Hawaii | Page 292 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 22, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

It Was a Real Estate Deal

Although the park was initially touted to create “a tract of land in the vicinity of Honolulu as a place of public resort,” where “agricultural and stock exhibitions, and healthful exercise, recreations and amusements” could occur, its literal purpose was far from it.

On the dedication day in 1876, King Kalākaua and James Makee (Kapiʻolani Park Association’s first president) stressed the public space, which they said was needed for a modern city to be civilized, to allow “families, children, and quiet people” to find “refreshment and recreation” in the “kindly influences of nature,” and to be a “place of innocent refreshment.”

However, when Kapiʻolani Park was first conceived, the motivation wasn’t about creating a public place. Kapiʻolani Park began as a development project, run by the Kapiʻolani Park Association.

The association was founded with a two-fold purpose: (1) building residences for its stockholders along the ocean at Waikiki and on the slopes of Diamond Head and (2) laying out a first-class horse-racing track as a focal point of this new suburb.

Scotsman Archibald Cleghorn, Governor of Oʻahu and father of Princess Kaʻiulani, was the park’s designer. Vice-president and later president of the Kapiʻolani Park Association, Cleghorn planned the park’s landscaping, including the ironwood trees along Kalākaua Avenue.

200 shares were sold at $50 each. (King Kalākaua was a shareholder.) Every owner received the right to lease a beachfront house lot in the park, and as a result a number of residences were built along the park’s shores and around the race track during the 1880s.

The McInerny home and estate (founder of the McInerny retail stores) is where the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel now stands.

Samuel Northrup Castle family’s three-story beachfront home “Kainalu” became a prominent landmark in Waikīkī, as well as the landmark for the takeoff at Castles surf-spot. The mansion was razed in 1958 to build the Elks Club.

William Irwin’ home is where the 1927 World War I Memorial Natatorium now stands.

At the time, the park contained both arid spaces and wetlands, and the association focused on making the site usable and attractive. They soon distributed lots and established a prime racetrack complete with grandstands and stables.

All of this cost a considerable amount and the association was in debt in less than ten years. The legislature granted appropriations throughout the 1880s, and while there were some calls for transparency on the spending of public funds, the association generally slid by without much scrutiny.

The public funds did not increase public access, either, and the ocean remained blocked to the public. Later, moves were afoot to bring the public into the focus of the picture.

In 1896, an understanding was reached and later consummated between (1) the Kapiʻolani Park Association, which held a little over nine acres of land in fee, and a larger area on lease from the Republic, as a park, (2) William G. Irwin, who owned 19 waterfront lots and (3) the Republic of Hawaii. Irwin ended up with 18-mauka lots, known as “Irwin Tract.”

Beginning with the deeds of July 1, 1896, Kapiʻolani Park was a public charitable trust, and the park commissioners were its trustees.

The Legislature of the Republic of Hawaiʻi passed Act 53, which placed Kapiʻolani Park and its management to the Honolulu Park Commission, which was created specifically to manage this park.

Act 53 provided that the park was to be “permanently set apart as a free public park and recreation ground forever.” The commission had no authority to lease or sell land in the park, a prohibition that still governs the park trust and would be key to the preservation of the park and later battles about it.

The understanding was that lands used for park use would become a free public park and that a commission formed to oversee the park had an express provision that “[t]he said Commission shall not have authority to lease or sell the land comprising the said park or any part thereof[.]”

Facing the same kinds of constraints we see today, the commission worked with budgetary constraints and labored with little public clout, but they continued to construct the park and then in 1904, first facility for the public was erected, a small aquarium.

The Territorial Legislature passed Act 103 in 1905 “to declare certain lands as public parks.” This led to the final acquisition of the oceanfront land along Kapiʻolani Park as the leases on the land to homeowners were allowed to expire, and in 1907, Kapiʻolani Park became a beach park for the first time.

In 1913, the Territory of Hawaiʻi transferred administrative authority to the City and County of Honolulu, which still manages the park.

Later park improvements include, the Honolulu Zoo (1915;) the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium (1927;) the Eastman Kodak Company was given permission to stage a Polynesian review at Sans Souci Beach (1937;) the Waikiki Shell was completed and opened (1954;) in 1969, the Kodak Company moved to the area adjacent to the Waikiki Shell.

Kapiʻolani Park’s racetrack closed in 1926, but approximately half the infield area of the racetrack remained in open space.

Lots of good stuff in this post came from the Kapiʻolani Park Preservation Society website. This group continues to monitor and protect the public activities at Kapiʻolani Park.

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Kapiolani_Park_Association-Stock_Certificate-(kapiolani_park-a_history)

Kapiolani_Park_Horse_Race_Ad

Kapiolani_Park_Horse_Race_Ad-April 30, 1881

DH-track

Horse races were a popular activity at Kapi‘olani Park-(waikikivisitor-com)

Kapiolani_Park-1900

Kapiolani-Park-Racetrack

Man riding a bike on the Kapi‘olani race track-(waikikivisitor-com)

Observation balloon being readied for flight at Kapiolani Park, c1921-1923

People in the stands at a horse race-(waikikivisitor-com)

Overlooking lilly pads from one of Kapi‘olani Park’s bridges-(waikikivisitor-com)

AlfredMitchellHouse(right-foreground)-IrwinHouse(center-background)

Waikiki-Kaneloa-Kapiolani_Park-Monsarrat-Reg1079 (1883)

May 21, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Abolition of the Kapu

“Kapihe the seer prophesied in the presence of Kamehameha and said, ‘There shall be a long malo reaching from Kuamo‘o to Hōlualoa. The islands shall come together, the tabus shall fall. The high shall be brought low, and the low shall rise to heaven.’”

“The prophecy was fufilled when the battle was fought at Kuamo‘o for the downfall of the ancient tabus. Hōlualoa was the long malo uniting the kingdom from Kahiki to Hawaii. The kingdom of the gods fell, and the believers rose to the heavens.”

“The tabu of the chief and the eating tabu were different in character. The eating tabu belonged to the tabus of the gods; it was forbidden by the god and held sacred by all. It was this tabu that gave the chiefs their high station. The tabu of the chief had to do with his birth as a ni‘aupio, pi‘o, wohi or some other rank and included many tabus within the tabu of the chief.”

“It was believed that by faithfully preserving these tabus a child born into one of these ranks would become like a god (like me ke akua). Because he observed the tabus of the chiefs Kamehameha became a conqueror and went from one victory to another until he had united the group under him, although he had not so high a tabu as his son Liholiho.”

“An extraordinary event marked the period of Liholiho’s rule in the breaking down of the ancient tabus, the doing away with the power of the kahunas to declare tabus and to offer sacrifices, and the abolition of the tabu which forbade eating with women.”

“God alone knows what brought about this abolition of the old and the introduction of the new form of worship.
• The death of Kamehameha (May 8, 1819) was the first step in the ending of the tabu;
• the second was the modifying of the mourning ceremonies;
• the third, the ending of the tabu of the chief;
• the fourth, the ending of carrying the tabu chiefs in the arms and feeding them;
• the fifth, the ruling chief’s decision to introducing free eating (‘ainoa) after the death of Kamehameha;
• the sixth, the cooperation of his aunts, Ka‘ahumanu and Kaheiheimalie;
• the seventh, the joint action of the chiefs in eating together at the suggestion of the ruling chief, so that free eating became an established fact and the credit of establishing the custom went to the ruling chief.”

“This custom was not so much of an innovation as might be supposed. In old days the period of mourning at the death of a ruling chief who had been greatly beloved was a time of license.”

“The women were allowed to enter the heiau, to eat bananas, coconuts, and pork, and to climb over the sacred places. … Free eating followed the death of the ruling chief; after the period of mourning was over the new ruler placed the land under a new tabu following old lines.”

“The custom of the tabu upon free eating was kept up because in old days it was believed that the ruler who did not proclaim the tabu had not long to rule. If he attempted to continue the practice of free eating he was quickly disinherited. It was regarded as an impious act practiced by those alone who did not believe in a god.”

“The chief who kept up the ancient tabus was known as a worshiper of the god, one who would live a long life protected by Ku and Lono. He would be like a ward of Kane and Kanaloa, sheltered within the tabu.”

“The tabu eating was a fixed law for chiefs and commoners, not because they would die by eating tabu things, but in order to keep a distinction between things permissible to all people and those dedicated to the gods.”

“The ten days necessary for the cleaning of Kamehameha’s bones had passed, and they had been brought to the tower (‘anu‘u) within the heiau built for them where the receptacle (ka‘ai) was woven in which they were to be deposited.”

“[After this had been done] Liholiho, the heir to the kingdom, returned from Kawaihae to Kailua with his company of chiefs, and the days of mourning were ended. On May (Kaelo) 21, 1819, in the twenty-first year of his age, Liholiho began to rule over the people”.

“Liholiho returned by canoe to Kailua, and the next day Ka‘ahumanu proclaimed him king. Keōpūolani then looked at the young chief and put her hand to her mouth as a sign for free eating.”

“This was a strange thing for a tabu chiefess to do, one for whom these tabus were made and who had the benefit of them. How could those to whom the tabu rank did not belong object after that?”

“In the afternoon she ate with Kauikeaouli, and it was through her influence alone that the eating tabu was freed. No one else dared eat with her by day because of her tabu, which was so strict that even Kamehameha had been obliged to uncover and remove his loin cloth in her presence; only at night was it less severe.”

“Then Liholiho on his first night of his arrival ate some of the tabu dog meat free only to the chiefesses; he entered the lauhala house free only to them; whatever he desired he reached out for; everything was supplied, even those things generally to be found only in a tabu house.”

“The people saw the men drinking rum with the women kahu and smoking tobacco, and thought it was to mark the ending of the tabu of the chief. The chiefs saw with satisfaction the ending of the chief’s tabu and the freeing of the eating tabu.”

“The kahu said to the chief, ‘Make eating free over the whole kingdom from Hawaii to Oahu and let it be extended to Kauai!’ and Liholiho consented.”

“Then pork to be eaten free was taken to the country districts and given to commoners, both men and women, and free eating was introduced all over the group.”

“Messengers were sent to Maui, Molokai, Oahu, and all the way to Kauai. Kaumuali‘i consented to the free eating and it was accepted on Kauai. Boki was over the land of Oahu at the time, and Oahu accepted free eating. The prophecy of Kapihe was fulfilled.”

“Many of the commoners and chiefs, even those: who had participated in free eating, and the brothers of Ka‘ahumanu themselves, wanted tabu eating. Few of the chiefs were in favor of free eating.”

After the battle of Kuamo‘o, and the deaths of Kekuaokalani and Manono, “All were finally pardoned by Liholiho and their lives spared. … This ended the armed opposition against free eating.” (All here is from Kamakau.)

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May 20, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Betsey Stockton

Betsey Stockton was born in about 1798; the exact year is not clear. Her mother was most likely an enslaved African-American woman in the Princeton household of Robert Stockton, one of New Jersey’s most politically-prominent families of the Revolutionary era. Her father may have been white.

“The Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green, later President of the (Princeton) College, (1812-’21) married Mr. Stockton’s eldest daughter, and Betsey became a part of his household at a time which cannot now be determined.”

“She became a thoroughly trained domestic nurse, seamstress and cook, acquiring an invaluable practical education so that she could do skilfully whatever was assigned her. It is understood that Mr. Green did not favor educating his servants in books, but she was so desirous to learn that his sons, who appreciated her natural intelligence and her merit, helped her in her study.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 12, 1906)

Her apparent religious conversion led to Stockton’s admission to full membership in Princeton’s First Presbyterian Church in September 1816, when the church records identified her as “a coloured woman living in the family of the Revd. Dr. Green.” Around 1817, Ashbel Green freed her, “and have since paid her wages as a hired woman.” (Nobles; Princeton)

Becoming an American Protestant Missionary

Stockton and Stewart were part of the Second Company (First Reinforcements) of American Protestant missionaries to Hawai‘i.

The Second Company destined for the Hawaiian Islands Mission assembled at New Haven for the purpose of taking passage in the ship Thames, captain Closby, which was to sail on the November 19, 1822. (Congregational Magazine)

“On the 11th (April, 1823) Mrs. Stewart presented us with a fine boy (Charles Seaforth Stewart), which I consider as my charge. The little fellow beguiles many of my lonely hours; and you must excuse me if my journal is now weekly instead of daily.”

“From the first moment that I saw the little innocent, I felt emotions that I was unacquainted with before. This, no doubt, arose from the peculiar situation in which I was placed, and from my attachment to his parents.”

“On the 24th (April 1823,) we saw and made Owhyhee. At the first sight of the snow-capped mountains, I felt a strange sensation of joy and grief. It soon wore away, and as we sailed slowly past its windward side, we had a full view of all its grandeur.”

Landing at Honolulu, O‘ahu – Assigned to Lahaina, Maui

They landed on Oʻahu. “The Mission is in prosperous circumstances, and the hopes of its supporters here were never brighter. Truly the fields are already ripe for the harvest, and we may add, ‘The harvest is great, but the labourers are few.’”

“We have been received with open arms by the government and people, and twice the number of missionaries would have been joyfully hailed.” (Charles Samuel Stewart)

“On Saturday, the 10th of May (1823), we left the ship, and went to the mission enclosure at Honoruru. We had assigned to us a little thatched house in one corner of the yard, consisting of one small room, with a door, and two windows—the door too small to admit a person walking in without stooping, and the windows only large enough for one person to look out at a time.”

“On the 26th of May we heard that the barge was about to sail for Lahaina, with the old queen and princes; and that the queen (Keōpūolani) was desirous to have missionaries to accompany her; and that if missionaries would consent to go, the barge should wait two days for them.”

Teacher of the Maka‘āinana on Maui

“It was there, as (Betsey said,) that she opened a school for the common people which was certainly the first of the kind in Maui and probably the first in all Hawaii; for at the beginning the missionaries were chiefly engaged in the instructions of the chiefs and their families.” (Maui News, May 5, 1906)

“After service the favourite queen (Ka‘ahumanu) called me, and requested that I should take a seat with her on the sofa, which I did, although I could say but few words which she could understand. Soon after, biding them aroha I returned with the family. In the afternoon we had an English sermon at our house: about fifty were present, and behaved well.”

“In the morning one of the king’s boys came to the house, desiring to be instructed in English. Mr. S(tewart) thought it would be well for me to engage in the work at once. Accordingly I collected a proper number and commenced. I had four English, and six Hawaiian scholars. This, with the care of the family, I find as much as I can manage.” (Stockton)

Stockton has asked the mission to allow her “to create a school for the makaʻāinana (common people.) Stockton learned the Hawaiian Language and established a school in Maui where she taught English, Latin, History and Algebra”. (Kealoha)

“She wrote to Ashbel Green in 1824: ‘I have now a fine school of the … lower class of people, the first, I believe, that has ever been established.’ Charles Stewart wrote that these Common folk had made application for books and slates and a teacher.”

“So, beginning with about thirty individuals, this school was formed in the chapel, meeting every afternoon under the supetintendence of Betsey, who, he said, ‘is quite familiar with the native tongue.’ Other missionaries had established the first schools in the islands, usually attended by the upper classes. Betsey, the former slave, was the first to organize a school for the disadvantaged.” (Moffett)

Leaving the Islands

“After only two and a half years in Hawaii, Mrs. Stewart became so ill that their whole family, including a new little daughter born to the Stewarts during that time, found it necessary to return to America … Betsey chose to leave with them. They were offered a gratuitous passage to England by Captain Dale of the English whaleship Fawn.”

“After a six-month voyage, from October 15, 1825, until April, 1826, they arrived at the English port of Gravesend. Following a layover of several months in London, they continued the return journey to America, arriving at New York in August.”

“Following her return from the Sandwich Islands, Betsey kept an infant school for black children for a while in Philadelphia. But because of Harriet Stewart’s continuing frail health, she stood ready and went on a number of occasions to help care for Harriet and the children. Charles Stewart had been forced to resign his missionary commission because of his wife’s health and had joined the navy chaplaincy.”

“When Harriet Stewart died in 1830, just four years after they had returned from Hawaii, ‘Aunt Betsey’ answered a call again and went to Cooperstown, New York, to care for the (by now) three motherless children. Their father soon had to leave again, as he so often did for long stretches of time when his ship was away at sea.”

“In 1833 Betsey decided to move the children and herself back to Princeton, even though Dr. Green and his household had been living again in Philadelphia for the past eleven years. Tames Green, her childhood family tutor, had married and established a notable law practice in Princeton.”

“Charles Stewart, the children’s father, remarried in 1835 and they went back with him to New York. But Betsey stayed on in Princeton. She was truly alone for the first time in her life and had some depressing bouts of illness.”

“She helped to found a Sabbath school for children and young people in connection with the church and was its most faithful teacher for twenty-five or thirty years. (Moffett)

She never married but stayed in touch with Stewart and his son, Charles Seaforth Stewart, the baby born at sea. In 1860 the son bought her a house in Princeton, “a one-story white cottage on a lot near the northeast comer of Green and Witherspoon, now built upon. The grounds and building were always neat and attractive and the interior of the house was a model of cleanliness and order.” (Dodd)

For people whose right to equal education, or education of any sort, had been so long questioned, denigrated, and disdained, this tribute to their teacher also served as a tribute to their own achievement. By giving Betsey Stockton a prominent place in the black community’s main church—her window in the Witherspoon Street Church is still visible today on walking tours of the town.

Betsey Stockton made pioneering endeavors as a missionary in Hawaii, but her legacy is not well known. Still, Stockton’s school “set a new direction for education in the Islands … (It) served as a model for the Hilo Boarding School.”

Her teaching program have influence Samuel C Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, who also worked as a missionary in Hawaii during this period. After a full and productive life of service for the Lord, Betsey Stockton passed away in October of 1865 in Princeton, New Jersey. (Johnson)

Click HERE for more information on Betsey Stockton.

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May 19, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiian Hotel

Back in the mid-1800s, the growth of steamship travel between Hawai‘i and the West Coast of the United States, Australia and New Zealand caused a large increase in the number of visitors to the islands.

The arrival and departure of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain,) the Duke of Edinburgh and others included envoys, politicians, merchants and opportunists, created the need of good hotel accommodations to lodge similar visitors.

“There had been earlier talk about the need for a first class hotel in Honolulu, and in 1865 a public meeting had been held and a committee appointed to study the question but no material result emerged.”

“The subject was under discussion again, in the community and in the king’s cabinet, about the beginning of 1870, a suggestion having been made that private parties loan money to assist the government in erecting a hotel.”

“Nothing was done immediately, but some six months later the king said to his ministers, ‘I think favorably of the Govt. building a Hotel.’”

“At a cabinet meeting on December 5, the subject for consideration ‘was the building of a Hotel at the public cost. . . . After much discussion it was resolved – That it was advisable to commence a building for this purpose of stone or other incombustible material, and that the Minister of Interior [Dr. F. W. Hutchison] be charged with the duty of procuring plans …’”

“‘… and it was further resolved that the expense should not exceed say ($50,000) Fifty Thousand Dollars—and further that the necessary funds should be procured by issuing Hotel Bonds—or stock, and the Minister of Finance [Dr. J. Mott Smith] be charged with the duty of procuring funds.’”

“From later minutes of the cabinet council and from other sources, we learn that the whole management of the hotel project soon devolved upon Dr. Smith, as he wished it to be; that he had the active support and co-operation of Minister of Foreign Affairs Harris …”

“… that these two selected the site for the hotel on the corner of Hotel and Richards streets and bought the land, a purchase which was then assumed by the government; that private parties subscribed $42,500, for which they received ‘Hotel Bonds’ paying, in lieu of interest, a due ‘proportion of the rent received from the hotel.” (Kuykendall)

The Hawaiian Hotel was proposed in 1865, but not laid down until 1871. The Hotel was located on the Mauka-Ewa corner of Hotel Street and Richards Street and was formally opened by a ball on February 29, 1872. The hotel was leased to Allen Herbert for a term of years;

The King “took great interest in the building of the Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu”. The hotel was later called the Royal Hawaiian Hotel; reportedly, King Kalākaua renamed it to give it a regal feel.

Therefore, first “Royal Hawaiian Hotel” was not in Waikīkī;l rather, it was in downtown Honolulu (the later one, in Waikīki, opened over fifty years later, in 1928.)

In 1879, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was surrounded by dwellings, including several thatched-roof hale, but the hotel expanded over the next twenty years and replaced most of the residences.

Reportedly, Kalākaua kept a suite there; the Paradise of the Pacific noted it was “one of the coolest buildings in the city.” It “was an ornament to the city and filled a real need in the community, for which it became an important social center.”

“Under the capable management of Allen Herbert, the hotel won praise from travelers and from local residents who patronized it. In course of time it passed into private hands.” (Kuykendall)

By 1900, the last dwellings and a doctor’s office were located on the corner of Beretania and Richards Streets. These were all gone by 1914.

In November 1917, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was purchased by a group of local businessmen and became the official headquarters of the Armed Services YMCA in Hawai‘i.

In 1926, the hotel was demolished and the present building was constructed. The Army and Navy YMCA building was erected on the site of the former Royal Hawaiian Hotel in 1927.

Through the middle of the century, the downtown “Y” was a popular destination for service men from all branches of the military. By the mid-1970s, an increasing number of junior enlisted personnel were married with children.

The Armed Services YMCA responded to the changing needs of the military by opening family centers at Aliamanu Military Reservation, Iroquois Point Housing, Marine Corps Base Hawaii-Kaneohe, Wheeler/Schofield and Tripler Army Medical Center.

The building was rehabilitated in the late-1980s by Hemmeter Corporation, when it was renamed No. 1 Capitol District Building.

This remodeled office complex became the Hemmeter Corporation Building. After completion in 1988, the historic building served as Hemmeter Headquarters for several years.

Hemmeter Design Group earned national awards for the redevelopment of the historic YMCA building in downtown Honolulu.

Today, the Hawai’i State Art Museum (managed by the Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts) and several State offices are housed in the historic Spanish-Mission style building.

The Hawai‘i State Art Museum opened in the fall of 2002. The museum is located on the second floor of the No. 1 Capitol District Building. The museum houses three galleries featuring (and serves as the principal venue for) artworks from the Art in Public Places Collection.

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Richards_Street-Hawaiian_Hotel-HSA-1890

Richards_Street-Hawaiian_Hotel_HawaiianHistoricalSociety-1890

Royal Hawaiian Hotel-screened_patio-HawaiianHistoricalSociety

Royal Hawaiian Hotel-screened_patio-HSA-1890

Army and Navy YMCA-(vintagehawaii)-1920s

Army_and_Navy_YMCA-1940s

YMCA-1960

2001_02_23 Hemmeter – About Time. Army-Navy YMCA building. The Armed Forces YMCA building. March 1928. Yew Char photo.

Hemmeter Building

May 18, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

‘Īao

Some might feel the point of establishing a State Monument at ‘Īao Valley is to call attention to the much-photographed ‘Īao Needle – it was traditionally known as Kūkaemoku (literally ‘broken excreta.’)

The 1,200-foot-tall ‘Īao Needle (“cloud supreme”) is a basaltic core that remained after the valley’s heavy rainfall washed away the weaker stones surrounding it.

Actually, what people see is a bump on a side-ridge on the right-side of ʻIao Valley with a large protrusion that sticks up on top; it looks like a ‘needle’ of rock, but really isn’t (it’s part of the ridge).

Rainfall from Pu‘u Kukui, the summit of West Maui – at nearly 5,800-feet in the back of ‘Īao Valley, has an average annual rainfall of 364-inches per year.

Of course, this natural feature is interesting and important; but here are some other pieces of history that make ‘Īao even more important in the history of Hawai‘i.

First, the distance past.

From the highest peak of Pu‘u Kukui to the shoreline of Kahului Bay, the ahupua‘a (land division) of Wailuku was a favorite place of Ali‘i and a ruling center of Maui. ‘Īao Valley is part of the ahupua‘a.

For centuries, high chiefs and navigators from across the archipelago were buried in secret, difficult-to-access sites in the valley’s steep walls.

‘Iao Valley became a “hallowed burying place for ancient chiefs” and is the first place mentioned in the historical legends as a place for the secret burials of high chiefs. (Thrum)

Because this was sacred ground, commoners were not permitted to enter the valley, except for the Makahiki festival.

Some suggest the last burial was in 1736, with the burial of King Kekaulike.

Then, in the late-1780s into 1790, Kamehameha conquered the Island of Hawai‘i and was pursuing conquest of Maui and eventually sought conquer the rest of the archipelago.

At that time, Maui’s King Kahekili and his eldest son and heir-apparent, Kalanikūpule, were carrying on war and conquered O‘ahu.

In 1790, Kamehameha travelled to Maui. Hearing this, Kahekili sent Kalanikūpule back to Maui with a number of chiefs (Kahekili remaining on O‘ahu to maintain order of his newly conquered kingdom.)

After a battle in Hana, Kamehameha landed at Kahului and then marched on to Wailuku, where Kalanikūpule waited for him.

The ensuing battle was one of the hardest contested on Hawaiian record. The battle started in Wailuku and then headed up ‘l̄ao Valley – the Maui defenders being continually driven farther up the valley.

Kamehameha’s superiority in the number and use of the newly acquired weapons and canon (called Lopaka) from the ‘Fair American’ (used for the first time in battle, with the assistance from John Young and Isaac Davis) finally won the decisive battle at ‘Īao Valley.

Arguably, the cannon and people who knew how to effectively use it were the pivotal factors in the battle. Had the fighting been in the usual style of hand-to-hand combat, the forces would have likely been equally matched.

The Maui troops were completely annihilated, and it is said that the corpses of the slain were so many as to choke up the waters of the stream of ‘l̄ao – one of the names of the battle was “Kepaniwai” (the damming of the waters.)

Maui Island was conquered and its fighting force was destroyed – Kalanikūpule and some other chiefs escaped over the mountain at the back of the valley and made their way to O‘ahu (to later face Kamehameha, again; the next time at the Battle of Nu‘uanu in 1795.)

After the battle at ‘Iao, Kamehameha received Keōpūolani as his wife. Kamehameha left for Moloka‘i to secure it under his control, before proceeding to O‘ahu.

Then, in 1795, Kamehameha moved on in his conquest of O‘ahu.

Today, ‘Iao Valley State Monument is operated under DLNR’s State Parks system. It is at the end of ‘Iao Valley Road (Highway 32.) Free parking for Hawai‘i residents, $5 per car for others (open 7 am to 7 pm.)

A paved walking trail provides a scenic viewpoint of Kuka’emoku; a short paved loop trail meanders through an ethnobotanical garden adjacent to ‘Iao stream.

“‘lao stands without rival, as the loveliest spot in these tropical isles placed in the midsummer sea, or as Mark Twain has lovingly called it, ‘The loveliest fleet of islands that lie anchored in any Ocean’ …”

“… for seek throughout the four corners of the lands of the Kamehamehas, you will never find a place with such incomparable environment of lofty peaks, giant lehua trees, with blossoms of rosy hues glistening in the glare of the noonday sun, and deep canyons through which the mighty waters run down, as here in lao.” (Field)

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