Mokuleia | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

September 14, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Camp Harold Randolph Erdman

Camping became a cornerstone of YMCA programming in 1885 with the start of Camp Dudley in New York, America’s first known continuously running summer camp program. Since then, generations of kids, teens, young adults, and families have experienced the magic of camp—gaining confidence, building character, and making friends and lifelong memories. (YMCA)

“The YMCA has recently [1926] acquired [a] Mokuleia site on a ten year lease. It is owned by the Dillinghams who have given the lease practically free of charge. The Association is developing the site into a permanent camp.” It was called Camp Mokuleia (other unrelated camps in the area also used that name).

“For this year, a permanent kitchen was built and equipped, also a shower and washroom and a latrine. Plans for the development of the camp have been worked by Furer and Potter, architects, and call for a screened dining hall, a small headquarters building containing office, doctor’s office and library, 14 small bungalows to house 8 boys each, baseball field and two tennis courts.” (Advertiser, June 27, 1926)

On Christmas morning, 1932, the YMCA received an unexpected gift – the donation of the camp by sisters Marion (Dillingham) Erdman and Mary (Dillingham) Frear – daughters of Benjamin Franklin Dillingham and Emma Louise (Smith) Dillingham. Instead of being leased to by the family, Camp Mokulē‘ia would now belong to the Y.

The gift was made in memory of Mrs. Erdman’s 26-year-old son who had been killed in a polo accident. Their gift included a request that Camp Mokulē‘ia be renamed Camp Harold R. Erdman to ensure “his spirit of contribution to the happiness of others, carries on.” (YMCA)

Harold Randolph Erdman was the son of missionaries John Erdman and Marion (Dillingham) Erdman. John Erdman had been appointed in 1904 to go with his wife to Japan as a missionary to serve during the Russo-Japanese conflict, a war aggravated by Russian expansionism into the far reaches of Asia.

In the conflict, the Empire of Japan prevailed against the European power to gain control of the Manchurian and Korean territories. It was during the couple’s stay in Kobe, Japan, that the Reverend and Mrs. Erdman had a son, Harold Randolph Erdman. (McGhee) The Erdmans returned to Hawaii in 1907.

On September 11, 1929, Harold (grandson of Benjamin F Dillingham) married Mary Chickering. “The young couple returned to Honolulu and began construction of their dream home on the slopes of Diamond Head, an area subdivided by Harold Erdman’s uncle, Walter Dillingham, just mauka of Dillingham’s fabled home La Pietra.”

“The following June, the young couple had a daughter [Louise], born at the Kapiolani Maternity Home. Just over a year later, in July 1931, Harold Erdman, a graduate of Punahou and Princeton, was fatally injured in a polo match at Kapi‘olani Field when his horse fell and rolled over him. He died after remaining in a coma for a month.” (Advertiser, Dec 6, 2022)

“Camp Erdman has made remarkable progress since the Dillingham-Erdman families made a gift of the property Christmas, 1931. It was named in memory of Harold [Randolph] Erdman, well known in Honolulu as a boy and young man.”

“The gift of the land prompted many other gifts, notable among which were the erection of a roomy lodge and dining room as a gift of the Honolulu Rotary club, and a health building and just last year a director’s cabin, both of which were the gift of Mr. and Mrs FC Atherton.” (Star Bulletin, May 20, 1935)

Other gifts from the Rotary Club, the Erdman’s, the Dillingham’s, the Castle’s, the Westervelts’, and many other families and organizations came pouring in to help develop and construct the camp from Army tents with dirt floors to fully-constructed cabins, a dining room and kitchen, activity buildings, a chapel, and a memorial gate and swimming raft. (DLNR)

It wasn’t just a boys’ camp. “A family camp where father and mother, and brother and sister, and even an aunt, uncle or a grandparent, may enjoy camp life in the sunshine of the Mokuleia coast is being offered to the people of Honolulu by the Honolulu YMCA.”

“This is made more attractive this year through the new equipment which has been erected at the camp site known as Camp Harold [Randolph] Erdman.”

“The Rotary dining hall with its splendid kitchen and equipment, the new cottages – eight in all, as well as showers and modem toilet conveniences, together with a new hospital unit soon to be under construction, will be of interest to Honolulu mothers or fathers who would like to spend a few days on the beach with their children.” (Advertiser, July 2, 1932)

In 1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and American involvement in World War II had temporarily ended camping at Camp Erdman. The Army Engineers immediately placed 100 workmen at the camp and didn’t leave until 1943. Soon after, the camp was leased to the 14th Naval District as an officers’ rest camp. (DLNR)

The Navy gave up the camp in spring of 1946 and the YMCA was able to buy the improvements that were made at a fraction of the cost. Camping started back up immediately and attendance records were broken that first summer and increased every year since. (DLNR)

Today, Camp Erdman offers a range of programs for kids and teens throughout the summer and year-round for school groups and retreats, as well as healing camps for children of prison inmates, youth with disabilities, and more. (YMCA)

For some, it’s the first time they’ve ventured beyond their community, eaten three meals a day, or slept in a bed—not to mention, climbed, sang or gone swimming. Through financial aid, the Y ensures life-changing experiences for all children across O‘ahu. (YMCA)

January 19, 2020 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Kawaihāpai

Kawaihāpai Ahupua’a is nestled between Keālia and Mokuleʻia ahupuaʻa in the Waialua District on the island of Oʻahu. West of Keālia is Kaʻena Ahupuaʻa.

The oral traditions explain the origin of the name as: “A drought once came there in ancient times and drove out everyone except two aged priests. Instead of going with the others, they remained to plead with their gods for relief.”

“One day they saw a cloud approaching from the ocean. It passed over the house to the cliff behind. They heard a splash and when they ran to look, they found water.”

“Because it was brought there by a cloud in answer to their prayers, the place was named Kawaihāpai (the carried water) and the water supply was named Kawaikumuʻole (water without source).” (Alameida, HJH)

Kawaihāpai was known for its large loʻi (irrigated terraces) and sweet potato fields as well as excellent fishing grounds. The loʻi extended into Keālia, where small terraces at the foot of the pali (cliff) grew varieties of taro.

In addition to shore or reef fishing, ponds were built for the breeding and nurturing of fish. Handy pointed out that, “these enterprises varied from small individual efforts to large-scale cooperative undertakings directed by ruling chiefs, and varied also according to locality and natural advantages.” (Alameida, HJH)

Kamakau wrote that the loko iʻa of various sizes beautified the land, and that “a land with many fishponds was called a ‘fat’ land” (ʻāina momona.) The well-known loko iʻa of Waialua were Lokoea and ʻUkoʻa in the ahupuaʻa of Kawailoa. While Kamehameha I was living on Oʻahu, he worked in the fishponds on the island, including ʻUkoʻa in Waialua.

After the death of Kinaʻu, daughter of Kamehameha I, all of her lands in Waialua were inherited by her infant daughter Victoria Kamaʻmalu. Although only nine years old at the time of the Māhele, Kamāmalu was the third largest land holder in the kingdom.

However, she gave up all of her lands between the ahupua’a of Kamananui and Kaʻena to the government to satisfy the one third commutation requirement set by the Land Commission.

Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) then designated these lands at the western end of Waialua district as government lands, distinct from those he reserved for himself; this included Kawaihāpai, Kamananui, Mokuleʻia, Keālia and Kaʻena. (As such, people, residents and foreigners, were able to purchase the land in fee simple.)

Those who bought government lands were issued documents called grants or often referred to as Royal Patent Grants signed by Kamehameha III. These differed from the awards issued by the Land Commission.

By the late-1800s, some of the heirs of the original Kawaihāpai landowners were selling land. By the mid-1920s, the Dillinghams owned land from Mokuleʻia to Kaʻena.

Army use of land just south of the Oahu Railroad & Land Company (OR&L) railway in Mokuleʻia began in 1922 with the establishment of Camp Kawaihāpai as a communications station. In the 1920s and 1930s, the site was also used as a deployment site for mobile coast artillery, which was transported by railroad.

The US government acquired about 105-acres from Walter F. Dillingham, whose father, Benjamin F. Dillingham, had built Oʻahu Railway & Land Co.

The military was looking for a site for an airfield. The area was originally called Kawaihāpai Military Reservation in 1927. By December 7, 1941, a fighter airstrip had been established on additional leased land and Mokuleʻia Airstrip had been established.

P-40 aircraft were deployed at North Shore airstrips at Kahuku, Haleiwa and Mokuleʻia when the Pearl Harbor attack took place. At the outbreak of World War II, the area was re-designated Mokuleʻia Airfield and was expanded to accommodate bombers.

Mokuleʻia Airfield was improved to a 9,000-foot by 75-foot paved runway, a crosswind runway and many aircraft revetments from 1942-1945. By the end of World War II, Mokuleʻia Airfield could handle B-29 bombers.

In 1946, the U.S. Army acquired the additional 583 acres of leased land by condemnation. In late 1946, the US Army Air Force became the US Air Force by order of President Truman, so Mokuleʻia Airfield became an Air Force installation.

In 1948, the airfield was inactivated and the area was renamed Dillingham Air Force Base in memory of Captain Henry Gaylord Dillingham, a B-29 pilot who was killed in action in Kawasaki, Japan, July 25, 1945.

Captain Dillingham was the son of Walter F. Dillingham who was a noted pilot on Oʻahu in the 1930s. Henry was also the grandson of Benjamin F. Dillingham (who founded the OR&L, which evolved into Hawaiian Dredging Company and the Dillingham Corporation.)

In the 1970s the state had examined the airfield’s potential as a reliever airport. The Defense Authorization Act of 1990 provided that the 67 acres of ceded land of old Camp Kawaihapai be transferred to the state after an agreement on future joint-use of the airfield was reached.

The 2001 Legislature passed Act 276 (effective in 2005) that changed the official name of the airfield located at Kawaihāpai, formerly known as Dillingham Airfield, to Kawaihāpai Airfield (although some still refer to it today as Dillingham.)

It serves as a public and military use airport, operated by the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation. The airport is primarily used for gliding and sky diving operations. Military operations consist largely of night operations for night vision device training.

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January 11, 2020 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Leina a Kaʻuhane – Ka Lae O Kaʻena

Here was where the spirits of the dead could be reunited with their ancestors. The path of the spirits of dead kinsmen always led westward; so as to return to the land of their ancestors.

On every island there existed a prominent bluff pointing westward, bearing the name: “leap of the spirit” (leina-a-ka-uhane). The name marked the jumping-off place where the soul of the dead was believed to depart beyond the land of the living.

Kaʻena or Kaʻena Point (‘the heat’) is the westernmost tip of land on the island of Oʻahu. The point can be reached on foot from both the East (via Oʻahu’s North Shore / Mokuleʻia) and Southeast (via Waiʻanae Coast;) you cannot drive around the point.

When an individual lay on the deathbed, his soul left the body and wandered about; if all earthly obligations had been fulfilled, the soul continued wandering, otherwise it was returned to the body. In its continued wandering it then approached Leina a Kaʻuhane. (DLNR)

“I send you with this a sketch of the west end of the Island of Oahu, showing the position of the Leina-Kauhane as related to that portion of the island. From this you will see that it is on the land near the shore line, about three-quarters of a mile from the western end of the Island of Oahu, known as Ka Lae-o-Kaena, or Kaena Point.”

“The Leina-Kauhane is a large rock on a level plain, overlooking the sea with its sandy shore. On passing it the other day in the steam-cars, I was surprised to see a couple of little straw huts leaning against it.”

“I presume they must have been erected by Japanese fisherman, for it is difficult to believe that any native Hawaiian would think of spending a night there where the spirits are supposed to pass. JE Emerson” (Journal of the Polynesian Society, 1902)

The volcano that created the Waiʻanae Mountain Range last erupted over 3-million years ago. On the narrow western point, the hard volcanic rock shows the mark of millennia of pounding waves – the carved sea cliﬀs of Mokuleʻia that rise above Kaʻena.

Dunes such as these were once found on most of the main Hawaiian Islands, and on them developed ecosystems unique in the world. The intense sunlight, low rainfall, strong winds and salt spray created a challenging environment at Kaʻena. It is the site of one of the last intact dune ecosystems in the main Hawaiian Islands.

Unfortunately, these dunes and the native species that live on them have almost entirely been lost to 1000-years of change (since the humans first came to the Islands.)

The Kaʻena ahupuaʻa was probably the poorest ahupuaʻa in terms of arable land resources on Oʻahu. It is likely that Kaʻena was devoted exclusively to sweet potato, except for about 20 taro patches, terraced with rock facings, on the slopes below Uluhulu Gulch (irrigated from a spring on the hillside west of the gulch.) (Handy, DLNR)

Although very poor in terms of land, Kaʻena faced out onto very rich deep sea fishing grounds. Family groups fished along the shore for sustenance, and Chamberlain, in his journals written between 1822-1849, noted one such group, “… we passed Nenelea, a settlement of fishermen and a convenient place for hauling up their canoes …” (DLNR)

The abundance of fishing koʻa attests to the rich fishing off the coastline: Ponuahua, “a fishing shrine near the point, though it is not known which group of rocks was so designated” and Alauiki fishing shrine, “a group of stones near the edge of the water”. (DLNR)

In modern times (1983,) the State of Hawaiʻi designated Kaʻena Point as a Natural Area Reserve to protect nesting Laysan Albatrosses and wedge-tailed Shearwaters, Hawaiian monk seals and the fragile native strand vegetation that has been restored there.

The reserve provides refuge and a nesting area for the Laysan albatross, and is a potential nesting site for the green sea turtle and Hawaiian monk seal. During the winter breeding season, humpback whales will frequent the waters surrounding the point.

Nearly six feet of sand were lost due to vehicular erosion in less than ﬁve years. In response, motor-vehicles are now prohibited within the Reserve to help the dune ecosystem recover.

Because dogs and rats have killed nesting seabirds, a nearly ½-mile long, 6½-foot high predator-proof fence was constructed following an existing roadbed and encloses the tip of the Kaʻena Point peninsula, a total of 59-acres. Three unlocked double-door gates allow access by people.

After the fence was constructed, project personnel began to remove predatory animals from the reserve by using traps for larger animals and a combination of bait boxes and traps for rodents.

One of the last few remaining and easily-accessible wilderness areas on Oʻahu, Kaʻena Point is also part of the State Park system.

As part of the State Park, the Kaʻena Point Trail follows an old railroad bed and former dirt road that ran around the point. The trail leads to Kaʻena Point Natural Area Reserve.

From the Waiʻanae side, the trailhead is at the end of the paved road in the Keawaʻula Section of Kaʻena Point State Park and follows the dirt roadway for 2.4 miles to Kaʻena Point Natural Area Reserve. From the Mokuleʻia side, the trailhead is at the end of the paved road and follows the dirt roadway for 2.5 miles.

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September 11, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Joseph Paul Mendonça

Joseph P Mendonça was born in the Azores Islands (1,500 miles off the coast of Portugal) on May 19, 1847; serving as a galley hand on a whaling vessel, he arrived in Hawaiʻi at about the age of 17 – he jumped ship.

He started working with his uncle, Jason (Jacinto Pereira) Perry (1826-1883 – the father of Antonio Perry, who would later serve on the Hawaii Supreme Court from 1900-1934.)

He met and lived with Mary Anehe Sylva (1870-1962.) She was part Hawaiian her father a British sea captain with at least some Portuguese ancestry.

They had not yet married and had six children; each took the last name Sylva. The children included Dr Francis K Sylva, a dentist who also served in the Territorial legislature (1939-1945;) Edward N Sylva, an attorney and graduate of Harvard Law School, who was Territorial Attorney General from 1953-1956 …

… Joseph L. Sylva, who served in the Territorial legislature (1931-1937) and was also a member of the Honolulu Board of Supervisors; Dr Henry Sylva, a dentist; Rose Anehe Sylva and Mrs. Alice (Sylva) Ackerman. (HHF)

The couple later married in the 1920s and Mary Sylva became Mrs Mary A Mendonça.

Mendonça became active the Annexation Party. On January 14, 1893, he became a member of the party’s Committee on Public safety, which soon afterward moved to overthrow the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Mendonça helped seize the government offices at Ali‘iolani Hale, an act that later led to the Queen Liliʻuokalani’s forced abdication. (Chinatown)

In 1894, Mendonça participated in the constitutional convention for the then Republic of Hawaiʻi. After that, Mendonça left politics. (Punawaiola)

Mendonça had practical training as a carpenter and mason, and went into the construction trade. He also started to acquire land, lots of it.

His leases and other acquisitions included property in Chinatown, the North Shore and the Windward side.

As early as 1890, Mendonça and his partner C Bolte had been leasing the former Kāne‘ohe Ahupua‘a lands of Queen Kalama. (MCBH)

A journal entry on June 1, 1893, noted “We commenced today doing business under the name of Kāneʻohe Ranch”. (Mendonça and Bolte formed Kāneʻohe Ranch.)

They started with the herd with imported Angus cattle, purchased from James I Dowsett, one of the founders of the ranching industry in Hawai‘i. Horses, sheep, and goats rounded out the livestock assets.

A couple years later, the ranch was incorporated, with JP Mendonça and C Bolte as the only shareholders. (MCBH) Mendonça was one of the most successful ranchers on the island.

The future of that ranch was noted in an October 31, 1905 article in the Hawaiian Gazette, “James B Castle has great plans for the future of the Koʻolau side of Oahu.”

“He has bought the one-half interest of JP Mendonça in the Kāneʻohe ranch and has secured an option on the other half interest, which is owned by C Bolte, and on the entire Heʻeia plantation, also owned by Mr. Bolte. These properties cover a considerable amount of real estate and a complete sugar mill at Heʻeia.”

“It is Mr. Castle’s intention at an early date to join the two properties which formerly constituted the Kaneohe and Heeia sugar plantations, and to add thereto a large area of fertile land not heretofore under cultivation, which will be reached by pumping, and turn the whole into a sugar plantation.” (Hawaiian Gazette, October 31, 1905)

Mendonça was ready for a change. In anticipation of getting out of Kāneʻohe Ranch, the Ranch ledger entry for December 31, 1899 stated, “Joe Mendonça is ‘pau ke aloha’ with Kaneohe, he wants to sell out or do something, he does not exactly know what; he has bought about 20 acres land in Kalihi and is now in town … about 5 days every week.” (MCBH)

It seems he diverted his interest to Chinatown.

“(Mendonça) owned a lot of property in Chinatown, all of which had windows with either red frames or red brick around them. That was his building identity, to let everyone know how many properties he owned.”

“At one time there were more than 10 buildings in Chinatown with that signature red trim.” (Leineweber; HHF)

Two devastating fires swept through Chinatown in 1886 and 1900, reducing the majority of its wooden structures to ashes. (HHF)

Mendonça was one of the first landowners to rebuild after the 1900 fire. He hired architect Oliver G Traphagen to design his new building, sited on a block that consolidated many of his small landholdings. Traphagen was at the time working on the Moana Hotel, which was completed at the same time as the Jos P Mendonça Building in 1901. (HHF)

On the North Shore, Mendonça had property less than a mile from the Oʻahu Land and Railway Company’s Mokuleʻia train station (it was also accessible by automobile;) the family had a beach house there.

He sold some of the beach front land to CC Crozier, who created the Mokuleʻia Beach Lots subdivision. (The path of the original train track was on the immediate mauka side of Crozier Drive.) (HHF)

He also had an H-shaped, 2-story Mediterranean Revival Style house, designed by Robert Miller, on Judd Hillside Road on the slopes of Pu’u ‘Ualakaʻa in lower Manoa Valley (built in 1927.) Mendonça died in 1927.

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