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May 11, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Boles Field

On August 1, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the country’s 13th national park into existence – Hawaiʻi National Park. At first, the park consisted of only the summits of Kilauea and Mauna Loa on Hawaiʻi and Haleakalā on Maui.

Eventually, Kilauea Caldera was added to the park, followed by the forests of Mauna Loa, the Kaʻu Desert, the rain forest of Olaʻa and the Kalapana archaeological area of the Puna/Kaʻu Historic District. (On, July 1, 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakala National Park and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.)

On-the-ground administration of the park began with the arrival of Superintendent Thomas R Boles in April 1922. Boles’ designation was made effective two months before he entered on duty.

Born in Yell County, Arkansas, he was the son of Judge Thomas and Catherine (Keith) Boles (his father voted in favor of the establishment of the world’s first national park, Yellowstone, back in 1872.)

Boles was educated in the grammar and high schools of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and took a civil engineering course at the School of Mines, University of Missouri.

For a few years, Boles was involved in various construction and engineering endeavors, as construction engineer for the Illinois Steel Bridge Co, in Arkansas and Oklahoma; assistant field engineer, Interstate Commerce Commission; chief engineer, Fort Smith Light & Traction Co., and chief engineer, Fort Smith & Western Railroad Co. (Nellist)

Boles arrived in Hawaiʻi in March, 1922; he became the first superintendent of the Hawaiʻi National Park, appointed to the position by the Secretary of the Interior. He has jurisdiction over a total area of 118,000 acres of the volcanic area of the Territory.

At the same time the Park was created (1916,) the military opened a rest and recreation Camp within the Park boundaries – the Kilauea Military Camp (KMC.)

KMC was the military’s rest and recreation facility on the Island of Hawaiʻi; it was situated on about 50-acres within the Park boundaries.

A military landing field was constructed on volcanic sand at the area called Sand Spit Horst, located just south of Halemaʻumaʻu crater. It was referred to as Kilauea Airfield.

However, shortly after completion, on the morning of May 11, 1924, a ranger from Hawaiʻi National Park noticed several hot boulders on the rim of Halemaʻumaʻu. Evidently, a small explosion had occurred in the pit overnight.

The park superintendent, Thomas Boles, put up roadblocks a half a mile from the crater and ventured out to investigate with two other observers.

Boles was within 10 feet of rim when he heard a “thud” followed by a “prolonged whooosh.” Thousands of red-hot boulders shot up amidst a fury of black ash. The ash column rose 3,000-feet above the crater.

Fortunately, all three made it back to their vehicle, sustaining only a few cuts and bruises. They found that a boulder weighing nearly 100-pounds had sailed over the vehicle during the explosion, landing more than 2,000 feet from the crater.

They pushed the roadblocks back 2-miles from the crater.

Similar events followed; the largest occurred on May 18. The dark, mushrooming column “loomed up like a menacing genie from the Arabian Nights.” Static electricity generated between ash particles produced streaks of blue lightning and condensed steam mixed with the ash to create a rainstorm of gray mud. (Boles; NPS)

Truman Taylor, a young accountant from Pahala sugar plantation had slipped past the road blocks set up by the Superintendent and was within 2,000-feet of the rim (near today’s Halemaʻumaʻu parking lot) when the explosion occurred.

He was hit by a boulder and severely burnt by the falling ash. Rescuers hurried in to the caldera when the explosion ended some 20 minutes later, but the unfortunate man died on the way to the hospital.

Scientists estimate that approximately 400 million cubic meters (520-million cubic yards) of magma shuttled down the east rift zone conduit in 1924. That’s enough magma to fill 265,000 Olympic swimming pools. (USGS)

A news article in March 1925 reported that a New Army field was under construction on the bluff between Uwekahuna and KMC (Hilo Tribune-Herald 1925.) The new field was named Boles Field after the park superintendent, Thomas R Boles.

Although originally anticipated to be in a much more desirable location than the original Spit Horst field, it was almost immediately found to be dangerously short, and was evaluated in a report on landing fields on the island of Hawai‘i (Hawaiian Department 1925:)

“I ‘shot’ the field and found the wind currents so treacherous and uncertain that it was next to impossible to land short without a good chance of being dashed to the ground prematurely. Personally, I would rather trust my parachute than use this field.”

The location of this second field has been variously identified as “outside Kilauea Crater about one half mile North-East of Uwekahuna toward KMC, close to the belt road” and “west of the great Kilauea Crater” (Hilo Tribune-Herald 1925.) (NPS)

The field remained in use for fifteen years primarily for recreational purposes. As part of its war planning, the military surveyed several sites on Hawaiʻi as possible airfields and emergency landing strips. The optimum site was Keauhou, though cost ultimately prevented its development.

Other fields, notably Morse Field at Ka Lae (South Point,) became the primary airfields for the military in Hawai‘i. The military and NPS approved the existing airfield at Kīlauea for emergency use, but the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) cautioned that it was unsafe for military aircraft.

In 1941, following the Pearl Harbor attack, Civilian Conservation Corps workers assisted the military in plowing and obstructing the single field to render it unusable by the enemy.

Nearly two years later, in December 1943, the Army leveled the field again to use as a training site for spotter planes employed in exercises at the Kaʻū Desert Training and Impact Area.

The Park Service indicated in August 1945 that airfield were incompatible with NPS policy; in 1946, the CAA concluded there was no need for an airfield in the park, a policy later reinforced by legislation. (Chapman) (Boles retired from the National Park Service in 1951.)

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Thomas R Boles
Thomas R Boles
Some Military Uses-Kilauea-Map-Nakamura
Some Military Uses-Kilauea-Map-Nakamura
Kilauea Military Camp, 1936-Chapman
Kilauea Military Camp, 1936-Chapman
Kilauea Military Camp-(NPS)-1923
Kilauea Military Camp-(NPS)-1923
Kilauea Airfield-1923-Chapman
Kilauea Airfield-1923-Chapman
Halemaumau-Eruption-1924
Halemaumau-Eruption-1924
8-10 ton boulder-formed an impact crater in the aviation strip. View looks away from Halemaumau-sent May 18, 1924
8-10 ton boulder-formed an impact crater in the aviation strip. View looks away from Halemaumau-sent May 18, 1924

Filed Under: Military Tagged With: Hawaii, Volcano, Kilauea Military Camp, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Boles Field

November 6, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kīlauea Military Camp

What once began as an idea by Hilo Board of Trade members for a training ground for the National Guard and an Army “vacation and health recruiting station” has become one of Hawaii’s most unique resorts for the military. (KMC)

Let’s look back.

In 1898, Lorrin Thurston owner of Volcano House and head of the Hawai‘i Promotion Committee (forerunner to the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau) worked closely with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company to create an excursion business from Honolulu to his hotel at Kīlauea.

Although he sold his interest in Volcano House to hotelier George Lycurgus (1858–1960) in 1904, Thurston continued to promote Kīlauea and Hawai‘i’s other natural sites.

He helped with the establishment of the Hawaiʻi National Park, an entity to encompass both Kīlauea and Haleakalā.  Hawai‘i’s new National Park, established August 1, 1916, was the thirteenth in the new system and the first in a US territory.  (Chapman)

Besides its volcanic interest, the park is noted for its fine examples of tropical vegetation (some forest species being extremely rare;) its native birdlife which is unique in the entire world; its Polynesian archaeology and history; and its character as an international park.  (Edward G Wingate, Superintendent, 1939)

The history of the Park generally mirrors the history of Kīlauea Military Camp (KMC.)

Interest in Kīlauea as a military training and rest area began in September 1911, when Companies A and F, Twentieth Infantry, arrived. They were followed two years later by one hundred men from Company D, First Infantry, who camped near the Volcano House.  (Nakamura)

Thurston helped negotiate a lease for about 50-acres of land from Bishop Estate; trustees held the lease (they included Ex offico the Commander of the Army Department of Hawaii; Ex officio the Commanding General of the National Guard of Hawaii; Lieut Col John T. Moir, National Guard, Island of Hawaiʻi; GH Vicars of Hilo and LA Thurston of Honolulu and Hilo.)

In the early years, to get there, off-island folks took steamer ships to either Hilo or Punaluʻu (from Hilo they caught a train to Glenwood and walked/rode horses to Volcano; one mile west of the Volcano House; a five-mile railroad took passengers to Pahala and then coaches hauled the visitors to the volcano from the Kaʻū side.) Later, the roads opened.

“Tours of all the islands are arranged.  Connected with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company is the world-famous Volcano House overlooking the everlasting house of fire, as the crater of Halemaʻumaʻu is justly named. “

“A night’s ride from Honolulu and an hour by automobile and you are at the Volcano House in the Hawaii National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi, the only truly historic caravansary of the Hawaiian Islands.”  (The Mid-Pacific, December 1933)

The Camp is located at an elevation of 4,000-feet, directly on the belt road around the island (the road was later relocated mauka of the Camp.)

KMC greeted its first group of US Army Soldiers from Company A, 2nd Infantry, November 6, 1916. Three buildings for dining and recreation were still unfinished, so the visiting Soldiers were expected to provide their own sleeping tents.

A couple weeks later, November 17, KMC was officially opened, and many Soldiers came to this unique site through 1917.

Encouraged by local boosters, including John Giles and Lorrin Thurston, KMC became a mainstay of the volcano park for the next three decades.  (Chapman)

From the latter part of 1916 into early-1917, the newly designated Kīlauea Military Camp witnessed a steady stream of military units.

Then, WWI broke out and virtually all of the troops in Hawai‘i prior to 1917 had transferred to the continental US, many of them then moving on in succeeding months to the trenches of France and Belgium.  (Chapman)

To keep the place going, school summer programs and Boy Scouts stayed at the camp.  Following WWI, the trustees transferred their KSBE lease to the Park Service.  By late-1921, soldiers on recreation leave started to return to the Camp and the facilities started to expand.

The last major addition to KMC was the provision of an airfield; in 1924, the Army built a landing strip just south of Halemaʻumaʻu (known as Sand Spit Horst.)

However, within a few months an explosive eruption at Halemaʻumaʻu threw boulders onto the site.  (Another runway was built closer to the Camp – it was named Boles Field in honor of the Park’s first Superintendent, Thomas R Boles.)

As part of the original agreement, the Navy built its own rest and recreation camp on a 14-acre parcel adjacent to KMC in 1926. The Navy camp was transferred to KMC’s control in 1935, however, due to a slow resolution of the lease agreement between the Park Service and the Navy.  (KMC)

In 1941 it became an important staging ground for the war. From March to October 1942, KMC became the headquarters for the Twenty-seventh Division of the Army. The troops used the buildings at KMC for quarters and the grounds for training.

The R&R Camp also became an internment camp.  The first detainees arrived in the afternoon of December 7, 1941. Most did not stay at KMC for long, however; within a few months all were transferred to Sand Island on Oʻahu.  (Nakamura)

In June 1942 the Battle of Midway changed the tide of the war, and KMC was again re-activated as a rest and recreation camp, but it also continued to support tactical training of troops. In October 1943, the decision was made to return the Camp to a fully recreational facility.  (Nakamura)

In the postwar period, General Dwight D. Eisenhower stayed for a few days at KMC in 1946.  In 1949, the Army opened KMC to members of all branches of the military.  (Chapman)

On, July 1, 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.  The relationship between the military and Park Service was not always smooth.

Today, Kīlauea Military Camp is open to all active and retired armed forces, Reserve/National Guard, dependents, other uniformed services, and current and retired Department of Defense civilians, including Coast Guard civilians and sponsored guests.

The image shows Kīlauea Military Camp in 1923.  In addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Filed Under: Military Tagged With: Hawaii, Hawaii Island, Volcano, Kilauea Military Camp, Internment, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Dwight D Eisenhower, Boles Field, Lorrin Thurston

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People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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