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June 22, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Ties to the Santa Fe

While small gravity and mule-powered rails popped up here and there in the eastern United States, it was the coming of the steam locomotive that truly allowed railroads to prosper.

In August 1829, Horatio Allen tested an English-built steamer named the Stourbridge Lion in Pennsylvania; by the time of the Civil War there were more than 60,000 miles of railroad in the country, by the 1870s, the Transcontinental Railroad stretched all the way to California and there were more than 190,000 –miles of rail at the beginning of the 20th century.

During the height of the industry, commonly referred to as the ‘Golden Age’ from the late 19th century through the 1920s there were more than 254,000 miles of railroad in service.

The expanding rail system needed material to tie the rails – then, in 1907, the ‘Santa Fe’ came to the Islands.

“Among the passengers for Hawaii on the Kīnaʻu yesterday were EO Faulkner (head of the tie and lumber department of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad) has come to this Territory to investigate the ʻōhiʻa ties”. (Pacific Commercial Advertising, September 25, 1907)

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company (distinctively known as the Santa Fe) was founded by Cyrus K Holiday in Kansas in 1859. A line that reached from Kansas to California and from Kansas to the Gulf of Mexico was the vision of Holiday.

The desire to tap into the cotton and cattle markets in Texas combined with the promise of Texas as a market for Kansas wheat led the Santa Fe to seek an entry into markets in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. (American Rails)

Before he left the Islands, Faulkner “signed a contract with the Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company which will mean the exportation of 90,000,000-board feet of ʻōhiʻa to the mainland within the next five years.”

“While the representatives of their lumber company are unwilling to state the exact price obtained for their lumber under the contract, the fact was obtained that it was between $2,500,000 and $3,000,000.” (Hawaiian Gazette, October 11, 1907)

To fulfill the agreement, “The ties will all be handled by the Hilo railroad. The next work to be done will be making a start on the new mill in Puna and we will also build a railroad, connecting with the main line at Pahoa, and running some four miles into the forest eventually.”

“It will run through the ʻōhiʻa forests which skirt the koa, and thus enable us to reach the koa property easily.” (AN Campbell, Henry Waterhouse Co; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, September 25, 1907)

“The development of the Hawaiian lumber industry stands out preeminent, through the signing in October 1907 of a contract between the Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company and the Santa Fe Railway System to supply during the next five years …” (Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1908)

“According to the terms of the contract the local company is to furnish 500,000 ties six by eight inches and eight feet in length, each year for five years, the same to be delivered at such Coast ports as shall be designated by the railroad company.”

“In addition to this they shall deliver each year 500 sets of switch ties, which are heavier than the regular tie and vary in length from 10 to 22 feet.” (Hawaiian Gazette, October 11, 1907)

“Prior to this contract – in June 1907 – one schooner load of 13,000 ʻōhiʻa ties was sent to San Francisco. Several good-sized orders for ʻōhiʻa ties and ʻōhiʻa piling for use in the Territory have also been filled by the Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company.” (Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Annual Report, 1908)

Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company (also called Pāhoa Lumber Mill) began in 1907 (owned by James B Castle.) By September 1908, the company was operating a lumber mill in Pāhoa.

A narrow gauge railroad was built from Glenwood to the saw-mill in the woods back of the Volcano House, the mill itself has been erected and some of the machinery installed. Trees were felled in the forest, cut into logs and hauled in to the mill yard.

Most of the ties were to be cut in the Puna District on the homestead lots above Olaʻa, on lands of the Puna Plantation that were being cleared for cane, and on other lands in Puna on which rubber will be planted. The ties will be shipped from Hilo by steamers and sailing vessels, the first shipment being sometime in the spring of 1908.

Between 1909 and 1910, Pāhoa Lumber Mill have lumbered something over 1000 acres. In 1911, the Pāhoa Lumber Mill sought more land for logging. However, by 1914, the Division of Forestry notes that the Pahoa Lumber Mill “has barely reached the section set apart as the Puna Forest Reserve…” (Division of Forestry Annual Report, 1914)

In January 5, 1910 Lorrin A Thruston and Frank B. McStocker of the Hawaiian Development Co. Ltd. appeared before Marston Campbell, Commissioner of Public Lands in Honolulu, to secure rights to log a tract of government lands in Puna.

In January 1913, a fire devastated the Pāhoa Lumber Company mill, and that same year the mill changed its name to Hawaiʻi Hardwood Company. According to government records, the Hawaiian Development Company Ltd. was a successor to the Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company (Hawaiian Forester and Agriculturalist)

The contract with the Santa Fe Railway System was never fulfilled. The Division of Forestry noted that by 1914, few ‘ʻōhiʻa was being sold for railroad ties after it was realized that the ‘ʻōhiʻa wood ties did not last in the extreme conditions of the southwest.

Likewise, “increasing attention is being paid to finding a market for ʻōhiʻa for uses of higher tirade. Especially is an effort being made to introduce ʻōhiʻa as flooring …”

“… a use to which the firm, close texture of the wood and its handsome color lend themselves admirably. The waste from the ʻōhiʻa mills (slabs, etc.) is sold for firewood, not a little of it being shipped to Honolulu.” (Report of the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry, 1911) (Lots of information here is from Uyeoka.)

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Economy, General Tagged With: Hawaii, Hawaii Island, Puna, Ohia, Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Transcontinental Railroad, Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company, Pahoa Lumber Mill

May 29, 2026 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Kona Coast

“Her name was Woman … Her other name was Excitement … She belonged to Hawaiʻi’s Kona Coast like the surf riders and the beach bums.”

Whoa, let’s look back …

Richard Allen Boone was born June 18, 1917 in Los Angeles County, California; his father was a descendant of Squire Boone who was the younger brother of frontiersman Daniel Boone. Like Daniel Boone, Richard Boone had a heroic side: was an aerial gunner in the Navy during World War II. (Bloom)

Following the war, he studied with the New York Actors Studio on the GI Bill. In 1947 he made his Broadway debut with Judith Anderson’s Medea, and made his motion picture debut in 1951 in The Halls of Montezuma.

His career in motion pictures, often cast as a western badman (City of Badmen, The Siege at Red River, Man Without a Star, Robber’s Roost, Ten Wanted Men, Star in the Dust, The Tall T, Big Jake, The Shootist and Hombre) or the good guy (Dragnet, The Alamo, The War Lord and The Raid.) (ancestry)

In 1957, Have Gun-Will Travel (with Boone as Paladin) made its TV debut, and soon became one of the most popular programs of the fifties. It ranked in the top five almost immediately and after that trailed only Gunsmoke and Wagon Train for the rest of its run. The theme song, co-written by star Boone, even became a hit single.

Boone moved to and became a permanent resident of Honolulu in 1965 and was a regular commuter between Honolulu and Hollywood. He “considers himself the world’s most satisfied actor – because he can afford the luxury of living in the Hawaiian Islands and working in Hollywood”. (Chicago Tribune, October 35, 1968)

While living on Oʻahu, it was Boone who helped persuade Leonard Freeman to film Hawaiʻi Five-O exclusively in Hawaiʻi. Prior to that, Freeman had planned to do “establishing” location shots in Hawaii but principal production in southern California.

Boone and others convinced Freeman that the islands could offer all necessary support for a major TV series and would provide an authenticity otherwise unobtainable. (Correa)

Then, in 1967, Boone (with Vera Miles, Joan Blondell, Kent Smith, Duane Eddy and a bunch of folks from Kona) filmed ‘Kona Coast,’ a pilot that he hoped CBS would adopt as a series.  (Instead, CBS chose Hawaii Five-O.) (It was released in 1968 – with its premier in the Kona Theater.)

“Kona Coast” was an adventure story about a Honolulu charter-boat captain (‘Sam Moran,’ played by Boone) who leads fishing expeditions and later hunts down the man responsible for his daughter’s death.

It did not receive favorable reviews; “… most of Kona Coast utilizes actual locations and this is the film’s single greatest asset.” (Pfeiffer)

Kona Coast Movie Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCim30-EaMg

Kona Coast Movie Preview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x-8MoFLabY

The story often takes you to a bar, Akamai Barnes (run by a man of the same name – in real life it was later the Red Pants; today, it’s a vacant lot under the banyan tree on Aliʻi Drive in the middle of Kailua Bay.)

In 1971, Richard Boone moved to his wife’s hometown of St Augustine, Florida where he taught acting classes at Flagler College. Richard Boone died January 10, 1981 in St Augustine of throat cancer. At the time of his death, he was serving as cultural ambassador for the State of Florida.

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Hawaii, Hawaii Island, Kona, Hawaii Five-O, Kona Coast, Richard Boone, Kona Theater

May 8, 2026 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Kamehameha Death

“E oni wale no ‘oukou i ku‘u pono ‘a‘ole e pau.”
“Endless is the good that I have given you to enjoy.”
(Kamehameha)

Don Francisco de Paula Marin made numerous notations in his diary from 1818 to 1825 of the epidemics of colds and flu among the Hawaiians and reported, ‘many people died.’ (Van Dyke) Both Kamehameha and Ka’ahumanu may have come down with it. (Parker)

It was Kamehameha’s intention to remain on O‘ahu until his death, but he became suspicious of conspiracies among the younger chiefs. Even if they were sons of his old advisors, and they took the place of their fathers on the council, he was not confident in their loyalty.

They were gaining more and more agricultural land and followers in the districts allotted them. Trading with the foreigners also increased their personal arsenals. This power shifting alarmed the great chief and so in the year 1812 he decided to move his capitol back to Kona with him.

Kamehameha required all weapons to be placed on his own western vessel, the Keoua (formerly the Fair American) for transport to Hawaii Island. The chiefs were allowed two attendants each and were told to follow his vessel in separate vessels. (Parker)

“The view of the king’s camp was concealed only by a narrow tongue of land, consisting of naked rocks, but when we had sailed round we were surprised at the sight of the most beautiful landscape.”

“We found ourselves in a small sandy bay of the smoothest water, protected against the waves of the sea; on the bank was a pleasant wood of palm-trees, under whose shade were built several straw houses …”

“… to the right, between the green leaves of the banana-trees, peeped two snow-white houses, built of stone after the European fashion, on which account this place has the mixed appearance of a European and Owhyee village”.

“(T)o the left, close to the water, on an artificial elevation, stood the morai (heiau) of the king, surrounded by large wooden statues of his gods, representing caricatures of the human figure.” (Kotzebue, visiting in 1816)

‘I‘i describes that the “King erected three houses thatched with dried ti leaves,” a sleeping house (hale moe) and separate men’s (hale mua) and women’s (hale ‘āina) eating houses.”

Kamehameha first moved into the former residence of Keawe a Mahi. He then built another house on the seaward side of that residence, that was referred to as hale nana mahina ‘ai.

This house was built high on stones and faced directly upland toward the planting fields of Kūāhewa. Like an observation post this house afforded a view of the farm lands and was also a good vantage point to see canoes coming from South Kona and from the Kailua vicinity. (Rechtman)

Fishing was the occupation of Kamehameha’s old age at Kailua. He would often go out with his fishermen and when there had been a great catch of aku or ‘ahi he would give it away to the chiefs and people, the cultivators and canoe makers. (Kamakau)

At the onset of his illness, Kamehameha was treated by his kahuna. When the illness would not yield to their treatment, a ship was sent to Honolulu for Marin, a Spaniard who had no formal medical training, but had some basic Western medical knowledge.

Marin, noted in his diary, April 15, that a ship arrived at Honolulu that day from Hawaii seeking him ‘to cure the king;’ Marin reached Kailua four days later and stayed there until after the death of the king; his services proved ineffectual. (Kuykendall)

During Kamehamehaʻs illness the kahuna had suggested human sacrifices to appease, or pacify, the gods so that they might prolong Kamehamehaʻs life. To this Kamehameha said, “No! The men are kapu [sacred] for the king!” By king he meant his son and heir, Liholiho. (Williams)

About ten o’clock he took a mouthful of food and a swallow of water. Ka-iki-o-‘ewa then asked him for a last word, saying. “We are all here, your younger brothers, your chiefs, your foreigner (Young.) Give us a word.”

“For what purpose?’ asked the chief. “As a saying for us” (I hua na makou.) “E oni wale no ‘oukou i ku‘u pono ‘a‘ole e pau (Endless is the good that I have given you to enjoy.”)

Nearby, crouched sadly in silence, were John Young, his friend for almost thirty years; High Chief Hoapili; High Chief Kalanimōku; Queen Ka‘ahumanu; the heir Liholiho and others close to the king. Hours later, at two o’clock on the morning of May 8, 1819, Kamehameha passed away at Kamakahonu, Kailua-Kona. (Williams)

Fourteen years Kamehameha fought to unite the islands and he ruled twenty-three years. When he died his body was still strong. his eyes were not dimmed, his head unbowed, nor did he lean upon a cane; it was only by his gray hair that one could tell his age. (Kamakau)

The period of mourning began in Kailua-Kona. It lasted about ten days and was called kūmākena (‘to mourn loudly for the dead.’) When the people learned that Kamehameha I was dead, many fell to their knees, crying and wailing. They became hysterical and expressed their grief in painful ways.

The kapu was not enforced at this time so there was not only sadness and grief but disorder and confusion, as well. The kapu normally governed what the people could and could not do. (Williams)

Immediately after the death of the Kamehameha, his son Liholiho, heir to the throne, went away with his personal attendants to Kawaihae, Kohala, where he remained until Kailua, defiled by death, had been purified. After about a week, he returned for the purpose of being proclaimed king. (Kuykendall) (Image by Brook Parker.)

© 2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance Tagged With: Hawaii Island, Kailua-Kona, Kamakahonu, Kamehameha, Hawaii

April 24, 2026 by Peter T Young 13 Comments

William Hardy Hill

He reportedly came to Hawaiʻi and jumped a whaling ship, and stayed. (Maui Council)

“Doc Hill (William Hardy Hill) was kind of the maverick businessman in Hilo … (he) eventually, became probably the most influential businessman on this island.” (Henderson)

“Doc” acquired his moniker for selling eyeglasses, after he came to the Big Island in 1913; he opened the Hill Optical Co in the Young Kwong Hoy building in 1917 (between what is now the Kress bldg. & Basically Books.)

License No. 1 under the 1917 legislation to Regulate the Practice of Optometry was granted to Hill; he was a charter member of the Optometry Board of Examiners.

“He had some experience in optics from a job in a jewelry store back on the Mainland, so when he noticed a display of 40-cent eyeglasses in a Chinese store he persuaded the proprietor to let him have four dozen pair on credit. These he peddled to aging Orientals in the plantation camps for $4, on easy payments.” (Star Bulletin, June 6, 1970; Schmitt)

Although the published biographical sketches of Hill mention only a grammar school or high school education, he reportedly possessed a Doctor of Optics degree from Northern Illinois College of Ophthalmology and Otology. (Schmitt)

Doc added his jewelry business in 1919, and both his optical and jewelry businesses were among the largest in the Territory. When he was elected to our Territorial House of Representatives in 1928, Doc sold his optical and jewelry businesses to his bookkeeper, Freiderich Wilheim “Fritz” Koehnen. (Narimatsu)

“(O)nce you become associated with Doc Hill, you get very much involved with politics.” (Henderson) Hill was a member of Hawaiʻi territorial house and senate (he was senate president 1932-1959;) delegate to Republican National Convention from Hawaii Territory, 1944; member of Hawaii state senate, 1959-67.

Sometimes irascible, oft times flamboyant, but always keenly analytical and astute in his approach to the problems of the day. Senator Hill contributed greatly to the work of the legislature and to the development of the 50th State. (Congressman Matsunaga)

After President Dwight D Eisenhower signed the proclamation welcoming Hawai‘i as the 50th state of the union on August 21, 1959, the First Legislature of the State of Hawai‘i convened on August 31, 1959, in accordance with the Hawai‘i State Constitution.

During this 45-day First Special Session of 1959, the Senate elected Senator William H. Hill of the first senatorial district as Senate President. Senator Hill stated in his Opening Day remarks:

“This session of the Legislature is the most important that Hawai‘i has ever had and without a doubt will be the most important that will ever be known in Hawai‘i because in this session the die will be cast for future sessions.”

“Doc could go on telling you stories forever. (He’d say, ‘You gotta do things when you can, not when you can’t.’ In other words, if there’s a deal to be made or something that you want done, you do it when you can, and that means right now”. (Henderson)

‘Little Doc,’ his talking mynah bird joined him “(e)very year until the bird died In 1965, ‘Little Doc’ was brought from Hilo by his master to alt caged outside of the Senator’s ʻIolani Palace office – whistling at the wahines and saying ‘Vote for Doc Hill’ in true campaign style.”

Perhaps the ceremonial highlight of Doc’s Senate career came in 1967, when he appeared during one of the extended days of the session dressed in a kimono.

“Mr. President,” he said. “I have been humiliated, insulted and shunned the past few days and it’s all your fault. Last Thursday, Mr. President, I arose on this floor to tell you of rumors that the Senate might not adjourn as scheduled the next day.”

“I told you that my wife was going back home to Hilo In a few hours and wanted to know how many shirts she should leave for me In Honolulu. And you told me – before this body – that she should leave only one shirt.”

“Along about Saturday, I began to notice that when I would approach a group of senators I thought were my friends, they would scatter or else get upwind of me. I wondered what was wrong. Had I voted wrong on one of their pet measures?”

If ever the term Elder Statesman fit a man. It fit Doc. After many years in the inner circle of power In Hawaii government, age and the Democratic ascendancy In the Senate moved him back into the ranks during the late 1960s.

But really, Doc Hill never took a back seat to anyone in speaking his piece on the Senate floor. And age which slowed his step hasn’t yet worked its way up to the quick mind beneath that Caesar-like haircut. (Congressman Matsunaga)

It’s well known that Senator WH ‘Doc’ Hill of Hilo is a capitalist, period. (Honolulu Record, December 6, 1956)

“(Doc Hill) eventually got control of, at that time, the Hilo Electric Light Company (later known as Hawai’i Electric Light Co, (and the) General Motors dealership. … (He also had) Wailoa Motors, which operated a major tire-recapping facility that dealt mainly with the sugar plantations cane haul trucking tire needs”.

We had nine theaters around the island … (Hilo Theatres, Ltd) … I might say the theater business was a very good business before television arrived.” (Henderson)

He organized ‘Realty,’ a holding company in 1926; it was parent company to several of his holdings. (Realty was later renamed Realty Investment Co, Ltd.)

He also had “Hilo Thrift and Loan (Hilo Finance and Thrift Co., Ltd,) that eventually became what is known as Realty Finance. Doc was involved in “all kinds” of real estate ventures (land; built and bought businesses; developments, etc.)

From 1954 to 1973, Big Island developers, including Realty Investment Co Ltd, won permission to chop up thousands of acres in Lower Puna and sell them off into thousands of individual lots. (Dayton) Most of the subdivisions were created prior to the adoption of the Zoning Code in 1967. (Puna CDP)

Mainland marketing pieces for Puna subdivisions noted, “Your Future Is Here! If you’ve ever wanted to own property in Hawaii, it pays you to act now. Combine investment with pleasure in the 50th State of the Union.”

“William H Hill, says in his (Hilo Electric Report) that ‘the vast water supply, temperate climate and other natural resources, many still untapped, make the Big Island the Territory’s most valuable land area for economic development and location of new industry’.” (Salt Lake Tribune, April 10, 1960)

Hill and his wife Ouida had large homes in Hilo and Kona, and had hosted notable visitors for decades: John Wayne and Pilar Palette were married on the grounds of his Keauhou Bay estate on November 1, 1954. ‘Doc’ Hill died in 1970.

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Prominent People Tagged With: Doc Hill, William Hardy Hill, Hawaii, Hawaii Island, Hilo

April 11, 2026 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Laupāhoehoe

The northeastern coast of the island of Hawaiʻi presents an almost continuous succession of valleys, with intervening uplands rising gently for a few miles, and then more abruptly toward the snows of Mauna Kea and the clouds.

The rains are abundant on that side of the island, and the fertile plateau, boldly fronting the sea with a line of cliffs from fifty to a hundred feet in height, is scored at intervals of one or two miles with deep and almost impassable gulches.

The streams reach the ocean either through rocky channels worn to the level of the waves, or in cascades leaping from the cliffs and streaking the coast from Hilo to Waipiʻo.

In the time of Līloa, and later, this plateau was thickly populated, and requiring no irrigation, was cultivated from the sea upward to the line of frost. A few kalo patches are still seen, and bananas grow, as of old, in secluded spots and along the banks of the ravines. (Kalākaua)

“Lapahoi (Laupāhoehoe – leaf of lava) is a small stony flat with a few huts and sweet potatoes and taro patches scattered over it. It lies at the extremity of a deep ravine, the declivities on either side nearly 500 feet in height and extending to the sea beach, terminating in a rocky precipice.”

“The coast all the way to Lapahoi was intersected by many deep ravines, many of which had large rivers forming beautiful waterfalls that fell over the outward cliffs into the ocean, the angry surf of which broke a long way up upon the rocks underneath.” (Macrae, 1825)

“The country, by which we sailed, was fertile, beautiful, and apparently populous. The numerous plantations on the eminences and sides of the deep ravines or valleys, by which it was intersected, with the streams meandering through them into the sea, presented altogether a most agreeable prospect.”

“The coast was bold, and the rocks evidently volcanic. We frequently saw the water gushing out of hollows in the face of the rocks, or running in cascades from the top to the bottom.”

“After sailing very pleasantly for several hours, we approached Laupāhoehoe: although we had come upwards of twenty miles, and had passed not less than fifty ravines or valleys, we had not seen a spot where we thought it would be possible to land without being swamped”.

“(A)lthough we knew we had arrived at the end of our voyage, we could discover no place by which it seemed safe to approach the shore, as the surf was beating violently, and the wind blowing directly towards the land.” (Ellis, 1823)

In January 1834, David Douglas (a fir tree was named after him) visited the island of Hawai‘i, traveled around the base of Mauna Kea – including the upper Laupāhoehoe forest zone – and ascended Mauna Kea; while on his second visit to the island, he died at a location near the mauka boundary of Laupāhoehoe and Humuʻula.

In 1859, Abel Harris and FB Swain entered into a partnership and secured a section of land on the Laupāhoehoe peninsula and lower plains; they ran a trading station and attempted to undertake several business ventures, including, collection of pulu (down) from hāpuʻu tree ferns, hunting bullocks in the upper forest lands, and cultivation of sugar cane on the lowlands.

The lowlands of the Laupāhoehoe region became the focus of sugar plantation efforts as early as the 1850s. But it was not until 1876, that a full-scale plantation was incorporated, and a mill established.

At the industry’s peak in the 1930s, Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

As elsewhere, sugar cultivation exploded on the Big Island. As a means to transport sugar and other goods, railroading was introduced to the Islands in 1879. All the sugar grown in East Hawaiʻi, in Puna and on the Hāmākua Coast, was transported by rail to Hilo Harbor, where it was loaded onto ships bound for the continent.

The rail line crossed over 12,000-feet in bridges, 211-water openings under the tracks, and individual steel spans up to 1,006-feet long and 230-feet in height.

Some of the most notable were those over Maulua and Honoliʻi gulches, the Wailuku River and Laupāhoehoe. Over 3,100 feet of tunnels were constructed, one of which, the Maulua Tunnel, was over half a mile in length.

While the main business of the railroad remained the transport of raw sugar and other products to and from the mills, it also provided passenger service.

Targeting tourists to augment local passenger and raw sugar transport, the Hawaiʻi Consolidated Railway ran sightseeing specials under the name “Scenic Express.”

Not for the faint of heart, rail trips included a stop on the trestles, where passengers disembarked to admire the outstanding scenery.

But the end was near for the railway. Early in the morning of April 1, 1946, a massive tsunami struck Hawaiʻi. The railroad line between Hilo and Paʻauilo suffered massive damage; bridges collapsed, trestles tumbled and one engine was literally swept off the tracks.

At Laupāhoehoe Point, waves destroyed teachers’ residences and flooded school grounds, killing twenty-five people, including sixteen students and five teachers of Laupāhoehoe School.

(The 1946 tsunami killed 159-people and caused $26-million in property damage throughout the islands. To prevent such widespread loss of life and property, the territory-wide Tsunami Warning System was put in place in 1948 and successfully utilized for the 1952 and 1957 tsunamis.) (hawaii-edu)

At the time of the tsunami, plantations were already phasing out rail in favor of trucking cane from the field to the mill. It was inevitable that trucking would also replace rail as the primary means of transporting sugar to the harbor. The tsunami accelerated that transition.

A few remnants of the railway are still visible. In Laupāhoehoe, a concrete platform remains where Hula dancers once performed for tourists. And the Laupāhoehoe Train Museum is housed in the former home of Mr. Stanley, the superintendent of maintenance.

© 2026 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Economy, Place Names Tagged With: Hawaii, Hawaii Island, Tsunami, Hamakua, Laupahoehoe

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