prisoners of war (POWs), 450 of whom were military personnel. The American POWs were sent to Japanese prison camps, mostly in China but some in Japan. Of these 1,600, 360 were retained by the Japanese to work as forced laborers for the Japanese.

In September, 1942, all were removed from the island except for ninety-eight of the prisoners (all civilian heavy equipment operators, except for one doctor) who were kept on Wake to assist the Japanese in developing their defensive positions on the atoll. (HALS UM-1)

(A sad side story notes that on October 7, 1943 when the Japanese saw subsequent invasion of Wake, Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara ordered the execution of the 98-American civilian prisoners. They were taken to one side of the island and shot with machine guns.)

(One prisoner escaped and carved a memorial into a large rock “98 US PW 5-10-43;” it’s still there. This prisoner was caught and also executed shortly after. After the war, Sakaibara and his subordinate, Lieutenant-Commander Tachibana, were sentenced to hang for this massacre.) The memory of their sacrifice is sustained by the inscription on “POW Rock” on Wilkes Island.

During their almost 4-year occupation of Wake, the Japanese constructed elaborate shoreline defenses. The Japanese widened and lengthened the US-built runway on the eastern side of the south arm of Wake Island and built two additional runways.

From 1941 to 1945, the Japanese stationed as many as 4,000 troops on the atoll at any given time, and they continued their development of Wake Island unabated until June of 1943.

In July of 1943, American bombers, who had begun bombing and shelling Wake since February of 1942, attacked Japanese coastal defense positions. On August 13, 1945, Marine planes conducted their last attack on Japanese positions on Wake, and on September 4, 1945, Admiral Sakaibara surrendered Wake Island back to the US.

Today, Wake serves as a trans-Pacific refueling stop for military aircraft and supports Missile Defense Agency test activities. Wake is currently managed by the Pacific Air Force Support Center located at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Anchorage, Alaska, and falls under 11th Air Force. (15^th Wing)

https://api.dvidshub.net/hls/video/536620.m3u8?api_key=key-55f197190d6a3

A little personal side story … When Pan Am used Midway and Wake as stopping points for flights across the Pacific, my grandmother (Laura Sutherland) was Assistant Head Librarian for the Library of Hawai‘i in charge of the “Extension Department.”

My grandmother took advantage of these flights and expanded the reach of her “Extension Department” by supplying reading material to residents on Midway and Wake, with the cooperation of Pan Am. Each week, a new supply of books was added to the flights in what is believed to be America’s only Flying Library Service.

Oh, the title to this piece? … Guam, a US Territory, adopted a de facto motto is “Where America’s Day Begins”; but that’s not technically true. Wake is 1,500-miles further east, right next to and west of the International Date Line. Given that placement with the Dateline, while most in America are experiencing a new day, folks on Wake are already into tomorrow.

“The dawn’s earliest light — the first rays of sun on US soil – shine upon Wake Island. Every morning America wakes up on Wake Island.” The sign on the Wake airstrip terminal building reads “Where America’s Day REALLY begins.” (CBSNews)

November 20, 2025 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Coconut Grove

Kailua Ahupua‘a is the largest on the windward side of O‘ahu, and the largest ahupua‘a of the Koʻolaupoko District. From the Koʻolau ridge line it extends down two descending ridge lines which provide the natural boundaries for the sides of the ahupua‘a.

The natural environment includes the sand accretion barrier upon which Kailua Town stands, the mountainous upland terrain and alluvial valley of Maunawili, the largest fresh water marsh in Hawai‘i (Kawainui Marsh), another inland pond (Kaʻelepulu) and intermittent streams. (Cultural Surveys)

When the first Polynesians landed and settled in Hawaiʻi (about 900 to 1000 AD (Kirch)) they brought with them shoots, roots, cuttings and seeds of various plants for food, cordage, medicine, fabric, containers, all of life’s vital needs.

“Canoe crops” (Canoe Plants) is a term to describe the group of plants brought to Hawaiʻi by these early Polynesians. One of these was ‘niu,’ the coconut; they used it for food, cordage, etc.

Later, others saw commercial opportunities from coconuts.

In 1906, Albert and Fred Waterhouse were walking over sand dunes along the approximately one-mile wide by two-and-a-half-mile long area between Kawainui Marsh and the ocean, when they envisioned the idea of planting coconut trees there.

“During the week papers will be filed with the Treasurer for the incorporation of the Hawaiian Copra Co, having lands under (a 29-year) lease from Mr Castle. …”

“(The land) is … two-hundred and fifty acres adapted to the cultivation of cocoanut trees, of which it has twenty thousand, half of which are nearly three feet high and the balance recently planted.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 12, 1907)

“Samples of copra (dried meat of coconut) grown here have been forwarded to San Francisco …. The quality of the product is excellent, comparing favorably with that of the best grade received in that market, and the price per pound is satisfactory. So well pleased are the people on the Coast that they have signified a willingness to take all that can be shipped to them.”

“The copra is compressed and the extracted oil used in the manufacture of soaps, and as oils in the manufacture of high-grade paints. Another use to which it is put is the manufacture of shredded cocoanut, which is utilized by confectioners and bakers. The fiber is made into hawsers (ropes) for towing purposes.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 12, 1907)

They “leveled the sand dunes and smoothed out the sand hillocks,” and planted approximately 320-acres with over 130,000-coconut trees.

Many rows of ironwood trees were also planted as a windbreak and a fence had to be built to keep cattle out. (Drigot)

“The (coconuts were) secured from Kauai …. We have sunk one well and found water at a depth of 51-feet. It is our intention to sink about 25-such wells for irrigation purposes.”

“Our trees will be of the Samoan variety and will bear when about seven years old. There is very little labor needed. Eight men will take care of the whole place, so we will have no labor problem to contend with.” (Maui News, September 17, 1907)

“One of the uses to which copra is put and for which there has not yet been found an available substitute is in the production of salt water soap, soap that will lather and be effective in salt water.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 15, 1907)

Things looked up.

“George A Moore & Co, commission merchants, of San Francisco, see no reason why Hawaiian copra should not compete more than favorably with other South Sea copra in the mainland market.… (He noted,) We beg to call to your attention the large consumption in this market of dried cocoanut, commercially known as copra, which reaches as high as fifteen thousand tons per annum.”

“Most of our importations are brought from the Pacific and South Sea Islands, but having recently seen a small parcel which issued from the Hawaiian Islands of very good quality it occurs to us and we see no reason why large quantities of this could not be brought from the American island possessions, notably the Hawaiian Islands.”

“For your information we would say that the ripe cocoanuts are cracked open and exposed to the sun, whereupon the meat shrinks from the shell and the dried meat itself constitutes the commodity above referred to, which is today realizing in our market 3 3/8 c US gold.”

“Cocoanut plantations in the Pacific Islands for the production of copra have now become quite an extensive and profitable venture, and we have no doubt it would prove so to your planters. ” (Peters; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 17, 1908)

It didn’t last. … In 1916, the copra/coconut oil enterprise failed.

The Waterhouses sold their “Coconut Grove” to AH Rice, who planned a residential subdivision in the area. In 1924, Earl H Williams, of Liberty Investment Co, acquired 200-acres from Rice and began the subdivision process (the Coconut Grove Tract.) (Drigot) At the end of World War II, Kailua began a real estate and development boom.

As the landscape became urbanized, flooding became a problem. There are reports of major flooding in this area in the years 1921 and 1940. In 1939, Congress instructed the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a survey of the Marsh area and to assess its value as a flood control basin.

Kailua town as a whole suffered a severe flood in 1951 and 250-people were forced to evacuate their homes in the area. The Oneawa Channel (Kawainui Canal) was under construction in 1952 to prevent the major flooding of the Kailua residential area situated on the edge of the marsh. Subsequent severe floods occurred in 1956, 1958, 1961 and 1963.

Finally, the “permanent” stage of the Federal-State Kawainui Flood Control Project, first targeted for this area in the 1930s, was completed in 1966. This project entailed “dredging the debris and widening the Kawainui Canal, and building a 9-foot high levee to hold back storm water and widening the inner canal”.

However, from December 1968 through January 1969, as much as 8-inches of water covered a large area from Oneawa Street to Kihapai Street. The levee and Canal had eliminated direct overflow from the marsh, but flooding still occurred. (Drigot)

In 1988, floodwaters breached the levee. it was later modified by the Army Corps and City in 1997 raising its height and constructing a concrete floodwall to address the 100-year flood level estimated for Kawainui Marsh. (HHF)