Hawaii Island | Page 34 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 28, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

John Davis Paris

John Davis Paris was born to George and Mary (Hudson) Paris, September 22, 1809 near Staunton, Virginia, the eldest of six sons. His father was a farmer of Scotch-Irish extraction, originally from France; his mother’s parents came from Wales and the north of England.

“My father was very industrious, working hard early and late. His farm was on the main valley road leading to Lexington; he owned about ninety acres which he improved and to which he added in after years. On it he erected a saw mill and a flour mill and did an enormous business for one man.”

“He and my mother were members of Hebron church, strict Presbyterians, and known by all as consistent Christians. My father’s house was a home for ministers and missionaries, and under its hospitable roof all good men ever found a hearty welcome.”

“From a little boy I had a secret desire to he a minister of the gospel, partly I think because my parents always spoke in the highest terms of those who preached the gospel.” (Paris; The Friend, April 1, 1926)

At the age of nineteen, his father gave him permission to go to school. He carted firewood and lumber on Saturdays to pay tuition and extras.

In 1835, he distributed bibles and religious books for the American Bible Society. “Traveling once in North Carolina, I came to a hotel about sun set. … I was requested to offer prayers … In the morning I was again requested to lead the family worship, which I was glad to do.”

“Then calling for my horse which had been well fed and groomed, I was about to pay my bill, when the Landlord very courteously said, ‘No, I never charge ministers of the gospel. … we have all enjoyed family worship with you…’ I protested that I was not a minister, but he declared that I was equal to one”. (Paris; The Friend, April 1, 1926)

Paris entered Bangor Theological Seminary in 1836, graduating in 1839 with Rev Daniel Dole and was ordained the same year.

That year, he offered to serve as a missionary in Africa. He was accepted by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, but, after consultation, was appointed to the Indian Mission in Oregon Territory.

He was married to Miss Mary Grant of New York City, on October 25, 1840, and sailed from Boston November 14 in the company of Dole, Bond and Rice. They arrived in the Islands on May 21, 1841.

“News had just been received at the Island of the unsettled and hostile state of the Indians which afterwards terminated in the tragical and terrible massacre of Dr. Whitman ma! (Ma, the Hawaiian collective, means ‘with all his family or associates.’)”

“Mr. William Rice and his wife, together with ourselves, who had been destined for the Oregon Mission, were advised to remain at the Islands where there was urgent need.” (Paris; The Friend, April 1, 1926)

Paris was first stationed in Kaʻū. It was a remote district, difficult of access. He was the first resident missionary there.

“In these years of 1843 and 44, while our own dwelling was in building and not yet finished, we undertook the great work of building a stone House of Worship at Waiohinu. This first Christian temple was built entirely by the natives … “

“Since that time I have builded and consecrated nine houses of worship and crowned them with sweet-toned bells, ordered from the United States and paid for by the people”. (Paris; The Friend, May 1, 1926)

Mrs Paris died on February 18, 1847; Paris returned with two daughters to the U.S. On September 7, 1851, Paris married Miss Mary Carpenter of New York City; they returned to the Islands in 1852 and he was stationed at Kaʻawaloa.

One notable incident is worth mentioning – “For several years past, one (Joseph Ioela) Kaʻona … imbibed the idea that he was a prophet sent by God to warn this people of the end of the world. For the three years he has been preaching this millerite doctrine on Hawaiʻi, and has made numerous converts.” (PCA, October 24, 1868)

“By the mid-1860s, Kaʻona claimed to have had divine communications with Elijah, Gabriel, and Jehovah, from whom he’d received divine instructions and prophetic.” (Maly) Followers called him ‘The Prophet;’ his followers were referred to as Kaʻonaites.)

“These fanatics believe that the end of the world is at hand, and they must be ready. They therefore clothe themselves in white robes, ready to ascend, watch at night, but sleep during the day, decline to cultivate anything except beans, corn, or the most common food.” (PCA, October 24, 1868)

“For a time, all went on smoothly enough, until Kaʻona began to introduce some slight innovations in the form of worship, which were opposed by Mr. Paris and minority of the congregation and the church became split into two factions. … The feud continued to increase …” (Hawaiian Gazette, November 18, 1868)”

Eventually a riot broke out and Sheriff Neville and another were both brutally killed. The event has been referred to as Kaʻona’s Rebellion, Kaʻona Insurrection and Kaʻona Uprising. Kaʻona eventually surrendered; David Kalākaua and Albert Francis Judd had been appointed Kaʻona’s defense attorneys.

Here’s a summary on Kaʻona and the rebellion: http://wp.me/p5GnMi-8e

Until 1870, Paris had the general supervision of the mission work on Western Hawaiʻi. That year he moved to Honolulu where he lived for some time in the old mission house. He started a Theological Seminary there.

He later returned to Kona. The last eleven years of his life were spent in the upper Kaʻawaloa. The house was built on the foundations of Kapiʻolani’s home.

Davis died at his home at Kaʻawaloa at 9:30 am, July 28, 1892, after an illness of seven days. “He took a severe cold, which settled on his lungs. His strength failed rapidly, and he was unable to take nourishment to keep.” (The Friend, September 5, 1892)

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June 4, 2015 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Punaluʻu

Punaluʻu i ke kai kau haʻa a ka malihini
Punaluʻu, where the sea dances for the visitors.

“The coast of Kaoo (Kaʻū) presents a prospect of the most horrid and dreary kind: the whole country appearing to have undergone a total change from the effects of some dreadful convulsion.”

“The ground is every where covered with cinders and intersected in many places with black streaks, which seem to mark the course of a lava that has flowed, not many ages, back, from the mountain Roa [Mauna Loa] to the shore.”

“The southern promontory looks like the mere dregs of a volcano. The projecting headland is composed of broken and craggy rocks, piled irregularly on one another, and terminating in sharp points.” (King Captain Cook’s Journal. 1779)

Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia was born around 1792 in the area between Punaluʻu and Nīnole. At the age of 16, after his parents had been killed, he boarded a sailing ship anchored in Kealakekua Bay and sailed to the continent. “Memoirs of Henry Obookiah” (the spelling of his name prior to establishment of the formal Hawaiian alphabet, based on its sound) was published.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia, inspired by many young men with proven sincerity and religious fervor of the missionary movement, had wanted to spread the word of Christianity back home in Hawaiʻi; his book, a compilation of his writing, inspired the Pioneer Company of missionaries to sail to Hawaiʻi (October 23, 1819.)

In June 1823, William Ellis joined American Missionaries Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop and Joseph Goodrich on a tour of the island of Hawaiʻi to investigate suitable sites for mission stations.

Coming from Waiʻōhinu, Ellis noted, “The country appeared more thickly inhabited, than that over which we had travelled in the morning. The villages along the sea-shore were near together, and some of them extensive.”

The following is his perspective on the area at ‘Punaruu’ (Punaluʻu.) “(W)e came to Punaruu, where the people of that and the next village, Wailau, collected together in a large house, and were addressed by one of the company, on the nature and attributes of the true God.”

“We generally preferred speaking to the people in the open air, as we then had more hearers, than when we addressed them in a house. But in the middle of the day, we usually found it too hot to stand so long in the sun. The services, which we held in the morning and evening, were -always out of doors.”

“We now left the road by the sea-side, and directed our course towards the mountains. Our path lay over a rich yellow looking soil of decomposed lava, or over a fine vegetable mould, in which we occasionally saw a few masses of lava partially decomposed.”

“There was but little cultivation, though the ground appeared well adapted to the growth of any of the produce of the islands. After walking up a gentle ascent, about eight miles, we came to a solitary hamlet, called Makaʻaka, containing four or five houses in which three or four families were residing.” (Ellis, 1823)

During the 1830s, Protestant missionaries from Kona and Hilo would make occasional visits into Kaʻū but a permanent missionary presence would not be installed until the early-1840s when Catholic and Protestant missions were established in the district.

In 1842, the Protestant minister John Paris settled in Waiʻōhinu where he founded a church and school. In 1843, Rev. Paris reported that a stone meeting house (church) had been built at Punaluʻu and that the school’s average attendance there was 140. (Paris preached three Sundays each month at Waiʻōhinu and one Sunday at Punaluʻu.) Cultural Surveys)

Chester H Lyman in 1846, coming south from Volcano through the ʻōhiʻa forest of tree ferns and below Kilauea, passed through Kapapala, where he encountered dwellings and canoe-making sheds, the first such to be seen on descending the mountain.

He was impressed with the green hills, the moist state of the soil, the “several horses with cattle and goats” feeding near the chief’s house; and “the fires of Kilauea which shone up magnificently on the clouds like the light of a conflagration at evening.

Punaluʻu village he found “romantically situated on the beach, shut in in part by a rough lava stream.” Continuing along the shore, he passed the black-pebble beach of Nīnole and found “a succession of small villages” whose inhabitants were “extensively engaged in fishing.” (Handy)

While cattle and goats were the focus of commercial agriculture in the region in the 1850s, wheat growing was attempted in Kaʻū; but it proved difficult to co-ordinate the size of the wheat crop with the requirements of the flour mills. The business did not become a permanent one. (Kuykendall)

Life in Kaʻū during the 1860s was disrupted and devastated by the forces of nature. In March of 1868 began a sequence of major earthquakes and eruptions of Mauna Loa, a prelude to an earthquake in early April that precipitated an “earthquake and the tidal wave destroying the villages from Punaluʻu to Kaʻaluʻalu (north-east of South Point.”) (Handy)

Then, sugar changed the regional landscape. Alexander Hutchinson established the Hutchinson Sugar Company (1868) and Hawaiian Agricultural Company, was established in Pāhala (1876,) the latter used Punaluʻu as its port.

The railroad from Punaluʻu to the village of Keaiwa (where the Pāhala Sugar Mill was located) was reported in June 1878 to be “the first railroad in these islands”. Railroads continued to operate in Kaʻū until the 1940s but the Pāhala – Punaluʻu railroad was discontinued in 1929. (Cultural Surveys)

Starting in the late-1800s, to get people and goods around the Islands, folks would catch steamer ships; competitors Wilder Steamship Co (1872) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co (1883) ran different routes, rather than engage in head to head competition.

For Inter-Island’s routes, vessels left Honolulu stopping at Lāhainā and Māʻalaea Bay on Maui and then proceeding directly to Kailua-Kona.

From Kailua, the steamer went south stopping at the Kona ports of Nāpoʻopoʻo on Kealakekua Bay, Hoʻokena, Hoʻopuloa, rounding South Point, touching at the Kaʻū port of Honuʻapo and finally arriving at Punaluʻu, Kaʻū, the terminus of the route. (From Punaluʻu, five mile railroad took passengers to Pāhala and then coaches hauled the visitors to the volcano from the Kaʻū side.)

The Punaluʻu Harbor and Landing served the communities of Punaluʻu and Nīnole and the sugar plantation at Pāhala and was considered the “port town for the district in 1880.” (Orr) By the mid-1880s Punaluʻu had storehouses, a restaurant, a store, and numerous homes constructed of lumber. (Cultural Surveys)

C Brewer & Company acquired the sugar interests in the Pāhala to Nīnole-Punaluʻu area that were merged into Kaʻū Sugar (the last harvest was in 1996;) Brewer also went into macadamia nuts and other ventures.

Between 1969-1972, at Nīnole and Punaluʻu, C Brewer Properties, Ltd developed the Sea Mountain 18-hole golf course community, which included the Colony I condominium project, Kalana I single-family residential subdivision, the Aspen Institute Center for Humanistic Studies, the Black Sands Restaurant and the Kaʻū Center for History and Culture.

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Punaluu village, Hawaii-S00084-1880

Punalu‘u Landing c. 1880 showing portion of village-CS

Punaluu, Hawaii Island-PP-30-6-018-ca_1890

Punaluu landing, Hawaii Island-PP-30-6-002

Punaluu landing, Hawaii Island-PP-30-6-001-1915

Punalu‘u Landing from Punalu‘unui Heiau (‘sacrificial stone’ in foreground)

Portion of 1931 Coastal Chart showing closeup of Punalu‘u Town-CS

Ninole Pond-1954-1972-Kelly-Cultural Surveys

Fern Forest Road to the volcano from Punaluu, Hawaii Island-PP-28-13-008

Andrews Chart of Punalu‘u Roadstead c. 1880s showing restaurant, store and store-CS

Punaluu_Ahupuaa-DAGS_2402-1875

March 13, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Albert Kualiʻi Brickwood Lyman

Born in Paʻauhau on the Hāmākua Coast of the Island of Hawaiʻi, on May 5, 1885, Albert Kualiʻi Brickwood Lyman was the 13th-son of Rufus Anderson and Rebecca Hualani (Ahung) Lyman, who was the fifth child of the Rev and Mrs David Belden Lyman, missionaries who came to Hawaiʻi in 1832.

Lyman attended Kamehameha School for Boys and graduated from Punahou School in 1906. Lyman was one of three brothers to attend West Point (Clarence and Charles;) each was appointed to West Point by Prince Jonah Kūhio Kalanianaʻole.

In 1909, Lyman, nicknamed “Queen Lil” from his brother, Clarence, who preceded him there, graduated from West Point ranked 15th in his class of 103 – classmate George S Patton, Jr was ranked 46th.

His early Army years were spent in various parts of the continent and abroad (with a short stint in the Islands, including construction work at “Little Shafter” and military engineering in all parts of the Island.) He had 25-assignments in 12-states and 4-overseas posts (Panama, France, Cuba and Philippines.)

In 1922, Major Lyman was assigned to duty in Havana, Cuba, where he served as military attaché. From Cuba, Major Lyman returned to Washington, DC where he was in charge of the military intelligence information bureau.

Previously serving at Schofield Barracks as a junior officer (1913-1916,) he returned there in May 1940, where as a full colonel he was commanding officer of the 3d Engineer Combat Battalion.

On March 13, 1942, Lyman was named Hawaiian Department engineer, an important post in connection with the building of island defenses.

All Engineer operations within the Hawaiian Department were under his direction. Fortifications were rushed to completion; new airfields were built in record time; while, at the same time, distant and far-flung Pacific Islands were rapidly converted into military bases.

On August 11, 1942, Lyman was the first native Hawaiian (and Asian, he was also part-Chinese) to attain the rank of general or admiral in the US Armed Forces. He died suddenly of a heart attack on August 13, 1942, two days after his promotion.

(The nomination was before the Senate for confirmation at the time General Lyman was stricken. The War Department decided to issue the officer’s commission to brigadier generalship dated prior to his death.)

On October 20, 1942, Brigadier General Lyman was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal “For exceptionally meritorious service in a position of great responsibility.”

“As Department Engineer, Hawaiian Department, from July 9, 1940 to August 12, 1942, he was responsible for the planning and construction of projects totaling many millions of dollars.”

“He displayed exceptional organizing ability, excellent judgment, and a superior quality of leadership in the handling of military and civilian construction forces engaged in that work, resulting in finishing many of the necessary defense projects far in advance of the anticipated completion dates.”

“His untiring effort, unceasing devotion to duty, and inspiring leadership in the execution of seemingly impossible tasks were of great value to the Army.”

On April 19, 1943, by Joint Resolution, the Hawaiʻi Territorial legislature changed the name of Hilo Airport to General Lyman Field.

(In 1989, the airport’s name was changed to Hilo International Airport and the main passenger terminal was named for General Lyman. The terminal was rededicated to Lyman on September 29, 1993.) (Lots of information here is from West Point, Army Corps and hawaii-gov.)

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Army Distinguished Service Medal

Lyman Display – Hilo Airport

Hilo Airport, August 12, 1941

Lyman Display – Hilo Airport

Albert_KB_Lyman

David_Lyman,_Sarah_Lyman_and_children,_Hilo,_in_1853

Lyman_House (Lyman Museum and Mission House)

March 10, 2015 by Peter T Young 12 Comments

What happened to ʻOlaʻa?

That seems to be the question of some, because in the district of Puna on the Island of Hawaiʻi what once was called Olaʻa is now called Keaʻau. So why did it change?

Let’s look back a bit.

Part of the confusion may be that Olaʻa was formerly called Laʻa, a legendary area for collecting bird feathers. (Ulukau) To further confuse things, some scholars believe that ʻOlaʻa is misspelled, and should be spelled as ʻO-Laʻa.

Some believe that the okina is a substitute for the letter ‘k,’ as it is in some other Polynesian languages, which would, in turn, change the meaning to the name of the hula deity Laka, or a place dedicated (Iaʻa) to the god. (Cultural Surveys)

Laka is the goddess of the upland forests worshiped in the hula dance. (Beckwith) Since Laka is guardian of the forest, her name is invoked by hula dancers and others when entering the forest.

Forests once covered much of ʻOlaʻa; they were later (1905-1928) made part of the forest reserve system within the Islands. The forest lands of ʻOlaʻa were noted for their growth of ʻohiʻa and koa trees, and hapuʻu tree fern.

At the Mahele (1848,) ʻOlaʻa was retained by the Crown. It was described as “A very large land, but cut off from the sea by Keaʻau.” (Cultural Surveys)

Keaʻau (about 60,000-acres of land) is the northern most of some 50 ahupuaʻa (ancient land divisions) found in the district of Puna. Keaʻau extends from the ocean fishery some 26 miles inland, and reaches an elevation of about 3,900-feet – portions of it wrap around the makai point of ʻOlaʻa. In the uplands, Keaʻau is cut off by Keauhou, eastern-most of the ahupuaʻa of the district of Kaʻu. (Maly)

While historically people typically settled along the shoreline, because much of the Puna’s district’s coastal areas have thin soils and there are no good deep water harbors, settlement patterns in Puna tend to be dispersed and without major population centers. Villages in Puna tended 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 seashore, 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, 1826)

“Nearly all the food consumed by the residents of this District is raised in the interior belt to which access is had by the ancient paths or trails leading from the sea coast. The finest sweet potatoes are raised in places that look more like banks of cobble stones or piles of macadam freshly dumped varying from the size of a walnut to those as large as ones fist. In these holes there is not a particle of soil to be seen”. (Alexander; Rechtman)

What is consistent and clear from testimony before the Land Commission, there definitely was an Olaʻa in upper Puna on the Island of Hawaiʻi. The testimony is equally consistent and clear that there also was a Keaʻau.

Thrum, in his 1894 Hawaiian Almanac and Annual, noted, “The year 1894 witnessed the completion of the volcano road which was begun in 1889. This is a boon to visitors and the settlers in the new coffee district of ʻOlaʻa, as it affords a fine carriage drive the entire distance of thirty miles. Regular stages now run between Hilo and the Volcano House every other day.”

A common reference relates to the old road to Volcano, “ʻOlaʻa (is) on the Hilo side of the road and Keaʻau on the Puna side.” Others phrased it “ʻOlaʻa being on the North side of the road and Keaʻau on the South east side.”

“ʻOlaʻa has come into prominence in the past few years as a most promising coffee center. The opening of the road from Hilo to the volcano, which traverses this neighborhood, was the means of bringing the possibilities of the ʻOlaʻa lands to public notice as well as within reach.” (Thrum, 1898)

So, what happened with the ʻOlaʻa – Keaʻau name changes?

Before 1900, coffee was the chief agricultural crop in the area. Over 6,000-acres of coffee trees were owned by approximately 200-independent coffee planters and 6 incorporated companies.

Soon, sugarcane was in large-scale production. Initially founded in 1899, ʻOlaʻa Sugar Company leased about 4,000-acres of land, expanded and eventually became the dominant operation in the region. Plantation fields extended for 10-miles along both sides of Highway 11 between Keaʻau and Mountain View, as well as in the Pāhoa and Kapoho areas.

Construction of centrally-located ʻOlaʻa Sugar Mill was completed in 1902, requiring 51 men working a three-shift operation. This industrial expansion marked the beginning of massive landscape alterations and clearing operations.

A community grew around the plantation. Attention to employee welfare was demonstrated by ʻOlaʻa Sugar Company in the housing program, free medical attention and recreational facilities. ʻOlaʻa modernized the housing by building new family units and relocating outlying houses scattered about the plantation into nine main villages.

They became miniature towns with running water, electric lights, schools, churches, stores, clubhouses, theaters, parks and ball fields. The plantation roads radiated from these nine camps to cover the cane areas where the men worked. The 1930 plantation census noted a total of 5,999-men, women and children residing in 1,098-houses at ʻOlaʻa. (HSPA)

The plantation made land available for community uses. As examples, the ʻOlaʻa Hongwanji was built in 1902. Likewise, ʻOlaʻa Christian Church was nearby. ʻOlaʻa School, an elementary school, began in 1939. Other groups and places were formed using the ʻOlaʻa namesake.

That changed … and, it’s not clear how or when the mistake was learned.

But a 1951 article in The Friend paper reported part of the reasoning for subsequent name changes. “At an impressive ceremony, more than 250 members and friends of the church gathered to witness the old ʻOlaʻa Christian Church become the new Keaʻau Congregational Church.”

“The name-changing and rededication ceremony took place on the night of April 10, 1951, at the ʻOlaʻa Christian Church …. The Christian assertion, ‘God is Truth,’ is no mere, pious assertion designed to conceal their inner fear of truth nor their secret attachment to falsehood.”

“Christians are incurably truthseekers. Thus when the members of our church learned that the original and correct name of the village in which the church is situated is Keaʻau and not ʻOlaʻa, they felt that the time had come when they should change the name of the church.” (The Friend, June 1, 1951)

Others followed.

In 1960, ʻOlaʻa Sugar Company became Puna Sugar Company. ʻOlaʻa Elementary School became Keaʻau Elementary and Intermediate School (later Keaʻau Middle School.) In the early-1970s, ʻOlaʻa Hongwanji became Puna Hongwanji.

Not all early labels and references were incorrect; a 1914 USGS map appears to correctly label the place once known as ʻOlaʻa as Keaau.

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Puna_District-DAGS-1808-1893

Olaa-Keaau-Hilo-GoogleEarth

View from Olaa-Volcano-Rd-DAGS1665a-1892

Olaa-Keaau-Proposed Volcano Road-DAGS1665-1893

Olaa School Token

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Puna Hongwanji

Olaa Hongwanji

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March 7, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Royal Footsteps

To the unsuspecting motorist, travel along Ali‘i Drive is a very pleasant coastal drive filled with scenic vistas, natural features and recreational opportunities.

But look a little closer and discover that these seven miles of roadway hold seven centuries of Hawaiian history and culture revealed in the archaeological sites that have survived over hundreds of years.

Ali‘i, Hawai‘i’s royal class, were the ruler-caretakers of the islands. The great chiefs, through their strong genealogical connections, owned all the land in the areas they controlled.

Royal Centers were compounds selected by the Ali‘i for their abundance of resources and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored. Structures most likely included heiau (religious temples) and sacred areas, house sites for the Ali‘i and their entourage of family and kahuna (priests).

Four of the seven ancient Royal Centers in use in Kona are located on what is now called Ali‘i Drive: Kamakahonu, Hōlualoa, Kahaluʻu and Keauhou.

Kamakahonu, Kailua – Occupied by Kamehameha I between 1813 and 1819.
Holualoa – Area with numerous heiau and good surf. Associated with Keolonahihi in the ca. 1300, Keakamahana and Keakealaniwahine in ca. 1600 and Kamehameha I in the 18th Century.
Kahaluʻu – Complex of multiple heiau surrounding Kahaluʻu Bay.
Keauhou – This area is noted for the largest hōlua slide in Hawai‘i called Kaneaka, the surfing area called Kaulu and numerous heiau.

Oral traditions that tell us that in the time of Pāʻao, or by western calculations the 1300s, Chiefess Keolonāhihi resided at the Hōlualoa Royal Center.

Keolonāhihi (reported to be either the daughter or niece of Pāʻao) is an essential link to the beginnings of old Hawai‘i’s kapu system – the religious, social and political structure introduced by Pāʻao which lasted for some 500-years until King Kamehameha II defiantly ended it in 1819 at the Kamakahonu Royal Center.

Defending these old traditions, over 300 warriors lost their lives in the fierce Battle of Kuamoʻo and are buried at Lekeleke, the southern endpoint of Ali‘i Drive.

In the early-1500s, ʻUmialiloa (ʻUmi) consolidated his reign by killing off other chiefs to become the sole ruler of Hawai‘i Island. He then moved to Kona, where he was known as a benevolent chief, and during this time the Kahaluʻu area grew in its political stature and religious significance.

Lonoikamakahiki, who also ruled during the 1500s, chose Kahaluʻu and Keauhou for his residence and the seat of government.

The Kahaluʻu Royal Center included the ancient Hāpaiali‘i Heiau that once stood for prayers, along with adjacent Ke‘ekū heiau and Makolea heiau. All have been recently restored.

In the 1600s, Keakealaniwahine, the great-great grandmother of King Kamehameha I, and her mother Keakamahana were Ali‘i of the highest rank and they resided at the Hōlualoa Royal Center. Alapaʻinui and Kalaniʻōpuʻu, 1600s to 1700s, are also associated with several sites and heiau in the region.

The Kamehameha Dynasty ruled for nearly a century from the late-1700s to the late-1800s. During the late-1700s and early 1800s, King Kamehameha I, also known as Kamehameha the Great, was the first to unify the entire Hawai‘i archipelago under a single rule.

He excelled at surfing at Hōlualoa Bay; in the final years of his life, Kamehameha I selected Kamakahonu as his residence and his rule established the first Capital of Hawai‘i here from 1812 until his death in 1819. Shortly thereafter, the capital of the kingdom was moved from Hawai‘i Island, never to return.

Archaeological features of these various sites, for the most part, remain in place along Ali‘i Drive and signal their monumental importance in Hawai‘i’s history and culture. Several heiau have been restored in Keauhou.

It was here, along Ali‘i Drive, over centuries in time where chiefs of the highest rank walked.

Here was the coming of the first Christian missionaries who arrived in Kailua Bay in 1820 and began the transformation of Hawai‘i through rapid religious conversion.

Historic Kailua Village hosts renowned international sporting events (Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, Ironman Triathlon World Championship and Queen Lili‘uokalani Long Distance Canoe Races.)

Historic sites once covered much of the Kailua to Keauhou section of the Kona Coast. It is important for us to honor the Ali‘i by maintaining, enhancing and interpreting the remaining ancestral inheritance.

Recently, TripAdvisor, considered the world’s largest travel site, announced that Historic Kailua Village was the top choice for visitors in the US (the awards annually highlight 54-spots globally that have seen the greatest increase in positive traveler feedback and traveler interest, year-over-year.)

We prepared a corridor management plan for Royal Footsteps Along the Kona Coast Scenic Byway for the Kailua Village Business Improvement District – it runs the length of Aliʻi Drive.

We were honored and proud when the Scenic Byway received an Environment / Preservation Award from the American Planning Association‐Hawaiʻi Chapter; Historic Preservation Commendation and Preservation Media Awards from Hawaiʻi Foundation from Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation; and the Pualu Award for Culture & Heritage from the Kona‐Kohala Chamber of Commerce.

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