Kailua-Kona | Page 6 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 4, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Longnose

Peter Fithian first came to Hawai‘i in 1948 as a midshipman on a US Navy cruiser; he later studied hotel management at Cornell University. (Kelley)

In 1954, Fithian was hired to manage the Augusta National Golf Club. A year later, he was back in the Islands, having been hired to manage the Kona Inn. However, Augusta’s Masters Golf Tournament was an inspiration for a tournament of another type he would start in Hawaii. (WHT)

Fithian and five others, Porter Dickenson, Dudley Lewis, Richard MacMillan, Desmond Stanley, Edward Sultan, Sr and Charlie Cooke, joined together to operate a big-game fishing tournament in Kona.

In 1959, just two days after the Territory of Hawai‘i became the 50th state, the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament (HIBT) launched its first sportsfishing tournament in Kona on the Island of Hawai‘i.

It is the second oldest big game sport fishing event in the world. (On May 26, 1950 the Ernest Hemingway International Billfish Tournament started at Havana, Cuba.)

In the tournament that continues today, points will be awarded for each billfish weighing 300 or more pounds. The allowed species are black marlin, broadbill swordfish, Pacific blue marlin and striped marlin. Tuna are judged in a different category, with points given for each fish weighing at least 100 pounds.

It’s not just sport, it later became evident that there was little or no knowledge about the life cycle of the marlin. Due to John C. Marr’s urging, the HIBA Board founded a 501C3 Scientific Corporation and called it the Pacific Ocean Research Foundation (PORF).

Over a period of 15 years, more than 65 scientific papers were written by scientists with credit to PORF. PORF dominated the study of science for the Pacific Blue Marlin working with Stanford University and the IGFA to further the understanding of the life of this marlin which has had so much to do with the rise in interest for game fishing worldwide. (HIBT)

Points are also given for marlin that are tagged and released. Rules note, “To be counted as a tagged and released fish, the leader must be taken in hand and the fish tagged with a NMFS Tag and Released.”

“The hook or hooks must be disengaged from the fish or the leader cut as close to the hook/s as possible. The fish must be alive and capable of survival when released.” (HIBT)

The Kona Inn was also instrumental in developing the Kona Coast as one of the world’s greatest fishing areas. With the Inn as unofficial billfish tournament headquarters, the place has attracted marlin fishermen from all over the globe.

“Tournament entries include charter fees for each team to fish aboard one of Kona’s leading charter boats … Each day the teams switch to a different boat”. (BlueWater)

7:30 am, at the first of five days of fishing, ‘Longnose’ broadcasts over the tournament radio, “Billfishers, Billfishers, Billfishers, Start Fishing, Start Fishing, Start Fishing,” starting the tournament and the ‘and they’re off’ race to respective fishing areas.

Longnose is the radio call name to Tournament Control; longtime Longnose, manning the radio, was Phil Parker. He and his brother (and subsequent sons) were iconic Kona marlin fishers.

“Teams that have been coming to this tournament for a long time know what it takes to win. Our new teams sense the importance of Kona’s waters and they are here to fish and win.” (Fithian; HIBT)

“The first year we had 23 teams and probably 21 were from Honolulu and Kona, but it grew. … This was such a little town when we started.”

“Probably for the first three or four years, we were weighing the fish at the Kona Inn. Later on, we moved to the pier with the thought that this was something people should be seeing.” (Fithian; WHT)

The 59th Annual Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament will be held Saturday August 4th, 2018 – Sunday August 12th, 2018; again, in Kona, as it has been since the beginning.

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Billfish-Lyons-HIBT

Peter Fithian giving Mariln award-Outrigger

Chuck Kelley meets actor Richard Boone-HIBT-Outrigger

Bobbi and Peter Fithian at the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament-1967-Outrigger

Actor Lee Marvin congratulates Dr. Richard Kelley for landing a Pacific blue marlin-Outrigger

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HIBT-Weigh-in-Charla

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george_marlinweighing marlin at Kona Inn-not HIBT entry-MarlinMagic

Fisherman-at-Kona-Inn-(westhawaiitoday)-not-HIBT Entry

HIBT Fishing Areas-HIBT

August 22, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Kauakaiakaola Heiau

“Leaving Kairua, we passed through villages thickly scattered along the shore to the southward. The country looked unusually green and cheerful, owing to the frequent rains, which for some months have fallen on this side of the island.”

“Even the barren lava, over which we have traveled, seemed to veil its sterility beneath frequent tufts of tan waving grass, or spreading shrubs and flowers.”

“The sides of the hills, laid out for a considerable extent in gardens and fields, and generally cultivated with potatoes, and other vegetables, were beautiful. The number of heiaus, and depositories of the dead, which we passed, convinced us that this part of the island must formerly have been populous.”

“The latter were built with fragments of lava, laid up evenly on the outside, generally about eight feet long, from four to six broad, and about four feet high. Some appeared very ancient, others had evidently been standing but a few years.”

“At Ruapua (Puapua‘a) we examined an interesting heiau, called Kauaikaharoa, built of immense blocks of lava and found its dimensions to be 150 feet by 70.”

“At the north end was a smaller enclosure, sixty feet long and ten feet wide, partitioned off by a high wall, with but one narrow entrance. The places were the idols formerly stood were apparent, though the idols had been removed.”

“The spot where the altar had been erected could be distinctly traced; it was a mound of earth, paved with smooth stones, and surrounded by a firm curb of lava. The adjacent ground was strewed with bones of the ancient offerings.”

“The natives informed us that four principal idols were formerly worshipped there, one of stone, two of wood, and one covered with red feathers.” (Ellis, 1823)

Kauakaiakaola (Ka-ua-kai-aka-ola – also known as Kauaikahaola (Ka-ua-i-kaha-ola)) Heiau was a temple for increase of food and fish (Heiau Ho‘oulu ‘Ai, Ho‘oulu I‘a.) (Kekahuna) (It translates to ‘the rain which gives life to all living things.’)

“It is related that when King Kamehameha I, on the advice of a kahuna of the island of Kauai, decided to restore the old heiau in his day, he approached it by canoe”.

“From a distance he saw several people about the place, but when he drew near not a single person was to be seen.”

“The reason, he learned later, was because there is at the shore, near the southwest corner of the heiau, the submerged entrance of a cave leading upland, through which the people had fled.”

Today a large boulder, known as the Queen Emma Rock, as it is said to have been cast up by the sea during a severe storm at the time of Queen Emma’s death April 2, 1885 – has its lower end held fast in a hole just east of the cave entrance.”

“There were four principal idols worshipped in this heiau, one of which was said to have been brought from a foreign land. These were Kāne-nui-akea (Great Kāne whose Power Extends Far and Wide (akea,)) from the island oif Kauai …”

“… Kāne-lūl̄u-moku (Kāne who sows (lūlū) – or creates – islands, Lola-maka-Èha (Lola with Eyes in the Four Cardinal Points, probably foreigh,) and Ke-kua-ài-manu (The God that Eats Birds (or overcomes human victims by its power,)) which was covered with red feathers.”

“Above the heiau lies the present road and the Plain of Kāhelo (Ke Kula o Kāhelo,) upon which, in the 1880s, races were held between horses of the Parker Ranch, in Waimea, Kohala and those of Kona ranches, as well as other sports, which were patronized by King Kalākaua and members of his court.” (Kekahuna)

It is believed the heiau was built during the time of ‘Umi (about the same time of Christopher Columbus crossing the Atlantic to America.)

It was later restored by Kamehameha. It sat abandoned, then Curtis V Crellin purchased the property with ‘a pile of rocks.” (Hawaiian Holiday) He later learned it was a heiau and in 1947, with guidance from Kenneth Emory at Bishop Museum, restored it.

“The old stonework had fallen victim to earthquakes and to the roots of plants and vines. That was the first and heaviest task, to rebuild the walls with the original lava stone, and then repave the interior platform with smaller rocks and pebbles.”

“The Kahuna’s house was framed in the traditional manner, and thatched with pili grass. The proper site of the oracle tower was located, and a new wooden structure put up in the manner described and sketched by the earliest explorers.” (Hawaiian Holiday)

“The workmen who loyally participated in the restoration included: Clement Kanuha, Joseph Kanuha, J Timothy Makuakane, Moses Makuakane, John Kunewa, George Moike and George H Laioha.” (Crellin) By 1962, the site was reported to “becoming quite overgrown.” (HTH) It is again in disrepair. (In today’s context, the heiau is just north of the Casa de Emdeko condominiums, just outside of Kailua-Kona.)

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Kauakaiakaola Heiau-with Historical Notes-Kekahuna-BM-400

Kauakaiakaola Heiau-Reconstructed Anuu Tower

Beach Scene at Kauakaiakaola Heiau

Curtis Crellin in front of reconstructed kahuna hale-HawaiianHoliday Jan 6 1957

Kauakaiakaola Heiau-Reconstructed Anuu Tower-HTH-June 29 1962

Kauakaiakaola Heiau-with Historical Notes-Kekahuna-BM

South of Kailua-Kona-UH_Manoa-USGS-1208-1954-zoom

August 2, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘My Heart Went Pitty-Pat’

She was born January 2, 1905 in Cleveland, the daughter of an Australian opera singer and an American vaudevillian. She spent most of her youth in Cincinnati, where she was enrolled in the city’s music conservatory.

Her family had been theatrical players and, as a result, she had been to Australia, Mexico, Canada, Europe and even Hawai‘i while growing up. She followed her family into the entertainment industry making a career as a dancer; her stage name was Norma Allen.

Just out of high school, she had eloped with a graduate of the Harvard dental school who was also a musician and moved to London, England. After a few years of traveling around Europe and competing in ballroom dancing competitions, the couple broke up.

Needing to support herself, she decided to continue dancing and to learn to teach as well. By marrying she had given away her opportunities to go to college. As she recalled, “they wouldn’t take married girls at Wellesley.”

While working at Arthur Murray’s dance studio in New York City, she had the opportunity to come to Hawai‘i to teach dance at “the Boleyn-Anderson studio at the Royal Hawaiian hotel.”

While in high school, she claimed to have seen a photograph of a man in a movie magazine posing with Douglas Fairbanks Sr and Mary Pickford; impressed by the “handsome, athletic young Hawaiian” whom the couple had “discovered,” she saw this was a chance to meet him.

She arrived on the Lurline just after Christmas in 1938. Several months later, she asked for an introduction to the man she had dreamed about as a teen-ager.

When she finally met the man (the most eligible bachelor in the islands, fifteen years older than she) “my heart went pitty-pat.”

While she claims it to be “love at first sight,” he took the relationship more cautiously. They dated for a year.

He almost lost her toward the end of 1939. While spending Christmas on the Big Island with friends she mulled over a marriage proposal from one of her “dancing pupils” who “was much younger than (him) and very wealthy.”

This young man “begged her to marry him and move to the mainland.” She called her earlier suitor to wish him a Merry Christmas. During the conversation she also told him about the proposal and he simply told her, “Baby, come home.” She did.

On August 2, 1940, the couple slipped out of Honolulu on an interisland flight.

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku and Nadine Alexander were married in Mokuʻaikaua Church in Kailua-Kona. A small intimate ceremony ensued with the Reverend Stephen Desha presiding.

“(O)ur attendants were Francis I‘i Brown, Duke’s best friend, and Francis’s lady companion, Winona Love, a fine hula dancer and movie star, and Bernice Kahanamoku.” Also in attendance were Kahanamoku’s brother Sam, Bernice’s fiancée Gilbert Lee, and Doris Duke, who had come with Sam.

They stayed at Francis Brown’s vacation home on the waterfront on the Kona-Kohala Coast. Nadine recalled it was “a charming place. Isolated. No Telephone. They had one of those generators as there was no electricity, which was lovely for Duke, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.”

Duke thoroughly enjoyed his honeymoon as “every morning, before the sun would come up, Francis would throw stones on the roof to wake Duke.” Nadine reflected, “he’d jump up, have a cup of coffee, and the two of them would go out fishing. All day, every day.”

They became Honolulu’s unofficial ‘first couple,’ frequently entertaining dignitaries and celebrities at their Black Point home. “They were a striking couple. They were awful good looking together.”

“Duke was always very well groomed and she looked very dainty next to him. She was a very pretty woman and kept getting prettier as she got older. Her features became very delicate and she became rather fragile.”

“She always dressed well and looked very elegant. She took pains with her appearance. I admired the fact that she was always vivacious and interested in everything, and a good sport.” (Aileen Riggin Soule, Olympic gold medalist (diving, 1920) Duke’s teammate on the 1920 and 1924 Olympic swimming and diving teams)

Duke died January 22, 1968; upon Nadine’s death on July 17, 1997, their estate was donated to the John A Burns School of Medicine to be used for scholarships awarded to medical students of Hawaiian ancestry. (UH) (All information here is from Nendel and Luis & Bigold.)

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Duke and Nadine Kahanamoku-Married-Mokuaikaua-August 2, 1940-BM

July 22, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kuakini’s Cotton

“The pleasant village of Kailua is situated on the west side of Hawaii. It is the residence of the Governor of the Island. It is celebrated in Hawaiian history, as having been the residence for several years of Kamehameha I, and at this place he died, on the 8th of May, 1819, at the age of 66 years.”

“Here was first announced by Royal authority, that the old tabu system was at an end. It was in the quiet waters of this bay, that the brig Thaddeus anchored, April 4th, 1820, which brought the first Missionaries to the shores of Hawaii.”

“The natural features of the lofty mountain of Hualālai, and the rugged and rocky coast remain the same; but changes have been gradually going forward in the habits of the people and the appearance of the village.”

“There stands the village church with its tapering spire, almost a lac-simile of some that anciently stood in the centre of the common in many a New England village.”

“During the summer of 1844, we landed at Kailua to commence a tour of Hawaii. It was on the morning of the 1st of July, and we were kindly invited to take up our brief sojourn at the house of the Rev, Mr. Thurston who with his wife and children had been our voyaging companions on board the Clementine, from Honolulu.”

“The day of our landing happened to be the first Monday of the month, which has been so sacredly consecrated by American Missionaries and the churches of the United States, as a day of prayer for the blessing of God upon the Missionary enterprise.”

“It was pleasant to enjoy one of these sacred seasons, on the spot, so replete with incidents calculated to inspire the friend and lover of the cause with thanksgiving and gratitude. As might naturally be supposed, we had a ‘thousand’ inquiries to make of our venerable Missionary best, who bad been here watching the successive phases and changes of events for the last quarter of a century.”

“From our Journal for July 2d, we copy the following: ‘This morning it was proposed that we visit the village. Our steps were first directed to Governor Adams’ ‘factory,’ a long, and low, thatched building, now occupied as a native dwelling and store house.”

“Here the Governor undertook the manufacture of cotton cloth, and actually succeeded so far as to make several hundred yards.” (The Friend, April 15, 1845)

“Governor Kuakini indeed went so far as to manufacture a very stout kind of cloth in Kailua, Hawaii. It was proposed by the Rev. Mr. Armstrong that prizes in money and of sums which would make them worth contending for should be offered on a graduated scale for say, the three best specimens that may be exposed at the exhibition of this year.”

“It was asserted that this cotton raising is a business which will fall in with the habits of the people, and for which they have always evinced an inclination.” (Polynesian, June 11, 1859)

The cloth making experiment begun at Wailuku was continued; spinning and knitting were undertaken at one or two other stations; cotton growing was taken up by the church members at several places as a means of raising funds for new school and church buildings and to aid the missionary cause in general.

At Haiku, Maui, an American farmer commenced a small plantation, having 55 acres planted in 1838. Governor Kuakini of Hawaii. one of the most business-like of the chiefs, visited Miss Brown’s class at Wailuku in 1835 and conceived the idea of having the industry established on his island.

In 1837 the governor was reported by one of the merchants to have planted an immense cotton field at Waimea, Hawaii. In the same year he erected a stone building at Kailua, thirty by seventy feet, to be used as a factory. A foreigner in his employ made a wheel, from which as a sample the natives made about twenty others.

Wheel heads and cards were imported from the United States. Three poorly trained native women served as the first instructors for some twenty or thirty operatives, girls and women from twelve to forty years of age.

In a comparatively short time they acquired a fair proficiency in the work; by the middle of 1838 a large quantity of yarn bad been spun. Two looms were next procured and a foreigner familiar with their operation.

Members of the United States exploring squadron visited the factory in 1840, and the commander of the expedition wrote that the foreigner just mentioned ‘was engaged for several months in the establishment, during which time he had under his instruction four young men, with whom he wove several pieces of brown stripes and plaids, plain and twined cotton cloth.’

‘After this time, the natives were able to prepare and weave independently of his aid. Becoming dissatisfied, however, all left the work, together with the foreigner; but after some time they were induced to return to their work. This small establishment has ever since been kept up entirely by the natives.’ (Kuykendall)

Kuakini’s “scheme failed probably from the fact that the Governor found it cheaper to buy coarse cottons than to make them.” (The Friend, April 15, 1845)

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‘John Adams’ Kuakini, royal governor or the island of Hawai’i, circa 1823

April 14, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Huliheʻe, Its Owners and Visitors

John Adams Kuakini was born about 1789 with the name Kaluaikonahale, the son of Keʻeaumoku and his wife Nāmāhana. His sisters were Queen Kaʻahumanu (Kamehameha’s favorite wife who later became the powerful Queen Regent and Kuhina nui,) Kalākua Kaheiheimālie and Namahana-o-Piʻia (also queens of Kamehameha) and brother George Cox Kahekili Keʻeaumoku.

He married Analeʻa (Ane or Annie) Keohokālole; they had no children. (She later married Caesar Kapaʻakea. That union produced several children (including the future King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani.))

In 1838, Kuakini built Huliheʻe as his primary residence; a structure that exemplified Hawaiʻi’s ability to build modern structures; it is a two-story stone structure with a symmetrical floor plan that has strong similarities to a New England style house. These similarities were readily apparent to foreign visitors.

In 1838, a visitor who witnessed the palace under construction wrote: “It is of stone and as handsome a building as I have seen in the islands …. It is two story, has three rooms above and below, a lanai in front the whole length and a piazza back, the lower part painted marble color and the upper green. He has much of the Koa in it which is almost as nice as mahogany.” (NPS)

Huliheʻe Palace was a source of great pride for its builder and he would regularly show the palace off to foreign visitors to the island. Kuakini died December 9, 1844 in Kailua-Kona; Huliheʻe passed to his hānai son, William Pitt Leleiōhoku.

Leleiōhoku died a few months later, leaving Huliheʻe to his wife, Princess Ruth Luka Keʻelikōlani. It became a favorite retreat for members of the Hawaiian royal family.

Following Kuakini’s death, Amos Cooke and Thomas Rooke took the children of the Chiefs’ Childrens’ School (Royal School) on a visit to Kona, arriving on July 11, 1846. Cooke noted in his journal:

“… we landed at Kailua, & were escorted to the large stone house, builed by John Adams. It had been cleared of its furniture, but mats were plenty & we occupied them for beds. Our meals were cooked on board the vessel & brought on shore.”

“The house had three large rooms above 5 below. The boys took one end room above & the girls the other. The room under the girls was used as a dining hall while we were there. It was a large & commodious house & must have cost $10,000.”

Later, Kamehameha IV (Ruth’s half-brother, who had visited Huliheʻe as a student at the Royal School) and Queen Emma particularly enjoyed their time vacationing at Huliheʻe, and visited the palace many times with their son, Prince Albert.

Kamehameha IV signed a lease with Princess Ruth for Huliheʻe at $200 per year, with the agreement that additions and repairs made would be deducted from the rental. (Daughters of Hawaiʻi)

The King and Queen purchased the ahupuaʻa of Waiaha; in 1858 they moved to Kona for a 4-month stay. (That visit was cut short with the untimely death of Queen Emma’s hānai father, Dr Rooke.)

In May, 1861 Lady Jane Franklin, widow of a famed explorer, visited the palace. Lady Franklin describes Huliheʻe as “a huge house, with excellent rooms, standing within a grassy enclosure close upon the shore and faced to the sea by a wall of lava blocks. “

“We have the great house all to ourselves, every door and window open, scanty furniture (only a bed, a sofa, tables and chairs).” The future king and future owner of the palace, David Kalākaua, accompanied Lady Franklin on the trip. (NPS)

Shortly after being elected King in 1873, Lunalilo became ill and at the urging of Princess Ruth and Queen Emma went to Huliheʻe to recover. Lunalilo brought the Henry Berger and the Royal Hawaiian Band to the palace throughout Christmas and the New Year to entertain the royalty during the holiday season. Lunalilo never recovered from his illness and died shortly after returning to Honolulu.

Despite owning Huliheʻe Palace, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani chose to live in a large hale pili (traditional grass home) on the same oceanfront property. When she became ill in Honolulu, her doctors recommended that she return to Huliheʻe, her Kailua-Kona residence, where they believed she would more quickly regain her health.

She received medical attention, but did not recover. On May 24, 1883, Keʻelikōlani died at the age of fifty-seven at Haleʻōlelo, her hale pili. Per her will, Huliheʻe Palace went to Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop (who died within a year of inheriting the palace.)

Shortly after King Kalākaua finished building ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu (1882,) he purchased Huliheʻe from Pauahi’s estate in 1885 and turned Huliheʻe into his summer residence.

He completed some major renovations so that the palace would more closely resemble the modern structures he saw during his travels. He stuccoed the entire lava rock exterior and plastered over the koa-paneled walls. He felt that the palace was outdated and that these renovations were necessary so that Hawai’i could portray itself to the world as a modern society.

Other changes included enlarging the lanais, and hanging crystal chandeliers, like those he had seen in the United States and Europe, in the entry ways. The ceiling of the palace was given an ornamental cornice and gold leaf picture molding was added in some of the rooms.

Kalākaua felt that these larger and more modern palaces were more comparable to those that he saw when he was abroad, and that they were better suited for the aliʻi to live in. (During the renovation he also demolished Princess Ruth’s grass house that still stood on the property.)

The same year he finished renovation to Huliheʻe (1887,) Kalākaua, under threat of force, signed the ‘Bayonet Constitution.’ The King spent the majority of his time at Huliheʻe Palace after he signed the new constitution.

He continued to make improvements to Huliheʻe while living there and had a telephone line installed in the palace in 1888, which was one of the first telephones on the island of Hawai’i. He continued to entertain foreign visitors at the palace.

In 1889 the Prince and Princess Henri de Bourbon, members of the Austrian royal family, visited the palace and were entertained by the King. Kalākaua died in 1891 and his wife, Queen Kapiʻolani, inherited the palace. Kapiʻolani resided at Huliheʻe throughout the period of the subsequent overthrow.

Upon her death in 1899, the property went to her nephews, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole and Prince David Kawānanakoa. Fifteen years after the Princes inherited the palace they sold it to a wealthy woman, Mrs Bathsheba Alien, for $8,600. (She died just one month after the transaction.)

For years the property sat vacant and eventually fell into a state of disrepair. In 1925, the Territory of Hawaiʻi purchased the property then turned it over to the Daughters of Hawaiʻi to run it as a museum (which they continue to do today.)

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