Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Falls Of Clyde

News on Falls of Clyde prompts me to bring her story back …

She was launched December 12, 1878 by shipbuilders Russell & Co at Port Glasgow, Scotland; the four-masted, full-rigged ship Falls of Clyde became part of the Falls Line fleet – all of which were named after Scottish waterfalls.

Falls of Clyde has a wrought-iron hull with a net tonnage of 1,748 tons and has a registered length of 266-feet, with a 40-foot beam and a 23.5-foot depth of hold.

She was rated the highest rating the maritime insurance firm could provide (Lloyd’s of London.)

Used for trade between Britain and India, the ship was under the British flag and journeyed into the Pacific, stopping at Australia, New Zealand, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Falls of Clyde made 10 voyages to American ports while under the British flag.  Sailing to San Francisco and Portland for wheat, she also made one voyage to New York. The voyages to San Francisco were particularly important, for they involved the ship in one of the United States and Britain’s most significant maritime trades, the California grain trade.

She was later sold to Captain William Matson in 1898 with plans to be used for the lucrative sugar trade between Hawaiʻi and the continent.  However, according to US law, Falls of Clyde needed American registry to trade between American ports, a right denied to foreign-built and registered vessels.

“The four masted iron ship Falls of Clyde (under the command of Captain Matson,) floating the Hawaiian flag, the Oceanic Steamship Company’s pennant and her own signal letters, came into the harbor at 10 o’clock this morning.  … “

“The Falls of Clyde brings about 1,000 tons or general merchandise, a large part of which is machinery for the Honolulu plantation.  She also brings 40 mules and 8 horses for the plantation and a stallion for W. G. Irwin & Co.”  (Hawaiian Star, January 20, 1899)

“She is the first four masted Iron ship with yards on each mast that ever came into this harbor flying the Hawaiian flag. Her authority for flying this flag is a temporary register Issued to her by Hawaiian Consul General Wilder at San Francisco.”  (Hawaiian Star, January 20, 1899)

A special provision was added to the 1900 ‘Organic Act;’ Section 98 of the Act states: “That all vessels carrying Hawaiian registers on the twelfth day of August, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and which were owned bona fide by citizens of the United States, or the citizens of Hawaii …”

“… together with the following-named vessels claiming Hawaiian register, Star of France, Euterpe, Star of Russia, Falls of Clyde, and Wilscott, shall be entitled to be registered as American vessels, with the benefits and privileges appertaining thereto, and …”

“…the coasting trade between the islands aforesaid and any other portion of the United States, shall be regulated in accordance with the provisions of law applicable to such trade between any two great coasting districts.”

Converted to US registry, Falls of Clyde then was involved in the Hawaiian transpacific sugar trade for Matson Navigation Co.  She carried people, too.

Her cargo hold was not limited to the sugar plantation business; just as modern Matson ships bring in assorted cargo that fill a variety of shelves across the islands, the Falls of Clyde supplied the Islands with various goods that filled the needs of the past.

Here’s a brief summary of an early manifest: “The ship Falls of Clyde sailed yesterday for Hilo with an assorted cargo valued at $23,599 and including the following: 95 bbls flour, 41 ctls wheat, 914 ctls barley, 231 bales hay, 18,521 lbs bran, 12 ctls corn, 75,000 lbs rice, 12 tons salt, 6492 gals wine, 900 lbs lard, 25 cs canned goods, 189,947 lbs fertilizer, 114,174 ft lumber, 38,000 lbs cement, 4200 lbs tobacco, 550 gals distillate, 65 cs gasoline, 150 cs coal oil, 101 cs assorted oils, 100 bxs soap, 1 cs arms and ammunition, 15 pkgs agricultural implements, 3 pkgs machinery, 3 rolls leather, 50 sks coal, 75 pkgs wagon material, 10 pkgs millwork, 6 cs matches, 25 bales paper, 85 kegs white lead, 20 cs paints, 6 pkgs dry goods, 4 pkgs bicycles and parts, 3 bales twine, 1 cs shoes, 30 mules.” (San Francisco Call, February 19, 1905)

The four-masted vessel, originally rigged as a ship, was down-rigged to a bark; in addition, Matson modified and built a large wooden deckhouse forward and a charthouse on the poop deck.

She carried sugar from Hilo to San Francisco until 1906 when the Associated Oil Company (a group of 45 independent oil producers in which Matson had an interest) bought the ship and in 1907 Falls of Clyde was once again modified when she was converted into a sailing oil tanker.

Associated Oil added 10-tanks within the hull, a boiler room and a pump room with a carrying capacity close to 750,000-gallons.  She also carried molasses from Hilo to San Francisco over the next 13 years.

In 1921, she was sold to the General Petroleum Corporation who, after dismasting, then used her as a floating petroleum barge in Ketchikan, Alaska.

General Petroleum reorganized as Socony-Vacuum (now Mobil Oil) in 1959 and developed new shore facilities at Ketchikan. No longer needed, Falls of Clyde was again sold and towed to Seattle, and laid up.

After several attempts to save the ship of the fate of being scuttled as a breakwater, a group of civic and historic-minded folks in Hawaiʻi, aided by funds from the Matson Navigation Co. and other donations (spearheaded by the Friends of Falls of Clyde,) purchased and returned the ship to Honolulu in 1963.

With lots of voluntary help she was restored, remasted and rerigged and, under management of Bishop Museum, in 1970 she was opened to the public at Pier 5.

Damaged by Hurricane Iwa in 1982, she was moved to Pier 7, and over the course of a few years she was restored and became the centerpiece of the Hawaiʻi Maritime Center, moored at Pier 7 in Honolulu Harbor.

Maintaining any boat is expensive, particularly one that dates to the late-1800s.

The Friends of Falls of Clyde mobilized and rallied, again, and on September 25, the Museum’s Board of Directors approved the sale to the Friends, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the Falls of Clyde.  (The Friends took ownership of the Falls of Clyde from Bishop Museum on September 30, 2008.)

“The ship Falls of Clyde (FOC) was placed on the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places (HRHP) and the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1973. It was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1989 because of its exceptional national significance as the oldest surviving American tanker and the only surviving sailing oil tanker left afloat in the world.” (HHF)

On June 28, 2023 the State of Hawai‘i Department of Transportation announced that it will seek to remove the Falls of Clyde from the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places. The Hawai‘i Historic Places Review Board recently met to address an application to delist the Falls of Clyde.

Historic Hawai‘i Foundation testified, “If the Hawai‘i Historic Places Review Board concurs with HDOT’s finding and subsequently takes action to remove the ship from the state register of historic places, only one of its five designations would be affected.”

“Removing the listing from the Hawai‘i Register would have no effect on the national designations, which are governed by the U.S. Department of the Interior. FOC would still be listed on the National Register and as a National Historic Landmark.” (HHF)

Let’s remember the bottom line … Falls of Clyde is the world’s only surviving four-masted, full-rigged ship and is the oldest surviving American tanker and the only surviving sailing oil tanker left afloat.  (Lots of information and images from NPS, Historic Hawaiʻi and Friends of Falls of Clyde.)

Physical things help us see things. Losing the last means we no longer ‘see’ her to remember her.

© 2023 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Connections

“There has never been any agreement, as to the origin of this isolated island people, or the reasons why this type is only found scattered over all the solitary islands in the eastern part of the Pacific.”  (Thor Heyerdahl)

Solomon Lehuanui Kalaniomaiheuila was the son of Peleioholani (uncle to the Kings Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V) and Piikeakaluaonalani (mother.)  For many, Peleioholani was considered an important Hawaiian antiquarian and the final word in Hawaiian genealogy, especially of the chiefs and royal families.

He wrote of the Hawaiian history.  One of Peleioholani’s theories notes, “The ancestors of the Hawaiian race came not from the islands the South Pacific – for the immigrants from that direction were late arrivals there – but from the northern direction (welau lani,) that is, from the land of Kalonakikeke, now known as Alaska.”

Others have noted connections between people in the Pacific and other parts of the world.

The idea of a trans-Pacific crossing has had its proponents within scholarly archaeology. Heyerdahl’s (1950) Kon-Tiki experiment demonstrated that such a crossing (from Peru to Raroia) was possible. But simply because such an experiment is possible does not mean that it happened.  (Boulanger)

Meggers et al. reported on what they interpreted as similarities between ceramics of the Valdivia culture of coastal Ecuador and the middle Jomon culture of western Japan. Yet, concerted archaeological research over the past 200 years has failed to provide any substantial material evidence for a trans-Pacific origin for any Native American culture.

Some suggest the sweet potato is proof of connection … 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.

The Polynesian word for sweet potato resembles the central Andes’ Quechua people’s word for the vegetable.  (SmithsonianMag)  Polynesian word for sweet potato ‘kuumala’ resembles ‘kumara,’ or ‘cumal,’ the words for the vegetable in Quechua, a language spoken by Andean natives. (NPS)

But did Polynesians land on South American beaches, or did Native Americans sail into the Pacific to reach Rapa Nui?  (Lawler; ScienceMag)  Or, did its seeds possibly hitch a ride on seaweed or natural raft, or gotten lodged in the wing of a bird? (NPR)

“Our studies strongly suggest that Native Americans most probably arrived (on Rapa Nui) shortly after the Polynesians (got there.)”  (Erik Thorsby; ScienceMag)

But many scientists say that Pacific currents and Polynesian mastery of the waves make it more likely that the Polynesians were the voyagers. They may have sailed to South America, swapped goods for sweet potatoes and other novelties—and returned to their island with South American women.  (Lawler; ScienceMag)

“There’s a lot of evidence accumulating … that the Polynesians made landfall in South America.  We think they had sophisticated, double-hulled canoes – like very large catamarans – which could carry 80 or more people and be out to sea for months.”  (Kirch; NPR)

The researchers found strong evidence that “supports the so-called tripartite hypothesis, which argues that the sweet potato was introduced to Polynesia three times: first through premodern contact between Polynesia and South America, then by Spanish traders sailing west from Mexico, and Portuguese traders coming east from the Caribbean.”

“The Spanish and Portuguese varieties ended up in the western Pacific, while the older South American variety dominated in the east”.  (SmithsonianMag)

It is believed the sweet potato then made three independent trips to Southeast Asia. The Polynesians probably introduced it in 1100 AD. While the Spanish and Portuguese brought other varieties from the Americas around 1500. (NPR)

Peter Marsh makes several Canadian connections to Pacific Islands, noting, that archaeological and cultural evidence suggests that there is a strong connection between Coastal Canada and Polynesia. Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) is an archipelago off the coast of British Columbia, Canada.

Marsh notes that both the Polynesians and Haida people worked in stone in the same manner, designs of implements were almost identical. The use of pottery was completely absent in both cultures.  The design and way of manufacture of the following artifacts bear a striking resemblance:

  • Tahitian and Haida stone pounders are almost identical.
  • Stone bowls found in Kauai and stone bowls found in the Bella Coola valley from a pre-existing culture are very similar.
  • Maori and NW Coastal Indian war clubs both have the gaping angry mouth motif on the handle.
  • Tattooing tool kit design indicates Polynesian kit derived from Haida tattooing implements.
  • Fish hook design is almost identical
  • Fish hook pendants are also identical
  • Petroglyphs are similar
  • Spiritual carvings such as the Tiki are amazingly similar in both cultures.
  • Large totem poles with figures stacked on top of one another with their tongues sticking out are common in both Maori and Haida cultures.
  • Haida and Marquesan carvings have similar shaped eyes and mouths.
  • Carvings around building entrances where the legs form an archway.
  • The practice of inlaying of Paua shell into the eyes of figures is a style used in both cultures.
  • Maori war canoes are similar in design to Kwakuitl canoes.
  • The use of calabashes instead of pottery for carrying water is common to both cultures.
  • The use of hot rocks to steam and widen canoes, is practiced by both Maori and Kwakuitl.
  • Earth ovens are used by both cultures
  • The unique practice of rubbing noses as a way of greeting is used in both Maori and some tribes in the Canadian NW. This suggests definite cultural and spiritual connection.
  • The use of the glottal stop in speech is similar e.g.; Hawai‘i and Haida Gwai‘i.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Toilet Paper, Bottled Water …

Folks in Hawai‘i have developed a scarcity mentality – whenever the wind blows, it rains hard or someone gets a hint of a possible dock strike on the West Coast there is a run on toilet paper, bottled water and any number of ‘essentials.’

Maui Mento Braddah helps show this …

“Historically the first modern toilet paper was made in 1391, when it was created for the needs of the Chinese Emperor family. Each sheet of toilet paper was even perfumed. That was toilet paper as we have come to think of it.”

“In the late fifteenth century, paper became widely available. However, mass manufacturing of modern toilet paper began in the late 19th century.”

“Joseph C. Gayetty created the first commercially packaged toilet paper in 1857. His toilet papers were loose, flat, sheets of paper. Joseph founded The Gayetty Firm for toilet paper production in New Jersey and his first factory-made toilet paper was ‘The Therapeutic Paper.’”

“Thomas Seymour, Edward Irvin and Clarence Wood Scott began selling some kind of toilet paper in Philadelphia in 1867. In 1879, Scott brothers founded the Scott Paper Company. The Scott Paper Company’s toilet paper was the first toilet paper sold in rolls. In 1890 the Scott Paper Company made its Waldorf brand toilet paper in rolls.”

“In 1871, Zeth Wheeler patents rolled and perforated toilet paper. In 1877 he founded the Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Company. In 1897, company began selling and marketing standard perforated toilet paper on a roll.”  (Toilet Paper History)

The average person in the US uses about 100 rolls of toilet paper each year. The US has been mass producing toilet paper since the late 1800s. And while other industries like shoe manufacturing have fled the country, toilet paper manufacturing has not. Today there are almost 150 US companies making this product.  (Zagorsky)

“In Honolulu the issue is tissue. And you don’t ask for the salt and pepper. You ask for salt and paper.”

“Toilet paper and salt have all but vanished from the shelves of Hawaii’s stores as a result of the 100‐day West Coast shipping strike that has largely cut off the fleet of ships that normally brings supplies to Hawaii from San Francisco, 2,400 miles east.” (NY Times Oct 19, 1971)

But we have not been alone; back in 1974, “Johnny Carson told his faithful late-night television audience. ‘But have you heard the latest? I’m not kidding. I saw it in the paper. There’s a shortage of toilet paper.’” (NY Times, Feb 3, 1974)

“The day after Carson read the clipping (and made a few jokes) about the ‘toilet paper shortage’ people didn’t realize the story had been about commercial toilet paper and there was a surge of panic buying of consumer-grade toilet paper.”

“This resulted in the stores selling out of the toilet paper they had on the shelves — which of course reinforced the rumor of a toilet paper shortage.” (Snopes)

Back then (1974) the New York Times was suggesting folks on the continent were getting what folks in Hawai‘i already had … a “‘shortage psychology,’ almost an eagerness among many Americans to anticipate the next shortage. Such an attitude, brought on by shortages of gasoline, electricity and, for a time, even onions, seems to assure no future shortage of shortage rumors.”

But, Hawai‘i is different … Hawai‘i is the most-isolated populated-place.

In 2022, Hawai‘i imported $2.52B, making it the 49th largest importer out of the 53 importers in United States. That year, Hawai‘i exported $703M, making it the 53rd largest exporter out of the 53 exporters in United States. (Observatory of Economic Complexity)

With respect to food, Hawai‘i’s local production is 9.3% of total market requirement, and the state is dependent on imports for the remaining 90.7%, mainly from the continental US.  (Loke and Leung)

And, what comes into Hawai‘i is dependent on an efficiently operating import system.  That invariably involves ships bringing these products to our shores.  And, that is dependent on the functioning docks on the continent and in the Islands.

The longshore industry is the work of loading and unloading ships’ cargoes. In the old days of clipper ships, sailings were frequently unscheduled, and labor was often recruited at the last minute by shoreside criers calling: “Men along the shore!” – giving rise to the term “longshoremen.” (ILWU)

The first longshore unions on the West Coast were founded in the 19th century. By 1902 the longshoremen were loosely affiliated with the American Federation of Labor’s International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). But their ties to national headquarters were weak, and most returned or lost their charters within a few a years.

Initially, the longshore unions grew slowly. Each local was protective of its geographical jurisdiction and limited work opportunities, and none was eager to give up their autonomy to any federation.

“‘Almost all of our domestic cargo arrives via the West Coast ports,’ said Warren Sugimoto, administrative services officer with Hawaii’s harbors division.”

“‘If the [work stoppage] lasts awhile, it will have a major impact. If it’s very short term, the impact would be negligible.’” (Los Angeles Times)

As an example, “The International Longshore and Warehouse Union strike shut down every dock on the West Coast while bosses and union leaders fought over a new contract.”

“Hawaii residents were completely dependent on those shipments for a variety of goods – salt, rice – but none seems to have stuck in the memory like the lack of toilet paper.” (Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2020)

As indicated in the 1974 experience with the remark by Johnny Carson, shortages can develop overnight (for no apparent reason – other than someone (and a growing number of others) feels the need to have ‘enough’).

Think back to 2020, during the COVID days … businesses in Hawai‘i were rationing toilet paper and other commodities because of the ‘run’ on these items.  It seems like anything can trigger the next, at any time.

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Roughing It

“Early in 1866, George Barnes invited [Mark Twain] to resign [his] reportership on his paper, the San Francisco Morning Call, and for some months thereafter, [he] was without money or work; then [he] had a pleasant turn of fortune.”

“The proprietors of the Sacramento Union, a great and influential daily journal, sent [Twain] to the Sandwich Islands to write four letters a month at twenty dollars a piece.”

He also wrote books about some of his travels (that included a visit to Hawai‘i) … one such, Roughing It.  Here are some of his first impressions of Honolulu – from that series, as well as his other writing.

“This book is merely a personal narrative, and not a pretentious history or a philosophical dissertation. It is a record of several years of variegated vagabondizing, and its object is rather to help the resting reader while away an idle hour than afflict him with metaphysics, or goad him with science.”

“Still, there is information in the volume; information concerning an interesting episode in the history of the Far West, about which no books have been written by persons who were on the ground in person, and saw the happenings of the time with their own eyes.” …

“On the seventh day out we saw a dim vast bulk standing up out of the wastes of the Pacific and knew that that spectral promontory was Diamond Head”.

“So we were nearing Honolulu, the capital city of the Sandwich Islands – those islands which to me were Paradise; a Paradise which I had been longing all those years to see again.  Not any other thing in the world could have stirred me as the sight of that great rock did.” 

“On a certain bright morning the Islands hove in sight, lying low on the lonely sea, and everybody climbed to the upper deck to look.  After two thousand miles of watery solitude the vision was a welcome one.”

“As we approached, the imposing promontory of Diamond Head rose up out of the ocean its rugged front softened by the hazy distance, and presently the details of the land began to make themselves manifest …”

“… first the line of beach; then the plumed coacoanut trees of the tropics; then cabins of the natives; then the white town of Honolulu, said to contain between twelve and fifteen thousand inhabitants spread over a dead level; with streets from twenty to thirty feet wide, solid and level as a floor, most of them straight as a line and few as crooked as a corkscrew.”

“The further I traveled through the town the better I liked it.”

“Every step revealed a new contrast–disclosed something I was unaccustomed to. In place of the grand mud-colored brown fronts of San Francisco, I saw dwellings built of straw, adobies, and cream-colored pebble-and-shell-conglomerated coral, cut into oblong blocks and laid in cement ….”

“… also a great number of neat white cottages, with green window-shutters; in place of front yards like billiard-tables with iron fences around them, I saw these homes surrounded by ample yards, thickly clad with green grass, and shaded by tall trees, through whose dense foliage the sun could scarcely penetrate …”

“… in place of the customary geranium, calla lily, etc., languishing in dust and general debility, I saw luxurious banks and thickets of flowers, fresh as a meadow after a rain, and glowing with the richest dyes …”

“… in place of the dingy horrors of San Francisco’s pleasure grove, the “Willows,” I saw huge-bodied, wide-spreading forest trees, with strange names and stranger appearance –trees that cast a shadow like a thunder-cloud, and were able to stand alone without being tied to green poles …”

“… in place of gold fish, wiggling around in glass globes, assuming countless shades and degrees of distortion through the magnifying and diminishing qualities of their transparent prison houses, I saw cats …

“… Tom-cats, Mary Ann cats, long-tailed cats, bob-tailed cats, blind cats, one-eyed cats, wall-eyed cats, cross-eyed cats, gray cats, black cats, white cats, yellow cats, striped cats, spotted cats, tame cats, wild cats, singed cats, individual cats, groups of cats, platoons of cats, companies of cats, regiments of cats, armies of cats, multitudes of cats, millions of cats, and all of them sleek, fat, lazy and sound asleep.”

“I looked on a multitude of people, some white, in white coats, vests, pantaloons, even white cloth shoes, made snowy with chalk duly laid on every morning …”

“… but the majority of the people were almost as dark as negroes–women with comely features, fine black eyes, rounded forms, inclining to the voluptuous, clad in a single bright red or white garment that fell free and unconfined from shoulder to heel …”

“… long black hair falling loose, gypsy hats, encircled with wreaths of natural flowers of a brilliant carmine tint; plenty of dark men in various costumes, and some with nothing on but a battered stove-pipe hat tilted on the nose, and a very scant breech-clout; –certain smoke-dried children were clothed in nothing but sunshine –a very neat fitting and picturesque apparel indeed.”  (Twain)

Like they get to a lot of people, the Islands struck a chord with Clemens.

“I was there for four or five months, and returned to find myself about the best known man on the Pacific Coast.” (Twain)  Popular pieces, some credit the series with turning Twain into a journalistic star.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kilauea Iki Eruption – 1959

Volcanologists knew something was coming.

Between November 1957 and February 1959 measurements from newly installed sensitive tiltmeter bases around the summit indicated that the whole caldera region was tilting outward, apparently because magma was welling up from the mantle and accumulating in the reservoir several miles beneath the caldera.

Between August 14 and 19, 1959, a swarm of deep earthquakes was recorded on the seismographs at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. The earthquakes were located about 35-miles below the volcano.

By October, tilt surveys of the caldera, using the new water-tube tiltmeter network, indicated that the summit reservoir of Kīlauea was beginning to inflate with new magma. Scientists later concluded that magma began its upward journey during the August swarm.

Another series of earthquakes – shallow tiny events beneath the caldera – began in mid-September near Halema‘uma‘u Crater. By November 1, more than 1,000 tiny earthquakes were being recorded per day.

Scientists conducted another caldera tilt survey during the second week of November and discovered it was swelling at least three times faster than during the previous months. Magma was moving into the summit reservoir at a high rate.

During the afternoon of November 14, earthquakes beneath the caldera suddenly increased about tenfold in both number and intensity. For five hours, the entire Kīlauea summit region shook as seismic tremor signaled magma was forcing its way from the summit reservoir toward the surface.

An erupting fissure of small lava fountains broke through the south wall of Kīlauea Iki Crater at 8:08 p.m. In the first 24 hours, activity decreased and then eventually ceased at the outermost fissure vents. By nightfall on November 15, only a single vent on the west side of the fissure remained active.

Over the next five days, lava fountain heights fluctuated between about 650 and 980-feet, with a maximum fountain height of 1,247-feet.

A brand new cinder cone called Puʻupuaʻi (translates to “gushing hill”) was formed. As cinder and spatter rapidly accumulated to form Puʻupua‘i, slabs of congealed spatter occasionally broke loose and slid down the cone into the churning lava lake.

The 1959 summit eruption occurred in Kilauea Iki, a collapse crater adjacent to the main summit caldera of Kilauea. There were 17 eruptive ‘episodes’ (or phase) of the eruption which ranged in duration from 1 week to 1¾-hours..

On December 17, episode 15 produced lava fountains that were approximately 1,900-feet high, the highest recorded in Hawaii during the 20th century.

That’s about three times the size of the Washington Monument. That’s also 124 feet higher than the tallest building in the US now: One World Trade Center. (CNN)

Downwind from high lava fountains, forests suffered tremendous damage. Trees were stripped of leaves and branches – or completely buried – by falling cinder. You can now walk through this area of the National Park; it’s called ‘Devastation Trail.’

A few ōhi‘a trees, dead and bleached, poke up through the pumice and very gradually some ōhi‘a, ōhelo and ferns are beginning to recolonize the dead zone (unfortunately, some blackberry, too.)

Here is a video of the eruption (unfortunately, there is no sound, the sound of an eruption is as impressive as the visual):

The lava lake attained its greatest depth (414 feet) and volume (58 million cubic yards) at the end of the eighth phase on December 11, 1959. The eruption ended December 20, 1959.

When we were kids, living on Kāne‘ohe Bay on O‘ahu, whenever the eruption happened we’d go to the Big Island to see it, including the 1959 eruption of Kīlauea Iki.

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