Kona | Page 11 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 28, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kona Cattle

“…the meat-eating population has increased, while the areas devoted to grazing and the numbers of cattle have gradually diminished, so that at the present time we are face to face with a situation in which the supply will no longer cover the demand.”

“Formerly (cattle) had wider ranges to rove over and feed upon; they were possessors of the land, and their value consisted chiefly in the labor and hides that they yielded.”

“At that time the plantations, which were of smaller areas than now, were almost wholly worked by bullock labor… In the course of time, and that very recent, the sugar industry has undergone great expansion.”

“The lands, some of which formerly were among the best for meat-making uses, have been absorbed by the plantations, and the cattle have been gradually forced within narrower limits at higher altitudes.” (Walter Maxwell; Thrum 1900)

Let’s look back …

With the arrival of Western ships, new plants and animals soon found their way to the Hawaiian Islands. In 1793, Captain George Vancouver gave a few cattle to Kamehameha I. When Vancouver landed additional cattle at Kealakekua in 1794, he strongly encouraged Kamehameha to place a 10‐year kapu on them to allow the herd to grow.

In the decades that followed, cattle flourished and later turned into a dangerous nuisance. (By 1846, 25,000-wild cattle roamed at will and an additional 10,000-semi‐domesticated cattle lived alongside humans.)

Kamehameha III lifted the kapu in 1830 and the hunting of wild cattle was encouraged. The king hired cattle hunters from overseas to help in the effort; many of these were former convicts from Botany Bay in Australia.

Wild cattle were hunted for consumption, as well as provisioning ships with salt beef, and hides and tallow to the growing whaling fleets replenished their stocks.

In addition, Kamehameha III had vaqueros (Mexican-Spanish cow hands) brought to the islands to teach the Hawaiians, the skills of herding and handling cattle.

“The formalization of ranching operations on Hawai‘i evolved in response to the growing threat of herds of wild cattle and goats to the Hawaiian environment, and the rise and fall of other business interests leading up to the middle 1800s.” (Maly)

The vaqueros found the Hawaiians to be capable students, and by the 1870s, the Hawaiian cowboys came to be known as the “paniola” for the Espanola (Spanish) vaqueros who had been brought to the islands (though today, the Hawaiian cowboy is more commonly called “paniolo”). (Maly)

“The forest areas of the Hawaiian Islands were very considerable, covering the upland plateaus and mountain slopes at altitudes above the lands now devoted to sugar growing and other cultures.”

“Those areas, however, have suffered great reduction, and much of the most valuable forest cover has been devastated and laid bare. The causes given, and to-day seen, of the great destruction that has occurred are the direct removal of forest without any replacement by replanting.”

“Again, in consequence of the wholesale crushing and killing off of forest trees by cattle which have been allowed to traverse the woods and to trample out the brush and undergrowth which protected the roots and trunks of trees, vast breadths of superb forests have dried up, and are now dead and bare.”

“All authorities of the past and of the present agree in ascribing to mountain cattle, which were not confined to ranching areas, but allowed to run wild in the woods, the chief part in the decimation of the forest-covered lands. (Maxwell; Thrum)

“While the visits of the whaleships were confined to a few ports, the effects were felt in many other parts of the kingdom. Much of the domestic produce, such as potatoes, vegetables, beef, pork, fowls, and firewood, that was supplied to the ships was raised in the back country and had to be taken to the ports for sale.”

“The demand for firewood to supply so many ships over so great a period of time must have had an appreciable effect in reducing the forest areas and helping to create a serious problem for later generations.”

“Cattle for beef were, where possible, driven to the ports on the hoof and slaughtered as needed; at times they were led carelessly through the streets, to the annoyance and danger of the peaceful populace.” (Kuykendall)

In the years prior to the Māhele of 1848, nearly all of the cattle (as well as goats and sheep) belonged either to the King, the government, other chiefs close to the King, and a few foreigners who had been granted the right to handle the cattle. By 1851 there were around 20,000 cattle on the island of Hawai‘i, and approximately 12,000 of them were wild. (Maly)

The issuance of land title through the Māhele and Royal Patent Grant program of the Hawaiian Kingdom facilitated the development of large scale ranching activities on Hawai‘i. Every ahupua‘a in the area between Keauhou to Kealakekua (as well as on lands to the north and south) was put into ranching.

Ranchers, such as Samuel Rice, Charles Hall, William Johnson, Henry N. Greenwell, John D. Paris, James Atkins, Preston Cummings, Henry Weeks, George Trousseau and several others, operated in the uplands of Kona. (Maly)

The ranches of this region were generally situated between the 1,500 to 4,500-foot elevation, above the lands that in the same period were being turned over to the cultivation of coffee and other crops.

There were also important mauka-makai trails at various locations in the Keauhou-Kealakekua vicinity (such as Honalo, Kawanui, Lehu‘ula, Honua‘ino, Kalukalu, Onouli, and Ka‘awaloa), where ranchers would drive their cattle to the lowlands for grazing and shipping.

Māhele records also tell us that the native Hawaiian land owners in the same region, kept pigs and goats (and probably cattle and horses) on their own lands at lower elevations as well.

By 1855, the King signed a law requiring all cattle owners on Hawai‘i to register their brands between April 1st to September 30th 1855. On October 16, 1855, SL Austin (secretary to Governor of Hawai‘i), reported to John Young (Minister of the Interior), that 13 individuals had submitted the necessary documentation. (Maly)

For the most part, Kona Ranching operations continued on leased or fee lands by descendants of the earlier ranchers – Greenwell, Johnson, Paris, Wall and Roy.

Most of the ranching was/is in the uplands (areas extending from the Māmalahoa Highway vicinity to around the 4,800-foot elevation).

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Kailua Bay looking down on beach by pier

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December 7, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Charles Hall

In 1825 an English agriculturist named John Wilkinson arrived in Hawai‘i on the frigate Blonde; on the way from England, they stopped in Brazil where he obtained coffee seedlings.

They first landed in Hilo and left some coffee there. Wilkinson went on Oahu and is noted for starting the first commercial coffee in the Islands in Mānoa.

Coffee was planted in Mānoa Valley in the vicinity of the present UH-Mānoa campus; from a small field, trees were introduced to other areas of O‘ahu and neighbor islands.

In 1828, American missionary Samuel Ruggles took cuttings of the same kind of coffee from Hilo and brought them to Kona. Writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) later described the region in his Letters from Hawaiʻi …

“The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it what you please.”

“Mr Hall (was) among the first and oldest coffee growers and (his) brands were considered the best.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 13, 1866) Farming in Hokukano, near Kainaliu, Kona in the 1830s, he took a risk and planted fifty acres of coffee. (Teves)

“Some 4 or 5 miles beyond Keauhou I reached Mr Hall’s place where he has an extensive coffee plantation. His thatched house or rather houses is pleasantly located among beautiful shade trees, among them the Pride of India, Kukui, &c &c.”

“He has many thousand coffee trees & after 5 years labor is beginning to find it profitable. He has a native wife & a family of several children.”

“His wife is a daughter of Mr Rice of Kailua. Mr R[ice] was formerly intemperate & his family was left to go to ruin. This daughter was particularly vicious. On his reformation from intemperance he set about the reformation & discipline of his family.”

“This daughter, before he could bring her to submission to his authority he was obliged to keep chained by the ankle in his house for some 3 months; at last she gave up & the effect on her subsequent life was very salutary.” (Lyman)

While he later was a coffee farmer, in 1834, Hall was still practicing his trade of carpentry and was also hunting bullocks, so he was familiar with the mountain. (Greenwell)

Hall “is an American & has spent many years on the Island, has been employed in beef-catching & is familiar with the mountainous regions.”

It was then that naturalist David Douglas (for whom the Douglas fir tree was named), On July 12, 1834, while exploring the Island; “Douglas, a scientific traveller from Scotland, in the service of the London Horticultural Society, lost his life in the mountains of Hawaii, in a pitfall, being gored and trampled to death by a wild bullock captured there. (Bingham)

“When the death of Douglass was known at Hilo (Hall) was sent by the Missionaries to the pit to gather information. There had been a heavy rain the day before he reached the place & all tracks &c were obliterated.” (Lyman)

Some have suggested it was not an accident. “(T)he dead body of the distinguished Scottish naturalist, Douglas, was found under painfully suspicious circumstances, that led many to believe he had been murdered for his money.” (Coan)

“Hall says that he saw Douglass have a large purse of money which he took to be gold. None of any consequence was found after his death.” (Lyman) “Mr. Hall says he has no doubt in his own mind that Douglas was murdered”. (Fullard-Leo)

Hall, a native of Virginia, died at his residence at Kainaliu on March 19, 1880 at the age of 69 year. “He had resided on these lslands for over fifty years, having arrived here in 1829, as a seaman on board an American ship.”

“He was carpenter by trade, and soon got employment with the chiefs. He married the daughter of small chief at Pahoehoe, North Kona, and after her death, he married Hannah, the daughter of the late Samuel Rice, Gov Kuakini’s black-smith, who survives him and by whom he had large family of children, seven of whom are now living.”

“Up to an advanced age and until he was crippled by an accident, Mr Hall was ‘a mighty hunter’ of wild cattle on the mountains of Hawaii, and could outwalk most men of half his years. He was kind and affectionate husband and father and good neighbor. (The Friend, May 1880)

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Coffee

October 18, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Captain Cook

Around the 1400-1500s, the land was broken down into ahupuaʻa, ʻili and other physical subdivisions. All of the land was owned by the ruling chief. Each ahupuaʻa in turn was ruled by a lower chief, or aliʻi ʻai. He, in turn, appointed an overseer, or konohiki. (The common people never owned or ruled land.)

Each ahupuaʻa had its own name and boundary lines. Often the markers were natural features such as a large rock or a line of trees or even the home of a certain bird. An ahupuaʻa in a valley usually used its ridges and peaks as boundaries.

In ancient Hawaiʻi, there were no “towns,” “villages” or “cities,” in the modern context. Over the years, communities across the Islands grew. Here, the focus is on an area of South Kona on the Island of Hawai‘i.

Kealakekua translates as ‘pathway of the gods’ and is one of the most significant historic and cultural places in Hawaiʻi. It was selected by the aliʻi as one of the seven royal centers of Kona in the 1700s, because of its sheltered bay and abundance of natural resources.

Kaʻawaloa (meaning ‘the distant ʻawa plant’ and another Royal Center) has a flat, fan-shaped lava peninsula near sea level, which rises gradually to the edge of the 600-ft Pali Kapu O Keoua. These forty acres of land define the northwest side of Kealakekua Bay. It was where Cook was killed.

An obelisk monument commemorating Captain Cook was constructed in 1874, near the spot where Cook died. (Contrary to urban legend, the monument site is not owned by the British Government; ownership is in the name of the British Consul General (the individual) – a representative would check in with DLNR, from time to time.)

About 40-years after Cook’s death, the American Protestant missionaries arrived and established one of the earliest mission stations in Hawai‘i at Kaʻawaloa in 1824.

In the early 1830s it took one year or more for mail to reach the Islands from the continent, coming by way of Cape Horn. When the transcontinental railroad was built, it took about a month.

Prior to 1854 there was no regular mail service on the Islands. Letters were forwarded by chance opportunities. With expanding mail volumes, post offices were set up, often in a central store or business in the community. With growing communities, there was some uncertainty over postal facility names, apparently creating some confusion.

In the mauka area of Kealakekua and Ka‘awaloa, coffee started to thrive. “Coffee … since there weren’t very many other opportunities, was hung on to desperately by the farmers”. (Sherwood Greenwell – A Social History of Kona)

Coffee plants came to Kona via Hilo. In 1825 an English agriculturist named John Wilkinson, who in his younger years had been a planter in the West Indies, arrived at Honolulu on the frigate Blonde – along the way, he left some plants in Hilo. (Kuykendall)

Wilkinson planted coffee in Mānoa Valley in the vicinity of the present UH-Mānoa campus; from a small field, trees were introduced to other areas of O‘ahu and neighbor islands.

In 1828, American missionary Samuel Ruggles took cuttings from Hilo and brought them to Kona. Henry Nicholas Greenwell grew and marketed coffee and is recognized for putting “Kona Coffee” on the world markets.

At Weltausstellung 1873 Wien (World Exhibition in Vienna, Austria (1873,)) Greenwell was awarded a “Recognition Diploma” for his Kona Coffee. (Greenwell Farms)

Writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) seemed to concur with this when he noted in his Letters from Hawaiʻi, “The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it what you please.”

Then, “Captain Cook’s name has received a new honor. The Captain Cook Coffee Company, of Kealakekua, Hawaii, has filed articles of incorporation, with capital stock of $60,000, of which $50,000 are subscribed.”

“Accompanying the articles is a list of property of WW Bruner acquired by the new corporation, in which the copyrighted name of “Captain Cook Coffee” Is set forth at a valuation of $2,000.”

“The company consists of W. W. Bruner, president and treasurer; AWT Bottomley, WL Stanley, WT Lucas, Thomas A. Honan, secretary, and M. R. Jamieson, auditor; all being stockholders except the latter.”

“Bruner owns 2196 of the 2500 shares subscribed and the rest own one each. The Bruner property, including a coffee ranch, etc, is taken over at a valuation of $50,000 including the $2,000 Captain Cook trademark.” (Hawaiian Star, July 22, 1905)

Captain Cook Coffee Co Ltd is one of the oldest existing coffee companies in Hawai‘i. Since the 1880s, Captain Cook has been growing and processing raw green Kona coffee. (CCCC)

Captain Cook Coffee Co. Ltd and H Hackfeld and Co. (later American Factors, Amfac) acted as the “middle men” or factors between the local farmers and the world coffee market.

American Factors advanced farm necessities and foodstuffs through affiliated stores (mostly operated by Japanese merchants) under the condition that farmers were to pay for their merchandise in coffee once the harvest was complete.

All this coffee was processed at company mills, American Factors’ in Kailua and Captain Cook’s at the mill on Napo‘opo‘o Road. In this way, two companies dominated the industry with the farmer having no control over the value of his crop. (Kona Historical Society)

Back to mail … “And the mail used to be quite an excitement. The old post office used to be – when I was a kid – in the old People’s Bank of Hilo building which is where the Bank of Hawai‘i is today. … And everybody would come to the post office to get their mail. Mail was quite an experience….”

“Eventually it was found that it would be practical or be convenient for the people up here to have another post office and so a post office was (opened) in the Captain Cook Coffee Company building. And the postmaster was the bookkeeper of Captain Cook Coffee Company.”

“And the name became Captain Cook (post office) because it was in Captain Cook Coffee Company’s building and was run by Captain Cook Coffee Company.”

“It could have been called Ka‘awaloa (post office) if they wanted to name it the name of the land.” (Sherwood Greenwell – A Social History of Kona)

It’s like “Up in Waimea, it’s called ‘Kamuela’ because the post office is called ‘Kamuela’ (even though) the place is called ‘Waimea.’ But (the post office) couldn’t be called ‘Waimea’ when they put a post office in because there was already a Waimea post office on Kauai.” (Sherwood Greenwell – A Social History of Kona)

By the 1930s there were more than 1,000 coffee farms and, as late as the 1950s, there were 6,000-acres of coffee in Kona. But in the mid-1950s, Captain Cook Coffee Co and American Factors got out of the coffee business.

Several coffee cooperatives formed to market Kona’s crop, among these being Sunset Co-op , which took over operations at the Napo‘opo‘o Mill, which is currently run by Kona Pacific Farmers Co-op. Mountain Thunder Coffee took over Captain Cook Coffee’s building in Kainaliu. (Kona Historical Society)

So, what is now known as the community of ‘Captain Cook’ was named for its post office, in the premises of the Captain Cook Coffee Co. Ltd. (The only place in the United States where coffee is grown commercially is in Hawaiʻi.)

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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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June 19, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kona Hotel

From 1899 to 1926, Hōlualoa was a sugar town; coffee was cut down to make way for fields of sugarcane, which surrounded Hōlualoa. The sugar plantation carried the region’s economy, and Holualoa became its commercial center.

Plantation camps sprang up near the mill and along the length of the railway. Catholic, Protestant and Buddhist churches were established to serve the multiethnic community.

Luther Aungst chose Hōlualoa as headquarters for the Kona Telephone Company, started in the 1890s. Using mules to drag telephone poles across lava flows, Aungst installed a line from Hilo to Ka‘u, and across Kona to North Kohala.

Dr Harvey Saburo Hayashi from Aomori-ken, Japan, one of Kona’s first full-time resident physicians and publisher of Kona’s first newspaper, the Kona Echo, lived there.

The Kona Sugar Company started in 1899 with ambitious plans to create a major sugar plantation in Kona. The company built Kona’s first sugar mill above Kailua Village in 1901.

The mill site was near Waiaha Steam. But water was not sufficient to properly process the cane; in 1903, the company went broke. Other investors tried to keep it alive, but the plantation failed in 1926.

Sugar’s collapse spelled economic ruin for many people. Coffee kept Hōlualoa alive, but just barely. Young people looking for employment left North Kona in droves, finding work in Honolulu or the mainland. (Kona Historical Society)

It was at this time (1926,) when Zentaro and Hatsuyo Inaba opened their 11-room Kona Hotel in 1926, they advertised “Rooms and Meals”.

The business was quickly a going concern in Hōlualoa town and initially catered to traveling businessmen like the Love’s Bakery salesman. They also welcomed the occasional tourist traveling from Hilo, via Volcano, in modified Packard ‘Sampan’ automobiles. (Pulama ia Kona)

“My father was Zentaro Inaba. That’s my stepfather. My mother was Hatsuyo Inaba. Her maiden name was Hatsuyo Miyamoto. Now, my real father, when I was very young, left for the Mainland.”

“And subsequent to that, my [step]father came to Kona and married my mother. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t know my real father. Ever since my childhood, my father was Zentaro Inaba.”

“I think they came here during the latter part of the 1890s. Mother came to Kona with my father – that is, Kitao – and my stepfather came from Pāpaʻikou to Kona. He was one of the contract laborers in Pāpaʻikou.”

“You know, those days, because of the pressures, because of the treatment that they had in the plantation under a contract system, he was dissatisfied. So, he actually ran away from his contract and came to Kona.”

“He used to tell me how he came to Kona. He travelled at night. He was afraid of being caught during the day. And from Pāpaʻikou to Kona, it took him three days to get to Kona.”

“He settled in Kona. As soon as he settled in Kona, he started working for the LS Aungsts – Luther Aungst’s family as a cook. He cooked for the family for 17 years, I think. I think it was about 17 years that he cooked for the Aungst family.”

Then, “they built that hotel – Kona Hotel – in 1926. So, they were running the hotel. … Father used to cook, and mother used to clean the rooms and so on. And they had a girl there that did the rooms. Mother did the laundry and things like that. And father did the cooking.”

“Who were the people who used to stay at the hotel? … Oh, most of them were salesmen … Travelling salesmen. Then, we’d have tourists come in once in a while. Because, at that time, the only hotels were the Kona Inn and Manago Hotel in Kona. And, of course, my folks’ hotel.” (Minuro Inaba, Social History)

“I guess his cooking ability was the reason they opened the hotel. The hotel food was western and Father was quite a cook. He always served soup which was well liked by the customers … beef soup.”

Zentaro and Hatsuyo’s son Goro and wife Yayoko continued the family tradition and today the historic Kona Hotel is still operated by the Inaba ‘ohana. (Pulama ia Kona)

By 1958, just over 1,000 people lived in Hōlualoa area. The construction of Kuakini Highway in the early-1950s reduced traffic through town even further.

Tourism and a coffee boom have brought new life to Hōlualoa. Eager entrepreneurs have transformed old garages and empty houses into galleries showcasing art of every description, some of it produced by artists who grew up in Hōlualoa.

Friendly family-run businesses such as Kimura’s Lauhala Shop, the Kona Hotel, and thrice-named Paul’s Place (formerly Tanimoto General Store in the 1890s, and later Morikami Store in the late 1920s) keep old Kona alive. (Kona Historical Society)

Ranchers herded their cattle to Kailua Bay where they were shipped out. This process involved lassoing the cattle and pulling them into the bay, where they were lashed onto the gunwales of waiting whaleboats and delivered to waiting ships. The last cattle were shipped out in 1956, when the deep harbor at Kawaihae supplanted the Kailua Harbor. (Kona Historical Society)

I fondly remember, as a kid in Kona, we occasionally got to go sheep hunting at Pu‘uwa‘awa‘a. A regular stop for us on the way home was to see the Inabas at Kona Hotel, where we left with them one of the sheep we shot.

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