Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Tahitian Village – A Texas Subdivision With Hawaiian Street Names

At the end of April 1970, WW McAllister, once the Mayor of San Antonio and founder of San Antonio Building and Loan Association, sold his 3,700-acre cattle ranch to Time Wealth Corp.

Time Wealth was a business partnership that included Jack and Welcome Wilson, Jack Valenti, Bob Smith, John Goyen and Bob Marlowe. They set out to subdivide the property.

“Marlowe (an engineer) … had spent some quality time in Hawaii and was enamored of that experience that it inspired him to model this snazzy new urban development … with a Polynesian motif”. (Bastrop Advertiser, Sept 3, 2008)

Marlowe “‘had fond memories of his time in Hawaii.  He used to carry a tourist’s map around with him’ in his reshaping of a central Texas cattle ranch of Loblolly pine trees and brambles into his determined vision of a South Pacific Shangri-la.” (son Robert Marlow; Bastrop Advertiser, Sep 3, 2008)

A large section of the McAllister ranch became officially called “Tahitian Village” and was platted into 7,000 or so quarter-acre lots.

One of Marlowe’s tasks was planning and naming the roads on a swath of former ranchland thirty miles southeast of Austin. “Dad came home with Hawaiian maps and guidebooks and dictionaries. He was really into it, and loved the Islands.”

Marlowe wanted to create a golf resort community along the Colorado River with a relaxed atmosphere similar to what he’d experienced in Hawai’i.

“I remember all of us sitting at the dining room table as he walked through the developer’s map, figuring where the streets would go and what he could call them.”  (Robert Marlowe; Lieberman, Hana Hou)

The subdivision has more than two hundred streets with Hawaiian names. With some as long as seven syllables, the developers definitely went big, even for Texas. (Lieberman, Hana Hou)

Not long after clearing some land and grading some roads, Time Wealth sold out to the next visionary developer, Property Investments, Inc (a company out of Houston).

“In the 1970s if you had a pulse and a Texas address, you had a good chance of being chosen by land developers like Property Investments as one of the lucky winners of a swell prize.”

“They’d get these letters in the mail saying that they’d won a prize, and most of them came down here to collect their $10,000 or a new car or whatever it was.” You could claim your prize by coming out to visit a development site. People came in the hundreds.

“But almost everybody won themselves a free stay somewhere. All they had to do was get there.” (George Reinemund; Bastrop Advertiser, Sep 5, 2009)

Those who arrived to consider the opportunity and claim their prize were driven around in Broncos, Tahoes, and Suburbans; whatever could navigate the landscape over no road at all.

Despite that the actual prize awarded to prospects was unlikely to be worth the trip, each visitor got the pitch. Each was asked to imagine how Tahitian Village would look after the installation of all the amenities of a plush resort.

“On the original maps,” says Reinemund, “there were lakes. There were meant to be some 23-acre lakes and some 5-acre lakes.” Visitors with the best imaginations visualized an enviable hot spot with massive profit potential.

Sometimes prospects were enticed with a special taste of the local culture to convince them to make the investment opportunity of a lifetime.

“The Castle” was a popular eatery that was housed in the building that is now Cedar’s Mediterranean Grill.” For about $2.50, Reinemund and TC Hoffman (another Property Investments staffer) confirm, patrons could get a memorable chicken fried steak that seemed about twice the size of its platter and provided a perfect platform for a thick smothering of very tasty cream gravy.

This left prospects with a feeling of abundance and helped encouraged similar feelings toward the potential for the Tahitian Village project. (Bastrop Advertiser, Sep 5, 2009)

About 300 people a week visited the property, mostly to claim their free prizes.  Then, a number of lawsuits were filed against Property Investments and Tahitian Village Corporation through the 1970s and 1980s.  A Grand Jury was assembled, but there were no indictments. (Bastrop Advertiser, Sep 10, 2009)

“The fullest ·expression of Tahitian’s bright future is still down the road a ways – literally. You can’t talk about Tahitian, today or for the future, without a thorough discussion about roads.”

“They are on everyone’s mind, mainly because the water faucets work fine and road conditions are much more apparent than wastewater and fire hazards.”

“Tahitian has 70 miles of roads. Some 30-plus years after Tahitian Drive was completed, only about half are paved. That’s about a mile a year so far. At that rate, the roads should be completed around the year 2044.”

“The city and county appropriately declined to assume responsibility for maintaining poorly built roads. To residents it must have seemed like developers just whistled at the sky as they wandered off.”

“Today Tahitian homeowners want better roads, but roads require money.  Money for roads comes from homeowner’s property taxes, but with 7,000 lots and only about 1,400 homes so far, there aren’t enough homes to generate the necessary taxes. New homes will continue to be built only very slowly until they can be built on nicely paved streets.” (Bastrop Advertiser, Sep 17, 2009)

“Despite myriad challenges and issues, many Tahitian Village residents say they would not change a thing. They’ve adapted to the Hawaiian street names that are so foreign to many Central Texans’ ears.”

“‘Keanahalululu,’ for example, is a warrior of legend whose name can be translated as “the-cave of roaring; as wind travelling through a cave,” according to Honolulu archaeologists T. S. Dye & Colleagues.”

“It is probably more pertinent that Keanahalululu’s name was given to a gulch on the northwest slopes of the Big Island where a tropical garden, “Pua Mau Place,” is an active tourist attraction.”  (Bastrop Advertiser, Sep 17, 2009)

“Challenging names and confusion among similar-sounding streets like Upola and Upolu or Kukui and Kuikui have caused headaches for emergency responders and GPS systems for years.

A handful of street names have had to be changed to mitigate navigation problems, but most of the people in Tahitian Village appreciate the uniqueness of their community and like the street names just the way they are. (Lieberman, Hana Hou)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians

it started with one man named Johann Suter (later John Sutter) who came to California from Switzerland in 1839 and settled a large tract of land in Sacramento, which he called New Helvetia (New Switzerland). The goal was to bring other settlers to New Helvetia and build an agricultural and trade colony.

Sutter originally didn’t start in California; first, he left his family in Switzerland and travelled extensively through the Eastern US, Oregon and eventually to Hawaii where he met Russian traders who told him about Alto California where land and furs were abundant.

It was in Hawaii that he made the decision to head to California via Alaska. (Noren) After a brief stay in the Islands, in 1839, Sutter had a “crew consisted of the two German carpenters I had brought with me from the Islands, and a number of sailors and mechanics I had picked up at Yerba Buena.”

“I also had eight Kanakas, all experienced seamen, whom King Kamehameha had given me when I left the Sandwich Islands. I had undertaken to pay them ten dollars a month and to send them back to the Islands after three years at my own expense if they wished to leave me.”  (Sutter; Houston)

At the time of Sutter’s arrival in California, the territory had a population of only 1,000-Europeans, in contrast with 30,000-Native Americans. At the time, it was part of Mexico.

When they landed and set up New Helvetia (August 13, 1839,) “I selected the highest ground I could find. The Kanakas first erected two grass houses after the manner of the houses on the Sandwich Islands; the frames were made by white men and covered with grass by the Kanakas.” (Sutter)

Sutter employed Native Americans of the Miwok and Maidu tribes, Kanakas and Europeans at his compound, which he called Sutter’s Fort.

In the following years many Sandwich Islanders followed these few to California. John Sutter brought them there to work at Sutter’s Fort and at Hock Farm.”

“A colony of more than 100-native Hawaiians formed a colony in Sutter County called Verona, the first non-native American settlement in the Central California Valley.”

“These Hawaiians fished for bass, trout, and catfish and sold them at the Fort and in Sacramento. They learned to raise alfalfa and raised hogs and cattle. The Hawaiians rowed their boats, assembled their tents and played their Ukulele and Guitar. When a visiting Hawaiian brought poi, ti leaves, kukui and other items from home the Hawaiians held barbecues and luau and danced hula.” (Willcox)

In his memoirs, Sutter recalled the Hawaiians, “I could not have settled the country without the aid of these Kanakas. They were always faithful and loyal to me.” (Sutter)

From 1839 to 1849, Sutter’s Fort was the economic center of the first permanent European colonial settlement in California’s Central Valley. During that time, the Fort catalyzed patterns of change across California. Then, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.

“[B]y the mid-1800s, there were hundreds of Hawaiians in what is now Canada and California. In 1847, Hawaiians made up 10% of San Francisco’s tiny but growing population.”  (Terrell)

“In the aftermath of the gold rush, many Hawaiians stayed in California. And as they settled in California, a number of Hawaiian men married local indigenous women. Which, it turns out, was a common occurrence up and down the West Coast.” (Terrell)

“Both Hawaiians and Indians in the Oregon Territory were explicitly excluded from the dominant society. From the mid-1860s onward, neither they nor their offspring were legally permitted to marry into the dominant society.”  (Barman & Watson)

As a result, Hawaiians were absorbed into local Native American communities through intermarriage. These Hawaiians were less likely to return to the Islands and leave their Native American wives and children behind. (Farnham)

One such is the Shingle Springs Band.  “They were known as the lost tribe of kanakas.  They are not our Indians. They’re not local.” (Marilyn Ferguson; Terrell, Civil Beat)

Then in 1916, an agent with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs traveled to California looking for landless and destitute Indians.

The agent recorded a number of Miwok families living in the Placerville area and called those people the El Dorado Band.

Then he visited the group near Verona — about 50 miles away. According to letters from the time, the group at that point was mostly made up of extended family members. A few Hawaiian men and their wives — local Miwok and Maidu and one white woman.

The spit of land they lived on was small. It nearly disappeared when the river swelled from rain. They lived on fish and marsh birds. Bought meager food supplies from town by delivering fish to markets and individual houses nearby.

The agent dubbed this group of Indians the Sacramento-Verona Band of Homeless Indians and suggested buying land for them.

“They seemed open to banding together,” he wrote. And would be excellent candidates for the federal government’s plan to “colonize and civilize Indians” in California.  (Terrell; Civil Beat)

The Bureau of Indian Affairs relocated one of those communities to what is now the Shingle Springs Rancheria. Tribal members say they owe their survival to their Hawaiian ancestors and believe their relatives on the mainland deserve the same recognition as tribes in the US. (Ho-Chunk)

But the Sacramento-Verona tribe didn’t move to the 160-acre parcel. For decades the land sat fallow and unused.  Then in 1970, the BIA reached out to the descendants of the group dubbed the Sacramento-Verona tribe to see if they wanted to sell the uninhabited land that had been set aside for their families.

They opted to keep the land and came together as a tribe. Built homes on the land. A church. A community center. Negotiated with the state to get highway access to the land. They renamed themselves the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians.

And they started making plans to open a casino. That’s when things got heated.  Not everyone wanted the Shingle Springs Band to open a casino in the area.

The Miwok families that the Bureau dubbed the El Dorado Tribe in 1916 lost their land decades ago. Now, some of their descendants say it’s unfair for the Shingle Springs Band to have taken Miwok as part of its name.  Unjust — and perhaps a misinterpretation of the law — for them to have tribal land in the area.

Most of the members of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians have Hawaiian roots. Tribal ancestors married Native Hawaiians who came to California during the Gold Rush of the mid-1800s and the groups formed Indian-Hawaiian communities around Sacramento.

However complicated their origins, the tribe’s sovereignty has been upheld repeatedly in court.  (Terrell; Civil Beat)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Spice Trade

By many accounts, Britain was a quiet agricultural outpost in the Roman empire. The native inhabitants had a well-established growing system that prioritized crops such as broad beans, barley, oats, and wheat. Needless to say, Britons ate a lot of bread and drank a lot of beer.

Their livestock consisted of the usual range of domesticated animals: cattle, sheep, chicken, and pigs. Foraged foods included mushrooms, wild onions, and herbs such as mustard. Those who lived near the coast enjoyed seaweed, fish, and oysters. Rural life and food looked much the same as it does today, with a key exception — lack of spices.

The Romans brought a wealth of spices from all over their empire. The trade along the Spice Road had been good to them, and they introduced pepper, rosemary, thyme, coriander, mint, and garlic to Britons. Some of these herbs were dried and some were in plant form. Those plants that grew well in the Isles still remain a part of British cuisine.  (Cowen)

Many tall tales developed as to the origins of spices, but by the 13th century, travelers like Marco Polo (1254-1324 CE) and missionaries were beginning to improve Europe’s geographical knowledge of the wider world.

India seemed awash with black pepper. Sri Lanka was rich in cinnamon. Sandalwood came from Timor. China and Japan were getting spices like cloves, nutmeg, and mace from India, South East Asia, and the Maluku Islands or the Moluccas in what is today Indonesia – not for nothing were they nicknamed the Spice Islands.

Then, in 1453 came the fall of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, and so one of the principal land routes for spices into Europe was lost. (Cartwright)

One of the major motivating factors in the European Age of Exploration was the search for direct access to the highly lucrative Eastern spice trade. In the 15th century, spices came to Europe via the Middle East land and sea routes, and spices were in huge demand both for food dishes and for use in medicines.

The problem was how to access this market by sea.

Accordingly, explorers like Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) and Vasco da Gama (c. 1469-1524) were sent to find a maritime route from Europe to Asia.

Columbus (who was looking for a new route to India, China, Japan and the ‘Spice Islands’ of Indonesia to bring back cargoes of silk and spices (ginger turmeric and cinnamon)) never saw the mainland United States, but the first explorations of the continental United States were launched from the Spanish possessions that he helped establish.

To the south, da Gama did round the Cape of Good Hope, sail up the coast of East Africa, and cross the Indian Ocean to reach India.

From 1500 onwards, first Portugal, and then other European powers, attempted to control the spice trade, the ports which marketed spices, and eventually the territories which grew them.  (Cartwright)

On November 28 1520, Ferdinand Magellan entered the “Sea of the South” (which he later named the Pacific) and thereby open up to Spain the possibility of an alternative route between Europe and the spices of the Orient.”  (Lloyd)

Then, almost 50 years after the death of Christopher Columbus, Manila galleons finally fulfilled their dream of sailing west to Asia to benefit from the rich Indian Ocean trade.

“The Spanish Galleons were square rigged ships with high superstructures on their sterns. They were obviously designed for running before the wind or at best sailing on a very ‘broad reach.’”

“Because of their apparently limited ability to ‘beat their way to windward’ (sail against the wind), they had to find trade routes where the prevailing winds and sea currents were favorable.”  (Lloyd)

Starting in 1565, with the Spanish sailor and friar Andrés de Urdaneta, after discovering the Tornaviaje or return route to Mexico through the Pacific Ocean, Spanish galleons sailed the Pacific Ocean between Acapulco in New Spain (now Mexico) and Manila in the Philippine islands.

Once a year, gold and silver were transported west to Manila in exchange spices (pepper, clove and cinnamon), porcelain, ivory, lacquer and elaborate fabrics (silk, velvet, satin), collected from both the Spice Islands (Moluccas, Indonesia) and the Asian Pacific coast, in European markets.

They also carried Chinese handicrafts, Japanese screens, fans, Japanese swords, Persian carpets, Ming dynasties and a myriad of other products. East Asia traded primarily with a silver standard, and the goods were bought mainly with Mexican silver. (Pascual)

The galleons leaving Manila would make their way back to Acapulco in a four-month long journey.  The goods were off-loaded and transported across land to ships on the other Mexican coast at Veracruz, and eventually, sent to European markets and customers eager for these exotic wares.  (GuamPedia)

In 1668 a royal decree required the galleons to stop in Guam in the Mariana Islands on their westward voyage from Acapulco to Manila. This allowed ships to replenish supplies and was the only means for communication between Spain and the Marianas colony.

The Manila Galleon Trade lasted for 250 years and ended in 1815 with Mexico’s war of independence.  More than 40-Spanish galleons were lost during this 250-year period. (Lloyd)

“‘The voyage from the Philippine islands to America may be call’d the longest, and most dreadful of any in the world; as well because of the vast ocean to be cross’d, being almost the one-half of the terraquous globe, with the wind always a-head; as for the terrible tempests that happen there, one upon the back of the other …”

“… and for the desperate diseases that seize people, in seven or eight months living at sea, sometimes near the line, sometimes cold, sometimes temperate, sometimes hot, which is enough to destroy a man of steel, much more flesh and blood, which at sea had but indifferent food.’” (Dr. Gemilli, Popular Science, 1901)

“The Spanish captains normally made their eastbound Pacific crossings between 31o N and 44o N latitude to insure that they would remain in the zone of the westerly winds. They would want to avoid the ‘horse latitudes’ (around 30o  N) and they would certainly want to remain well north of the northeast trade winds that would  drive their square rigged ships back to the Philippines.”

“This northerly route back to Acapulco would normally keep the galleons at least 1,000 miles north of Hawaii and it would not be surprising if little or no contact with the Hawaiian Island occurred during these difficult eastbound crossings of the North Pacific.”

“The westbound route from Acapulco offers an entirely different set of navigational considerations.  Friar Urdaneta’s route involved sailing down to 13° N latitude (or 14° N) and following that parallel all the way to Guam and on to the San Bernardino Strait in the Philippines.”

“Unknown to the Spanish navigators, the very favorable ocean currents mentioned above would position their ships much further along their westbound course than indicated by using their ship’s mechanical ‘log’ to measure their ship’s speed through the water.”  (Lloyd)

Some suggest the Spaniards came to the Hawaiian Islands a couple of centuries before Cook saw them.

“Old Spanish charts and a 1613 AD Dutch globe suggest that explorers from Spain had sighted Hawaiʻi long before Captain Cook.  When Cook arrived in 1778, galleons laden with silver from the mines of Mexico and South America had been passing south of Hawaiʻi for two centuries on annual round trip voyages of 17,000 miles between Acapulco and Manila.”  (Kane)

“It seems to be almost certain that one Juan Gaetano, a Spanish navigator, saw Hawaii in 1555 AD. A group of islands, the largest of which was called La Mesa, was laid down in the old Spanish charts in the same latitude as the Hawaiian Islands, but 10 degrees too far east.”  (Hawaiʻi Department of Foreign Affairs, 1896)

“There are undoubted proof of the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands by the Spaniard, Juan Gaetano. This is the first known record of the islands among the civilized nations. There are evident references to this group in the legends of the Polynesians in other Pacific islands.”  (Westervelt 1923)

La Perouse noted, when he briefly visited the Islands (1786,) “In the charts, at the foot of this archipelago, might be written: ‘Sandwich Islands, surveyed in 1778 by Captain Cook, who named them, anciently discovered by the Spanish navigators.’”  (La Perouse, Fornander)

“By all the documents that have been examined, it is demonstrated that the discovery dates from the year 1555 and that the discoverer was Juan Gaetano or Gaytan. The principal proof is an old manuscript chart, registered in these archives as anonymous, and in which the Sandwich Islands are laid down under that name, but which also contains a note declaring that he called them Islas de Mesa”.  (Spanish Colonial Office letter to the Governor of the Philippines, The Friend May 1927)

“It is true that no document has been found in which Gaytan himself certifies to this fact, but there exist data which collectively form a series of proofs sufficient for believing it to be so. The principal one is an old manuscript chart … in which the Sandwich Islands are laid down under that name…” (The Friend May 1927)

Gaetano passed through the northern part of the Pacific and discovered large islands which he marked upon a chart as ‘Los Majos.’ The great mountains upon these islands did not rise in sharp peaks, but spread out like a high tableland in the clouds, hence he also called the islands “Isles de Mesa,” the Mesa Islands or the Table Lands. One of the islands was named “The Unfortunate.” Three other smaller islands were called “The Monks.”  (Westervelt 1923)

Fortunately, however, the Spanish made no use of this discovery, thus permitting the Hawaiians to escape the sad fate of the natives of the Ladrones and Carolines under Spanish dominion.  (White 1898)

Juan Gaetano may not have been the first Spaniard, here.  Stories suggest an earlier arrival of shipwrecked Spaniards at Keʻei, Kona Moku (district,) Island of Hawaiʻi.

There is fairly complete evidence that a Spanish vessel was driven ashore on the island of Hawai‘i in 1527, it being one of a squadron of three which sailed from the Mexican coast for the East Indies.  (White 1898)

“A well known Hawaiian tradition relates that in the reign of Keliiokaloa, son of Umi, a foreign vessel was wrecked at Keei, South Kona, Hawaii. According to the tradition, only the captain and his sister reached the shore in safety. From their kneeling on the beach and remaining a long time in that posture, the place was called Kulou (to stoop, to bow,) as it is unto this day.”  (Alexander 1892)

“The natives received them kindly and placed food before them. These strangers intermarried with the Hawaiians, and were the progenitors of certain well known families of chiefs, as for instance, that of Kaikioewa, former Governor of Kauai.“  (Alexander 1892)

Jarves expanded on the story, “In the reign of Kealiiokaloa, son of Umi, thirteen generations of kings before Cook’s arrival, which, according to the previous calculation, would bring it near the year 1620, a vessel, called by the natives Konaliloha, arrived at Pale, Keei, on the south side of Kealakeakua bay, Hawaii.”

“Here, by some accident, she was drawn into the surf, and totally wrecked; the captain, Kukanaloa, and a white woman, said to be his sister, were the only persons who reached the land. As soon as they trod upon the beach, either from fear of the inhabitants, or to return thanks for their safety, they prostrated themselves, and remained in that position for a long time.”

“The spot where this took place, is known at the present day, by the appellation of Kulou, to bow down. The shipwrecked strangers were hospitably received, invited to the dwellings of the natives, and food placed before them.”  (Jarves 1843)

One more thing, the first Hawaiian word written is ‘Hamaite’ – it was spoken to Captain Cook at the time he made contact with the Islands and he wrote it in his journal.

It was made in reference to iron.  Some suggest it refers to Hematite (ferric oxide – a mineral form of iron oxide – that is Hematita in Spanish.)  However, others suggest ‘Hamaite’ is actually a Hawaiian expression of He maita’i – good.  (Schutz)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hualalai

When the American Protestant missionaries arrived in the Islands (1820), they sailed from Kawaihae to Kailua-Kona; Bingham wrote, “As we coasted slowly along southward, we had a grand view of Hualalai, the volcanic mountain that rises some eight or nine thousand feet, near the western side of Hawaii, with its terminal crater, its forests, and apparently recent streams of lava.”

In Kona, the “village of thatched huts, though in a dry and sterile spot, is ornamented with cocoanut and Kou trees, which to the eye form a relief. A few miles inland, trees and plantations are numerous; then, still further back, rises the forest-covered Mauna Hualalai, with its lofty terminal crater, now extinct. . .”

Missionary wife, Lucy Thurston noted, “On the mountain Hualalai, just back of Kailua, is a large crater. It is now extinct. But our old people tell us of the time in their childhood, when they were aroused from their midnight slumbers, to see red hot balls hurled into the air from out the crater on this mountain.”

“Torrents of molten lava flowed from crater to coast, extended the shore farther out into the sea, and encrusted the surface of the earth, besides leaving an abundance of large loose scoriae, tossed about in every direction.”

Hualalai (“obstructing the flow” (Parker Dictionary for a crater on the mountain)) is the third youngest and third-most historically active volcano on the Island of Hawai‘i.

Six different vents erupted lava between the late 1700s and 1801, two of which generated lava flows that poured into the sea on the west coast of the island. The Keāhole Airport is built atop the larger flow.  (USGS)

The 1801 flow covered Pā‘aiea pond; “Pā‘aiea was a great pond almost like the ponds of Wainanalii and Kiholo. In the olden days, when the great ruling chiefs were living, and when these fish ponds were full of the riches of Awa, Anae, and Ahole, along with all sorts of fish which swam within.”

“During that time, Konohiki were stationed, and he was the guard of the pond that watched over the pond and all things, as here we are talking about Pā‘aiea Pond which was destroyed by lava and became pahoehoe lava which remains today”.

“In the correct and trues story of this pond, its boundaries began from Kaelehuluhulu on the north and on the south was at the place called Wawaloli, and the distance from one end to the other was 3 miles or more, and that was the length of this pond …”

“… and today within these boundaries, there are a number of pools [lua wai loko] remaining during this time that the writer is speaking before the readers of the Hoku.”  (Hoku o Hawaii, 2/5/1914)

The lava came and destroyed the great fishpond of Pā‘aiea, dried its water and filled and covered it with black rocks.  However, two places were spared.

There remained only that very small portion of the fishpond, close to Ho‘ona (within the Natural Energy Laboratory property at Keāhole Point.)  Also, the area below the old headquarters at Hu‘ehu‘e Ranch was left untouched, and this open space bears the name of Pahinahina to this day.

It is said that because of this event that the lands of Manuahi came to be called Ka-ulu-pulehu (the roasted breadfruit (‘ū is short for ‘ulu,)) and this has been shortened to Ka‘ūpūlehu.

Though Hualalai is not nearly as active as Mauna Loa or Kilauea, recent geologic mapping of the volcano shows that 80 percent of Hualalai’s surface has been covered by lava flows in the past 5,000 years.  (USGS)

In the past few decades, when most of the resorts, homes and commercial buildings were built on the flanks of Hualalai, earthquake activity beneath the volcano has been low.

In 1929, however, an intense swarm of earthquakes lasting more than a month was most likely caused by magma rising to near the surface. For these reasons, Hualalai is considered a potentially dangerous volcano that is likely to erupt again in the next 100 years.  (USGS)

A Pālama Nui kāua
Wai māpuna kau i ka maka ka ‘ōpua
Hualalai huewai kuahiwi

You and I stand together on the Foundation of Profound Enlightenment
Where the spring water is borne upon the clouds
Mount Hualalai, a mountain water-gourd

(from Nā‘ū Pālama Nui – ”Hualalai, huewai kuahiwi” is a traditional saying honoring Hualalai’s role in sponging the atmosphere of moisture to fill the aquifers.) (Tangarō, UH-HCC)

With respect to groundwater, an interesting conclusion, based on isotopic data for the high level water, shows that most of the groundwater recharge under Hualalai is coming from recharge at significantly higher elevations than the local rainfall in the mid-elevations of Hualalai (at nearly 3,000 year average age of the water in the high level aquifer).

In other words, not much of the “local” rainfall in the vicinity of the high level wells is actually getting into the high level aquifer. (as noted by Don Thomas, research faculty of the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology at UH and Director of the Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes at the UH‐Hilo campus.)

The only alternative that can explain the isotopic and age data for the high level aquifer, with significant amounts of local recharge entering it, is that substantially larger amounts of much older recharge to the high level aquifers is coming into the Hualalai water system from the adjacent regions in the Saddle and from Mauna Loa.  (Don Thomas)

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“Reclamation” Projects – Early-1900s

“Whenever in the opinion of the Board of Health any tract or parcel of land situated in the District of Honolulu, Island of Oahu, shall be deleterious to the public health in consequence of being low …”

“… and at times covered or partly covered by water, or of being situated between high and low water mark, or of being improperly drained, or incapable by reasonable expenditure of effectual drainage or for other reason in an unsanitary or dangerous condition…”

“… it shall be the duty of the Board of Health to report such fact to the Superintendent of Public Works together with a brief recommendation of the operation deemed advisable to improve such land.”  (So stated Section 1025, Revised Laws of the Territory of Hawaiʻi, in 1906.)

That year, Board of Health President, LE Pinkham, stated in a report “for the Making of Honolulu as Beautiful and Unique in Character, as nature has Endowed it in Scenery, Climate and Location:”

“Nature, situation and human circumstance fix world-wide prominence and importance on certain strategic points in commerce, navigation and defense. Human events have moved slowly, but are becoming intensely accelerated, and it would seem Honolulu is now beginning to fulfil her destiny.”

Likewise, laws in place gave the Superintendent of Public Works the right to make Improvements to property which had been condemned as insanitary by the Board of Health.

Also in 1906, the US War Department acquired more than 70-acres in the Kālia portion of Waikīkī for the establishment of a military reservation to be called Fort DeRussy.  Back then, nearly 85% of present Waikīkī was in wetland.

The Army started filling in the fishponds and wetland that covered most of the Fort site – pumping fill from the ocean continuously for nearly a year in order to build up an area on which permanent structures could be built.

Thus, the Army began the transformation of Waikīkī from wetlands to solid ground and it served as a model that others followed.

Back then, much of the makai lands from Honolulu to and including Waikīkī were characterized with lowland marshes, wetlands, coral reef flats and farming of fishponds along with some limited wetland kalo (taro) taro agriculture (and later rice.)

However, they were also characterized as, “stretched useless, unsightly, offensive swamps, perpetually breeding mosquitoes and always a menace to public health and welfare”.

The Territory saw the opportunity to drain and fill the land that “was valueless” to be “available for the growth of the business district of the city” and attain “a valuation greatly in excess of the cost of the filling and draining.”

Likewise, in areas such as Kakaʻako there were practical issues to contend with.   “Calmly wading around in muddy water up to waist, on Tuesday after noon last, a Kakaako housekeeper was busying herself hanging out the family washing to dry. Her clothes basket she towed after her on a raft.”

“None of the neighbors marveled at the strange sight for when it was wash-day at their places they had to do the same. Tied up at the front gates of many of the houses in the block were rafts, upon which the more particular members of the families ferried themselves back and forth from house to street”.  (Hawaiian Gazette, April 3, 1908)

This set into motion a number of reclamation and sanitation projects in Kakaʻako, Honolulu, Waikīkī, Lāhaina, Hilo and others.

The first efforts were concentrated at Kakaʻako – it was then more generally referred to as “Kewalo.”  The Kewalo Reclamation District included the area bounded by South Street, King Street, Ward Avenue and Ala Moana Boulevard.

This area already had a practical demonstration of dredging and filling.  In 1907, the US Army Fort Armstrong was built on fill over Kaʻākaukukui reef to protect the adjoining Honolulu Harbor.

“The plan practically takes in all the land from King street to the sea, and it will be the first step in a general reclamation scheme for the low lying lands of the city.”  (Hawaiian Star, October 24, 1911)

Kapālama Reclamation Project included approximately 60-acres of land between King Street and the main line of Oʻahu Railway and Land Company.  In addition, approximately 11-acres of land were filled from dredge material between Piers 16 and 17.

In 1925, the “practically worthless swamp lands” were converted “into property selling as high as $30,000.00 per acre.”

During this project, Sand Island and Quarantine Island were joined to the Kalihi Kai peninsula. In 1925 and 1926, a channel was dug from the Kalihi Channel into Kapālama Basin creating a true island out of “Sand Island.”

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 Waikīkī wetlands, it was also used to fill in the McKinley High School site.

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 happened.

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 Hawaiʻi in 1918, the newly-filled pond was turned over to the County of Maui for use as Maluʻuluʻolele Park.

In Hilo, the Waiolama Reclamation Project included the draining and filling of approximately 40-acres in the area between the Hilo Railway tract, Wailoa River, and Baker and Front Streets.  It included diversion of the Alenaio Stream.  (1914-1919)

Generally, the consensus was the reclamation projects were successful in addressing the health concerns; in addition, they made economic sense.

As an example, in Waikīkī, before reclamation assessed values for property were at about $500 per acre and the same property reclaimed at ten cents a 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.

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