Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whose Footprints Are These?

Geologic evidence suggests that the modern caldera of Kīlauea formed shortly before 1500 AD. Repeated small collapses may have affected parts of the caldera floor, possibly as late as 1790. For over 300-400 years, the caldera was below the water table.

Kilauea can be an explosive volcano; several phreatic eruptions have occurred in the past 1,200 years.  (Phreatic eruptions, also called phreatic explosions, occur when magma heats ground or surface water.)

The extreme temperature of the magma (from 932 to 2,138 °F) causes near-instantaneous evaporation to steam, resulting in an explosion of steam, water, ash and rock – the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was a phreatic eruption.

The 1924 eruption at Halemaʻumaʻu documents and illustrates the explosive nature of Kilauea.  However, the 1924 explosions were small by geologic standards and by the standards of some past Kilauea explosions.

The hazards of larger explosions, such as those that took place multiple times between about AD 1500 and 1790, are far worse than those associated with the 1924 series.  (USGS)

There were explosions in 1790, the most lethal known eruption of any volcano in the present United States. The 1790 explosions, however, simply culminated (or at least occurred near the end of) a 300-year period of frequent explosions, some quite powerful.  (USGS)

Keonehelelei is the name given by Hawaiians to the explosive eruption of Kilauea in 1790.  It is probably so named “the falling sands” because the eruption involved an explosion of hot gas, ash and sand that rained down across the Kaʻu Desert.  The character of the eruption was likely distinct enough to warrant a special name.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

At the time, Kaʻū Chief Keōuakūʻahuʻula (Keōua) was the only remaining rival of Kamehameha the Great for control of the Island of Hawaiʻi; Keōua ruled half of Hāmākua and all of Puna and Kaʻū Districts.  They were passing through the Kilauea area at the time of the eruption. The 1790 explosion led to the death of one-third of the warrior party of Keōua.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

Camped in Hilo, Keōua learned of an invasion of his home district of Kaʻū by warriors of Kamehameha. To reach Kaʻū from Hilo, Keōua had a choice of two routes one was the usually traveled coastal route, at sea level, but it was longer, hot, shadeless and without potable water for long distances.  (NPS)

The other route was shorter, but passed over the summit and through the lee of Kilauea volcano, an area sacred to, and the home of, the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele. Keōua chose the volcano route, perhaps because it was shorter and quicker, with water available frequently.  (NPS)

In 1919, Ruy Finch, a geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory discovered human footprints fossilized in the Kaʻū desert ash. Soon, this area of the desert became known as “Footprints.”

Barefoot walkers left thousands of footprints in wet volcanic ash within a few miles southwest of Kīlauea’s summit.

Many historians and Hawaiians believe the footprints were made by Keōua and his warriors.  Keōua was known to be in the area at the time, and previous thought suggested this part of the desert did not have pre-contact use, so it was narrowed down to them.

Scientists later investigated – one approach was to look deeper at the evidence.

Forensic studies indicate that the length of a human foot is about 15% of an individual’s height. A man’s foot may be slightly more that 15%, a woman’s slightly less, but it is possible to estimate the height to a couple of inches.  (USGS)

They measured 405-footprints to determine how tall the walkers were.  The average calculated height is only 4-feet 11-inches, and few footprints were made by people 5-feet 9-inches or more tall. Early Europeans described Hawaiian warriors as tall; one missionary estimated an average height of 5-feet 10-inches. Many now believe that most of the footprints were made by women and children, not by men, much less warriors.  (USGS)

Meanwhile, Keōua’s party was camped on the upwind side of Kīlauea’s summit – perhaps on Steaming Flat – waiting for Pele’s anger to subside. They saw the sky clear after the ash eruption and began walking southwestward between today’s Volcano Observatory and Nāmakanipaio.  (USGS)

Suddenly, the most powerful part of the eruption began, developing a high column and sending surges at hurricane velocities across the path of the doomed group. Later, survivors and rescuers made no footprints in the once wet ash, which had dried.  (USGS)

Then, archaeologists looked for other evidence to help identify who the footprints may have belonged to.  Contrary to general thought that the area was not used by the Hawaiians, archaeological investigations discovered structures, trails and historic artifacts in the area.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

Most of the features were along the edge of the Keʻāmoku lava flow.  Several of the trails converge south of the flow, suggesting a major transportation network.  The structures are likely temporary, used as people were traversing through the desert on their way to/from Kaʻū and Hilo.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

The sheer number of temporary shelters along the Keʻāmoku flow, as well as the trail systems and quarry sites, strongly suggest that this area was frequently used by Hawaiians travelling to and through the area – before and after the 1790 eruption.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

If the footprints aren’t Keōua’s warriors, then how did one-third of his warriors die?

Several suggestions have been made: suffocation due to ash; lava, stones, ash and other volcanic material; or strong winds produced by the eruption, asphyxiation and burning killed them.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

A more recent suggestion is that a “hot base surge, composed primarily of superheated steam … (traveling at) hurricane velocity” was the cause of death.  The wind velocity prevented the people from running away; they probably huddled together, then “hot gases seared their lungs.”  (Moniz-Nakamura)

Some now suggest that, if these observations and ideas are correct, the footprints were made in 1790, but not by members of Keōua’s group.  (USGS)

A reconstruction of events suggests that wet ash, containing small pellets, fell early in the eruption, blown southwestward into areas where family groups, mainly women and children, were chipping glass from old pāhoehoe. They probably sought shelter while the ash was falling. Once the air cleared, they slogged across the muddy ash, leaving footprints in the 1-inch thick deposit.  (USGS)

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 Kaʻū Desert, the rain forest of Olaʻa and the Kalapana archaeological area of the Puna/Kaʻū Historic District.

In 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.) (Lots of good information here is from USGS, NPS and Jade Moniz-Nakamura.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Keahuolū

The area of North Kona between Kailua Bay and Keauhou Bay to the south is generally recognized as containing the population core and the most fertile agricultural area of North Kona (Kona Kai ʻOpua “Kona of the distant horizon clouds above the ocean”.)  (Maly)

To the north of Kailua Bay, beginning at Honokōhau, is the relatively dry Kekaha district of North Kona, with its barren lava inlands and coastal fishponds (Kekaha-wai-ʻole-nā-Kona (the waterless place of Kona, it’s described as “a dry, sun-baked land.”)

Keahuolū is situated in the transition zone between these two contrasting environmental districts, and is immediately north of Kailua Bay, a center of both political and economic activities since before Western contact.

Keahuolū has been translated in a couple ways, “Ke-ahu-o-Lū” (the ahu (or alter) of Lū) and “Keʻohuʻolu” (the refreshing mists) – similar to the neighboring (to the south) Lanihau ahupuaʻa (cool heaven.)

A hill at Keahuolū and adjoining Kealakehe (to the north) is associated with mists.  “The settling of mists upon Puʻu O Kaloa was a sign of pending rains; thus the traditional farmers of this area would prepare their fields.”  (This notes the importance of rain in this relatively dry area.)  (Cultural Surveys)

Several general settlement pattern models have been generated by researchers that generally divide up the region into five basic environmental zones: the Shoreline, Kula, Kaluʻulu, ʻApaʻa and ʻAmaʻu.

Habitation was concentrated along the shoreline and lowland slopes, and informal fields were probably situated in the Kula and higher elevations, areas with higher rainfall.

The Shoreline zone extends, typically, from the high-tide line inland a few hundred feet. In Kailua this is the area from the shore to approximately Aliʻi Drive.  In this zone, permanent settlement began in Kona c. AD 1000-1200.

Several large and densely populated royal centers were situated at several locations along the shoreline between Kailua and Honaunau.

Several heiau were noted along the coast. Stokes described three coastal heiau sites in Keahuolū: Halepuʻa, Kawaluna and Palihiolo. Halepuʻa was described by Stokes as a koʻa, or fishing shrine, near the shore in a coconut grove.

Kawaluna Heiau was described by Stokes as a rebuilt enclosure located on the beach at Pāwai Bay. Heiau of Palihiolo was at or near the Keahuolū/Lanihau boundary, King Kalākaua had it rebuilt prior to his departure from Hawaiʻi.  (Rosendahl)

The Kula zone (the plain or open country) consisted primarily of dry and open land with few trees and considerable grass cover.

With limited soil, and lots of rock, this land was planted primarily in scattered sweet potato patches.  (This area was around the 500-foot elevation mark, and may extend further, to approximately the 600-800-foot elevation.)

The Kaluʻulu is zone is referred to as the breadfruit zone. Early explorers described this zone as breadfruit with sweet potatoes and wauke (paper mulberry) underneath; it may have been perhaps one-half mile wide. Here walled fields occur at the 600-800-foot elevation, which may be start of this breadfruit zone in this area.

The ʻApaʻa zone is described as a dryland taro and sweet potato zone (1,000-foot elevation and extended to the 2,500-foot elevation.) In historic accounts it is described as an area divided by low stone and earth walls into cleared rectangular fields in which sweet potato and dryland taro were planted. On the edges of the walls, sugarcane and ti were planted.

The ʻAmaʻu zone is the banana zone, which may extend from the 2,000-foot elevation to 3,000-feet, and is characterized by bananas and plantains being grown in cleared forest areas.  (Rosendahl)

William Ellis (1822) noted, “The houses which are neat, are generally erected on the sea-shore, shaded with cocoanut and kou trees, which greatly enliven the scene.”

“The environs were cultivated to a considerable extent; small gardens were seen among the barren rocks on which the houses are built, wherever soil could be found sufficient to nourish the sweet potato, the watermelon, or even a few plants of tobacco, and in many places these seemed to be growing literally in the fragments of lava, collected in small heaps around their roots.”

King Kalākaua later (1869) noted, “Keahuolu runs clear up to the mountains and includes a portion of nearly half of Hualalai mountains.  On the mountains the koa, kukui and ohia abounds in vast quantities.  The upper land or inland is arable, and suitable for growing coffee, oranges, taro, potatoes, bananas &c.”

” Breadfruit trees grow wild as well as Koli (castor-oil) oil seed.  The lower land is adopted for grazing cattle, sheep, goats &c.  The fishery is very extensive and a fine grove of cocoanut trees of about 200 to 300 grows on the beach.”

A sisal plantation was planted in Keahuolu in the late-1890s, a mill was constructed nearby; sisal was used to make rope and other fibers.  Operating until 1924, the McWayne sisal tract included about 1,000-acres of sisal fields in Keahuolu and adjoining Kealakehe.  (You can still see sisal plants, remnants of the sisal plantation, as you drive up Palani Road.)

A fishing village with a canoe landing was at Pāwai Bay.  Makaʻeo (later (July 10, 1949) developed into the Kailua Airport (commercial aviation ended there July 1, 1970)) had a large cocoanut grove, with a coastal trail running through it connecting Kailua Village to the Māmalahoa Trail.

The Kuakini Wall (1830-1844,) built to keep the free-ranging livestock out of the coastal settlements and gardens, extends from Kahaluʻu Bay to the southern portion of Keahuolu (with an average distance of about 1 ½ miles from the coastline.)  It goes to, but not through, Keahuolū at its northern terminus.

The ahupuaʻa of Keahuolū was awarded to Analeʻa Keohokālole ((c. 1816-1869) mother of King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani) during the Māhele of 1848. Two walled houselots in Keahuolū had been held by Keohokālole’s ancestors “from very ancient times”.

Keohokālole was a great-granddaughter of both Kameʻeiamoku and Keaweaheulu two of the important chiefs who supported Kamehameha I in his rise to power.

Kameʻeleihiwa states, “Keohokālole was regarded by the Kamehameha clan as an Aliʻi Nui in honor of the great courage and loyalty proffered by her ancestors in their support of Kamehameha.”

As Aliʻi Nui, Keohokālole held the fifth largest number of ʻāina after the Māhele with 50 parcels.  She relinquished 48% of her original 96 ʻāina to the Mōʻī (King) retaining 23-parcels on Hawaiʻi, 25 on Maui and two on Oʻahu. Of her lands on the island of Hawaiʻi, two-thirds were located in the Kona District.  (Wong-Smith)

Keohokālole sold portions of her 15,000-20,000-acre grant to the government and other parties, with the balance being transferred to her heir, Liliʻuokalani.

In her Deed of Trust dated December 2, 1909, which was later amended in 1911, Queen Lili‘uokalani entrusted her estate to provide for orphan and destitute children in the Hawaiian Islands, with preference for Hawaiian children. Her legacy is perpetuated through the Queen Liliʻuokalani Children’s Center.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Teshima’s

Teishoku #3 was my mother’s favorite.

With the meal came the anticipated stop and discussion with Mrs Teshima, proprietress of the place.  Mrs Teshima is now gone, but the memory of her gracious hospitality and her ability to remember the family and life experiences of her customers will live forever.

To tell the story of Shizuko (Mary) Teshima and her restaurant, Teshima’s, we need to step back a few years … a lot of years.

In the early-1900s her father, Goichi Hanato, emigrated from Hiroshima, along with her mother, Kiku Morishima, in a picture bride marriage (1905.)  Shizuko (Mary) was born June 24, 1907 in a Kona coffee field, not far from where Teshima’s restaurant is today.

Her father was an industrious man who tried his hand at many jobs; among other things, milked cows and made butter. He got a farm in Honalo and opened a store. He and his wife made tofu at home and delivered it by horse and wagon to their customers.  (Kona Historical Society)

A few years after arriving in Hawaiʻi, Goichi Hanato opened a general store, tofu factory and taxi service.

During World War I, Shizuko attended Konawaena Elementary School.   As a teenager having only an eighth grade education, Shizuko worked at her father’s general store.  It was there that she met Fumio (Harry) Teshima, an islander who worked as a mechanic for the Captain Cook Coffee Company.

Shizuko’s father wrote to his family back in Hiroshima Japan to ask about fiancée Fumio’s farmer family/reputation – the response was favorable, so Fumio was allowed to marry Shizuko.  (Narimatsu)  In 1926 they were married, and in 1929 the couple opened a store and called it F Teshima Store.

While her husband worked at Captain Cook Coffee Company and earned a cash salary, Shizuko worked in the store and started raising their family of five children.  She did sewing at night with a gas lamp to make extra cash, earning a dollar for trousers and seventy-five cents a shirt.

“To begin with I had the store. It was kinda boring, and I wanted to do something to keep me real busy. So, I decided …to run up to the church (when) they had classes in cooking.  So, I said, oh, I must like this work. I started with an ice cream parlor at first ‘cause I had general merchandise.”

“People, when they came to buy something, wanted to eat, and that’s how I got into food, too. I had two tables, one dozen ice cream spoons, one bamboo ice cream scoop, and the glasses….We made our own ice cream. Our ice used to come from Hilo.”

“We bought 100 lbs. and we packed it in the coffee skins, in the box, and we made ice cream the night before after we closed the store. In the morning it was ready and we packed it in ice with salt, but there was no electricity anyway, so we did it the hard way.”  (Kona Historical Society)

Around 1940, Mary purchased a fountain so Kona kids could have ice cream sodas, as well.  When World War II started, life changed.

The store became a popular saimin stand before serving libations and food to soldiers stationed nearby.  The store expanded into a hamburger stand, before it was launched a Japanese family restaurant.

Suddenly, Kona was filled with hungry, thirsty US servicemen who showed up at F Teshima Store with money in their pockets, looking for drinks at the horse shoe bar and hot off the stove hamburgers.

“Homesick boys, only 18 or 19,” she said, “but they were all very nice.”  These WWII soldiers, who couldn’t pronounce her name, gave her the name Mary.  (Winther)  (Relatives and good friends called her Grandma; we, always, respectfully, called her Mrs Teshima.)

When the war was over, the family made a smart decision in 1957 to tear down the old store and build a restaurant.  (Kona Historical Society) What was the general store evolved into a 230-seat restaurant.  (Her husband Fumio (Harry) Teshima died April 20, 1997.)

In 2009, Shizuko “Mary” Teshima was recipient of the Women’s Hall of Fame award, given by the Hawaiʻi County Committee on the Status of Women.

On October 22, 2013, “Mary” “Grandma” “Mrs Teshima” died at the age of 106 (she worked for 83-years at her Honalo landmark.)  She had five children, 17 grandchildren, 27 great grandchildren and 16 great-great grandchildren.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Naha Stone

The legend of King Arthur (Le Morte Darthur, Middle French for “the Death of Arthur” (published in 1485)) speaks of King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and the Knights of the Round Table (and foresees “Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone is the rightwise born king of all England.”)

Many tried; many failed.

Legendary Arthur later became the king of England when he removes the fated sword from the stone. Legendary Arthur goes on to win many battles due to his military prowess and Merlin’s counsel; he then consolidates his kingdom.  (The historical basis for the King Arthur legend has long been debated by scholars.)

In Hawaiʻi, a couple legends and prophecies relate to a stone, Naha Pōhaku (the Naha Stone.)

Its weight is estimated to be two and one-half tons (5,000-pounds.)  The stone was originally located in the Wailua River, Kauai; it was brought to Hilo by chief Makaliʻinuikualawaiea on his double canoe and placed in front of Pinao Heiau.  (NPS)

The stone was reportedly endowed with great powers and had the peculiar property of being able to determine the legitimacy of all who claimed to be of the royal blood of the Naha rank (the product of half-blood sibling unions.)

As soon as a boy of Naha stock was born, he was brought to the Naha Stone and was laid upon it – one faint cry would bring him shame.  However, if the infant had the virtue of silence, he would be declared by the kahuna to be of true Naha descent, a royal prince by right and destined to become a brave and fearless soldier and a leader of his fellow men.  (NPS)

In another instance, Kamehameha traveled from Kohala to Hilo with Kalaniwahine a prophetess, who advised him that there was a deed he must do.  Although not of Naha lineage, Kamehameha came to conquer the Naha Stone.

Kalaniwahine proclaimed that if he succeeded in moving Naha Pōhaku, that he would move the whole group of Islands. If he changed the foundations of Naha Pōhaku from its resting place, he would conquer the whole group and he would prosper and his people would prosper.

Kamehameha said, “He Naha oe, a he Naha hoi kou mea e neeu ai. He Niau-pio hoi wau, ao ka Niau-pio hoi o ka Wao.” (”You are a Naha, and it will be a Naha who will move you. I am a Niaupio, the Niaupio of the Forest.”)

With these words did Kamehameha put his shoulders up to the Naha Stone, and flipped it over, being this was a stone that could not be moved by five men.  (Hoku o Hawaiʻi, November 1, 1927)

When Kamehameha gripped the stone and leaned over it, he leaned, great strength came into him, and he struggled yet more fiercely, so that the blood burst from his eyes and from the tips of his fingers, and the earth trembled with the might of his struggling, so that they who stood by believed that an earthquake came to his assistance.  (NPS)

The stone moved and he raised it on its side.

And, the rest of the history of the Islands has been pretty clear about the fulfillment of the prophecy and unification of the Islands under Kamehameha.

The Naha Stone is in front of Hilo Public Library at 300 Waiānuenue Avenue between Ululani and Kapiʻolani Street (the larger of the two stones there.)

The upright stone sitting to the makai side of the Naha Stone is associated with the Pinao Heiau, one of several that once stood in Hilo. Some of the stones that built the first Saint Joseph church and other early stone buildings in town likely came from Pinao heiau.  (Zane)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kumukahi

Mai ka hikina a ka Ia i
Kumukahi a ka welona a ka Iā i Lehua.

From the sunrise at Kumukahi to
the fading sunlight at Lehua.

From sunrise to sunset. Kumukahi, in Puna, Hawai‘i, was called the land of the sunrise and Lehua, the land of the sunset. This saying also refers to a life span-from birth to death.  (Pukui, #258)

Kumukahi is a place of importance and a place of healing. Practitioners of la‘au lapa‘au often prayed to Kumukahi and his brother Palamoa as “deities of healing” when gathering and applying traditional Hawaiian herbal medicine. These practitioners would face the Hikina (East) and chant their prayers at sunrise from where ever they were living in the islands. (Lopes)

Kumukahi is translated as the ‘beginning/first source, chief, or teacher,’ in reference to the “first source” of wisdom, knowledge or of knowing.

This is because of its location in relation to the sun, Kānehoalani (an akua who is, in one story, Pele’s father) and what the sun represents, as the easternmost point of Hawaiʻi.

It is the beginning of our collective consciousness as people of Hawaiʻi, which establishes Kumukahi as a wahi pana (living and celebrated place) and a wahi moʻolelo (a storied place). (Hawai‘i County)

Kumukahi was also noted as a “leina a ka uhane,” a place where the soul of a person would leap from this world into the next after death. (Lopes)

Kumukahi was named for a migratory hero from Kahiki (Tahiti) who stopped here and who is represented by a red stone. Two of his wives, also in the form of stones, manipulated the seasons by pushing the sun back and forth between them. One of the wives was named Ha‘eha‘e. Sun worshipers brought their sick to be healed here. (Pukui)

In some accounts, Kumukahi is a kolea bird and is referred to as “the messenger of the gods.” According to Pukui, Kumukahi was the name of a “kanaka aiwaiwa,” a divine being who loved sports, especially holua sledding.

For this reason Pele, the akua wahine of the volcano, was fond of him. Kumukahi often produced sporting events in which his people participated. Pele often joined in on these particular festivities in the form of an attractive woman.

However, on one such occasion, Pele, disguised as an old woman, requested to participate and was denied. In her anger, she chased Kumukahi to the sea where she covered him with her lava. (Lopes)

At the tip of Cape Kumukahi were a number of stone cairns, built of the rough lava from the surrounding flow, which are said to have been built by the various monarchs of the Hawaiian kingdom upon assuming the throne. Some reference them as Ki‘i Pōhaku Ali‘i – King’s Pillars.

In 1823, William Ellis and members of the ABCFM toured the island of Hawai‘i seeking out community centers in which to establish church centers for the growing Protestant mission.

Settlement patterns in Puna tend to be dispersed and without major population centers. Villages in Puna tended to be spread out over larger areas and often are inland, and away from the coast, where the soil is better for agriculture.  (Escott)

This was confirmed on William Ellis’ travel around the island in the early 1800s, “Hitherto we had travelled close to the sea-shore, in order to visit the most populous villages in the districts through which we had passed.”

“But here receiving information that we should find more inhabitants a few miles inland, than nearer the sea, we thought it best to direct our course towards the mountains.”  (Ellis, 1823)

Ellis noted, “The population of this part of Puna, though somewhat numerous, did not appear to possess the means of subsistence in any great variety or abundance; and we have often been surprised to find the desolate coasts more thickly inhabited than some of the fertile tracts in the interior …”

“… a circumstance we can only account for, by supposing that the facilities which the former afford for fishing, induce the natives to prefer them as places of abode; for they find that where the coast is low, the adjacent water is generally shallow.”

When the Lighthouse Board assumed control of Hawai‘i’s lighthouses in 1904, it began work on a plan to erect major lights to better mark approaches to the islands. Funds for Makapu‘u Lighthouse were secured in 1906, money for Molokai lighthouse was obtained in 1907, and Congress made an appropriation for Kilauea Point Lighthouse in 1908.

These aids to navigation were seen as “material benefit to the business .community, to shipping interests, insurance interests and mercantile interests. … [T]he next one we have recommended is for a first order light at Cape Kumukahi, the easternmost point on the Island of Hawaii.”  (PCA, Nov 4, 1908)

“There is at present no landfall light for vessels bound to Hawaii by way of Cape Horn. Several vessels have within recent years gone ashore on Kumukahi Point. This is the first land sighted by vessels from the southward and eastward.”

“The shipping from these directions now merits consideration, and with the improvement of business at Hilo the necessity for a landfall light on this cape grows more urgent. It is estimated that a light at this point can be established for not exceeding $75,000, and the Board recommends that an appropriation of this amount be made therefor.” (Report of the Lighthouse Board, 1908)

On December 31, 1928, the US government purchased fifty-eight acres on Cape Kumukahi from the Hawaiian Trust Company for the sum of $500. During the following year, a thirty-two-foot wooden tower capped with an automatic acetylene gas light was built at the cape for local use.  It was replaced in 1933 by a 125-foot pyramidical galvanized steel tower. (Lighthouse Friends)

“Life was peaceful for several years along the Puna coastline until a lava flow threatened Kapoho in 1955. [Kumukahi lightkeeper Joe] Pestrella stayed at his post to watch over the lighthouse as the lava advanced.” 

“The following year, he received the “Civil Servant of the Year” award from the U.S. Coast Guard for his bravery in staying at his post. At the time, Ludwig Wedemeyer, leader of the Hilo Coast Guard station, noted it was the first time a Hawai‘i Island resident had received such an award from the Coast Guard.” (Laitinen)

On January 12, 1960, over 1,000 earthquakes were recorded near Kapoho Village, just above Kumukahi. The earthquakes grew in size and frequency, creating large fractures along the Kapoho Fault overnight.  The 1960 Kīlauea eruption began on the night of January 13.

For the first two weeks, Kapoho village remained virtually intact except for a blanket of pumice and ash that covered everything. The lava flow issuing from the growing cinder cone was moving in the opposite direction of town.

Things changed on January 27th when very fluid lava poured from the vents and fed massive ‘a‘ā flows that moved southwestward through the streets of town. By midnight, most of Kapoho had been destroyed.

By January 28, lava destroyed Coast Guard residences near Cape Kumukahi, but the lighthouse was spared. The Koa‘e Village fell victim to lava flow progression, losing the community hall, a local church and one residence.  The eruption stopped February 19. (USGS)

“After the 1960 eruption ended, an electric line was run from Kapoho Beach Lots to the lighthouse to restore power, and the light became automated. Joe was transferred to a lighthouse on O‘ahu, and when he retired in 1963, he was the last civilian lighthouse keeper in Hawai‘i.”  (Laitinen)

With prevailing NW trade winds and nothing between it and the America continents, except thousands of miles of open ocean, Kumukahi has some of the cleanest air in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Kumukahi light tower is also used as a monitoring station to test air quality. Since 1993, scientists have been taking ambient air samples every week for chemical analysis.

The long-term data records supplied by these samples are fundamental to understanding changes in atmospheric composition of gases affecting stratospheric ozone, climate and air quality, and provide an avenue to detect unexpected changes in these chemicals.

The 2018 eruptions interrupted the sampling efforts and NOAA scientists have undertaken novel development of an uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) “hexacopter” that will enable the lab to not only recommence a long-standing mission that was recently forced to halt, but paves the way toward enhanced operations in the future.  (NOAA)

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