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August 8, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kindergarten

“When the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with the instruments of effective self-direction, we shall have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is worthy, lovely and harmonious.”

“Passivity of attitude, mechanical massing of children, uniformity of curriculum and method are the typical points of the old education. It may be summed up by stating that the centre of gravity is outside the child.”

“Now the change which is coming into our education is the shifting of the centre of gravity. It is a change, a revolution, not unlike that introduced by Copernicus when the astronomical centre shifted from the earth to the sun. In this case the child becomes the sun about which the appliances of education revolve; he is the centre about which they are organized.” (Dewey; Wheeler)

Let’s look back …

The word kindergarten comes from the German language. Kinder means children and garten means garden. Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) started the first kindergarten, Garden of Children, in 1840. “Children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of peers.” (Watertown Historical Society))

The idea of kindergartens began in Germany with Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852.) Germans moving to the US brought the idea over when they settled there. In 1855, in Watertown, Wisconsin, Mrs Carl Schurz, a former student of Froebel, established America’s first kindergarten. (Castle)

In Hawaiʻi, the earliest mention of a kindergarten program is in 1892 in connection with Francis Williams Damon’s work with the Chinese. Damon was interested in Chinese boys, and opened a kindergarten in the Chinese Mission on Fort Street. Charles Reed Bishop provided some financial support.

In 1893, the Woman’s Board of Missions for the Pacific Islands opened four kindergartens specializing in several racial groups: Portuguese, Japanese, Hawaiian and one for children of all other races. (CharlesReedBishop-org)

In Hawaiʻi, free kindergartens began under private support. The Islands’ first kindergarten teacher might have been Miss Birch Fanning, who arrived in Honolulu August 3, 1889.

Although she announced her plans to start her own kindergarten, she ended up as a teacher for Punahou Preparatory School on Beretania Street in 1892. This experience was short-lived, and Punahou did not begin a permanent kindergarten program until 1900.

Because of the success, the Woman’s Board of Missions, founded in 1878, organized four kindergartens in 1893. Separated along racial lines, they were organized for Japanese, Portuguese, Hawaiians, and for a group classified as “other races.” (Castle)

Local training of teachers began two years later for “select young ladies” who “have worked hard and acquired great proficiency in the mysteries of Froebel’s admirable system of training infant minds.”

The programs proved extremely popular; and, the work was exceeding the capacity of the Woman’s Board of Missions. As a result, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association of the Hawaiian Islands was established in 1895. (Forbes)

Because of its newness, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association was soon in search of an educational methodology to implement its mission. Harriet Castle, the guiding spirit of the Association, would be responsible for shaping this direction through importing the academic views of John Dewey, a friend of the Castle family.

Dewey’s theory, which would help to shape education for the 20th-century, resulted from his rejection of the rigid and formal approach to education that dominated schools in the late 19th-century. The old approach was based upon a psychology in which the child was thought of as a passive creature upon whom information and ideas had to be imposed. (Castle)

Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association, one of Hawaiʻi’s first eleemosynary organizations, offered the first teacher training program and free kindergarten to all of Hawaiʻi’s children.

Some of the children were taught in the old Mission School House, “the great single room … on Kawaiahaʻo Street. Cool, spacious, dignified, generous in the proportions of its ample length and breadth, of its lofty ceiling, of its deeply recessed windows….” (The Friend, December 1, 1924)

The early Mission School House, built about 1833-35 was the regular meeting place of the annual missionary gathering, known as the “General Meeting.” This building stood south of Kawaiahaʻo Church, at the foot of a lane. (Lyons)

In 1899, the Henry and Dorothy Castle Memorial Kindergarten (1899-1941) was founded, funded and operated by the Castle Foundation. Mary Castle used a major substantial part of the proceeds of the trust to fund a memorial to her late son and granddaughter. (This program established the reputation and identity of the foundation.) (Castle)

Castle asked Dewey to create a kindergarten modeled upon his educational theories. The facility was built on the Castle family homestead on King Street, where Henry was born and Dorothy spent her early years. The school was later turned over to the University of Hawaiʻi (founded eight years later in 1907) to operate.

Eventually, the teacher training program was eventually moved to what became the University of Hawaiʻi, and the kindergartens were taken over by the Territorial Department of Education. (KCAA)

Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association also established the first public playground in Honolulu in 1911, Beretania Playground, at the corner of Beretania and Smith streets in the heart of Chinatown. It was intended for boys and girls under ten, and for older girls accompanying the very young, and the “play garden” was open seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm.

“In recognition of the truth of Joseph Lee’s declaration, ‘A boy without a playground is father to the man without a job’, the Free Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association is making a valiant effort … to secure a trained playground worker for Honolulu.” (The Friend, April 1912)

Just like the private founders forming and funding the Kindergarten program, initially, private groups, rather than public agencies, undertook efforts to build playgrounds.

A major objective of private playground organizers was to convince city officials that public recreation ought to be a municipal responsibility. As a result, by the opening decade of the twentieth century most large American cities had established playgrounds owned and operated by municipal governments.

© 2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC

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Socialization and food preparation-Castle Memorial Kindergarten-Castle-1910
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Castle Memorial Kindergarten-Castle-1905
Henry Castle and his daughter Dorothy-HMCS
Henry Castle and his daughter Dorothy-HMCS
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Breathing_Space_and_Wholesome_Play-(TheFriend)
Graduation Castle Memorial Kindergarten-Castle-1905
Graduation Castle Memorial Kindergarten-Castle-1905
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Honolulu and Vicinity-Dakin-Fire Insurance- 29-Map-1906-Kindergarten_noted
Some Early Playgrounds-GoogleEarth
Some Early Playgrounds-GoogleEarth

Filed Under: Schools Tagged With: Kindergarten, Hawaii, Free Kindergarten and Children's Aid Association

August 7, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Nothing can touch it”

“‘When we first went to Napili,’ said Mrs Kep Aluli, ‘it was an isolated beach with one cottage on it.  We loved it.’” Star Bulletin, Jan 14, 1970.

In 1956, Kep Aluli and Yoshio Ogami were successful bidders for two of the thirteen “choice Napili beach lots” [they bought lots 7 & 8] “at “Napili beach in the Kaanapali section of Lahaina”. These were through an auction of Territory of Hawai‘i properties.  (Advertiser, July 2, 1956)

Shortly thereafter, it was reported that “Kep Aluli, Honolulu builder, is planning a hotel at Napili Beach”. The land acquired from the Territory plus an acquisition of adjoining property “gives the developers a two-acre, beach-frontage hotel site and another acre a hundred feet away for tennis courts and beach facilities.”

“Describing the location, Aluli said, ‘Nothing can touch it.’” (Star Bulletin, Sept 11, 1956)

Aluli and Ogami built the Mauian Hotel on this property and shortly thereafter the Napali Kai and Hale Napli (and later others) sprang up.

“An entirely new resort complex has developed around Napili Bay, pioneered by Honolulu’s Kep Aluli and Canadian investors.” Honolulu Advertiser, Feb 15, 1966)

“Beyond Kaanapali, in that heart of Lahaina around Napili Bay, the new era already seems to have arrived.” “If the muscle and brain of the new Lahaina are at Kaanapali, its heart is more easily found at Napili”. (Honolulu Advertiser, July 17, 1964)

Kep Aluli was my parents’ classmate at Punahou. Others in the extended Aluli family were classmates with me and my siblings. When we were kids, we used to visit different neighbor islands during the summer; the visits to the Alulis at Napili were a special treat.

(During an extended Punahou alumni celebration, some of our classmates went to Maui and stayed at the Mauian at Napili – I wonder if the arrangers and others knew of the generations of connection the place has back to Punahou (with Kep’s nephew being one of our classmates.))

Napili, meaning the joinings or the pili grass, is on the West end of Maui. This area is referred to as Hono a Pi‘ilani (the Bays of Piʻilani (aka Honoapiʻilani,); from South to North, six of the identified bays are Honokōwai (bay drawing fresh water), Honokeana (cave bay), Honokahua (sites bay,) Honolua (two bays), Honokōhau (bay drawing dew) and Hononana (animated bay).

Sweet potatoes were reportedly grown between Honokōhau and Kahakuloa, presumably on lower kula lands; Kahana Ahupua’a was known as a place of salt gathering for the people of Lahaina.

Coastal marine foraging and fishing were combined with more upland agricultural pursuits. People would have moved between the coast and the upland agricultural fields, using the full range of resources available within their ahupua‘a. Semi-permanent and permanent habitation probably occurred in both coastal and upland settings.

Whaling (centered at Lahaina Town) was the first commercial enterprise in West Maui, but it had more or less collapsed by the 1860s. Commercial sugar cane production was the next large business venture in West Maui, starting as early as 1863, and it was focused between Ka‘anapali and Lahaina.

In the later 19th century, lands in West Maui became part of the Campbell Estate. This was also the time that the Honolua Ranch was first established. Cattle ranching began then and was continued by Henry Perrine Baldwin, who acquired the lands from the Campbell Estate in 1890.

In addition to ranching, other early commercial activities included coffee farming. David T. Fleming became manager of Honolua Ranch. Fleming was well-versed in pineapple production from the Hai‘ku area and gradually began shifting the ranch’s initiative to pineapple production.

The Honolua Ranch/Baldwin Packers complex shifted from Honolua to Honokahua in 1915, and a pineapple cannery was constructed. A major commercial pineapple industry emerged in West Maui during the 1920s.

The plantation communities of Honokahua and Napili emerged and developed as the Honolua Ranch/Baldwin Packers pineapple operations grew. The population of the Lahaina area increased with the successful economic operations of the pineapple plantation.

Baldwin Packers merged with Maui Pineapple Company in 1962 to form Maui Land and Pineapple Company, Inc. After this time, much of the Honolua Ranch lands were converted for resort development.  Kep Aluli expanded that into Napili.  (Lots of information here is from Scientific Consultant Services.)

© 2024 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Place Names, Prominent People, Economy, General, Buildings Tagged With: Yoshio Ogami, Hawaii, Maui, Punahou, West Maui, Napili, Aluli, Kep Aluli, Mauian

August 6, 2024 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hoʻokena

Hoʻokena i ka laʻi …
Hoʻolu ʻia no Hoʻokena
Ho`oheno ana i ka mana`o
Na kupa o ka `aina
Hoʻolu i ka maka o ka malihini

Hoʻokena in the calm …
Truly pleasant is Hoʻokena
Cherished in the thoughts of the
Residents of the land
Pleasant in the sight of the visitor
(Lot Kauwe)

“Hoʻokena is its name. … On the immediate foreshore, under a low cliff, there stood some score of houses, trellised and verandaed in green and white; the whole surrounded and shaded by a grove of coco palms and fruit trees, springing (as by a miracle) from the bare lava.”

“In front, the population of the neighborhood were gathered for the weekly incident, the passage of the steamer, sixty to eighty strong and attended by a disproportionate allowance of horses, mules, and donkeys ….” (Robert Louis Stevenson; Travels in Hawaiʻi) Let’s step back.

In the traditional Hawaiian time, Kona people were supported with dry-land agricultural fields known today as the Kona Field System. A prominent element of the system is the network of kuaiwi, low and long piles of stone that create a net-like pattern over the landscape. There are four main zones to the Kona Field System were: kula, kaluʻulu, ʻāpaʻa and ʻamaʻu.

The kula is from the coast to approximately the 500 -foot elevation; this land was used to cultivate ʻuala (sweet potato,) gourd and wauke. In later times, cabbage, wauke melons, onions, oranges, tobacco, beans, coffee, corn, cotton, pineapple, Irish potatoes, and pumpkin were added to the cultivated foodstuffs. Habitation was concentrated in villages along the shoreline in this zone.

The kaluʻulu, or seaward slope, is between 500 and 1,000-feet above sea level; ʻulu (breadfruit) and mountain apple were grown in addition to ʻuala, gourds and wauke in this zone. Habitation was in lighter densities than the shoreline.

The ʻāpaʻa, or upland slope, approximately 1,000 to 2,500-feet above sea level, found cultivation of kalo (taro,) ʻuala, kī (ti) and sugarcane. Cabbage, melons, onions, oranges, tobacco, beans, coffee, corn, cotton, pineapple, Irish potatoes and pumpkin were grown in later times. Small habitation areas were scattered.

The ʻamaʻu, or upland forest, from 2,500 to 4,000-foot elevation was planted with bananas and plantains. Forest resources, such as wood for canoes and feathers from birds, were also an essential part of the resource extraction for this zone. Temporary shelters were present to support visits to and through this area. Movement up and down the system was facilitated by well-worn trails. (Wolforth)

Along the coast was an alaloa. Alaloa were long trails that formed primary routes of travel between communities, royal centers, religious sites and resources. Initially single-file footpaths, the trail followed the contours of coast. Over the years they were widened, straightened and curbstones were added.

In the vicinity of Hoʻokena, the ‘1871 Trail’ (the year noted the time of widening of the trail) was the main transportation artery for coastal travel from Hoʻokena to Nāpoʻopoʻo. It was often referred to as a “2-horse trail,”) wide enough for two horses to pass. In 1918, the trail section north of Hōnaunau was improved for wheeled traffic; however, the section south to Hoʻokena was never modified for motorized vehicles. (NPS)

Transportation changed (a lot) when the steam ships came and serviced the Islands. The first steamer to visit the Hawaiian Islands was the Hudson’s Bay Company’s ‘Beaver;’ it was en route to Fort Vancouver, entering the Honolulu Harbor on February 4, 1836. (It sailed here; her paddle wheels were added when it reached the Columbia River.)

The earliest vessel actually to steam into Island waters was the HBM Cormorant that arrived at Honolulu from Callao on May 22, 1846. “This is the first steamer ever arrived here, and the natives were in a state of great excitement,” reported CS Lyman. “She came up very slowly, with little motion of the wheels and little smoke visible.” (Schmitt)

First, government ships then private interests provided inter and intra-island transportation. Competitors Wilder Steamship Co (1872) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co (1883) ran different routes, rather than engage in head to head competition.

On Hawaiʻi Island, Mahukona, Kawaihae and Hilo were the Island’s major ports; Inter-Island served Kona ports. From Kailua, the steamer went south stopping at the Kona ports of Nāpoʻopoʻo, Hoʻokena, Hoʻopuloa, rounding South Point, touching at the Kaʻū port of Honuʻapo and finally arriving at Punaluʻu, Kaʻū, the terminus of the route.

A royal visitor noted her trip to Hoʻokena in the early-1880s, “… our steamer proceeded to Hoʻokena … there were special causes for my resolution that this district should not be passed by. It was at that time distinctively Hawaiian.”

“The pure native race had maintained its position there better than in most localities. There had been no introduction of the Chinese amongst the people, nor had any other race of foreigners come to live near their homes. The Hawaiian families had married with Hawaiians, settling side by side with those of their own blood.”

“Thus it was that only on Hawaii, and in no other part of the group of islands, could there be found a district so thickly populated, where the population was so strictly of my own people, as this to which I was now a visitor.” (Liliʻuokalani)

A landing was built at Hoʻokena to accommodate the ships. “The Hoʻokena landing consists of a rock pier off shore … the sea washing between it and the mainland.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 7, 1902) Recommended improvements were made, “Purser Conkling of the steamer Mauna Loa reports that work on the warehouse and landing at Hoʻokena will soon be commenced by the contractors.” (Hawaiian Star, April 24, 1903)

The landing was named Kupa Landing in honor of Henry Cooper (Kupa,) road supervisor of the District of South Kona from 1871 to 1880. Hoʻokena Village grew into a major sea port for Kona.

By the 1890s, Chinese immigrants moved in. Licenses issued included those for cake peddling, selling food and merchandise, running a retail store, butchering pork and operating two restaurants and a hotel. (Kona Historical Society)

On a trip Governor Carter made to the ‘Konas’ (North and South,) “a petition on behalf of the people of Hoʻokena asking the Governor to provide lands for them …. The petition also requested the government to establish a pineapple cannery for the farmers in the district who were growing that fruit.”

“The Governor replied at length, saying that he could not buy lands for them because of the lack of revenue. He believed that the conditions for the growing of pineapples were more favorable in Kona than anywhere else, but said that the government could not establish a cannery, although with private capital it would be a success.”

“’I don’t believe the government should go into any other business,’ said Mr. Carter; ‘it has troubles enough of its own now, in taking care of the schools, the public works, the police and the courts.’” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 22, 1904)

By 1929, the wharf was receiving freight only twice a month, so the stores and post office had closed. (KHS) The village’s economic importance began to diminish; the introduction of automobiles and trucks made steamship landings at Hoʻokena less common and many residents moved away from the remote village to be closer to the highway. (KUPA)

By the mid-1930s, high surf had demolished Kupa Landing; cattle continued to be shipped out of Hoʻokena up until the early 1940s. (Nā Peʻa) The steamships left and so did most of the people. Relocating closer to the highway, people all but left the once important shore of Hoʻokena. Few people remained and few live in Hoʻokena today. (UH DURP)

In 2007, Friends of Hoʻokena Beach Park an outgrowth of Kamaʻāina United to Protect the ʻĀina (KUPA), signed an agreement with the County to transfer management oversight of the park at Hoʻokena to FOHBP. They have hired community members to maintain the park and provide park security via the “Aloha Patrol.”

The Hoʻokena Beach Park sits at the northern end of Kauhakō Bay.

© 2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
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Hookena-DAGS_1007-Hitchcock-1875

Filed Under: Place Names Tagged With: Hawaii, Hawaii Island, Ala Loa, Kona Field System, Hookena . Kona

August 5, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Norma Jeane

Norma Jeane Mortenson (the name on her birth certificate) was born June 1, 1926 to Gladys Pearl Monroe (her mother Gladys was married three times – to Jasper Baker, Martin Edward Mortenson and John Stewart Eley).

Norma Jeane’s birth certificate named Edward Mortenson as her father, but Charles Stanley Gifford, a co-worker of Gladys’ with whom she had an affair around the time of Norma Jeane’s conception, was determined to be her biological father.  (Time & Newsweek)

She later baptized Norma Jeane Baker and lived in a foster home of Ida and Albert Bolender. Her mother was frequently confined in an asylum, and Norma Jeane was reared by 12 successive sets of foster parents and, for a time, in an orphanage.  (Britannica)

On June 19, 1942 – after dating only a few months and just 18 days after Norma Jean’s 16th birthday – she married 21-year-old James Dougherty.

In 1944, Dougherty joined the merchant marine and was initially assigned to teach sea safety on Catalina Island, where the young couple moved into an apartment. “She was just a housewife,” Dougherty told UPI. “We would go down to the beach on weekends, and have luaus on Saturday night.” (LA Times)

“Dougherty eventually shipped out, and Norma Jeane moved in with his parents in North Hollywood. … In 1944, while working at Radioplane, Ethel Dougherty and her daughter-in-law joined the ranks of the millions of women known as ‘Rosie the Riveters’ helping the war effort.”

“During her 60-hour workweek at the nation’s minimum wage of $20 a week, Norma Jeane’s assignments included spraying glue on aircraft fabric and inspecting and folding parachutes.” (Airport Journals)

“American women played important roles during World War II, both at home and in uniform. Around 5 million civilian women served in the defense industry and elsewhere in the commercial sector during World War II with the aim of freeing a man to fight.” (US Dept of Defense)

Women had to step up to work in the factories that produced what the men needed, and the Rosie the Riveter character was created to recruit them.  The men were celebrated when they arrived home, but women lost their jobs and their role was forgotten. (Daily Mail)

“In the summer of 1945 Private David Conover, a professional photographer working for the U.S. Army Air Corps First Motion Picture Unit, was sent to the Radioplane Munitions Factory in Burbank, California to shoot morale-boosting photographs of employees doing their part to help the war effort.”

“As Conover later wrote, ‘I moved down the assembly line, taking shots of the most attractive employees. None was especially out of the ordinary.’”

“‘I came to a pretty girl putting on propellers and raised the camera to my eye. She had curly ash blond hair and her face was smudged with dirt. I snapped her picture and walked on.’”

“‘Then I stopped, stunned. She was beautiful. Half child, half woman, her eyes held something that touched and intrigued me. I retraced my steps and introduced myself. ‘And you?’ ‘I’m Norma Jeane Dougherty.’ She smiled and offered her hand.’”

“The 19-year-old Norma Jeane’s appearance and natural ease in front of the camera capitivated Conover, and upon hearing that she wanted to become an actress, he told her that she would need to become a model first.”

“To give Norma Jeane a portfolio, Conover sought and was granted leave. He spent the next two weeks with Norma Jeane in the hills of Southern California teaching her how to pose, model and ‘address’ a camera.”

“Most of the film was mailed to a processing lab. But Conover retained a few rolls of exposed film. Good thing: The mailed film never arrived and has never been found.” (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

“Conover noted that 19-year-old Norma Jeane’s response to the camera was amazing. She seemed to ‘come alive’ with an immediate and natural instinct.”

“In fact, he was so excited by his discovery that he could barely hold the camera steady. He must have hidden his excitement from his subject, because the teenager timidly asked if she was photogenic.”

“After several photo sessions and with Conover’s influence, Norma Jeane applied at the Blue Book Modeling Agency. There she was groomed in the art of modeling and encouraged to lighten her hair.”

“She soon had the attention of every producer in Hollywood. In July 1946, Norma Jeane signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox Studios”. (Airport Journals)

On February 23, 1956, Norma Jeane Mortenson changed her legal name to Marilyn Monroe (although she’d been known publicly by the moniker since 1946). (The Atlantic)

“Shortly after their wedding and en route to Japan for their honeymoon, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio made a stop in Honolulu, where they were greeted by hysterical fans—some of whom even reached out to touch or pull Monroe’s hair. As protection, the newlyweds were given a police escort to Waikiki’s Royal Hawaiian”.  (Robb Report)

“Marilyn Monroe, one of the most famous stars in Hollywood’s history, was found dead early today [August 5, 1962] in the bedroom of her home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. She was 36 years old. Beside the bed was an empty bottle that had contained sleeping pills. Fourteen other bottles of medicines and tablets were on the night stand.” (NY Times)

© 2024 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Norma Jeane, Norma Jean Dougherty, Norma Jeane Mortenson, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio

August 4, 2024 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

ʻEke Crater

Early Hawaiians considered ʻEke Crater (also called Puʻu ʻEke, Mauna ʻEke and (rarely) Mauna Eeka or Eeke) near the summit of the West Maui Mountain to be Heaven’s Gate, or a doorway between the physical and spiritual worlds. (West Maui Watershed)

“Mauna ʻEke is the name given to the circular range in the bosom of which lies the valley, whose sides, moistened with mists and trickling streams, are perennially green.”

“Ferns and convolvuli adorn the precipices ; shining leaves, delicately stemmed, tremble and gleam with every breath of wind.” (Twombly, 1900)

Maui is the second largest island of the archipelago, its oldest volcano (West Maui Mountain or Mauna Kahalawai) ca 1.3-million years old, East Maui Volcano (Haleakalā) ca 750,000-years old and considered active (last historical eruption in 1790.)

“You can see why, in 1841, the captain of a whaling vessel wrote, ‘See how that east part of the island rises abruptly into one high mountain, while the west section, though rugged, is not so lofty.'”

“‘Mauna ʻEke, on the west, is little more than five thousand feet high, while Haleakala, on the east, runs into the clouds nearly twice as far. But you will find that the more lowly of the two mountain masses has wilder scenery to offer.'”

“‘East Maui has wonderful attractions, but I find keener and more lasting pleasure in climbing up and down the ridges thrust out as ʻEke reaches down to the sea.'”

“(T)he wild valley and its surroundings have been left unchanged. In fact, everything must look much as it did when the first Polynesian migration entered Maui long centuries before America was discovered”.

“(Y)es, hundreds of years before the Norman Conquest of England – that is, unless ʻEke has been in eruption since then. If so, the lava long ago disintegrated into the richest sort of soil.” (Paradise of the Pacific, 1929)

ʻEke Crater is an extinct volcanic dome with eroded sides and gently concave summit. The summit bog is underlain by a clay hardpan over a compressed lava core and is characterized by numerous pits and open water ponds. (Powell)

Towering at nearly 4,500 feet in elevation, the name ‘Crater’ is quite deceiving, as no visible crater remains today. The mountain is actually the remnants of an eroded volcanic cone.

Measuring 1,600-feet in diameter, its rock core provides a moist impermeable surface on which unique montane bog communities thrive.

Highlighting and adorning its surface are mirrored pools of water with shimmering ʻEke silverswords and Nohoanu (a Geranium.) While beautiful, it is dangerous and riddled with sink holes and lava tubes. (West Maui Watershed)

The ʻEke silversword is endemic to the summit and ridges of ʻEke and Puʻu Kukui. It is described as a “branching, dwarf shrub” and “creeping profusely over the ground and progressively dying back at the base, thus isolating the branches into independent plants.” (Powell)

Nearby is Kiʻowaiokihawahine (Violet Lake.) The lake is small, only 10-20-feet in size, and formed in the boggy areas near ʻEke Crater and Puʻu Kukui.

Puʻu Kukui is considered the 2nd wettest spot (behind Waiʻaleʻale, Kauai,) and it and ʻEke Crater are often hidden in the clouds.

© 2024 Hoʻokuleana LLC

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Eke crater, 2.8 miles away in a straight line.
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Kiowaiokihawahine (Violet Lake)
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Filed Under: Place Names Tagged With: Eke Crater, Silversword, Hawaii, Maui, West Maui Mountain

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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Recent Posts

  • Lusitana Society
  • “Ownership”
  • ‘Holy Moses’
  • Mikimiki
  • Doubtful Island of the Pacific
  • John Meirs Horner
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Categories

  • Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings
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