Lanai | Page 3 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 11, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kaumālapaʻu

The total land area of Lānai is 89,305 acres, divided into 13 ahupua‘a (traditional land divisions.) In the traditional system, respective konohiki served as land managers over each. These konohiki were subject to control by the ruling chiefs.

At the time of the Great Māhele (1848,) lands on Lānai were divided between lands claimed by King Kamehameha III (Kauikeaouli) (40,665 acres,) which were known as the Crown Lands, and the lands to be claimed by the chiefs and people (48,640 acres,) which were called the Government Lands.

By 1907, more than half the island of Lānai was in the hands of native Hawaiians. Just 14 years later, in 1921, only 208.25 acres of land remained in native Hawaiian ownership. By 1875 Walter Gibson had control, either through lease or direct ownership, of nine‐tenths of Lānai’s lands. (Lānai Community Plan)

When James Dole bought Lānai, ranching was a thriving business under the control of George Munro. Shortly after the purchase, Dole got Munro working at removing cattle from potential pineapple lands. As soon as cattle were fattened they were sold. Ranching operations became a secondary priority to pineapple development.

During 1923, the company embarked on making major improvements to the island of Lānai. At first, Dole wanted to name the town Pine City, but the post office department objected because there were too many “pine” post offices in the mainland United States. So the plantation town was called Lānai City.

Dole hired Mr. Root, an engineer, to lay out and plan the town. Root arrived at Mānele Bay to begin his work. He designed the central park with a symmetrical grid of residential streets, which remains the configuration of Lānai City today.” (Lānai Community Plan)

Between 1922 and 1992, pineapple plantation operations provided the people of Lānai with a way of life. James Doles’ Hawaiian Pineapple Company evolved and many of the innovations in cultivation, equipment design, harvesting, irrigation and labor relations developed on the Lānai plantation, and came to be used around the world. (Lānai Culture & Heritage Center)

Mānele Bay was the main port of entry for Lānai; its primary purpose was to ship pineapple off the island. On the eastern side of the island, remnants of Halepalaoa Landing can be seen; this was used primarily to ship cattle. It’s also reported that in the late 1800s, a steamer landing was located on the western shore of Lānai Island and served as a docking grounds.

A new harbor was needed. In 1923 to 1926, Kaumālapaʻu Bay, a natural, sheltered cove on the southwest side of Lānai, was developed into the main shipping harbor from which pineapple and all major supplies for Lānai were shipped and received.

“… we learned that the breakwater is composed of 116,000-tons of rock blasted from the cliffs and dropped into the water. The Kaumalapau harbor entrance is 65-feet deep, and the minimum depth of the harbor is 27-feet. The wharf is 400-feet long and the boat landing is 80-feet in length.” (Lanai “The Pineapple Kingdom, 1926)

Bins filled with pineapple were unloaded from the trucks (steam cranes were still used through the 1960s), and placed on the barges for shipping to the cannery at Iwilei, Honolulu, Oʻahu. Tug boats were used to haul the barges – empty bins and supplies to Lānai, and filled pineapple bins to the cannery.

Because of the demands of work at Kaumālapaʻu, Lānai’s “second city” was developed, and known as “Harbor Camp.” The Harbor Camp included around 20 homes and support buildings, and sat perched on the cliffs above Kaumālapaʻu Bay. (Lānai Culture & Heritage Center)

Surmising from the vast archaeological features on the cliffs above Kaumālapaʻu Gulch, Kaumālapaʻu Harbor was probably a very important settlement (seasonal and/or permanent) for native Hawaiians. (Social Research Pacific)

Access to fishing, whether by boat or off the shoreline, is easily attained at Kaumālapaʻu. One of the sites immediately mauka of the harbor is called “Fisherman’s Trail.” In the 1862 letter requesting settlement and use of Lānai, even Gibson indicated the importance of fishing as the primary source of subsistence for the island’s inhabitants.

The village of Kaunolu, just to the south of Kaumālapaʻu was known as a “fishing village”. Given its proximity to Kaumālapaʻu, it is highly likely that neighboring Kaumālapaʻu also offered good fishing grounds to Hawaiians. The Kaumālapaʻu Trail extends from Lānai City down to Kaumālapaʻu. (Social Research Pacific)

In the Māhele, the ahupuaʻa of Kamoku and Kalulu (which adjoin the existing Kaumālapaʻu Harbor) were retained by the King (Kamehameha III), though the ‘ili of Kaumālapaʻu 1 & 2 were given by the King to the Government.

The Kaumālapaʻu Harbor breakwater was in disrepair for many years following several hurricanes and seasonal storms. Completed in 2007, 40,000-tons of new stone was added to the reshaped breakwater, 800 concrete Core-Locs (each weighing 35 tons) were put in place and a 5-foot- thick concrete cap was cast on top of the breakwater to complete the project. (Traylor)

Today, as in the early 1920s, Kaumālapaʻu Harbor is the main commercial seaport and Lānai’s lifeline to the outside world, with Young Brothers’ barge and other commercial activity in and out of Lānai.

October 23, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pineapple In Hawai‘i

Christopher Columbus brought pineapple, native of South America, back to Europe as one of the exotic prizes of the New World. (‘Pineapple’ was given its English name because of its resemblance to a pine cone.)

Pineapple (“halakahiki,” or foreign hala,) long seen as Hawaiʻi’s signature fruit, was introduced to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1813 by Don Francisco de Paula Marin, a Spanish adviser to King Kamehameha I.

Credit for the commercial production of pineapples goes to the John Kidwell, an English Captain who started with planting 4-5 acres in Mānoa.

Although sugar dominated the Hawaiian economy, there was also great demand at the time for fresh Hawaiian pineapples in San Francisco.

After Kidwell’s initial planting, others soon realized the potential of growing pineapples in Hawaii and consequently, started their own pineapple plantations.

Here is some brief background information on four of Hawai‘i’s larger pineapple producers, Dole, Libby, Del Monte and Maui Land & Pineapple.

Ultimately, as part of an economic survival plan, pineapple producers ended up in cooperative marketing programs and marketed the idea of Hawaiian products, as in “Don’t ask for pineapples alone. Insist on Hawaiian Pineapple!”

Dole Pineapple Plantation (Hawaiian Pineapple Company)

James Dole, an American industrialist, also famously called the Pineapple King, purchased 60 acres of land in the central plains of Oahu Island and started the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901.

In the year 1907, Dole started successful ad campaigns that introduced whole of America to canned pineapples from Hawaii.

In 1911, at the direction of Dole, Henry Ginaca invented a machine that could automatically peel and core pineapples (instead of the usual hand cutting,) making canned pineapple much easier to produce.

The demand for canned pineapples grew exponentially in the US and in 1922, a revolutionary period in the history of Hawaiian pineapple; Dole bought most of the island of Lāna‘i and established a vast 200,000-acre pineapple plantation to meet the growing demands.

Lanai throughout the entire 20th century produced more than 75% of world’s total pineapple. More land on the island of Maui was purchased by Dole.

In 1991, the Dole Cannery closed. Today, Dole Food Company, headquartered on the continent, is a well-established name in the field of growing and packaging food products such as pineapples, bananas, strawberries, grapes and many others.

The Dole Plantation tourist attraction, established in 1950 as a small fruit stand but greatly expanded in 1989 serves as a living museum and historical archive of Dole and pineapple in Hawai‘i.

Libby, McNeil & Libby (Libby’s)

Libby’s, one of the world’s leading producers of canned foods, was created in 1868 when Archibald McNeill and brothers Arthur and Charles Libby began selling beef packed in brine.

In the early 1900s it established a pineapple canning subsidiary in Hawaiʻi and began to advertise its canned produce using the ‘Libby’s’ brand name.

By 1911, Libby, McNeill & Libby gained control of land in Kāne‘ohe and built the first large-scale cannery at Kahalu‘u. This sizable cannery, together with the surrounding old style plantation-type housing units, became known as “Libbyville.”

The Kāne‘ohe facility ultimately failed; some suggest it was because Libby built it on and destroyed the Kukuiokane Heiau in Luluku.

In 1912 Libby, McNeill and Libby bought half of the stock of Hawaiian Cannery Co. By the 1930s, more that 12 million cases of pineapple were being produced in Hawaii every year; Libby accounted for 23 percent.

Del Monte Plantation

Del Monte another major food producing and packaging company of America started its pineapple plantation with the purchase of the Hawaiian Preservation Company in 1917. The company progressed and increased its plantation areas during 1940s.

In 1997, the company introduced its MD-2 variety, popularly known as Gold Extra Sweet pineapple, to the market. The variety, though produced in Costa Rica, was the result of extensive research done by the now dissolved Pineapple Research Institute, in Hawaii. In 2008, Del Monte stopped its pineapple plantation operations in Hawaii.

Maui Land & Pineapple Company

The family of Dwight Baldwin, a missionary physician, created the evolving land and agricultural company. It first started as Haiku Fruit & Packing Company in 1903 and Keahua Ranch Company in 1909, then Baldwin Packers in 1912.

In 1932, it was renamed Maui Pineapple Company, which later merged with Baldwin Packers in 1962. In 1969, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (ML&P) was created and went public.

In 2005, the company introduced its now famous “Maui Gold” variety, which is naturally sweet and has low acid content. Maui Gold pineapple is presently grown across 1,350 acres on the slopes of Haleakala.

Maui Land & Pineapple Company is now a landholding company with approximately 22,000-acres on the island of Maui on which it operates the Kapalua Resort community.

In 2009, the remnants of the 100-year old pineapple operation were transferred to Maui Gold Pineapple Company (created by former Maui Pineapple Company employees who were committed to saving the 100-year tradition of pineapple on Maui.)

While the scale of pineapple farming has dwindled, the celebration of pineapple lives on through Lāna‘i’s Pineapple Festival. Starting in 1992, the event, formerly known as the “Pineapple Jam,” honors the island’s pineapple history. (June 30, 2012 will be the 20th annual Pineapple Festival)

The image is the iconic Dole Cannery pineapple 100,000-gallon water tank. Built in 1928, it was a Honolulu landmark and reminder of pineapple’s role in Hawaiian agriculture until it was demolished in 1993. (images via: A Pineapple Heart and Burl Burlingame, Honolulu Star-Bulletin)

October 1, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka-Imu-Hoku

“Fifty thousand years ago, a meteorite came crashing to Earth near what is now Winslow, Arizona, gouging a six-story-deep crater that is named for a Philadelphia mining engineer and Law School graduate, Daniel Barringer L’1882.” (University of Pennsylvania)

Daniel Moreau Barringer was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, May 25, 1860. “It is generally recognized that my father, Daniel Moreau Barringer, by proving that Coon Butte, as it was then known, was caused by a collision between the earth and a celestial body, founded that branch of meteoritics dealing with craters.” (Brandon Barringer)

The Barringer Crater Company, founded in 1903 is a family-owned enterprise dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Barringer Meteorite Crater.

The company is now in the sixth generation and continues to promote Barringer’s pioneering research of the Crater, becoming the first scientifically proven meteorite impact crater on Earth. (Barringer Crater Company)

“The United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1220 lists 110 impact craters or suspects. Included in Category 6, “Structures for which more data are required for classification”, is “Ka-imu-hoku, Hawaii”. This listing is based on John Davis Buddhue’s (1947) note “A Possible Meteorite Crater in the Hawaiian Islands”. This, in turn, is based on Dr. Kenneth P. Emory’s (1924) references.”

Barringer’s son, Brandon, “met Dr. Emory at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and learned from him that the names Ka-hoku-nui (The Large Star) and Ka-imuhoku (The Star Oven) were among a hundred or so given him by Mrs. Awila Shaw, a blind native who was over seventy at the time and who had moved to Lahaina on the island of Maui.”

“Dr. Emory had been told that Ka-imu-hoku (The Star Oven) got its name because it was “a place where the meteor fell” and “a pit in the sand where a meteor fell”, while Ka-hoku-nui (The Large Star) was so named because “a meteor fell nearby” (Buddhue 1947, Emory 1924).”

“His map locates them on a beach on the northeast shore of the island, some 500 and 200 yards respectively west of the delta of the stream issuing from the great Maunelai gorge.”

“We flew to Lanai from Honolulu on January 31, 1967, in a small single-engine Cessna of the Royal Hawaiian Air Service. The pilot flew low over the beach on which Ka-hoku-nui is located, and we could see no trace of a circular formation anywhere in the reported vicinity of Ka-imu-hoku.”

“Later, we drove near the beach on a good road and covered its three-fourths of a mile carefully on foot. At Ka-hoku-nui, which seems to refer to a point rather than to the whole beach, there is a large Geodetic Survey marker. Twenty to thirty yards behind the beach from this marker to beyond the mouth of the Halulu gorge, 500 yards to the west, there is a dirt road.”

“Through Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Au, who run the Lanai Inn where we spent the night, we talked to Mr. Susumu Nishimura, who came to the island in 1915 and heard many stories from a blind native lay preacher named Alika, who was also well over seventy then, but gave no such account.” (Barringer)

The 1923 Geological Survey Map (scale 1/62500, 50-ft contour intervals), the 1936 Geologic and Topographic map of Harold T. Stearns (1940) and a current road map all show Ka-hoku-nui at this spot, but none show Ka-imu-hoku or any feature where it was supposed to be.”

“A survey by air and on the ground revealed no depression at the place supposedly called Ka-imu-hoku, Hawaiian for “The Star Oven,” on the island of Lanai. It had been reported as a “pit in the sand” or “the place where a meteor fell.” Reasons are given for believing the name was based on native observation of a nineteenth-century fireball.” (Barringer)

“The fact that we found no meteoric material nor any sign of impact may not be conclusive. The fact that none was found in constructing this road directly through the supposed location of the ‘crater’ would seem at least very significant.”

“So is, I feel, the naming of the beach or point for a ‘large star’. A meteorite would hardly be associated with a star by the natives.”

“It seems likely that the locality and the imagined depression got their names from a fireball thought to have been seen to fall there in the nineteenth century, but which actually fell, if it reached the surface of the earth, scores of miles to the north in the Pacific Ocean.”

“Our hope of promoting this ‘crater’ from suspected to proven impact origin was obviously disappointed. On the contrary, it should, we feel, be eliminated from any list of suspects. (Barringer)

But is that the end of the story?

Consider this … “Some say that should a person die and is buried at the edge of a river, or a spring, or a watercourse, then his soul will enter another body such as a shark’s, or an eel’s, or any other living body of the sea.”

“Those that are buried by a body of fresh water will enter that stream and become a large okuhekuhe or tailed-lizard; and if buried on dry land, then they will enter the body of an owl, and such like.”

“These things which are entered by the souls of men become guides to their friends who are living. This is what the soul which has entered these things would do: It would proceed and enter his friend, and when it has possessed him, the soul would eat regular food until satisfied, then go back. And he would repeatedly do that.”

“And this friend, should he have any trouble on land, such as war, then the owl would lead him to a place of safety; and if in fresh water, the lizard and such like would keep him safe; and if the trouble is in the ocean, the shark and such like would care for him. This is one reason why a great many people are prohibited from eating many things.”

“Another thing: The soul also lives on a dry plain after the death of the body; and such places are called ka leina a ka uhane (the casting-off place of the soul). “

“This name applies to wherever in Hawaii nei people lived. Following are the places where the souls live … for the Lanai people, at Hokunui … All these places are known as the casting-off places of souls. Should a soul get to any of these places it will be impossible for it come back again.” (Fornander V)

And, more directly to the prospect of a crater (Kaimuhoku) at Kahokunui … “It is said in the traditions of these islands from before, that there were many people, and that there were many battles which destroyed them in those days. There was much destruction in the time of Kahekili, here on Oahu.”

“It was the battle called Poloku, of which it is said that the waters of Niuhelewai were clogged to the uplands because of the great numbers of people who died in the battle.”

“It is from the battle that the house of Kaualua at Moanalua was built the bones of the people were the posts of the house, and the fence around it was all bones. It was the same with the battle at lao Wailuku, that battle was called Kepaniwai as the waters of lao were clogged with the men killed there.”

“It was the same at Kahokunui on Lanai. The deep pit was filled with many men killed in the battle called Kalaehohoma …” (Maakuia, Kaopuaua, Honolulu Mar. 18. 1862. [Maly translator; Hanohano Lanai])

September 1, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

City of Joseph in the Valley of Ephraim

“This is the place,” and joy seemed to fill all.

Elder Johnson then suggested that it should be called the Valley of Ephraim (a name that President Lewis had suggested to Brigham Young a few weeks before) and that the city be called Joseph. All agreed. (Britsch)

But we are getting ahead of ourselves, let’s step back.

In September 1850, Elder Charles C. Rich, one of the Church’s Twelve Apostles (the leading councils of the Church are the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles), visited a group of Mormon gold miners who were working on the American River near Sacramento, California.

Rich suggested to them that it would be well for them to spend the winter, when mining had to stop, on missions to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiʻi) because expenses were smaller in Honolulu than they were in the gold fields of California.

The next day eight miners were ordained to fill missions to Hawaiʻi, others were added and the whole group sailed for the islands. They arrived on December 12, 1850, the first group of Latter-day Saints missionaries to set foot on that land. (Britsch)

On October 17th, 1853, a special committee made a trip to Lānaʻi to inspect the ahupua‘a (native land division) of PāIāwai, which belonged to the chief Levi Ha‘alelea. On November 2nd, 1853, the committee reported back to Brigham Young in Utah, that:

“…They found the place well adapted in many respects for this purpose, the soil being good, the situation a central one and having ready intercourse with the two principal markets, Honolulu and Lahaina, and sufficiently isolated to be comparatively free from the surrounding evil influences…” (Maly)

In August 1854, Elder Ephraim Green (1807-1874), a Latter-day Saint missionary to Hawaiʻi, moved to Pālāwai Basin on Lānaʻi with the intention of establishing a new settlement. Ephraim Green described laying out the city on October 3, 1854 as follows:

“I tuck my cumpas and commenst to lay out a town at the fut of the mountain and laid out one stret runing south to the sea three mildes to a fine litle harbour whare we land out boats hear we intendt to build a (storehouse) to leave our produse. I then laid out three more streats thruing (turning) the town in to blocks fore acres each with the streats fore rods wide. This is a butiful location for a town.”

“This valley is supposed to be of sufficient altitude to admit the growth of wheat, corn, sweet potatoes; with many of the tropical fruits, and we hope that it will prove sufficiently moist to admit of the cultivation of the coffee and grape.” ((Lewis to Young; Britsch)

“We are situated on this Island, nearly two thousand feet above the level of the sea, in a beautiful valley containing three thousand acres of land. Here we catch the mountain breeze and the climate is beautiful and healthy. In many places in this country as high and alleviated as this, the rain makes it disagreeable. But here there is no inconvenience felt on that account. Only some times there is a lack for the want of it.” (Maly)

Over the next year the pioneers planted an amazing variety of seeds, slips, and starts. The list included wheat, oats, barley, grapes, sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes, beans of several kinds, peas, squash, pumpkins, bananas, corn, melons, peaches, plums, quinces, pears, tomatoes, cabbage, and “many kinds of garden seed.” (Britisch)

But, the weather, particularly the rainfall, had serious consequences – sometimes there was too much, most of the time there was too little. A spring was about 1-mile from where they lived and farmed.

“… there is not a single stream or spring in this district, and it is with much difficulty that the people manage to get enough drinking water. Sometimes they have brought water from Lāhainā, and lugged it four miles from the beach to their homes in Pālāwai valley.” (Gibson)

“The threatenings of war in Utah in 1857 induced every white Mormon Elder to return home. The native church was left to its own guidance.”

“The Utah Elders invariably told the natives that they did not come to establish themselves here, like the missionaries, but simply to teach them what they felt to be the truth, and then go their way to teach others.” (Gibson, Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 24, 1861)

Walter Murray Gibson was sent on a mission by Brigham Young to the Far East and came to the Hawaiian Islands in 1861. He subsequently declared himself the “Chief President of the Islands of the Sea and of the Hawaiian Islands, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints.”

The Church sent a group to investigate Gibson’s activities. Upon arrival to the island of Lanai, Joseph F Smith described the situation as follows:

“We found that he had ordained twelve apostles. High priests, seventys, elders, bishops, and “priestesses of temples,” all of whom had to pay a certain sum corresponding to the various degrees of honor bestowed upon them….”

“Gibson had bought the district of Palawai (6,000 acres) by the donation of the Saints, assuring them he was doing it all for them for the Church. He persuaded them to give all they had to the Church and made it a test of fellowship….”

“Brothers Benson and Snow required him to sign the land over to the Church as it was deeded to him and his heirs. This he flatly refused to do informing them he should take his own course.”

Gibson was excommunicated from the Church, although he retained the land which was purchased under the auspices of the Church. (Mormon Sites)

In later years, Pālāwai Basin was planted in pineapple. In 2004, the Mormon Pacific Historical Society and the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation erected a monument to the Pālāwai Saints paying tribute to those early members who established the first gathering place for Mormons in Hawaiʻi.

August 17, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Georgia O’Keeffe

“The pineapple is quite beautiful as it grows. When it is little and you look down into it as I did into the corn when I painted it – it is very handsome – and later when it is big and has not turned ripe it is a wonderful green and purple sort of color – very beautiful among its foliage …” (Georgia O’Keeffe; Saville)

James Drummond Dole founded Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901. Within a few years pineapple production at Wahiawa had increased that Dole planned a cannery at Iwilei, near the shipping facilities of Honolulu Harbor.

Later (1922,) Dole bought the Island of Lānaʻi and transformed it into the largest pineapple plantation in the world, with 20,000 farmed acres and a planned plantation village to house more than a thousand workers and their families.

The ad agency for Dole was looking for something special for a national magazine advertising campaign; in exchange for an all-expense-paid trip, they asked Georgia O’Keeffe to submit two paintings from Hawai‘i. She was also free to paint for herself.

The second of seven children of Wisconsin dairy farmers, Georgia Totto O’Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) knew by age ten that she wanted to become an artist. In 1908, she won a prize for a still-life oil painting. After a short hiatus, she painted in earnest and in 1917 held her first solo show (organized by Alfred Stieglitz, her future husband.)

O’Keeffe became one of the greatest female artists of the 20th century. Best known for her still-life paintings, she painted natural settings at their most basic: large-scale flowers, bones and landscapes.

On January 30, 1939, O’Keeffe and Stieglitz headed to New York’s Grand Central Station to start the trip. Nine days later, she stepped off the Lurline, was draped with ʻilima and crown flower lei and found herself in the Islands. (Stelle)

She spent her first month in Hawai‘i on O‘ahu. After 2-weeks, she finally saw a pineapple field; it was “all sharp and silvery stretching for miles off to the beautiful irregular mountains. … I was astonished – it was so beautiful.” (O’Keeffe; Steele)

On March 10, she moved to Maui and ended up in Hāna. “This seems to be the best yet. The trip over by plane was fine – I will be off in the far away some where – but every one says is the good place. The flying was very good and I am fine – 9 in the morning on a new island seems good – Wish you could see it.” (Postcard, O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 10, 1939; Saville)

She was hosted by the Willis Jennings family (he was manager of the Hāna sugar plantation;) “You would laugh to see where I am now – almost at the end of the road on Maui – a little sugar plantation town – at the managers house – the only white family for 60 miles and it is different as the man in Honolulu told me it would be – The mans wife is not at home but his daughter is”. (Letter, O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 12, 1939; Saville)

Twelve-year-old Patricia Jennings became her companion and guide for the next ten days. “The road to Hāna was there, but not paved all the way. We always took a picnic lunch because you never knew how long it would take.” (Patricia Jennings; Tarleton)

O’Keeffe would drive the family car to favorite island sites with Patricia, then send the girl off to amuse herself while she painted. The one exception was when a sudden ‘Īao Valley shower made them retreat to the car. Patricia watched, without speaking, enthralled by the brush in her hand, the effortless glide of oil paints onto canvas. (Tarleton)

“It is hard to tell about the islands—the people have a kind of gentleness that isn’t usual on the mainland. I feel that my tempo must definitely change to put down anything of what is here—I don’t know whether I can or not—but it is certainly a different world—and I am glad I came.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 12, 1939; Saville)

From Hāna she spent a few days in Wailuku, then, headed to Volcano on the Big Island. “We drove about hundred and 75 miles—part of it through as tropical woods as I have seen—about a third of it along the sea—then up to the top of the volcano where they left me at the (Volcano House) hotel – It was a good day” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 31, 1939; Saville)

“I didn’t care for that place. I don’t like steam coming out of the earth and holes in the road where the earth has opened up and not closed properly – and great bumps about a foot high where the pavement just rose up and didn’t go down.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 31, 1939; Saville) She soon left the Volcano area and headed to the Kona Inn.

“I guess we did this area of the island pretty thoroughly – First we watched fishermen bringing in their net of fish in a little bay -what beautiful fish – every color and many queer shapes – very very beautiful color – the men swim and dive about – have quite a time gathering their net in.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, April 3, 1939; Saville)

“All day I was driving over here (Hilo) from Kona Inn and it was a wonderful day – Warm and lovely and blue this morning – the loveliest part the Parker Ranch – quite like (New Mexico) but it is high and the lower part of the island – shore line and sea floating off in space like a map far below with no edge where it went off into the sky – sky became water and water became sky – and all so delicate and lovely – It was as beautiful as anything I’ve ever seen.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, April 9, 1939; Saville)

She returned briefly to O‘ahu and sailed for California on the Matsonia on April 14. More than six months after her arrival in Hawaiʻi, O’Keeffe had produced 20-paintings, not one included a pineapple and she subsequently “submitted depictions of a papaya tree and the spiky blossom of a lobster’s claw heliconia” for the Dole ads.

Some creative ad copy featuring the heliconia noted, “Hospitable Hawaiʻi cannot send you its abundance of flowers or its sunshine. But it sends you something reminiscent of both – golden fragrant Dole Pineapple Juice”;– it ran nationally in Vogue and the Saturday Evening Post. (Yagi)

For the other ad, “(t)actful Art Director Charles Coiner,” as Time Magazine reported in 1940, “spouted to Painter O’Keeffe about the beauty of pineapples in bud, urg(ing) her to give the pineapple a break. He phoned Honolulu, had a budding plant put aboard the Clipper.”

“Thirty-six hours later the plant was delivered to the O’Keeffe studio in Manhattan. ‘It’s beautiful, I never knew that,’ exclaimed Artist O’Keeffe… She promptly painted it, and Dole got a pineapple picture after all.” (Yagi)

A year after her Hawaiʻi trip, in 1940, she bought a house at Ghost Ranch, in New Mexico. After Stieglitz died in 1946, she settled his estate and moved to New Mexico permanently. There in the wilderness and isolation she continued to paint, and she remained in New Mexico until her death at the age of 98. (Steele)

There is an interesting side note to this story; one day, I received an unrelated FB message asking about Willis Jennings (Patricia’s father.) Unrelated to that, earlier that same day, I received word that Patricia Jennings Morriss Caldwell had just passed away at the age of 87. Patricia Jennings is the mother of my HPA classmate, Lex Morriss.