Ohia | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

Over the centuries, and even today, Waimea was an attractive draw with ideal climate and soils, and moderate distance from the ocean.

Still holding remnants of a cowboy town, it looked very different in centuries past – with transformation of forest lands, to agricultural fields, to pasture lands.

Now upper pasture land, archaeologists and others suggest the upper slopes of Waimea was a forest made up of ʻōhiʻa, koa, māmane, ʻiliahi (sandalwood) and other trees. Pili grass and shrubs were also found.

Within these forested uplands, you could find a variety of forest birds, ʻiʻiwi, ʻelepaio, ʻapapane and others. Fossil remains of a flightless goose have been found in the region.

This is what the earliest settlers to the region probably saw (however, it is likely the first settlers on the island probably first lived in the valleys on the wetter windward side of the island and others later came to Waimea.)

The forests had general characteristics of an open canopy and the appearance of a wooded parkland, particularly when contrasted with the grassy plains to the west and the dense “impenetrable” rainforest to the east. (McEldowney)

Statements typifying these characteristics, generally made while enroute from the Waimea settlements, through Parker’s ranch house at Mana, and along Mauna Kea’s eastern slope, include: “a scanty forest” (The Polynesian 1840); “those parts of the plain adjoining Hāmākua are better wooded having a parklike appearance” (Sandwich Islands Gazette 1836) …

… “well shaded by clumps of trees” (The Polynesian 1847); and is “thickly wooded with large trees, entirely free from underbrush, and is covered with a greensward, giving it the appearance of a parkland” (The Polynesian 1848.) (McEldowney)

Reverend Lorenzo Lyons (missionary leader of Waimea’s Imiola Church and songwriter who composed “Hawaiʻi Aloha”) frequently described his home as ʻAla ʻŌhiʻa Nei (home of the fragrant ʻōhiʻa lehua.) (Paris)

The population began to increase dramatically around 1100 AD and the west side population doubled every century. (Kirch) The population of the islands reached a peak in about 1650 AD, with a total of several hundred thousand.

Waimea’s initial population (probably first settling in the 1100s – 1200s) likely grew into a fairly large community. Settlement areas expanded into the hillsides and out onto the drier Waimea plains.

As permanent settlements were established and populations grew, to feed the people and increase the amount of arable land, the leeward slopes and valleys were cleared of the native forest and replaced by intensively cultivated field systems. (Watson)

Field walls (kuaiwi) delineated garden plots (Kihāpai) and helped retain the soil. Fields were irrigated using canals (ʻauwai) that tapped the Waimea streams. (Watson)

Once the advantages of living in Waimea were known, the population quickly grew. Terraced agricultural plots expanded and more of the forest was removed.

The upper slopes of Waimea are said to have supported more than 10,000-people prior to contact.

Post-contact brought further changes – two major modern land-use practices transformed the landscape – first, the harvesting of sandalwood, which was shortly-followed by the management of the cattle herds.

Various references establish the importance of sandalwood, the most famous of early historic export commodities, in the Waimea region, while remarks such as, these “woods frequented by sandalwood cutters” suggest exploitable sandalwood was in the region’s māmane/koa forests. (McEldowney)

William Ellis, in 1831 wrote, “Before daylight on the 22d, we were roused by vast multitudes of people passing through the district from Waimea with sandalwood, which had been cut in the adjacent mountains for Karaimoku (Kalanimōku,) by the people of Waimea, and which the people of Kohala, as far as the north point …”

“… had been ordered to bring down to his storehouse on the beach, for the purpose of its being shipped to Oahu. There were between two and three thousand men, carrying each from one to six pieces of sandalwood, according to their size and weight.”

In 1856, while editor of the Sandwich Islands’ Monthly Magazine, Abraham Fornander wrote an article arguing that large cattle herds had altered or ameliorated the climate of Waimea by destroying a “thick wood” that covered “the whole of the plain” as early as 1825 or 1830 (Sandwich Islands’ Monthly Magazine 1856). (McEldowney)

All of this forever changed Waimea. Once the native forests were cleared, the “natural” landscape of Waimea ceased to exist. (Watson)

Early Hawaiians first altered the landscape by clearing the forest and plotting out agricultural fields; later, introduced species took over.

A notable introduced (and invasive) plant to Waimea is fountain grass; it was introduced on the island of Hawaiʻi as an ornamental plant in the 1920s. It spread quickly and today, less than a century later, fountain grass is a dominant species along roadsides and in undeveloped areas on the leeward side of the island. (Watson)

Waimea, we used to call it home – I miss it.

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Waimea-Early_Historic_Vegetation-(McEldowney)-1792-1850

House before KTA commercial area developed

Waimea_Cherry_Blossoms-(clarkhawaii-com)

The rain that brings the fragrance of the lehua of Puna (Pukui 1983:172, verse 1587)

Puna is known for its groves of hala and ʻōhiʻa-lehua trees. This ʻōlelo no‘eau refers to the forests of Puna, which attract clouds to drench the district with many rains, refreshing and enriching the Puna water table, and sustaining the life cycle of all living things in Puna. (McGregor)

While the Puna moku (district) does not have running streams, it does have many inland and shoreline springs continuously fed by rains borne upon the northeast tradewinds. (McGregor)

Another ‘Ōlelo Noe‘au notes “Puna paia ʻala i ka hala. Puna, with walls fragrant with pandanus blossoms. Puna, Hawai’i, is a place of hala and lehua forests.

In olden days the people would stick the bracts of hala into the thatching of their houses to bring some of the fragrance indoors. (Pukui 1983:301, verse 2749)

“Puna on Hawaiʻi Island was the land first reached by Pāʻao, and here in Puna he built his first heiau for his god Ahaʻula and named it Ahaʻula [Wahaʻula.]”

“It was a luakini (large heiau where human sacrifice was offered). From Puna, Pāʻao went on to land in Kohala, at Puʻuepa. He built a heiau there, called Moʻokini.” (Kamakau)

One story tells that Hāʻena, a small bay near the northern boundary of Puna, is said to be the birthplace of hula. The goddess Hiʻiaka is said to have been instructed to dance hula on the beach there.

Puna is said to inspire hula because of the natural movements of waves, wind and trees. (Other stories suggest hula was started in other areas of the Islands.) (McGregor)

Early settlement patterns in the Islands put people on the windward sides of the islands, typically along the shoreline. However, in Puna, much of the district’s coastal areas have thin soils and there are no good deep water harbors. The ocean along the Puna coast is often rough and windblown. (Escott)

As a result, settlement patterns in Puna tend to be dispersed and without major population centers. Villages in Puna tended to be spread out over larger areas and often are inland, and away from the coast, where the soil is better for agriculture. (Escott)

This was confirmed on William Ellis’ travel around the island in the early 1800s, “Hitherto we had travelled close to the sea-shore, in order to visit the most populous villages in the districts through which we had passed.”

“But here receiving information that we should find more inhabitants a few miles inland, than nearer the sea, we thought it best to direct our course towards the mountains.” (Ellis, 1826)

Alexander later (1891) noted, “The first settlement met with after leaving Hilo by the sea coast road, is at Keaʻau, a distant 10 miles where there are less than a dozen inhabitants …”

“… the next is at Makuʻu, distant 14 miles where there are a few more, after which there is occasionally a stray hut or two, until Halepuaʻa and Koaʻe are reached, 21 miles from Hilo, at which place there is quite a village”. (Alexander in Escott)

“Nearly all the food consumed by the residents of this District is raised in the interior belt to which access is had by the ancient paths or trails leading from the sea coast.”

“The finest sweet potatoes are raised in places that look more like banks of cobble stones or piles of macadam freshly dumped varying from the size of a walnut to those as large as ones fist. In these holes there is not a particle of soil to be seen”. (Alexander, 1891)

Puna was famous as a district for some of its valuable products, including “hogs, gray tapa cloth (‘eleuli), tapas made of māmaki bark, fine mats made of young pandanus blossoms (‘ahuhinalo), mats made of young pandanus leaves (ʻahuao), and feathers of the ʻōʻō and mamo birds”. (McGregor)

An historic trail once ran from the modern day Lili‘uokalani Gardens area to Hāʻena along the Puna coast. The trail is often referred to as the old Puna Trail and/or Puna Road. There is an historic trail/cart road that is also called the Puna Trail (Ala Hele Puna) and/or the Old Government Road. (Escott)

It likely incorporated segments of the traditional Hawaiian trail system often referred to as the ala loa or ala hele. The full length of the Puna Trail, or Old Government Road, might have been constructed or improved just before 1840. The alignment was mapped by the Wilkes Expedition of 1804-41. (Escott)

With Western contact, extensive tracts of Puna’s landscape were transformed, first with sandalwood export, which began in 1790 and reached its peak between 1810 and 1825. (Puna CDP)

After Hawai‘i’s first forestry law in 1839 restricted the removal of sandalwood trees, cattle ranching and coffee cultivation became the leading commercial activities. By 1850, agriculture diversified with the cultivation of potatoes, onions, pumpkins, oranges and sugar molasses. (Puna CDP)

Before 1900, coffee was the chief agricultural crop in the area. Over 6,000-acres of coffee trees were owned by approximately 200-independent coffee planters and 6 incorporated companies. (HSPA)

Soon, sugarcane was in large-scale production. The dominant operation in Puna was the Puna Sugar Company, whose plantation fields extended for ten miles along both sides of Highway 11 between Keaʻau and Mountain View, as well as in the Pāhoa and Kapoho areas.

Initially founded in 1899 as Olaʻa Sugar Company, it was later (1960) renamed Puna Sugar Company. The coffee trees were uprooted to make way for sugarcane.

ʻŌhiʻa forests also had to be cleared, field rock piled, land plowed by mules or dug up by hand with a pick. Sugarcane was in large-scale production; the sugar mill operation ran for just over 80 years, until 1984.

Macadamia nuts and papaya were introduced in 1881 and 1919, respectively. Since the closure of the Puna Sugar Company, papaya and macadamia nut production have become the leading crops of Puna. About 97% of the state’s papaya production occurs in Puna, primarily in the Kapoho area.

Another thing growing in Puna is housing. Between 1958 and 1973, more than 52,500-individual lots were created – at least 40-substandard Puna subdivisions were created.

As a comparison, Oʻahu is about 382,500-acres in size; the district of Puna on the island of Hawaiʻi is about 320,000-acres in size – almost same-same.

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