Field System | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 15, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kuahewa

At about the same time of Christopher Columbus crossing the Atlantic to America, ʻUmi-a-Liloa (ʻUmi) from Waipiʻo, son of Liloa, defeated Kona chief Ehunuikaimalino and united the island of Hawai‘i. He then moved his Royal Center from Waipi‘o to Kona.

At about the time of ʻUmi, a significant new form of agriculture was developed in Kona; he is credited with starting it. Today, archaeologists call the unique method of farming in this area the “Kona Field System.”

The Kona Field System was planted in long, narrow fields that ran across the contours, along the slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualalai. As rainfall increases rapidly as you go up the side of Hualalai, the long fields allowed farmers to plant different crops according to the rainfall gradients.

General zones within the area were: Kula (plain, open country, Coast–500 feet – sweet potato, wauke;) Kalu or Kaluʻulu (luxuriant, 500–1000 feet – breadfruit, wauke and sweet potato;) ʻApaʻa (dry zone, 1000–2500 feet – taro, sweet potato, sugarcane, ti and banana;) and ʻAmaʻu or ʻAmaʻumaʻu (upland/fern zone, 2000–3000 feet – banana and fern.) (Allen)

Fast forward 300-years … Kamehameha, who had resided on Oʻahu since 1804, moved to Kamakahonu in 1812 at what is now known as Kailua on Hawaiʻi Island. He built Ahuʻena Heiau on the foundation of an older heiau (the former probably dating back to ʻUmi and his father Liloa.) (Kirch)

According to John Papa ʻIʻi, in addition to Ahuʻena Heiau and other structures associated with his court at Kamakahonu, Kamehameha “…built another house, a hale nana mahinaʻai, on the seaward side of Keawe a Mahi’s residence from which to observe the farm lands.”

“Facing directly upland toward Kuahewa, this house was like an observation post, for the site he first been built up high with stones. It was located on the west side of Ahuʻena, a heiau that stood beside Kamakahonu, on a spot where canoes could be seen coming from South Kona and from the vicinity of Kailua in North Kona.” (Ahuʻena)

Kuahewa (huge, vast) was Kamehameha’s farm situated above Kailua, (probably between the ahupuaʻa of Lanihau and Keopu.)

“Kuahewa is a place from which one obtains an unobstructed view. All the surrounding country, extending down to the seashore, is visible when one looks from there. The cold, gentle breeze (Kehau) and the rain are its drawbacks.” (Toketa Journal)

“(W)e entered the bread fruit plantations whose spreading trees with beautiful foliage were scattered about (3-miles) from the shore along the side of the mountain as far as we could see on both sides.”

“Here the country began to assume a pleasant and fertile appearance through which we continued our ascent for about two miles further, surrounded by plantations of the esculent roots and vegetables of the country, industriously cultivated, till we came to the uppermost village consisting of a few scattered huts.” (Menzies, 1792)

Kamehameha himself worked as a farmer at Kuahewa and he enacted the law that anyone who took one taro or one stalk of sugarcane must plant one cutting of the same in its place. (Rechtman)

John Papa ʻIʻi, who as a boy of 12, was a member of the royal court when Kamehameha returned to Kona in 1812. This was at a time of famine according to ʻIʻi, and members of the king’s household were supervising the clearing of Kuahewa, “a huge farm” located in the ʻamaʻumaʻu fern belt above Kailua Bay.

ʻIʻi lived here for a while, helping in the work by cutting fern fronds and clearing underbrush by hand. Taro cuttings for planting at Kuahewa were brought from the uplands of ahupua’a of Puaʻa. (Kelly)

Kuahewa was “about five miles in the rear of Kailua village, and at an elevation of about fifteen hundred feet on the western side of the volcanic mountain, Hualalai, where they thought the temperature as favorable as that of Hilo.”

“We found it very rurally situated, near the native huts on one side, and the forest on the other, and in the midst of plantations of sugar cane, bananas, potatoes, squashes, and melons, and upland kalo, where vegetation was unusually luxuriant.”

“The temperature was agreeable: the mercury in Farenheit ranged from 59° to 74°, the average for two months being 68°, or ten degrees lower than at Kailua, Lahaina, and Honolulu, at the same time.”

“The land breeze by night, and the sea breeze by day, were pleasant and refreshing. The latter brought to our ears the roar of many waters, as from the sea they dashed their surges upon the shores, from five to eight miles distant”. (Hiram Bingham, 1827 – Bingham’s distance estimate is probably over estimated.)

“This field was famous for its great extent and the fact of its being away in the uplands. Ten divisions of land were included in this field of Kuahewa. (Ualakaʻa was another famous field belonging to Kamehameha, so noted on account of its great size and bountiful production of potatoes. It was located up in Manoa, Oʻahu.) (Fornander)

Kuahewa passed to Kuakini. In his youth, Kuakini had been a close companion of Kamehameha, and after the return to Hawaiʻi Island, served the king as his representative in meeting foreign ships that came to Kona. He continued in that capacity for Liholiho.

In 1822, Kuakini undertook the clearing and replanting of Kuahewa, which apparently had been in fallow for some time. Under Kuakini’s supervision, in two days a company of some 40 men cleared eight ʻili sections of the farm for the planting of taro. (Barrere)

“We prepared to go to cultivate the field known as Kuahewa, a naturally fertilized field (Mahakea) formerly used by Kamehameha. Kuakini is undertaking to cultivate this field for the first time. They (Kuakini and his people) have long intended to cultivate this field, but have only now begun.”

“Hawaiʻi’s principle subject of discussion, day and night, is farming. The only salvation of the people is to continue farming, but to do the work half-way means death, as there is no other source of livelihood.”

“The people of Hawaiʻi are very strong, and cultivate the land industriously. Other countries dare not challenge Hawaiʻi in farming. Farming on the lava, (ʻaʻa) is persisted in. The subject most talked about by the people is farming.” (Toketa Journal)

The Thurston drawing, ‘View of the Country Back of Kailua,’ depicts what appears to be a large walled farm in either the upper portion of the ʻapaʻa, or in the lower ʻamaʻu zone. This may be the site of the Kuahewa gardens.

The site is unusually large compared with other gardens. It is unique in that it is walled, oriented laterally, and appears to contain two houses within its walls. In general, it seems to be a special place, which indeed Kuahewa was. (Kelly)

October 13, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ʻUala

Many cultures in Hawaiʻi have their own names for sweet potato. Kamote is the Tagalog name, and in Aotearoa (New Zealand) they are widely farmed and are called kumara.

In Hawaiʻi, ʻuala is also called ʻuwala. The ʻuala is the second in importance to kalo (taro) as a staple starch food in old Hawaiʻi.

He ʻuala ka ʻai hoʻola koke i ka wi.
The sweet potato is the food that ends famine quickly
(ʻŌlelo Noʻeau from Pukui)

It is in the Morning Glory family and grows easy and it grows fast – within 4-5 months of planting (as opposed to nine to eighteen months for taro), ʻuala is cultivated for their enlarged primary roots called “tubers” (the primary food from the ʻuala,) while leaves can also be eaten.

Tubers were also used as bait for fishing; Vines were used to make an under cushion for lauhala mats in houses; and Fermented ʻuala “beer” (ʻuala ʻawaʻawa) brewed, but it is unclear if this is a pre-contact practice. (Bishop Museum)

It is said ʻUala, sweet potato, was a canoe crop (believed to be brought to Hawaiʻi by the Polynesians, who brought with them shoots, roots, cuttings and seeds of various plants for food, cordage, medicine, fabric, containers, all of life’s vital needs.)

Tracing the history of agricultural products is one way scientists track the migration of people during times when no written records were left behind to offer clues. (Yirda; PHYS)

On his voyages across the Pacific, Captain James Cook encountered geographically disparate Polynesian societies, including those living on Easter Island, Hawai‘i and the north island of New Zealand. These far-flung communities cultivated a common crop, sweet potato. (Denham; NCBI)

Researchers later sampled specimens brought back by early explorers (including Cook.) They found that the DNA evidence indicated that the sweet potato had migrated to Polynesia long before European explorers had made their way to that part of the world. (Yirda; PHYS)

Peruvians first domesticated the sweet potato around 8,000-years ago. And though the crop spread from there, the means by which it traveled have always remained contentious.

One possibility was that Polynesian sailors first brought it home from across the ocean: The oldest carbonized sweet potato evidence in the Pacific hails back to about 1,000 AD – 500-years before Columbus sailed to the Americas.

It is known as the 2nd staple for the Hawaiians. It is said to have been cultivated in Hawaiʻi since about AD 1000. The tubers are consumed after cooking primarily in an imu. Other plant parts were used as animal feed. (UH-KCC)

It’s been called a super food – the average sweet potato weighs 6.5 ounces (about 3/4 cup) and contains 180 calories. It supplies 14 percent of your daily carbohydrate requirement (good carbs) and 26 percent of your daily fiber needs. It is an excellent source of vitamins A and C, potassium, calcium and folate. (Miyasaka)

Purple-fleshed or orange-fleshed varieties are rich in beta carotene and have more anti-oxidants than blueberries. In addition, all sweet potatoes have a low glycemic index. This index is a measure of how quickly foods are broken down into sugars in the human body and converted to body fat. (Miyasaka)

The sweet potato plant grows in dry places. You can find it in low and high areas up to 5,000 feet in elevation. It can also be found in damp valleys although it doesn’t need a lot of water like taro does.

Farming of ʻuala on a large scale was involved the systematic cultivation of dryland crops in their appropriate vegetation zones as exemplified by the Field Systems in Kona, Kohala, Kaupō and Kalaupapa (Kaʻū reportedly also has a field system.)

Cultivation of the soil “was generally divided into small fields, about fifteen rods square fenced with low stone walls, built with fragments of lava gathered from the surface of the enclosures. These fields were planted with bananas, sweet potatoes, mountain taro, paper mulberry plants, melons, and sugar-cane, which flourished luxuriantly in every direction.” (Reverend William Ellis)

Farmers found, farmed and intensified production on lands that were between being too wet and too dry. Archaeological evidence of intensive cultivation of sweet potato and other dryland crops is extensive, including walls, terraces, mounds and other features.

In Kona, the field system was quite large, extending from Kailua to south of Honaunau. In lower elevations all the way to the shore, informal clearings, mounds and terraces were used to plant sweet potatoes; and on the forest fringe above the walled fields there were clearings, mounds and terraces. Sweet potatoes grew among the breadfruit.

In Kohala, the fields were oriented parallel to the elevation contours and the walls (and perhaps kō (sugar cane) planted on them) would have functioned as windbreaks from the trade winds which sweep down the slopes of the Kohala mountains.

Configured in this way, the walls would also have reduced evapotranspiration and – with heavy mulching – retained essential moisture for the crops. This alignment of fields also conserved water by retaining and dispersing surface run-off and inhibited wind erosion and soil creep.

Based on experimental plantings, if only half of the Kohala Field System was in production in one year, it could be producing between 20,000 to 120,000-tons of sweet potato in one crop.

At Kaupō, on the slopes of Haleakalā, the field system is associated in Hawaiian oral traditions with Kekaulike, a famous Maui king (ali‘i nui) who on genealogical estimates is dated to approximately the early eighteenth century.

Kekaulike made Kaupō his residential seat, and assembled his army at Mokulau, preparing for a war of conquest against his rivals on Hawai‘i Island.

Given its use as a Royal Center for Island Ali‘i, there was a definite need for sufficient crop production. Fortunately, the area has an ideal combination of soils, elevation and rainfall making it also a predictable environment for an intensive dryland field system to feed the people.

Historic records note that this region was identified as “the greatest continuous dry planting area in the Hawaiian islands,” both in ancient times and well into the 1930s.

The field system a closely spaced grid of east-west embankments and small field plots bisected at right angles by longer north-south trending walls; it covered an area of 3,000 to nearly 4,000-acres and could have supported a population of 8,000-10,000 people.

At Kalaupapa peninsula, archaeological and carbon-dating evidence indicate that the initial settlement and presence of people on the Kalaupapa (“the flat plain”) peninsula on the Island of Molokaʻi was before 1200.

There is a grid of rain-fed plots, defined by low stone field walls built, in part, to shelter sweet potatoes and other crops from trade winds, that cover the Kalaupapa Peninsula. It appears that the field system was a secondary area of settlement and agricultural development, with the wetter valley and sediment soil being the preferred areas.

Instead of enclosed fields associated with the more recent historic era, archaeologists found dense rows of unenclosed alignments and substantial house sites quite unlike the temporary shelters found in other Hawaiian field systems.

At Kōloa, Kauai, another unique feature was found; the early Hawaiians constructed sophisticated irrigation systems tapping off of Waikomo Stream for growing their crops.

Beginning possibly as early as 1450, the Kōloa Field System was planned and built on the shallow lava soils to the east and west of Waikomo Stream. It is characterized as a network of fields of both irrigated and dryland crops, built mainly upon one stream system. Waikomo Stream was adapted into an inverted tree model with smaller branches leading off larger branches.

This agricultural system which at its peak covered over 1,000 acres extends from the present Kōloa town to the shoreline and includes a complex of wet and dryland agricultural fields and associated habitation sites.

Commercial sweet potato cultivation in the islands began in 1849. In 1919, sweet potato was considered tenth in value among agricultural crops in Hawai’i when grown as an emergency crop during the war years. (Lots of information from Vitousek, Kirch, McCoy and Hammatt)

August 5, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kohala Field System

Throughout the younger islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, dryland agricultural field systems constituted a significant component of the late prehistoric subsistence economy.

The field systems produced large quantities of food to support local farmers and residents, as well as local and district-level chiefly elites.

It is generally thought that the dryland agricultural systems had spread to their maximum extent, nearly reaching the edge of productive lands.

Kohala supported a large and well-developed field system, covering over 15,000-acres with a dense network of field walls and paved trails. It is one of the largest archaeological sites in Polynesia.

In the Kohala area, Hawaiian farmers found, farmed and intensified production on lands that were poised between being too wet and too dry.

The distribution of intensive rain-fed agricultural systems was constrained on its lower end by conditions that were too arid to support intensive agriculture reliably, while at their upper margin many millennia of leaching had depleted soil fertility to a point where intensive rain-fed agriculture was infeasible.

In essence, Hawaiians were farming the rock in intensive dryland agricultural systems; their field systems extended to the wettest point that still supplied nutrients via basalt weathering.

When the field system is plotted against the rainfall map it falls within the 30-70-in rainfall band.

Archaeological evidence of intensive cultivation of sweet potato and other dryland crops is extensive, including walls, terraces, mounds and other features.

The fields throughout the Kohala system were oriented parallel to the elevation contours and the walls (and perhaps kō (sugar cane) planted on them) would have functioned as windbreaks from the trade winds which sweep down the slopes of the Kohala mountains.

The main development of the Kohala field system took place AD 1450-1800. By the late-1600s the lateral expansion of the field system had been reached, and by AD 1800 the system was highly intensified.

The process of intensification involved shortened fallow periods, and agricultural plots divided into successively smaller units.

The archaeological map of the Kohala field system depicts over 5,400-segments of rock alignments and walls with a total length of nearly 500-miles.

The fields begin near the north tip of the island very close to the coast. The western margin extends southward at an increasing distance from the coast, with the eastern margin at a higher elevation and also an increasing distance from the coast.

From north to south the field system is more than 12-miles in length. At its maximum, it is more than 2.5-miles in width.

Scientists speculate that this farming did not just support the local population, but was also used by Kamehameha to feed the thousands of warriors under his command in his conquest of uniting the islands under a single rule in the late-1700s.

Based on experimental plantings, if only half of the Kohala Field System was in production in one year, it could be producing between 20,000 to 120,000-tons of sweet potato in one crop.

The system was abandoned shortly after European contact in the early- or mid-19th century.

The image shows remnants of the Kohala Field System walls in present pastureland. A special thanks to Peter Vitousek, former Hawai‘i resident and now Professor at Stanford, for background information and images.

May 31, 2020 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Transformation of Waimea, South Kohala, Hawaiʻi

Over the centuries, and even today, Waimea was an attractive draw with ideal climate and soils, and moderate distance from the ocean.

Still holding remnants of a cowboy town, it looked very different in centuries past – with transformation of forest lands, to agricultural fields, to pasture lands.

Now upper pasture land, archaeologists and others suggest the upper slopes of Waimea was a forest made up of ʻōhiʻa, koa, māmane, ʻiliahi (sandalwood) and other trees. Pili grass and shrubs were also found.

Within these forested uplands, you could find a variety of forest birds, ʻiʻiwi, ʻelepaio, ʻapapane and others. Fossil remains of a flightless goose have been found in the region.

This is what the earliest settlers to the region probably saw (however, it is likely the first settlers on the island probably first lived in the valleys on the wetter windward side of the island and others later came to Waimea.)

The forests had general characteristics of an open canopy and the appearance of a wooded parkland, particularly when contrasted with the grassy plains to the west and the dense “impenetrable” rainforest to the east. (McEldowney)

Statements typifying these characteristics, generally made while enroute from the Waimea settlements, through Parker’s ranch house at Mana, and along Mauna Kea’s eastern slope, include: “a scanty forest” (The Polynesian 1840); “those parts of the plain adjoining Hāmākua are better wooded having a parklike appearance” (Sandwich Islands Gazette 1836) …

… “well shaded by clumps of trees” (The Polynesian 1847); and is “thickly wooded with large trees, entirely free from underbrush, and is covered with a greensward, giving it the appearance of a parkland” (The Polynesian 1848.) (McEldowney)

Reverend Lorenzo Lyons (missionary leader of Waimea’s Imiola Church and songwriter who composed “Hawaiʻi Aloha”) frequently described his home as ʻAla ʻŌhiʻa Nei (home of the fragrant ʻōhiʻa lehua.) (Paris)

The population began to increase dramatically around 1100 AD and the west side population doubled every century. (Kirch) The population of the islands reached a peak in about 1650 AD, with a total of several hundred thousand.

Waimea’s initial population (probably first settling in the 1100s – 1200s) likely grew into a fairly large community. Settlement areas expanded into the hillsides and out onto the drier Waimea plains.

As permanent settlements were established and populations grew, to feed the people and increase the amount of arable land, the leeward slopes and valleys were cleared of the native forest and replaced by intensively cultivated field systems. (Watson)

Field walls (kuaiwi) delineated garden plots (Kihāpai) and helped retain the soil. Fields were irrigated using canals (ʻauwai) that tapped the Waimea streams. (Watson)

Once the advantages of living in Waimea were known, the population quickly grew. Terraced agricultural plots expanded and more of the forest was removed.

The upper slopes of Waimea are said to have supported more than 10,000-people prior to contact.

Post-contact brought further changes – two major modern land-use practices transformed the landscape – first, the harvesting of sandalwood, which was shortly-followed by the management of the cattle herds.

Various references establish the importance of sandalwood, the most famous of early historic export commodities, in the Waimea region, while remarks such as, these “woods frequented by sandalwood cutters” suggest exploitable sandalwood was in the region’s māmane/koa forests. (McEldowney)

William Ellis, in 1831 wrote, “Before daylight on the 22d, we were roused by vast multitudes of people passing through the district from Waimea with sandalwood, which had been cut in the adjacent mountains for Karaimoku (Kalanimōku,) by the people of Waimea, and which the people of Kohala, as far as the north point …”

“… had been ordered to bring down to his storehouse on the beach, for the purpose of its being shipped to Oahu. There were between two and three thousand men, carrying each from one to six pieces of sandalwood, according to their size and weight.”

In 1856, while editor of the Sandwich Islands’ Monthly Magazine, Abraham Fornander wrote an article arguing that large cattle herds had altered or ameliorated the climate of Waimea by destroying a “thick wood” that covered “the whole of the plain” as early as 1825 or 1830 (Sandwich Islands’ Monthly Magazine 1856). (McEldowney)

All of this forever changed Waimea. Once the native forests were cleared, the “natural” landscape of Waimea ceased to exist. (Watson)

Early Hawaiians first altered the landscape by clearing the forest and plotting out agricultural fields; later, introduced species took over.

A notable introduced (and invasive) plant to Waimea is fountain grass; it was introduced on the island of Hawaiʻi as an ornamental plant in the 1920s. It spread quickly and today, less than a century later, fountain grass is a dominant species along roadsides and in undeveloped areas on the leeward side of the island. (Watson)

Waimea, we used to call it home – I miss it.

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Waimea-Early_Historic_Vegetation-(McEldowney)-1792-1850

House before KTA commercial area developed

Waimea_Cherry_Blossoms-(clarkhawaii-com)

July 11, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kalaupapa Field System

Molokai Island can be divided into three ecological regions based on rainfall, exposure to northeast trade winds and landform: (1) the wet, windward valleys of the north shore, (2) the dry, leeward valleys of the south shore, and (3) the arid rocklands of the island’s west end.

The Kalaupapa Peninsula, located at the western end of these valleys, is a unique landform formed by a volcanic rejuvenation centered on the Kauhakō Crater (about 330-thousand years ago,) at the base of the north shore’s cliffs.

Archaeological and carbon-dating evidence indicate that the initial settlement and presence of people on the Kalaupapa (“the flat plain”) peninsula on the Island of Molokai was between 800 and 1200.

Next to the peninsula is a distinctly-different, wet ecological zone with sediment soils distributed at the bottoms of the short Waihānau and Wai‘ale‘ia Valleys, the large Waikolu Valley and along the base of the cliffs.

Based on archaeological studies, the northern portion of the peninsula has “two main types of agricultural complexes … alignments with enclosures around them, and alignments without enclosures”. The density of plots within the later type suggested “possible intensification of an earlier field system”.

Identified as the Kalaupapa Field System, there is a grid of rain-fed plots, defined by low stone field walls built, in part, to shelter sweet potatoes and other crops from trade winds, that cover the Kalaupapa Peninsula.

It appears that the field system was a secondary area of settlement and agricultural development, with the wetter valley and sediment soil being the preferred areas.

Like other windward areas, wind erosion is a problem. To address this, long, narrow linear plots (defined by low field walls,) are packed densely together in locations exposed to the northeast trade winds. In addition, plots were in swales between boulder outcrops.

Initial theories suggested the entire field system was primarily the result of a historic boom in the production of potatoes for “gold rush” markets in California.

Recent work by various teams of archaeologists, which included surveys in different ecological zones – specifically, the peninsula and several valleys – revealed a well-preserved archaeological landscape across the region.

The findings suggest that early agricultural development in the area started well before the “gold rush” exports and was first concentrated in valleys (with permanent streams) and, perhaps more significantly, that most of the Kalaupapa Field System was likely to have been built before European contact.

Although limited cultivation in dryland environments may have begun as early as 1200 and continued through the 13th century, widespread burning across the Kalaupapa Peninsula, which archaeologists suggest signals of the beginning of the Kalaupapa Field System, does not commence until 1450-1550.

It appears that not only is there a correlation between rich, geologically young soils and Hawaiian dryland intensive agricultural systems, but also the creation of these large-scale systems around 1400 appears to have been nearly simultaneous in both windward and leeward districts.

Then, between 1650 and 1795, there were increases in the peninsula population, indicated by house sites, rock shelters, an animal enclosure, a possible shrine and a site interpreted as a men’s house (mua.)

In terms of agriculture, there is good evidence that people continued to actively cultivate the entire area throughout this period.

Following the abandonment of the field system at the end of the 18th century, settlement shifted to small house sites spread along the coast and local roadways.

The introduction of cattle in 1830 caused the construction of large, architecturally-distinct walls to protect fields and yards from roving animals.

In 1849, portions of the fields were reactivated and intensified to supply potatoes and other crops to California’s “gold rush” markets.

The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi instituted in 1865 a century-long program of segregation and isolation of patients with Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) and patients were banished to the isolated peninsula of Kalaupapa, displacing resident families.

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