Place Names | Page 96 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 2, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hāna Landing

On December 19, 1853 the Privy Council awarded a monopoly to The Hawaiian Steam Navigation Company to operate steamers inter-island. In 1860 a propeller steamer Kilauea made its appearance; however she had a checkered run due to being laid up for repairs or lack of coal on many occasions.

In November, 1868, the SS Kilauea was withdrawn and the islands were without inter-island steamer service for two years. Sailing ships in the coasting trade filled the void created by the withdrawal of the Kilauea in 1868 until she was refit and returned to service in October, 1870. (HHF)

In the mid-1870s interisland transportation consisted of one steamer and around 30 sailing schooners, sloops and other boats. During this era the sugar cane industry utilized these vessels. In 1871 Samuel G. Wilder became the agent for the government-owned SS Kilauea and started Wilder & Company in 1872. (HHF)

Competitors Wilder Steamship Co (1872) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co (1883) ran different routes, rather than engage in head to head competition.

Inter-Island operated the Kauaʻi and Oʻahu ports plus some on Hawaiʻi. Wilder took Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Maui plus Hawaiʻi ports not served by Inter-Island. Both companies stopped at Lāhainā, Māʻalaea Bay and Makena on Maui’s leeward coast. (HawaiianStamps)

Later, inter-island trade was carried almost exclusively by the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co, the successor to the firm of Thomas R Foster & Co (the original founders of the company) and which, in 1905, acquired the Wilder Steamship Co. (Congressional Record)

“The Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co, established in 1883, own(ed) and operate(d) a fleet of first-class vessels engaged exclusively in the transportation of passengers and freight between ports on the islands of the Hawaiian group.” (Annual Report of the Governor, 1939)

Regular sailings of passenger vessels are maintained from Honolulu four times weekly to ports on the island of Hawaiʻi, four times weekly to Molokaʻi, twice weekly to Kauaʻi, three times weekly to Lānaʻi and daily, except Monday and Saturday, to ports on the island of Maui. Included in the fleet are 12 passenger and freight vessels.” (Report of the Governor, 1930)

During the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, Inter-Island Steam Navigation had the SS Haleakalā, Hualālai, Kilauea and Waiʻaleʻale. There were others that carried 12-passengers such as the SS Humuʻula, which was primarily a cattle boat.

On the Maui and Molokai Route, Wilder’s had the main service for most Maui and Molokai ports. Wilder’s steamers ran a “milk run” stopping at Molokai ports before arriving at Lahaina on the run from Honolulu.

From Lahaina, they proceeded around northern West Maui to Kahului and thence to Hāna or Kipahulu and then retraced their route stopping at various ports along northern East Maui, Kahului, Lahaina and Molokai.

The steamer route along the northern East Maui augmented the often unpredictable overland route between Hāna and Haiku. When overland service between West Maui and Wailuku/Kahului was terminated in 1888, the steamers carried all the mail from Lahaina to Kahului or other parts of Maui.

At Hāna, Maui, a series of landings, jetties, and pier had been in use since at least 1882 – the landing was located near the foot of Keawa Place.

In March 1902, the Hāna Landing was “washed away by the great storm of the first of the month.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 31, 1902)

It was replaced in 1903. “The wharf measures about sixty feet by thirty feet and has a shed of corrugated iron over the end toward the water measuring forty-nine by thirty-eight feet.”

“A wall of solid masonry was also constructed near the northeast corner of the landing to protect it against heavy surf, which in times of storm has often lined the platform from its foundations.”

“Hāna people are much pleased with the new structure. The covered wharf will make an excellent dancing pavilion, inasmuch as those who have the festivity in charge intend that the floor shall be covered with smooth tongue and groove lumber.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 29, 1903) (A July 4 luau and dance were held that year.)

But the location of the landing had its challenges. “Unusually stormy weather has been reported from Hāna this week. On Tuesday two of the Claudine’s shore boats were tossed high upon the beach at the Hāna landing by the strong surf running, but no serious damage resulted.” (Maui News, November 5, 1915)

The decision was made to replace the smaller landing with a larger pier. Original drawings were produced by the Board of Harbor Commissioners. They are dated from September 1918 to March 5, 1919, and are signed by Lyman H. Bigelow, Chairman.

The pier at Hāna Bay (also historically known as Kauiki Bay ca. 1920, and as Kapueokahi Bay ca. 1882) was completed in the first half of 1921.

When the 1921 structure was built, it was referred to as “Hāna Wharf”, not as a pier (as it is known today). Because of a manpower shortage due to the military draft for service during World War, about 60 prisoners were used to man its construction.

When the pier was constructed, sugar had been grown commercially in Hāna for about 70 years. The Kaeleku Plantation Company was then the only plantation operating in the Hāna vicinity.

Bagged sugar from the Kaeleku mill was transported to Hāna Pier via the plantation railway system. From the wharf, the bagged sugar would often be lightered to a waiting transport ship anchored a short way offshore. Between 1922 and 1945, all of Kaeleku Plantation Company’s bagged sugar was shipped out of Hāna Pier. (HHF)

It was originally a commercial harbor under the jurisdiction of HDOT. The facility was transferred to the Department of Land & Natural Resources Boating Division in the early 2000s, then conveyed back to HDOT in 2010.

Shortly after the transfer, investigations of the facility determined it was unsafe and the pier was condemned and closed. In 2016, due to safety hazards, the decision to remove the pier was made.

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Hana Landing-HHF

Hana_Landing-HHF

Hana Landing-Howard

Boat at Hana Pier-HHF

Hana_Pier-HHF

Hana Wharf-HHF

Hana Pier-HHF

March 31, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Wailau

“The glimpses of Molokai which one obtains from a steamer’s deck while passing to Honolulu from San Francisco or in passing to and from Maui (along its south shore,) give the impression that the island is bleak, mountainous and desolate.”

“Skirting its (north) shores on the Hālawa, Wailua and Pelekunu sides on Wilder’s fine steamer Likelike, gives a far different picture. For miles sheer precipices rise from the sea and tower 1,500 feet into the air.”

“Now and then, and sometimes in groups, beautiful waterfalls are seen on the face of the cliff, now falling in clear view for a couple of hundred feet, now hidden under denses masses of foliage, only to reappear further down, another silvery link in the watery thread which ends In a splash and scintillating mist in the breakers below.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 31, 1905)

“Early the next morning, with a pleasant breeze from the NE, we stood over towards the east point of Mororoi (Molokai.) … we sailed to the westward … In this the land rises rather abruptly from the sea, towards the lofty mountains in the center of the east part of Morotoi …”

“… and though the acclivity was great, yet the face of the country, diversified by eminences and vallies, bore a verdant and fertile appearance. It seemed to be well inhabited, in a high state of cultivation, and presented not only a rich but a romantic prospect.” (Captain George Vancouver, March 19, 1793)

The windward valleys developed into areas of intensive irrigated taro cultivation and seasonal migrations took place to stock up on fish and precious salt for the rest of the year. Kalaupapa was well known for its bountiful ʻuala (sweet potato) crops and its fine-grained, white salt which was preferred over that from the salt ponds of Kawela and Kaunakakai. (Strazar)

The large windward valleys – Pelekunu, Wailau and Halawa – and Papalaua, along with all of Kalaupapa comprise the old Hawaiian Koʻolau Moku (district) of Molokai.

Wailau Valley (“many waters” – the largest along the coast) on Molokai’s North Shore has some interesting history.

The sea cliffs that surround Wailau on the island’s north shore were formed by the ‘Wailau Slide,’ in which a portion of the volcano collapsed into the ocean, leaving a swath of debris strewn across the ocean floor.

The sea cliffs represent the scar left by the collapse and Wailau and the other windward valleys were cut into the scar after the slide.

The Kalaupapa Peninsula, in north central Molokai, was formed later by volcanic rejuvenation.

Molokai’s North Shore Cliffs were designated a National Natural Landmark in December 1972. The Landmark includes 27,100 acres located along 17 miles of the northeast coast between Hālawa and Kalaupapa.

Four major valleys span the coastline, from Hālawa (at the east end of the island of Molokai) westward toward Kalaupapa: from east to west they are Pāpalaua, Wailau, Pelekunu and Waikolu.

This area is accessible by boat and trails into the valleys; there are no roads through North Shore Molokai.

Wailau is made up of a smaller broad valley on the east and a deeper valley on the west, with two major streams flowing down through them – Kahawai‘iki Stream and Wailau Stream.

The Wailau stream, which runs the entire length of the valley, is said to have received its name “because it began in many brooks that flowed from the palis on every side.”

Wailau was a major area of taro production from the pre-contact era until the 1930s, when the valley was abandoned due to a combination of factors, including flooding and unfavorable economic conditions.

A series of intact lo‘i, or taro terraces, forms an agricultural system distributed across almost the entire valley.

There are extensive terraces in the seaward lowlands and back in the lower valleys of streams. Approximately 80 acres were planted in taro. The banks of the numerous taro patches in the lowlands can still be seen from the air.

They say Wailau also has high terracing of valley sides comparable to that on the Napali coast of Kaua‘i.

The cliffs just beyond Pāpalaua Valley are home to Kahiwa Falls, the longest waterfall in the state (over 1,700-feet.) (Lots of the information and images come from reports by Windy K McElroy.)

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Wailau (Windy K McElroy)

Wailau

Wailau (Windy K McElroy)

March 29, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Moku‘ume‘ume

Moku‘ume‘ume (meaning “island of strife”) is a small island located in Pearl Harbor on the Island of O’ahu. It is entirely surrounded by water deep enough to accommodate deep draft ocean-going vessels.

The island measures about 1.4 miles long and 0.70 miles wide in a roughly elliptical shape. It has a land area of approximately 500 acres.

Don Francisco de Paula Marin, took possession of the island around 1810. He raised sheep, hogs, goats and rabbits on the island to supply his profitable ship provisioning business.

In 1885, Dr. Seth Porter Ford (namesake for the present reference to the island) took ownership and possession of the island. He sold it in 1891.

Ford Island is roughly translated as “Poka Ailana” in Hawaiian and some native Hawaiians did refer to the island by that name.

In 1899, the O‘ahu Sugar Company leased Ford Island and planted about 300-acres of sugarcane on the island. Docks were built on the island and on Waipi‘o Peninsula to facilitate transfer of cane harvests by barge on the way to the mill at Waipahu.

With the coming of World War I, the US War Department was concerned about the defenses of the large and growing U.S. Navy establishment at Pearl Harbor. Ford Island was selected as a site for land-based guns to defend the harbor.

In 1916, the War Department acquired two small parcels of land on Ford Island to be used as casements for two batteries of six-inch rifled guns. One of the sites, on the northeast corner of the island, was named Battery Adair (or First Lt. Henry Adair, 10th US Cavalry, who died in Mexico in 1916.)

The sites were completed in mid-1917 and were the first presence of military on Ford Island. The batteries were used by the U.S. Army until 1925 by which time they were deactivated and the guns removed.

In 1917, the War Department negotiated the purchase of the island. The O’ahu Sugar Company surrendered its leasehold and the War Department finalized the sale in late-1917 and established the first independent Army air station in Hawai‘i.

In 1919, the new station was officially designated “Luke Field.” The station was named for World War I ace Frank Luke, a U.S. Army fighter pilot who was killed in action over the Western Front.

Luke Field developed into a sizeable base. However, with growing Navy use, in 1935, it was apparent that the island was becoming too crowded for joint Army and Navy operations so a deal was made.

The Army would take possession of the Navy’s field near Sunnyvale, California and in return it would give North Island in San Diego and Ford Island to the Navy.

In 1937, the Army purchased land to construct a new air base that would become Hickam Field.

By 1940 the move of Luke Field’s personnel and buildings to Hickam Field was complete and the Army’s presence on Ford Island had ended. Ford Island was now the exclusive property of the U.S. Navy.

Ford Island played an important role in the attack on Pearl Harbor because the bulk of the U.S. Pacific Fleet was anchored near the island.

The swift, surprise attack by hundreds of Japanese airplanes came in two waves. The first began at 7:55 a.m. and the second ended two hours later.

Two thousand, four hundred and three soldiers, sailors, marines and civilians were killed during the Pearl Harbor attack. Eighteen ships were sunk or seriously damaged. Aircraft were scattered in pieces next to burning hangars on Ford Island’s airfield.

World War II was the busiest time for Ford Island. At least one squadron of flying boats was stationed there, as were numerous other types of Navy aircraft. The runway grew until it covered the entire center of the island. Hangars and auxiliary buildings filled almost all available space.

With the advent of earth satellites and improvements in range and speed of modern aircraft after the war, it wasn’t necessary to have a large Navy air base near Pearl Harbor and Ford Island Naval Air Station became obsolete.

In 1962, the Navy officially deactivated Ford Island as an air base; it is also a National Historic Landmark.

The island is home for a growing number of military residents, with expanded military housing on the island. Likewise, the Pacific Aviation Museum, Battleship Missouri Memorial, monuments for other battle ships and other Pearl Harbor Historic Sites are nearby.

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Ford_Island_in_1925

Keystone_PK-1_in_water-1932

Martin GMB_Luke Field-1918

NAS_Ford_Island_Pearl_Harbor_late_1930s

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Luke Field on Ford Island with DH-4 and JN-4/6 aircraft lined up. At lower left are aircraft packing crates. Round spot on field is compass rose.

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Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor_Japanese_planes_view-1941

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Map of Mokumeume (Ford Island) compiled from maps dated 1873 – 1915

March 21, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Before the Ala Wai

Waikīkī was once a vast marshland whose boundaries encompassed more than 2,000-acres (as compared to its present 500-acres we call Waikīkī, today).

The name Waikīkī, which means “water spurting from many sources,” was well adapted to the character of the swampy land of ancient Waikīkī, where water from the upland valleys would gush forth from underground.

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

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

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

The Pi‘inaio (Makiki) entered the sea at Kālia (near what is now Fort DeRussy as a wide delta (kahawai,) the ‘Āpuakēhau (Mānoa and Kālia,) also called the Muliwai o Kawehewehe (“the stream that opens the way” on some maps,) emptied in the ocean at Helumoa (between the Royal Hawaiian and Moana Hotels).

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

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

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

From ancient times, Waikīkī has been a popular surfing spot. Indeed, this is one of the reasons why the chiefs of old make their homes and headquarters in Waikīkī for hundreds of years.

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

The preeminence of Waikīkī continued into the eighteenth century and is illustrated by Kamehameha’s decision to reside there after taking control of O‘ahu by defeating the island’s chief, Kalanikūpule.

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

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

By 1892, Waikīkī had 542 acres planted in rice, representing almost 12% of the total 4,659-acres planted in rice on O‘ahu.

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

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

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

The Army started filling in the fishponds which covered most of the Fort – 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.

In accordance with the law, a reclamation project was proposed and conducted under the pretext of doing sanitation. This project aimed to dig a canal (Ala Wai Canal of today) in the center of Waikiki and reclaim all these swamps by earth and sand dug out from the construction of the canal.

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

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

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1893_over_GoogelEarth-Streams_Ponds_Taro-Waikiki-broader

'Diamond_Head_from_Waikiki',_oil_on_canvas_painting_by_Enoch_Wood_Perry,_Jr.,_c._1865

Waikiki_and_Helumoa_Coconut-(from_Ewa_end_of_Helumoa)-1870

Waikiki-1868

Helumoa_with_the_Apuakehau_stream_in_the_foreground

Helen_Whitney_Kelley_-_'Rice_Paddies',_watercolor,_1890

ʻApuakehau_Stream,(WC)_ca._1890

Manoa_Valley_from_Waikiki,_oil_on_canvas_by_Enoch_Wood_Perry_Jr.-1860s

Waikiki-Kalia_to_Moana-1920

Waikiki-Moana_Hotel-1920

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Ala Wai Dredging-HSA

Ala_Wai_Dredging-(hdcc-com)

Ala_Wai-Channel_being_dredged-UH_Manoa-(2411)-1952

March 12, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Entering Honolulu Harbor

There are certain things you should not or cannot do into the wind.

Tradewinds blow from the Northeast, the channel into Honolulu Harbor has a northeasterly alignment. Early ships calling to Honolulu were powered only by sails.

The entrance to the harbor was narrow and lined on either side with reefs.

Ships don’t sail into the wind.

Given all of this, Honolulu Harbor was difficult to enter.

The first European entry of Honolulu Harbor is credited to Captain Brown of the British schooner Jackal, accompanied by Captain Gordon in the sloop tender Prince Lee Boo.

They called the harbor “Fair Haven” which may be a rough translation of the Hawaiian name Honolulu (it was also sometimes called Brown’s Harbor.)

Following this, boats either anchored off-shore, or they were pulled, warped or tracked into the harbor (this was done with canoes; or, it meant men and/or oxen pulled them in.)

This might take eight double canoes with 16-20 men each, working in the pre-dawn calm when winds and currents were slow. Otherwise you had to contend with tradewinds blowing out of the harbor.

It was a narrow with reefs, but it was the only deep water harbor in the central Pacific.

In 1816 (as stories suggest,) Richards Street alignment was the straight path used by groups of men, and later oxen, to pull ships through the narrow channel into the harbor.

(Later, downtown’s Richards Street was named for a man who had a store on the street selling luggage to tourists.)

A few years after, in 1825, the first pier in the harbor was improvised by sinking a ship’s hull near the present Pier 12 site.

In 1854 the first steam tug was used to pull sail-powered ships into dock against the prevailing tradewinds.

Between 1857 and 1870, about 22-acres of reef and tideland was filled through a combination of fill and dredging, forming the “Esplanade” between Fort and Merchant Streets.

This created the area where Aloha Tower and Aloha Tower Marketplace are now located (prior to this, the waterfront was near Queen Street.)

In 1889, the Honolulu Harbor was described as “nothing but a channel kept open by the flow of the Nuʻuanu River.” In 1890-92 the channel was widened and deepened by dredging.

A channel 200 feet wide by 30 feet deep was dredged for about 1,000-feet through the sand bar which had limited depth to as shallow as 18 feet, restricting entry of the largest ocean vessels.

A series of new piers were constructed at the base of Richards Street in 1896, at the site of Piers 17 and 18 in 1901 (to accommodate sugar loading) and then at Piers 7 and 12 in 1907.

Today, Honolulu Harbor continues to serve as Hawai‘i’s commercial lifeline to the rest of the world.

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