Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Dwight Baldwin

Dwight Baldwin was born on September 29, 1798 to Seth Baldwin (1775 –1832,) (a farmer) and Rhoda Hull Baldwin in Durham, Connecticut, and moved to Durham, New York, in 1804. His father, He was the second of 12 children.  (Baldwin Genealogy)

He was employed with his father on the farm, enjoying the benefits of the common school, and generally in winter of a select school, till the age of sixteen. In the fall of 1814, he commenced the study of Latin, with a view to prepare for College.

The last of his teachers being a graduate of Williams College, he was induced to enter at Williams, where he spent two years; and then he left Williams and entered Yale College, where he graduated in September, 1821.

By the recommendation of President Day, the next two years he was employed as Principal of the Academy in Kingston, Ulster County, NY. A third year was spent in teaching a select school in Catskill, Greene county. He then devoted himself to the study of medicine, at the same time teaching a select school in Durham, NY.

Then, he got caught in the religious fervor; about the first of March, 1826, he found relief in believing in an Almighty Redeemer, a hope which has never forsaken him. Religion became the all-absorbing subject of his thought by day and by night.  (Baldwin Genealogy)

He soon came to the decision to join a mission, and September 3, of that year, he united with the Congregational Church in Durham, NY, and soon after he entered the Theological Seminary at Auburn, where he spent three years, offering his services into the American Board of Boston for a Foreign Mission … and they were accepted.

He did not have time to await official recognition of his medical degree so at direction of the Prudential Committee he took his diploma as Master of Science.  He was ordained at Utica, NY on October 6, 1830.

He was introduced by a friend to Charlotte Fowler, daughter of Deacon Solomon Fowler of North Branford, Connecticut, and a few weeks later was married to her on December 3, 1830. Twenty-five days later they set sail with the Fourth Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi on the ship ‘New England;’ he arrived at Honolulu, June 7, 1831.  (Baldwin)

Soon after their arrival, the Missionaries were assigned to different stations over the group, wherever there seemed to be the greatest opportunity of doing good.  After a few months in Honolulu he was assigned to help Lorenzo Lyons in Waimea, Hawaiʻi Island. He remained there three years, from 1832 to 1835.  (The Friend, December 1922)

In 1835, ill health caused Baldwin to leave Waimea and seek recovery in the Society Islands. “Such was the opinion of all I consulted at Honolulu, & though I could preach & attend to other duties, & it was trying to part with my dear family, yet I was afraid I might hereafter repent, should I not go; so I came to the conclusion to go.”  (Baldwin, November 20, 1835)

“We sailed from Honolulu the 14th of July (1835) … We anchored at Papeete bay, on the NW side of Tahiti, in just one month from the time we sailed. … During the ten days we were at Tahiti, I did all I could, to visit the several stations”.  (Baldwin)

“From Tahiti we sailed to Huahine, (then) we set sail for these islands. We were favored with good winds & in 20 days saw Hawaii … I landed Sept. 20th thankful at finding wife & little ones safe & well.”  (While he was in Tahiti, his family had settled into their new home at Lāhainā.)  (Baldwin, November 20, 1835)

The Lāhainā mission was started in 1823; William Richards had been pastor for 13-years.  Lāhainā was then the favorite Royal Center of the King, and nearly all the high Chiefs of the Islands; it was the Kingdom’s capital (from the 1820s through the mid-1840s.)

It was also a thriving harbor in those days, being a port of call for the whale ships which sometimes filled the bay so full that one could jump from one deck to another.

Father and Mother Baldwin as they were often called, opened their home to all. Officers and masters of ships were the recipients of their wholehearted hospitality. Dr. Baldwin was physician for the mission families, and the government physician for Maui, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi.  (The Friend, December 1922)

“A barrel of whale oil furnished light for a year.  The flour brought by the missionary steamer Morning Star came once a year and several times it had been so wetted in the storms off Cape Horn that it had hardened and it was necessary to chisel off the daily measure for cooking.”

“Vegetables, however, grew in their own garden and there was an abundance of fruit, such as bananas, grapes, and watermelons, and one does not hear that they suffered from their poverty.”  (Baldwin)

Baldwin preached at the Waine‘e Church (“Moving Water;”) the cornerstone was laid on September 14, 1828, for this ‘first stone meeting-house built at the Islands,’  It was dedicated on March 4, 1832.  The Hawaiian royalty attended services there.

(After fire destroyed the church in 1894, Baldwin’s son, Henry Perrine Baldwin, helped fund its restoration. Damaged and restored several times, the Church finally changed its name from Waine‘e Church, to Waiola Church (“Water of Life”) in 1954, and has safely-stood since.)

A series of epidemics swept through the Hawaiian Islands in the 1840s, whooping cough and measles, soon after followed by waves of dysentery and influenza; then, in 1853, a terrible smallpox epidemic. Although precise counts are not known, there were thousands of smallpox deaths on O‘ahu; Baldwin is credited with keeping the toll to only a few hundred on Maui.

“My journal has been long laid aside – not because I have not had thousands of things to record but mainly because press of cares has left little leisure to record what is passing in & what we are engaged. … 1853 was wonderfully taken up with our war with small pox on the islands.”  (Baldwin, October 8, 1854)

“(Baldwin) was constant in his ministrations, taxing his strength almost to its limit. He was obliged to cross the channel to Molokai and Lanai often when the weather was very stormy, and too, very dangerous.”

“He never hesitated for a moment when the call came, night or day, but hurried on with his little bag, stepped into a double canoe and was off to Lanai and from there he took a whaleboat to Molokai. It was not unusual for Dr. Baldwin to take a trip of 80 or 90 miles on horseback to visit patients in Hana.”  (The Friend, December 1922)

In 1856 the health of Father Baldwin, who had worked thirty-six years without a vacation, failed and the “American Board” granted him a year’s leave of absence. He and his wife left the Islands for a year’s visit in “the states.”  (Baldwin)

In 1859 Baldwin belatedly received an honorary medical degree from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. Without having this he had suffered much embarrassment at the hands of the medical society of Honolulu who, despite the fact that he had been combining an exhausting medical practice for 27-years with his ministry, would not recognize him with a medical license unless he could produce documentary evidence of his medical degree. (HMCS)

It was with regret that Baldwin resigned his pastorate at Lāhainā, in September, 1868.  That year Father Baldwin became associated with Reverend Benjamin Parker in the conduct of the native Theological Seminary at Honolulu; the Baldwins moved to Honolulu in 1870.

Mother Baldwin died on October 2, 1873; the inscription on her tombstone reads, “A life of work, love and prayer;” Dwight Baldwin died on January 3, 1886.

The Baldwins had eight children: David Dwight (1831–1912), Abigail Charlotte (1833–1913), Charles Fowler (1837–1891), Henry Perrine (1842–1911), Emily Sophronia (1844–1891) and Harriet Melinda (1846–1932). A daughter, Mary Clark died at about 2½ years of age in 1838; a son, Douglas Hoapili, died at almost 3 in 1843.

The Baldwin’s coral and stone Lāhainā Home, Baldwin House, is the oldest house in Lāhainā (completed in 1835.)  It is now home to Lāhainā Restoration Foundation; they oversee and maintain 11 major historic structures in Lāhainā and provide tours of the Baldwin House.  (Lots of information here from Baldwin Journals, Baldwin Genealogy and Mission Houses.)

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Great Lāhainā Fire of 1919

Like any town with wooden buildings built side-by-side, folks in Lāhainā in the early-1900s were always wary of the possibility of fire getting out of control. Then, it happened.

New Years 1919, a fire (which broke out earlier New Year’s Eve) started in the Sing Lung Co. fruit store, “two doors from the corner of Front and Church streets, on the mauka side” and grew to engulf a large part of the business center of the town.

More than 30 separate buildings were destroyed before the fire was stopped by the townspeople who turned out in the middle of the night to try to battle the blaze after a mounted police officer gave the alarm by riding around town frantically blowing his whistle.

The fire appeared to be intentionally set.

“The fact that the back door to the Sing Lung store, in which the fire originated, was found to be open when the first fire fighters arrived on the scene, first gave rise to this impression.”

“Later, on Monday morning, Sheriff Clem Crowell, after a careful search of the ruins, found the padlock and hasp with which the door in question had been fastened, and both show unmistakable evidence of having been forced open.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

The community helped control the spread and the Maui News specifically praised the heroics of a Japanese boy named Aoki who saved the historic Baldwin House.

“This youth, with great grit and good judgment, mounted to the roof of the building with a garden hose, and, protecting himself from the terrific heat with a small table which he held in front of him as a screen, kept the roof and cornices of the building wet …”

“… and watched for sparks and embers which rained about him as he worked. The building was not damaged except for a badly charred cornice on the side next the fire.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

The big fire of 1919 destroyed all of the wooden buildings along Front Street from Dickenson Street to the Lāhainā Store, which was spared. Starting at Dickenson, those stores were: Yee Lip General Store, Sing Lung Fruit Store, Wa Sing Barber Shop, the Lāhainā Branch of Bank of Hawaii and Len Wai Store.

The buildings in what was called Library Park were also destroyed; the Japanese Hotel owned by M. Shimura, Yet Lung General Store, the Goo Lip Building, several small businesses, shacks and the fish market.

The Pioneer Hotel was seriously threatened, although some distance from the fire, by the shower of sparks carried upon it by the wind. By keeping the roof wet with water carried up in buckets, it was possible to prevent its catching fire.

“By the time fire fighters arrived on the scene the store was a mass of flames, and the heat was so great that no one could approach very near.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

“Fire hose from the court house was carried to the scene within a reasonable time, but a reducing coupling was missing It could not be attached to the fire hydrant. It developed that this coupling had been left at the scene of the fire which destroyed cottage at the Lahaina hospital at the time of the big wing storm, several weeks ago.”

“By the time it was found and brought to the scene the blaze had communicated to buildings on either side and the heat was so great that it was impossible to pass In front of them along the street.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

“By far the disastrous conflagration in the history of Maui, was that which started about 11:30 o’clock last Saturday night in the business center of Lahaina, and before it was finally checked had destroyed more than 30 separate buildings and had caused a loss aggregating between $125,000 and $150,000.” (Maui News – January 10, 1919)

The Lāhainā fire was not only started by burglars, who broke into the Sing Lung fruit store, stole a number of watches and about $8 in coin, but that the crime was committed by members of the gang of young bandits who robbed the Len Wai Co., store and planned to rob the Lāhainā bank.

“Partial confession has been secured from a number of boys more or less directly implicated, and the circumstantial evidence is all but conclusive against two of the gang.” (Maui News, January 17, 1919)

The fire, considered one of the worse in the history of Maui to that date, was the catalyst for important improvements to Maui urban life.

The following month, the County Board of Supervisors approved and funded the start of a fire department for Lāhainā. BO Wist was elected as the first fire chief and given the job of organizing a volunteer fire company. The Board went on to approve the purchase of two fire trucks – one for Lāhainā and one for Wailuku.

Because of the fire, the Lāhainā townspeople asked that the County install a large water main for fire purposes in the center of town as well as proper fire hydrants.”

“The Board instructed the county attorney and the county engineer to “collaborate in drawing up of fire ordinances for both Lahaina and Wailuku, fixing fire limits, and prescribing the class of buildings and equipment that may be maintained in the thickly built parts of town.”

Within a short time after the fire started the leading Japanese of Lāhainā had formed a relief organization for the benefit of those who had suffered loss from the fire.

The first work of this organization was supply food and drink to the hundreds who were engaged in fighting the fire. Later, it took up the matter of helping those sufferers of the fire.

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by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Maui Chiefs

The following is a partial summary of various Maui Chiefs.  It is taken from a summary posted by Maui Magazine.  It is copied here from there.

Haho

The 12th and 13th centuries A.D. were a period of chiefly migrations to the Hawaiian Islands from central Polynesia. The migratory chiefs included Huanuikalala‘ila‘i and Paumakua-a-Huanuikalala‘ila‘i, grandfather and father, respectively, of Haho, who was presumably Maui-born.

Haho’s grandfather was an independent and warlike ruler of Hana. With his huge warfleet, he plundered the coasts of Moloka‘i and Hawai‘i Island, and was the aggressor in the earliest remembered war between Maui and Hawai‘i.

In Haho’s lifetime, Maui’s various districts were ruled by independent chiefs. Haho deserves recognition as the founder of the ‘Aha Ali‘i, Maui’s first Council of Chiefs, designed to consolidate power as “a protection of the native aristocracy against foreign pretenders.” The council lasted until Maui’s conquest by Kamehameha the Great, some five-and-a-half centuries later.

Kamaluohua

In the late 1300s, the warlike and ambitious ruling chief of the Ka‘u District of Hawai‘i Island embarked on the first recorded campaign of Hawaiian interisland conquest. His name was Kalaunuiohua—a direct ancestor of that famous conqueror from the Big Island, Kamehameha the Great.

Kalaunuiohua, his warriors and invasion fleet assaulted Maui’s defenses where Kamaluohua was principal chief and defender. Kamaluohua was defeated and taken along as prisoner, as Kalaunuiohua swept up the island chain, overcoming opposition on Moloka‘i and O‘ahu.

On Kauai, however, Kalaunuiohua met his Waterloo. He was crushingly defeated, himself taken prisoner and only much later allowed to return to Ka‘u. Freed by Kauai’s defenders, Kamaluohua returned safely to Maui.

Tradition says that while Kamaluohua ruled over the greater part of Maui, a vessel called Mamala arrived at Wailuku bearing light-colored foreigners with “bright, shining eyes”; one of several references to castaways who were in due time absorbed into the native Hawaiian population, chiefly and otherwise.

Kaka‘alaneo

In the early- to mid-1400s, two brothers at the royal court at Lele (the earlier name for Lahaina) emerged as noteworthy in Maui’s history. The elder, Kaka‘alaneo, was known for his thrift and energy. It was he who planted the groves of breadfruit trees for which Lele was celebrated for 400 years. Ka malu ‘ulu o Lele, the breadfruit preserve of Lele, offered shade and shelter, enhancing this part of a coastline known for its barren heat.

Kaka‘alaneo had a son whose mischief-making earned him everlasting fame. Kaulula‘au, whose pranks included uprooting his father’s breadfruit trees, was ingloriously banished to Lana‘i, an island haunted and tyrannized by akua ‘ino (evil spirits). By courage and craft, Kaulula‘au overpowered the vicious ghosts and mo‘o (dragons), restoring peace to the island, and regaining his father’s favor. Kaulula‘au was welcomed back to Lele a hero.

Of Kaka‘alaneo’s younger brother, Kaka‘e, little is remembered—yet his was the line of royal succession. Kaka‘e’s grandson Kawaoka‘ohele and granddaughter Kelea were the immediate forebears, respectively, of King Pi‘ilani and Queen La‘ielohelohe, of Maui’s Golden Age.

Pi‘ilani

The name of King Pi‘ilani is synonymous with the Golden Age of Maui (1500s–1700s), an era of profound accomplishments and remarkable royal personages.

To Pi‘ilani is attributed the political unification of East and West Maui, the island-encircling King’s Highway, ceremonial architecture on a grand scale (Pi‘ilanihale, the largest heiau, or temple, in the Hawaiian Islands), and Maui’s rise to political prominence—which continued for two-and-a-half centuries until invasion and conquest by Kamehameha the Great.

Of Pi‘ilani’s three royal marriages, the most significant was to his high-born first cousin La‘ielohelohe. Her father, Kalamakua, was a high chief of O‘ahu. Her mother, Kelea – a celebrated surfer who was reputed to be the most beautiful woman on Maui – was the sister of Pi‘ilani’s father. The union of Pi‘ilani and La‘ielohelohe produced four offspring, all of whom were to play consequential roles in Maui’s—and Hawai‘i’s—history.

Although King Pi‘ilani resided periodically in Hana and Wailuku, and made frequent tours throughout his kingdom to collect taxes, promote industry and enforce order, he ruled from Lahaina, where he was born and is known to have died.

His Lahaina residence and the nearby fishpond Mokuhinia became identified with a mo‘o (water deity), which inhabited the cavern beneath Moku‘ula island in Mokuhinia pond. Following her death, Pi‘ilani’s daughter Kala‘aiheana was deified as Kihawahine, the divine mo‘o guarding the royal family and royal descendants.

Thus, sacred Moku‘ula became the pivotal spiritual and political focus of the highest bloodlines and the most sacred kapu for the next three centuries.

Kiha-a-Pi‘ilani

Following the demise of King Pi‘ilani, succession passed to his first-born son, Lono-a-Pi‘ilani, whose character and reputation traditions recount as avaricious, surly and abusive to all. Lono’s maltreatment of his younger brother, Kiha, drove him into exile on Hawai‘i Island, where he sought the support of his sister Pi‘ikea and her husband, King ‘Umi-a-Liloa, in deposing Lono.

‘Umi-a-Liloa summoned his chiefs and warriors and prepared to invade Maui. Landing in Hana, the invaders stormed the fortress atop Ka‘uiki Hill and eventually defeated the defenders. Lono was killed in battle, and Kiha was proclaimed king of Maui. Kiha rewarded Pi‘ikea with the gift of Hana District, which thereafter was ruled, along with Kohala District, by Chief Kumalae-nui-a-‘Umi, son of  Pi‘ikea and ‘Umi-a-Liloa.

Kamalalawalu

The first-born son of Kiha-a-Pi‘ilani, Kamalalawalu succeeded his father as mo‘i (king) of Maui. His regency was highly regarded for enlightened leadership: wise government, good resource management, a genial and sumptuous royal court, peace and prosperity. No wonder Kama’s name became associated with the island in song and tradition as Maui-nui-a-Kama, Great Maui of Kama.

But Kamalalawalu’s fate ended in tragedy. Wanting to regain the Hana District his father had given to the rulers of Kohala, on Hawai‘i Island, Kamalalawalu sent his eldest son, Kauhi-a-Kama, to secretly reconnoiter the vulnerability of that coast. But Kauhi-a-Kama’s reconnaissance was grossly flawed.

Believing the region to be totally unprepared to resist invasion, Kamalalawalu launched his fleet, landed in Kohala and engaged in a disastrous battle. The best of his army perished, and Kamalalawalu was killed and sacrificed. Kauhi-a-Kama miraculously survived, returned to Maui and became its next ruler.

Ka‘ulahea II

During the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the Hawaiian Islands experienced a dramatic population increase; highly sophisticated and intensive aquaculture and agriculture; and an elaborate hierarchy of chiefs, priests, occupational specialists, and commoner fishermen and farmers. From mere district chiefdoms, the growing consolidation of power and authority gave rise to island and interisland kingdoms.

Intricate networks of royal kinship—with their concurrent privileges and obligations—resulted from plural and prudent political marriages. One striking example of such advantageous marital alliances is evident in the unions of Ka‘ulahea II, great-great-grandson of King Kamalalawalu.

Ka‘ulahea’s first marriage was with Kalanikauleleiaiwi, who ruled the Island of Hawai‘i with her half-brother, Keawe‘ikekahiali‘iokamoku. Their mother, Keakealaniwahine, was in her time the renowned sovereign queen of Hawai‘i.

Ka‘ulahea’s second marriage was with Papaikani‘au, his first cousin. Their son, Kekaulike, was destined to be the next king of Maui. Historians say Kekaulike “enjoyed the company of several wives and was blessed with numerous progeny.” And with his half-sister Keku‘i‘apo‘iwanui, Kekaulike fathered the next generation of Maui’s highest-born royalty, the islands-wide luminaries of the 18th century.

With his full sister Kalaniomaiheuila, Ka‘ulahea fathered a daughter who became the highest-born royal wife of King Kuali‘i of O‘ahu and the mother of that island’s next king, the notable Peleioholani.

Like royal lineages in ancient Egypt, Peru, Japan, and elsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaiian royalty once favored close kin marriages for the sake of bloodline purity and privilege. By the 18th century, Maui was the acknowledged political and military powerhouse, with the highest bloodlines and the most sacred royal taboos. How ironic, then, that a great-grandson of Ka‘ulahea II should be the one to bring Maui to its knees!

Kekaulike

Kekaulike, whose name means “impartiality,” was also known as Kalaninuiku‘ihonoikamoku: “the high chief who joins bays to the island.” By either name, he was a central figure in the rise to preeminence of the royal house of Maui in the 18th century.

Kekaulike had six known wives and was “blessed with numerous progeny,” including 11 high-born offspring. Though most of his reign as paramount ruler of Maui was characterized by peace and prosperity, he sowed the seeds of war when he invaded and plundered the domain of his brother-in-law, Alapa‘inui, king of Hawai‘i Island, who successfully repulsed the invading force.

Soon after, on his deathbed, Kekaulike named as his successor his second-born son, Kamehamehanui (not to be confused with his famous namesake of Hawai‘i Island), whose mother was of higher rank than that of Kekaulike’s first-born son, Kauhi‘aimoku.

Kauhi‘aimoku beseeched his cousin Peleioholani, king of O‘ahu and Kauai, to help him wrest the throne from Kamehamehanui. But Kamehamehanui was under the protection of their uncle Alapa‘inui, who brought his forces to Maui for the inevitable showdown between the adversarial brothers.

The year was 1738, and the confrontation, one of the bloodiest in Maui’s history, came to be known as Ke Koko o Na Moku: the Blood of the Islands. The two sides joined battle, retreated, rallied and slaughtered up and down Maui’s west coast.

The greatest carnage occurred in the vicinity of Ka‘anapali, where, to this day, heaps of human bones and skulls lie buried in the sand. The loss of life became so intolerable that the two kings, themselves brothers-in-law, met on the battlefield and made peace.

After Kauhi‘aimoku was captured and killed by order of Alapa‘inui, Kamehamehanui ruled Maui until his passing 27 years later. His younger brother, the fierce and fearsome Kahekili, then assumed power and went on to create an interisland empire that lasted until his death in 1794.

Kahekili

Kahekili, meaning “thunder,” is a short form for Kane-hekili, “Kane, god of thunder.” The son of Kekaulike and Keku‘i‘apo‘iwanui, Kahekili tattooed half his body black, perhaps to suggest thunder and lightning. He was destined to live up to his name.

His sister Kalolanui married Kalani‘opu‘u, paramount chief of Hawai‘i. A direct descendant of Pi‘ilani through Pi‘ikea, Kalani‘opu‘u wrested Hana District from Alapa‘inui and his son Keawe‘opala. Kahekili recovered Ka‘uiki Hill and Hana District in 1781, and later extended his chiefdom to O‘ahu and Moloka‘i by defeating his nephew Kahahana.

Kahekili married Kauwahine of Kaupo, with whom he had sons Kalanikupule and Koalaukani, and daughters Kalilikauoha and Kalola. After Kamehameha the Great’s success against Kalanikupule at the Battle of ‘Iao, Kahekili’s two sons joined their father at his Waikiki residence, where he died in 1794.

Kahekili may have been the biological father of Kamehameha the Great. A mighty warrior king, he created an empire that included all but Hawai‘i Island. Fate and prophecies decreed that Kahekili’s unclaimed and rivalrous son would soon conquer his father’s empire and emerge as the most significant Hawaiian leader of all time.

Kalanikupule

Eldest son and successor to Kahekili, Kalanikupule was a popular and affable ruler, but his career and his life ended when he was 35.

As heir apparent to the mighty political mastermind Kahekili, Kalanikupule found himself at war with his father’s younger brother, King Ka‘eokulani of Kauai, and then pitted against the powerful war machine of Kamehameha the Great. His struggles climaxed in the fateful rout known as the Battle of Nu‘uanu in April 1795.  (All here is from a summary by Maui Magazine) The image is Gathering of Chiefs by Brook Parker.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kāʻanapali Airport

“Pilots seldom forget interesting landing approaches.”

“Ask a former Royal Hawaiian pilot what his favorite airport was, and chances are he’ll say Kāʻanapali. For one thing, the field was short for a Cessna 402 – about 2,700 feet; short runways tend to decrease enthusiasm.”

“Secondly, there was the positioning of the field. Its asphalt runway began just beyond Kāʻanapali Beach and cut a narrow swath through high green cane fields.”

“No fence of substance separated runway from beach and there were times on short final when every pilot pulled her up just a tad for fear of giving some unsuspecting beachcomber a crewcut.”  (Forman)

Kāʻanapali was the terminus for the sugar plantation railroad; a landing on the northerly side of Puʻu Kekaʻa (Black Rock) with a wharf and off-shore moorings served as the primary loading spot for shipping processed sugar from the island and bringing in supplies for the plantation camps.

After the sugar industry’s peak in 1930, production, acreage in sugar and profits declined.  Seeing hard times ahead, in the early-1960s Amfac took 1,200-acres of Pioneer Mill Company land out of cane to develop as a visitor resort destination (in 1999, Pioneer Mill closed its sugar operations.)

The land set-aside by Amfac became Hawaiʻi’s first master-planned resort.  To transport workers and materials for the new development, an old coastal road was converted into a runway – this served as the foundation for Kāʻanapali Airport.

The Airport’s runway (01-19) started just 30-feet from the shoreline and extended north a short 2,615-feet.  The terminal building had a lounge on the second floor known as the Windsock.  (Up the winding staircase, the bar was run by ‘High School Harry’ Givens; business cards from around the world lined the walls.)

The Kāʻanapali airstrip was built by Amfac, Inc. at a cost of $40,000 to provide direct access to the developing resort area of Kāʻanapali. The Resort opened in 1961.

First the Royal Lāhainā, then the Sheraton opened at the Kāʻanapali Beach Resort.  The airport was then used to bring guests in/out.  Before a flight, the pilot would walk into the terminal and call out the passengers by name.

The Airport was used exclusively by the commuter aircraft of Royal Hawaiian Air Service (RHAS,) initially using Cessna 402 aircraft.

The strip, operated under a lease agreement, carried about 10,000 people in and out of Kāʻanapali a month by 1980 (passenger load peaked in 1983 with over 131,000 going in/out of Kāʻanapali that year.)  80,000-100,000 pounds of cargo was brought in monthly.

Amfac announced that it would close the airstrip on September 15, 1982 “as a necessary step in the planned development and viability of our Maui property and sugar interests.”  

Amfac made that decision after learning that Hawaiian Airlines planned to build an airport in West Maui.   The airport was closed on January 25, 1986.

In 1987, Hawaiian Airlines built the nearby Kapalua Airport; the State took over that facility in 1993.

Kahekili Beach Park now sits on the former Kāʻanapali Airport site.

In 2010, former pilots, RHAS employees and passengers gathered at the park to dedicate a plaque and reminisce about the oceanfront airport.

“Fresh tradewinds often challenged flight operations. It was exciting to arrive and depart at this short airstrip,” the monument’s plaque notes.  “Safety concerns eventually restricted access to only one operator: Royal Hawaiian Air Service (RHAS).”

Today, along its 3-mile coastline, Kāʻanapali Beach Resort is a self-contained resort with over 5,000 hotel rooms, condominium suites, timeshares and villas; 2-championship golf courses (in 1962, Bing Crosby took the inaugural shot on the Royal Kāʻanapali Course) and 35-tennis courts.  It accommodates over half-a-million visitors each year.

© 2021 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Haiku Plantation

On May 31, 1858, H Holdsworth, Richard Armstrong, Amos Cooke, G Robertson, MB Beckwith and FS Lyman (shareholders in Castle & Cooke) met to consider the initiation of a sugar plantation at Haiku on Maui.

Shortly after (November 20, 1858,) the Privy Council authorized the Minister of the Interior to grant a charter of incorporation to them for the Haiku Sugar Company.

At the time, there were only ten sugar companies in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Five of these sugar companies were on the island of Maui, but only two were in operation. The five were: East Maui Plantation at Kaluanui, Brewer Plantation at Haliimaile, LL Torbert and Captain James Makee’s plantation at ʻUlupalakua, Hāna and Haiku Plantation.

The mill, on the east bank of Maliko Gulch, was completed in 1861; 600-acres of cane the company had under cultivation yielded 260 tons of sugar and 32,015 gallons of molasses. Over the years the company procured new equipment for the mill.

Using the leading edge technology of the time, the Haiku Sugar Mill was, reportedly, the first sugarcane mill in Hawaiʻi that used a steam engine to grind the cane.

Their cane was completely at the mercy of the weather and rainfall; yield fluctuated considerably. For example it went from 970-tons in 1876 to 171-tons in 1877.

(In 1853, the government of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i had set aside much of the ahupua‘a of Hāmākuapoko to the Board of Education. The Board of Education deeded the Hāmākuapoko acreage which was unencumbered by native claims to the Trustees of Oʻahu College (Punahou) in 1860, who then sold the land to the Haiku Sugar Company (Cultural Surveys))

In 1871 Samuel T Alexander became manager of the mill. Alexander and later his partner, Henry Perrine Baldwin, saw the need for a reliable source of water, and started construction of the Hāmākua ditch in 1876.

With the completion of the ditch, the majority of Haiku Plantation’s crops were grown on the west side of Maliko gulch. As a result in 1879 Haiku mill was abandoned and its operations were transferred to Hāmākuapoko where a new factory was erected, which had more convenient access to the new sugar fields.

Other ditches were later added to the system, with five ditches at different levels used to convey the water to the cane fields on the isthmus of Maui. In order of elevation they are Haiku, Lowrie, Old Hāmākua, New Hāmākua, and Kailuanui ditches.

The “Old” Hāmākua Ditch was the forerunner to the East Maui Irrigation System.   This privately financed, constructed and managed irrigation system was one of the largest in the United States. It eventually included 50 miles of tunnels; 24 miles of open ditches, inverted siphons and flumes; and approximately 400 intakes and 8 reservoirs.

Although two missionaries (Richard Armstrong and Amos Cooke) established the Haiku Sugar Company in 1858, its commercial success was due to a second-generation missionary descendant, Henry Perrine Baldwin. In 1877, Baldwin constructed a sugar mill on the west side of Maliko Gulch, named the Hāmākuapoko Mill.

By 1880, the Haiku Sugar Company was milling and bagging raw sugar at Hāmākuapoko for shipment out of Kuau Landing. The Kuau Landing was abandoned in favor of the newly-completed Kahului Railroad line in 1881, with all regional sugar sent then by rail to the port of Kahului.

By 1884, the partnership of Samuel T Alexander and Henry P Baldwin bought the controlling interest in the Haiku Sugar Company.  (Dorrance)

Baldwin moved from Lāhainā to Hāmākuapoko, he first lived in Sunnyside, in the area of upper Pāʻia, and then moved further “upcountry,” building a family estate at Maluhia, in the area of Olinda.

The largest landowner of the upper Pāʻia region was the Haiku Sugar Company. By 1897, the Haiku Sugar Company and the Pāʻia Plantation had become business partners of Alexander & Baldwin, Ltd. Their company stores offered goods to the population of the plantation towns from Hāmākuapoko to Huelo.  (Cultural Surveys)

Brothers Henry Perrine and David Dwight Baldwin laid the foundation for the company in the late 1800s through the acquisition of land.  Experimentation with hala kahiki (pineapple) began in 1890, when the first fruit was planted in Haʻiku.

In 1903 the Baldwin brothers formed Haiku Fruit & Packing Company, launching the pineapple industry on Maui.  Maui’s first pineapple cannery began operations by 1904, with the construction of a can-making plant and a cannery in Haiku.

1,400 cases of pineapple were packed during the initial run. In time, the independent farmers for miles around brought their fruit there to be processed.

Haiku Plantation remained in operation until 1905 when it merged with Pāʻia Plantation, to form Maui Agricultural Company. In 1948, Maui Agricultural Company merged with HC&S (Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company.)

Remnants of the initial Haiku Mill remain on the east bank of Maliko Gulch.  It is partially restored and used in conjunction with various events (engagements, vow renewals, concerts, corporate events and other celebrations.)

The mill operated for eighteen years, from 1861-1879, and then was abandoned. The original structure was 50′ in front by 160′ deep. The front portion measured 50′ x 50′ and rose two stories in height, while the remainder of the structure had ten foot high walls enclosing an excavated interior, with a wooden floor (no longer intact) running the length on either side.

Seventy-five to eighty percent of the walls remain intact, although no roof, or traces of it, remain. The walls are made of basalt stone, with door and window openings framed in cut basalt brick and block, and vary in height from ten feet on the sides to thirty-five feet for the rear wall, and have a thickness of three to four feet.  (Lots of information here from NPS, Cultural Surveys and Haiku Mill.)

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