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March 29, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kona Airport at Kailua

Interisland air travel was initiated in Hawaiʻi on November 11, 1929, by Stanley Kennedy, a WWI aviator who acquired two Sikorsky S-38 Amphibian aircraft and initiated direct service from Honolulu to Hilo (3 times a week) via Maʻalaea, Maui, and to Port Allen, Kauai (2 times a week). Later, service was added to Molokai.

For a number of years, Kailua-Kona was only serviced by seaplanes. Then (after clearing an area of rocks the week before,) on August 21, 1935, Alfred W Smith landed his single-seated monoplane about a mile north of Kailua, the first airplane ground landing ever made in Kona.

By the late-1930s, there was a public push to provide an airport at Kailua, Kona. An area parallel to the beach, previously used for small aircraft operations, and known as Kailua Airstrip, was determined to be the only suitable area in the vicinity. It was located about 1½-miles northwest of the Kona Inn.

“It is believed that the proposed airport would result in a great increase in tourist interest in the area and also in the development of vacation homes for residents of Honolulu,” stated a Department of Public Works report.

“The general opening up of the area by providing means for quicker transportation to Honolulu would tend to interest young people of Oahu in the possibility of establishing themselves in the Kona area (where land is relatively available) and thus help solve the land scarcity problem which is critical on Oahu.” (hawaii-gov)

“The shipment of Kona fruits and vegetables to Honolulu by air freight would be economically practicable both for sale in Honolulu and, during certain periods of the year, for trans-shipment to California.” (hawaii-gov)

In late-1940, applications were prepared and processed under the provisions of the 1940 National Airport Act. The next year funds were allotted, but construction never started. Finally, in 1944 the Post War Planning Division of the Territorial Public Works Department proposed proceeding with the airport when the war was over.

Surveys were made and plans prepared by the Department of Public Works, and in May 1948 bids were opened for construction of a runway 100-feet wide by 3,500-feet long, an aircraft parking mat and an access road connecting the main road through the village of Kailua.

Work was started June 10, 1948. Due to the multiple ‘Kailua’ names for various items, including airports (there was another private airport at Kailua, Oʻahu,) on February 7, 1949 the airport was named Kona Airport.

On July 10, 1949 between 3,000 and 4,000 people gathered at the new Kona Airport for the official opening and ceremonies. Acting Governor Oren E Long officially declared the airport open for commercial air transportation, and said he “hoped that in spite of the trade and prosperity that the district would inherit, Kona would remain noted for its hospitality and not become a Great White Way marred by neon signs and a Coney Island atmosphere.” (hawaii-gov)

Hawaiian Airlines President Stan Kennedy announced that additional weekend flights would be made by his airline on the Kona Coaster every Friday afternoon from Honolulu and returning every Sunday afternoon. “Kona will become, now more than ever, a must for the tourist as well as for local travel,” Kennedy said.

Hawaiian Airlines was the first commercial plane to arrive at the airport from Honolulu via Molokai at 11:30 am bringing a full load of passengers and the first direct air mail from Oahu. It took off at noon bound for Honolulu with passengers and air mail.

Over the next few years the facility was expanded and the runway lengthened. However, the location of the airport, with planes flying over Kailua-Kona and nearby residences, started to raise concerns – especially with the increasing number of flights and the need for further expansion with a longer runway to accommodate larger aircraft.

Less than 10-years after it opened, in 1957, there were discussions and planning for the relocation of the airport. Part of the plan was to sell the old airport site for the development of a tourist resort, in order to fund construction of a new airport to replace those facilities.

However, in the interim, in 1966, the runway was lengthened as a stop gap measure to accommodate the growing size of the interisland carriers’ planes.

On June 30, 1970, Kona Airport was closed and all operations were moved to the new Keāhole Airport with operations beginning at the new airport on July 1, 1970, with the new Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway built to that point.

For three summers, I worked for Aloha Airlines, starting at the “Old” Kona Airport – initially throwing bags, then as a ramp agent greeting and saying farewell to the planes as they landed/departed.

The summer of 1970, we moved the airline office furniture and supplies, slowing moving with our tugs and baggage carts piled high along the new Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway to the new Keāhole Airport (extension of Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway to Kawaihae was completed in 1975.)

After the old airport’s closure, its runway was used as a drag strip until the State and the County converted it to a recreational park around 1976. The runway is used as a parking area and access road for the former State park area.

While the State still owns the site, while I was at DLNR, the Board of Land and Natural Resources approved the set aside (assignment of management jurisdiction) of the former airport site to the County of Hawai‘i for park and recreational purposes.

In October 2010, the State completed the Kona International Airport at Keāhole Airport Master Plan which provides a long-range vision of the developments on airport property. Recently (March 2013,) an EIS preparation notice was filed for proposed airfield improvements and airport facilities related to that plan that are anticipated to be implemented within the next five to ten years.

Air lanes between the principal Hawaiian islands-1930s

Baggage claim, Kona Airport-(hawaii-gov)-1960s

Governor John Burns dedicates Keahole, Kona, Airport

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US mail plane takes off from historic Kailua Bay, Island of Hawaii, landing place of pioneer American missionaries over 100 years ago.

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Kona Airport, Kailua, Hawaii-(hawaii-gov)-1950

Kona Airport, Kailua, Hawaii-(hawaii-gov)-April 21, 1955

Kona Airport, Kailua, Hawaii-(hawaii-gov)-April 22, 1955

Kona Airport, Kailua, Hawaii-(hawaii-gov)-July 12, 1950

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Feb 1950 Landing strip for Kona Airport

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May 12, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pā‘aiea Pond

It is said there once was a very large fishpond extending from Ka‘elehuluhulu, adjoining the region of Mahai‘ula (now part of Ke Kahakai State Park,) running south past Ka-Lae-O-Keāhole to as far south as Wawaloli on the boundary of ‘O‘oma (the beach park within the Natural Energy Laboratory,) in North Kona on the Big Island.

This is the present area of Kona International Airport.

This fishpond, known as Pā‘aiea, was reportedly three-miles long and a mile-and- a-half wide; it was the large fishpond of Kamehameha.

The pond was so large that fishermen going to Kailua and further South, often took a short cut by taking their canoes into the pond and going across, thus saving time against the strong sea breeze and current from Keāhole.

There was a famous saying about this fishpond: O na hoku o ka lani, o Pā‘aiea ko lalo – The stars are above, Pā‘aiea below.

The reason for this saying was because of its exceptionally large size. Within the wide waters of this pond were numerous little islets that were compared to the stars in the heavens.

“Pā‘aiea was a great pond almost like the ponds of Wainanalii and Kiholo. In the olden days, when the great ruling chiefs were living, and when these fish ponds were full of the riches of Awa, Anae, and Ahole, along with all sorts of fish which swam within.”

“During that time, Konohiki were stationed, and he was the guard of the pond that watched over the pond and all things, as here we are talking about Pā‘aiea Pond which was destroyed by lava and became pahoehoe lava which remains today”.

“In the correct and trues story of this pond, its boundaries began from Kaelehuluhulu on the north and on the south was at the place called Wawaloli, and the distance from one end to the other was 3 miles or more, and that was the length of this pond …”

“… and today within these boundaries, there are a number of pools [lua wai loko] remaining during this time that the writer is speaking before the readers of the Hoku.”

“The great Overseer [Konohiki] who cared for this pond was Kepaalani, and everything fell under him: the storehouses [hale papaa] where poi and fish were stored, the halau for the fishing canoes, the nets and all thing, and from him the fishermen and the retainers of the court would obtain their sustenance.”

“And at this time when the pond was destroyed by lava, Kamehameha was residing in Hilo for the purpose of waging war, and this war was called Kaipalaoa …”

“… during this war, Namakehaikalani died and was offered atop the Heiau of Piihonua in Hilo; and this was Kamehameha’s final war, and his enemies lived quietly without uprising once again. “

“This was the time between 1798 until 1801, and it is said that this is when lava destroyed this pond that was full of riches, and turned it into a land of pahoehoe lava which remains to this day.” (Hoku o Hawaii, 2/5/1914)

Pā‘aiea Pond was reportedly destroyed by the 1801 eruption and lava flow from Hualālai. Two parts to a story relate to the cause of its destruction.

The first suggests that one day an old woman appeared at the large canoe shed of Kepa‘alani (the konohiki or overseer of the pond.)

Another man, Kapulau, asked: “Malahini?” (newcomer)

She replied “I am a Kama‘āina, not exactly a total stranger, but I do not often come down here to the seashore. Living in the restful uplands, and hearing that there was plenty of fish down at the beach, I hastened down to see if the fishermen would give me a bit of palu.”

The konohiki replied, “”No! You cannot have fish, palu, shrimps or anything. It all belongs to the Chief, and only the Chief can give them to you.”

“Well! That is all. I now return to the uplands without even a grain of salt.” The old woman stood up and turned around to go.

When she came to Kapulau’s house, she was urged to remain and have something to eat. She consented and sat down. When she had finished her meal, Kapulau gave her a fish.

The old woman stood up, and before starting to go, she gave these instructions to her host: “Tonight, you and your wife put up a lepa (kapa cloth on end of a stick, as used to mark a taboo area) back of your house and here on your fence.” They followed her instructions.

In the second part of the story, this same old woman soon afterwards appears at a village called Manuahi which was on the Western slope of Hualālai, and where two girls who figure in this story, lived; they were roasting bread-fruit.

The name of one of these girls was Pahinahina and the name of the other was Kolomu‘o. As soon as the old woman saw then she inquired: “For whom are you roasting your bread-fruit?”

Kolomu‘o answered: “I am roasting my bread-fruit for La‘i. That is my God and the God of my parents.”

Then the old woman turned and asked Pahinahina, the other girl, “and for whom, pray, are you roasting your breadfruit?” “For Pele,” Pahinahina replies.

Then they ate the breadfruit.

Then the old woman asked Pahinahina: “Where is your house?” Pahinahina told her they shared a house, but the families lived on respective end of it. The old women then told her, “When your parents come home, you tell them to put up a lepa on the end of your part of the house.” They complied.

That night, the people living at the beach saw an eruption on Mountain of Hualālai and as they saw the lava flow they realized that the old woman whose request for fish, palu and shrimps had been refused, could have been no other than the Goddess Pele.

The lava came and destroyed the great fishpond of Pā‘aiea, dried its water and filled and covered it with black rocks.

However, two places were spared.

There remained only that very small portion of the fishpond, close to Ho‘ona (within the Natural Energy Laboratory property at Keāhole Point.)

Also, the area where Pahinahina and her family lived was left untouched, and this open space bears the name of Pahinahina to this day (it is below the old headquarters at Hu‘ehu‘e Ranch).

It is said that because of this event that the lands of Manuahi came to be called Ka-ulu-pulehu (the roasted breadfruit (‘ū is short for ‘ulu,)) and this has been shortened to Ka‘ūpūlehu.

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March 8, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

‘Umi in Kona

Pa o ʻUmi is the small point of land in Kailua Bay between Kamakahonu (King Kamehameha Hotel) and Huliheʻe Palace, near the middle of the Kailua Seawall in Kona on the Big Island.

It marks the location of the Royal Center of the ruler ʻUmi-a-Līloa (ʻUmi) (ca. AD 1490-1525) and where famed King ʻUmi landed when he first came to Kailua by canoe from his ancestral court at Waipiʻo.

On this point of rock, King ʻUmi ordered his attendant to dry his treasured feather cloak (ʻahuʻula) (so this promontory is sometimes referred to as Ka Lae o ʻAhuʻula.)

Over the years of widening Aliʻi Drive and adding on to the seawall, this point has been almost completely covered.

ʻUmi from Waipiʻo, son of Līloa, defeated Kona chief Ehunuikaimalino and united the island of Hawai‘i. He then moved his Royal Center from Waipi‘o to Kailua.

ʻUmi’s residence was near the place called Pa-o-ʻUmi.

At about the time of ʻUmi, a significant new form of agriculture was developed in Kona; he is credited with starting this in Kona.

Today, archaeologists call the unique method of farming in this area the “Kona Field System.”

This intensive agricultural activity changed farming and agricultural production on the western side of Hawai’i Island; the Kona field system was quite large, extending from Kailua to south of Honaunau.

In lower elevations all the way to the shore, informal clearings, mounds and terraces were used to plant sweet potatoes; and on the forest fringe above the walled fields there were clearings, mounds and terraces which were primarily planted in bananas.

In the lower reaches of the tillable land, at elevations about 500-feet to 1,000-feet above sea level, a grove of breadfruit half mile wide and 20 miles long grew.

Sweet potatoes grew among the breadfruit. Above the breadfruit grove, at elevations where the rainfall reached 60-70 inches or more, were fields of dry land taro.

The field system took up all the tillable land and cropping cycles were frequent. Agriculture supported the thriving and growing population of Kona.

The Kona Field System (identified as Site: 10-27-6601 and including multiple locations) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 28, 1977.

When it was nominated to the National Register, the Kona Field System was described as “the most monumental work of the ancient Hawaiians.”

The challenge of farming in Kona is to produce a flourishing agricultural economy in an area subject to frequent droughts, with no lakes or streams for irrigation.

The Kona Field System was planted in long, narrow fields that ran across the contours, along the slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualālai.

As rainfall increases rapidly as you go up the side of Hualālai, the long fields allowed farmers to plant different crops according to the rainfall gradients.

This traditional farming system disappeared by the mid-19th century and now coffee farms cover much of the land that once comprised the Kona Field System (we now call this mauka region the “Coffee Belt.”)

The photo shows Pa o ‘Umi, taken in 1928 from the area of the Kailua Pier – Huliheʻe Palace and Mokuaikaua Church in background. The little girl sitting on the left is my mother; the woman sitting in the middle (wearing a hat) is my grandmother.

Pa O ‘Umi was included as a Point of Interest in the Royal Footsteps Along The Kona Coast Scenic Byway. We prepared the Corridor Management Plan for the scenic byway for the Kailua Village BID.

We are honored that the project was awarded the 2011 “Environment / Preservation” award from the American Planning Association – Hawaii Chapter; “Historic Preservation Commendation” from the Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation and the 2011 “Pualu Award for Culture & Heritage” from the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce.

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Kona Field System Walls – Google Earth

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January 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Lanihau

“I started looking for property in Kona in 1921 when I graduated from Yale [University] and I think between then and 1932, why, I must have seen every beach property from Milolii to Kawaihae, no matter how you got to it–by air or by sea or by boat or by donkey or by mule or on foot.”

“And I finally decided on [William] Doc Hill’s place down at Keauhou as being the ideal spot that I wanted to live in but through a long combination of funny circumstances, why, I didn’t get it.”

“I’d inquired about this place from Mr. Childs who was then local head of American Factors. He said, ‘Oh hell, that property’s so tied up with owners you never could clear title.’”

“‘Well,’ I said, ‘you live here’ – and he was a big shot of the community at the time. ‘Tell you what I’ll do. If you can clear the titles, I’ll put up the money and we’ll subdivide the thing into large pieces and go fifty-fifty on it.’ And he said, ‘Well, that’s fair enough. That doesn’t cost me anything.’”

“So I waited seven years and nothing happened. Then I happened to meet an old-timer from up here who’d been in the tax office and knew land problems–who my father helped to keep out of jail–and he was very fond of the Thurstons.”

“So I said, ‘Who owns that property next to Factors?’ ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘that belongs to so-and-so and so-and-so. You want to buy it?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know whether I can afford it or not.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘the girl right at this moment needs money badly, I know, and I’m quite sure she would sell.’”

“So, this was four in the afternoon and at 9:30 the next morning I got a call and he said, ‘If you’ll have so much money available by eleven o’clock, I can buy her half-interest in thirty-eight acres.’”

“So I said, ‘Well, I don’t know where I’m going to get the money but I’ll have it.’ I did. Five years later, for five times as much, I bought the other half. So that brings us up to about 1938 and going into 1939.”

“An old kahuna who lived down at Kahaluu – I can’t remember his name at the moment but it’ll come to me – through his grandson who worked for [Theo. H.] Davies and Company, said that his grandfather wanted to come see me.”

“His grandfather had known my great-grandfather as a little boy and his great-grandfather was, at that time, in his late nineties and Asa [Thurston] died when he was well along in the eighties, so there is quite a span there. So I said I’d be delighted.”

“So the old man came over and his grandfather … he was ashamed to speak English so he spoke in Hawaiian and I spoke English. I could understand him and he could understand me. So he said, ‘I would like to know what Mr. Thurston’s plans are for the development of this property,’ which was translated duly.”

“And I replied and gave him a general idea of what I was trying to accomplish here. We’d planted quite a few trees at that time.
So the old man sat here for quite a long time and just nodded his head; and then he started in talking Hawaiian very rapidly and he talked for about ten minutes without taking a breath.”

“So the old man thanked me with tears in his eyes and we talked a little bit about his remembering my grandfather. He was a young man at the time. And he died, oh, within two or three months after that down at Kailua.”

“The name of this place is Lanihau. L-A-N-I-H-A-U. There’s Lanihau-nui which is next door and this is Lanihau-iki, meaning little Lanihau, and Lanihau-nui is back of it [and means large or great Lanihau]. That belongs to the Greenwells.”

“The name puzzled me. Lani means heavenly; beauty. Hau–H-A-U–is normally the tree from which they make the Hawaiian outriggers or the amas [float for canoe outrigger] or ‘iako [canoe outrigger]. H-A-0 is iron or steel or very strong.”

“So I submitted this to John Lane, who was then alive, and Mary Pukui, who’s still alive, and Reverend Henry Judd and two others … and asked them what this name meant, because many times Hawaiian meanings were hidden.”

“They asked a great many questions about the place. Was it on a point? Yes. You had a beautiful view up and down the coast? Yes. You had a beautiful view of the ocean? Yes. And the surf? Yes.”

“And out on the point at times it’s enormous; and is there a current that comes past that you can see sometimes? Yes, you can see it coming down the coast, coming around the point. And you have a beautiful view of the sunrise and of the sunset?”

“They finally came up with this hidden meaning which I think is very interesting; Lanihau is the place where the forces of the heavens and of the earth meet and all is quiet and peaceful. The moonlight and the sunshine, the waves, the grand weather, the storms, and so on, which is rather interesting, I think.”

“I would say that you are really in a very blessed spot.”

“I started to work here on the 28th of December of 1939. It was all just lava, nothing else. And this place evolved as a result of exposure and watching the surf and studying and seeing what one could do.”

“I always wanted a harbor for a boat to go fishing and to go swimming. And so, this gradually evolved and then I began to find out things about it.”

“Kamehameha the Great lived right here for some time – seven years – prior to his death. This is where he slept and over there was where he ate and over where the guest house is, is where his servants lived; and over at the far end there, beyond the entrance to the pond – going into the King Kamehameha [Hotel] lot – was the old heiau.”

“So he was self -contained and nobody was allowed on this place in the old days. You had to go around it. It was tabu. … Sacred.”

Back to the old man and his grandfather … “His grandson laughed when the old man ran down and said, ‘Well, my grandfather has said quite a few things. I will try to translate.’”

“In essence, what he said was this, that he will now die happy and he now understands why the good Lord never let anybody buy this over all the years.”

“He said, ‘He was waiting till you could come – till you had the money to come – and till you could develop this place, which certainly is even farther than Kamehameha would have been able to had he chosen to do it, and it will become a place of great beauty.’”

“‘I will now die happy because this property is in the hands of the man the Lord intended it to go to.’” (Lorrin P Thurston; Watumull Oral History)