Paao | Page 2 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

In 1779, Captain Cook explored the North Kohala area and noted: “The country, as far as the eye could reach, seemed fruitful and well inhabited … (3 to 4-miles inland, plantations of taro and potatoes and wauke are) neatly set out in rows.”

“The walls that separate them are made of the loose burnt stone, which are got in clearing the ground; and being entirely concealed by sugar-canes planted close on each side, make the most beautiful fences that can be conceived …” (Cook Journal)

“The district of Kohala is the northernmost land area of the island of Hawaii. ‘Upolu Point, its northwesterly projection, fronts boldly out into Alanuihaha Channel toward the southeastern coast of Maui, and is the nearest point of communication between the two islands.”

“To the south, along Hawai‘i’s western coast, lies Kona; to the east the rough coast of Hāmākua District unprotected from the northerly winds and sea.” (Handy & Pukui)

“Kohala was the chiefdom of Kamehameha the Great, and from this feudal seat he gradually extended his power to embrace the whole of the island, eventually, gaining the suzerainty of all the Hawaiian Islands.”

“’Upolu, which is the old name of the valley in Tahiti now called Papeno‘o; likewise the old name of the island of Taha‘a, northwest of Tahiti, and the present name of the chief island of the Samoan group.” (Handy & Pukui)

Oral traditions trace the origin of Hawaiian luakini temple construction to the high priest Pā‘ao, who arrived in the islands in about the thirteenth century. He introduced several changes to Hawaiian religious practices that affected temple construction, priestly ritual, and worship practices.

“Pā‘ao is said to have made his first landfall in the district of Puna, Hawaii, where he landed and built a Heiau (temple) for his god and called it Waha‘ula.”

“From Puna Pā‘ao coasted along the shores of the Hilo and Hāmākua districts, and landed again in the district of Kohala, on a land called Pu‘uepa, near the north-west point of the island, whose name, ‘Lae Upolu,’ was very probably bestowed upon it by Pā‘ao or his immediate descendants in memory of their native land.” (Fornander)

“In this district of Hawaii Pā‘ao finally and permanently settled. Here are shown the place where he lived, the land that he cultivated, and at Pu‘uepa are still the ruins of the Heiau of Mo‘okini, which he built and where he officiated.”

Mo‘okini temple was last active as a war temple for Kamehameha I in the last two decades of the 18th century. It is said to have housed the Kamehameha family war god, Ku-ka-‘ili-moku, and this feathered god transferred to Pu‘ukohola Heiau, in 1791, when Kamehameha built this new war temple to assure his conquest of all the Hawaiian Islands.

According to Stokes, Mo‘okini Heiau was said to have been built from stones brought from Pololu Valley. It was believed that the stones were passed hand-to-hand by men standing in a line spanning the 15-mile distance from the valley.

“About 2,000 feet west of Mo‘okini Heiau and near the ocean is the birthplace of Kamehameha the Great. At the time of his birth, ca. 1753, the site was occupied by one of the thatched housing complexes of Alapa‘i-nui-a-Kauaua, ruling chief of the Island of Hawai’i.”

“The birth itself took place late at night within d one of the large thatched houses reserved for royal women. The named stone Pohaku-hanau-ali‘i may have been his mother’s couch inside the house.”

“Alapa‘i’s housing complex would have included a number of thatched houses as well as the canoe landing ‘harbor’ along the shore. The complex, with ‘harbor’ was called by the place name of Kapakaj, within the larger Hawaiian land division (an ahupua‘a) called Kokoiki.” (NPS)

By the time of contact, numerous coastal villages and extensive dryland agricultural systems were in place in North Kohala. This farming system lasted for several centuries and provided taro and sweet potato (the food staples of the time) to the growing population.

When that ended in the 1800s, it was followed several decades later with the commercial production of sugarcane that lasted for over 100‐years. Sugar production stopped in Kohala in 1975.

On June 25, 1927, an Executive Order set aside nearly 38-acres of the property for an airplane landing field for the US Air Service to be under the management and control of the War Department. In 1933, the Army named it Suiter Field, in honor of 1st Lieutenant Wilbur C Suiter who was killed in action serving in 135th Aero Squadron.

Suiter Field was first licensed in 1928. It was also alternatively referred to as Upolu Point Military Reservation, Upolu Landing Field, Upolu Airplane Landing Field and Upolu Airport.

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Kamehameha Birth Site

Mookini Heiau

Upolu Point Field, Hawaii, February 3, 1929

Upolu Point Landing Field-hawaii-gov)-1933

Upolu Airport-(hawaii-gov)-September 20, 1944

Upolu Air Field-(hawaii-gov)-August 13, 1945

Upolu Point-(hawaii-gov)-1955

Upolu Airport-(hawaii-gov)-May 9, 1973

Upolu_Point-(hawaii-gov)-October 24, 1973

Prior to Western contact, each of the major islands or independent chiefdoms in the Hawaiian chain comprised a mokupuni (island.) Over the centuries, as the ancient Hawaiian population grew, land use and resource management also evolved.

Each island was divided into several moku or districts, of which there are six in the island of Hawaiʻi, and the same number in Oʻahu. There is a district called Kona on the lee side and one called Koʻolau on the windward side of almost every island. (Alexander) Another moku (common on a couple mokupuni) is Puna (“well-spring”) – this summary is about Puna on Hawaiʻi Island.

Puna was once known for its groves of hala and ʻōhiʻa-lehua trees. Hawaiians observed, “Ka ua moaniani lehua o Puna / The rain that brings the fragrance of the lehua of Puna”.

This ʻōlelo noʻeau 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.

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

In Nā Mele o Hawaiʻi Nei, the reference “Puna paia ʻala i ka paia ʻala i ka hala,” is translated as “Puna of the fragrant bowers, fragrant with the blossoms of the hala” (pandanus.) (King, 1938)

According to Pukui, in the olden days, people would stick branches of hala into the thatching of their houses to bring some of the fragrance indoors.

“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; McGregor)

According to Kamakau, the Island of Hawaiʻi was without a chief when Pāʻao arrived in Hawaiʻi in the eleventh century. Evidently the chiefs of Hawaiʻi were considered aliʻi makaʻāinana (commoner chiefs) or just commoners, makaʻāinana, during this time.

Pāʻao sent back to Tahiti for a new ruler for Hawaiʻi, thereby ushering in a new era of ruling chiefs and kāhuna for the Hawaiian archipelago. The new ruler was Pili-kaʻaiea, from whom King Kamehameha I eventually descended. (McGregor)

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.)

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.

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 Keaau, 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”.

“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; Rechtman)

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

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 began in 1790, reaching its peak between 1810 and 1825.

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 molasses.

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.

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. There are at least over 40-Puna subdivisions.

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.

According to the 2010 census, Oʻahu has about 955,000-people and Puna has about 45,500. That means there are less than a half-acre per person on Oʻahu and over 70-acres per person in Puna.

However, in Puna, they plotted out the subdivisions in cookie-cutter residential/agricultural lots across a grid, with very little space for other uses (such as parks, open space, government services, regional roads … the list goes on and on.)

Likewise, most subdivision lots are accessed by private, unpaved roads. The streets generally lack sidewalks and lighting, and do not meet current County standards in terms of pavement width, vertical geometrics, drainage and other design parameters.

There are only two main roads to move the people in the district in and out – one (Route 130 – Keaau-Pahoa Road) goes into Pahoa to Kalapana; the other (Route 11 – Volcano Highway) serves the lots up in the Volcano area. (Lots of information here from the Puna Community Development Plan.)

I was saddened when the news broadcast the first house lost to the ongoing lava flow – a home of a friend and former student from Parker School.

I have been debating about posting on Puna – but decided that as the lava flows there, we should reflect on its history, but also be sensitive to and respectful of the trauma facing many of the families there – they are going through situations many of us will never have to face.

The image shows the Wilkes 1840-1841 map of Puna. In addition, I have added others similar images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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