Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Youth Developmental Enterprises

“There have been good years and bad years for hiring summer help to work the sprawling pineapple fields on [Lanai].”

“This happens to be a good year.  In fact, the past few years have been good, because Castle & Cooke Inc which owns Lanai, finally found some good summer workers. Mormon boys from the Mainland.” (Hnl Adv-Jul 15, 1976)

During the first two years the Pineapple picking program was a joint venture between the LDS Church and the Boy Scouts of America. Then, it was decided to hand off the program to a newly created independent corporation. Ross Olsen was the founder and primary leader of the new corporation. Ross called this new corporation Youth Developmental Enterprises. (Alchetron)

Youth Developmental Enterprises was a program that ran from about 1971 to 1993. During the first two years the program was a joint venture between the LDS Church and the Boy Scouts of America; then Youth Developmental Enterprises (YDE) ran the program. (Alchetron)

The primary activity of YDE was taking men and slightly older supervisors to Hawaii to work in the pineapple fields of Lanai and Maui. YDE took around 18,000 young men to Hawaii to accomplish this work; the stated goal of the organization was not pineapple production, but rather building the character of young men. (Alchetron)

“Offered by Youth Developmental Enterprises of Salt Lake City, the program boasts 800 job openings for young men between the ages of 16 and 18 desiring work such as truck drivers, cafeteria workers and general field workers.” (The Newspaper, Park City, Utah, Dec 15, 1976)

Participants pay $1,300 in advance to cover round-trip air fare to Hawaii, accident insurance, equipment (a backpack and a T-shirt), and project development (maintenance on the buildings where they live, etc).

They work five days a week, eight hours a day and gross $6 an hour; $4.25/day is taken out of their wages for room and board. Transportation to various places on the island for leisure-time activities, where the boys go as a group, is provided. (Deseret News)

“Students can opt to work from March 10 through August 27, April 22 through September 31 or June 3 through August 27. According to Youth Development Enterprises, youths can expect to save between $1,300 and $2,000 during the five month programs and $300 to $700 during the June-August stay.” (The Newspaper, Park City, Utah, Dec 15, 1976)

“While working in Hawaii, the young men from the intermountain area agree to uphold the standards of the LDS Church. Youth Developmental Enterprises, however, is not an LDS program.” (American Fork Citizen, April 1, 1976)

“‘The program is not for every young man,’ said Ross Olsen, founder and president of YDE. ‘It’s very structured. The purpose is an opportunity to work in a structured environment free of alcohol, drugs and tobacco. These young men get a sense of belonging and that they’re of value. It builds self-esteem.’

“The youthful employees start out on equal footing. The youths board in groups of about 18, with a home leader and a team leader (the team leader is in charge at work). They do everything together, including planning leisure activities.”

“The leaders are at least 21 and have proven track records as decent, law-abiding men, Olsen said. Most of them are returned missionaries for the LDS Church. But religion is never an issue, although participants are required to attend a Sunday church service of their choice.”  (Deseret News, Lois M Collins)

The program also had a school program that was linked to the local high school. Correspondence courses were also accredited through Salt Lake City’s Granite High School.

One-fourth of participants come back for more than one session. More return for schooling than for the money, according to Olsen. The program participates in an individual, self-paced learning program. Tutors, who are under the direction of certified teachers, work with the students.

The tutors don’t grade assignments; that’s done by an individual who will “probably never even meet the students but will grade him on his own merits.” Students earn credits through the Hawaii Department of Education.  (Deseret News, Lois M Collins)

“The boys from the U.S. were flown to Hawaii on a chartered aircraft and will work for 11 weeks. During the last eight days of their stay they will be taken on a tour of three of the islands and then flown back to the mainland.” (Greeley Daily Tribune, July 28, 1976)

The teens arrived with who knows what on their mind about an experience in far away Hawaii, and found themselves on a remote island, living in dorms, and out in the fields doing hoe hana (weeding with a hoe), picking and all manner of work.

Team leaders with the Mormon youth crew kept the teens organized, rising for work in the early a.m., getting to the cafeteria for meals, to the labor yard for transportation to the work sites, and made sure that the youth got down to the island beaches and swimming spots.  (Lanai Culture & Heritage)

“For several years, Dole had depended mainly on Mainland boys for most of its summer labor on Lanai and the Mainlanders had performed well, compared with ‘not so good’ experience with local youths in the 1960s”. (Hnl Adv, Sep 17, 1981)

“The Isle teenagers accounted for 21 of the 28 non-Lanai ‘gangs,’ the rest coming from the Mainland. A gang has 17 pickers who move through the field behind a truck-mounted boom, picking the fruit,  breaking off the crowns and placing both on a conveyor belt.” (Hnl Adv, Sep 17, 1981)

“For the first time ever, Dole hired non-Lanai girls – 50 in all.  The girls ‘added something we never had – a sense of stability,’ says Sakamoto, a Big Island native.  ‘During off hours, it was like a big high school, with boys and girls sitting under coconut trees talking story’ he says. A bonus for the boys: ‘The girls would teach them how to w ash their clothes.” (Hnl Adv, Sep 17, 1981)

Maui Land & Pineapple also hired through YDE.  … “Until five years ago Maui Pine recruited 100 per cent of its labor from the island. With the rapid increase in hotels and the resulting decrease in local agricultural labor the company was forced into recruiting from the off islands and finally from the Mainland.” (Hnl Adv-Jun 14, 1973)

“At 5 a.m. dawn just begins to break over the peaks on West Maui. The tourists slumber soundly in their cozy nests from Lahaina to Napili. Only the birds and crowing roosters stir in the dim light.”

“Off the coast and up a narrow, red dirt road lined by tall Norfolk pines, the pastoral scene is shattered by the crash of heavy boots and the sleepy cries of, ‘I’m hungry.’  The season has started for the summer pickers at Maui Land & Pineapple’s Honolua Plantation just outside of Napili.”

“Tumbling out of dormitories wearing clothes of all descriptions, the seasonal workers come to breakfast before heading out to the fields for a long day of picking. Hours later the scene is repeated when the night shift comes to life.”

“Several of this year’s gang are returnees from Hawaii and the Mainland. But 60 of the 110 ‘imported’ workers are 16 to 18 year olds from Utah, the home state of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.”  (Deseret News, Lois M Collins)

When Hawai‘i programs eventually ended, various negotiations were begun to work for the LDS Church Farms in Bradenton, Florida, picking tomatoes and oranges, some independent tomato and squash growers in Beaufort, South Carolina and a tree-planting effort in Mississippi. None of these programs really got off the ground and the entire YDE program ended. (Alchetron)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pre- and Early-teen Pineapple Workers

Child employment is regulated by both federal and Hawaii state laws. When the laws overlap, employers are required to follow the one that provides more protection. It’s also essential to know that the regulations vary significantly depending on the youth’s age.

Children under 14 are generally prohibited from working in non-agriculture operations, with some exceptions. Fourteen- and 15-year-olds are subject to limited types of work and limited working hours.

Teens ages 16 and 17 can generally work any number of hours in any job unless it’s considered hazardous, which we’ll touch on later. Once someone turns 18, they’re no longer subject to child labor laws.

Hawaiʻi law requires anyone under 18 to have a child labor certificate, or work permit, before their first day on the job. This is a way for the state to ensure the work isn’t hazardous and won’t interfere with a teenager’s schooling. (ALTRES)

It used to be different … “I worked when I was eleven …. Of course, I was already cleaning haole houses, so this work was steady income. You work, you carry your canvas bag, and your lunch, and your bottle of water. Gloves, everything you need.”

“When we had to go picking, you would climb through all the plants to get to the center of the field. You pick the pineapple, you throw it to the next line.”

“[I]f you caught a field with a lot of ripe pineapples, boy, you work fast, you can earn a lot of money because you get a bonus for the number of crates you crate up.”

“I was only eleven, and the other people were twelve. But then, I’m in the same grade they are; we’re in the sixth grade. I remember I was paid ten cents less, because I wasn’t twelve years old yet”. (Jane Lee Gabriel, UH Oral History, Lānai: Reflecting on the Past)

Another pre-teen worked in the fields, “I remember working in the pineapple fields when I was eleven years old. So, at eleven I would be a sixth-grader [in 1944].”

“The war is still going on, yes. We had to wear canvas pants, a long-sleeved denim jacket because we would get pierced by those long, pointed pineapple leaves. We also had to wear wire goggles to protect our eyes. Then a hat, because we would be out in the sun.”

“We had to do weeding and putting fertilizer into the pineapple plant, and picking the ripe pineapples from the plant. … My classmates, because they were already twelve, were getting sixty-seven cents.”

“I remember grumbling about it. I went to the luna, and said, ‘You know, my pay is not fair. How come they’re getting more money than me?’”

“‘We’re in the same grade at school, and I’m going to be twelve in November. But then, this is the summer, so I’m only eleven.’” (Jane Nakamura, UH Oral History, Lānai: Reflecting on the Past)

Another preteen worked in the fields … [I was] ”Twelve years old. My pay I believe was something like thirty-five cents an hour. The war was still going on and I went to get my physical. I was so proud. I’m going to work and they gave me a number, aluminum tag with my work number [bango].”

“[We did] Everything from picking pineapples to cutting grass. Especially in the summertime, it was never cutting grass, it was always picking pineapple.”

“When you’re twelve years old, you don’t weigh even one hundred pounds. I didn’t. We had these big bags we put the pineapples in. The weight of it would weigh—if I wasn’t set and leaning a certain way, I couldn’t put any pineapples in there without [Tipping over].” (Takeo Yamato, UH Oral History, Lānai: Reflecting on the Past)

Another Lanai youth noted, “When I was twelve, pineapple field were picking up kids up to – well when I was eleven, they picked up kids up to twelve years old to work in the pineapple field.”

“So I said next year, I can work in the pineapple field cause all the kids look forward to going to work into pineapple field cause that’s about all you had on the island besides playing sports or whatever.”

“So I said, well, next year, I’ll be able to work in the pineapple field. That year, they picked (kids) up till thirteen and they stopped. And I said, well, I will have to wait the following – following year, they stopped at fourteen.”

“When I got to be fourteen, they had this law, something about you had to go to the labor board and everything, so it stopped at fifteen.”

“When I was fifteen, they said up to sixteen, and that’s it. So by the time I worked in the pineapple field, I was sixteen years old. I worked about two years (in the pineapple fields). I graduated from school when I was eighteen and I left (Lānai) and (joined) the army (in summer of 1956) and that’s it.”

“But my sister, I think she started (working in the pineapple fields) when she was twelve or eleven. Every time I wanted to be the age so I can go and work (in the) pineapple field, they stopped at the age before me.” (Charlotte Richardson Holsomback; UH Oral History, Lānai Ranch)

Maui Land & Pineapple used to have similar success in recruited youthful workers …“In years past, we had to turn kids away. There wasn’t anything else to do. Now going to work for a plantation is the last thing they want to do.” (Hnl Adv-Jun 14, 1973)

”We put on a big campaign on Kauai and Hawaii for local boys. From the Big Island we wanted 30 boys and got six. We anticipated 20 boys from Kauai and got four.” (Shuji Seki, recruiting and personnel supervisor for Maui Pine)

Hawai‘i youth were not filling the needs … “Until five years ago Maui Pine recruited 100 per cent of its labor from the island. With the rapid increase in hotels and the resulting decrease in local agricultural labor the company was forced into recruiting from the off islands and finally from the Mainland.” (Hnl Adv-Jun 14, 1973)

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Early Maui Agriculture

“Agriculture is deeply rooted in Maui history and will continue to be an important industry from an economic, social, and environmental perspective.”

“Although the face of Maui agriculture has evolved over the years, the important role it plays in the islands economy, environment, and way of life remains consistent, if not increasingly significant in the light of steady growth and expanding urbanization. Agriculture will continue to gain importance in shaping the form of future growth on Maui.”

“A strong agricultural sector is an important component of a balanced, diversified, and sustainable economy. Agriculture is an integral element of Maui’s economy, and community, cultivating a diversity of jobs, generating tax revenues, and producing a variety of crops for different local and export markets.” (Maui County Dept of Agriculture)

Two early commercial agricultural crops, sugar and pineapple, dominated, and the Baldwins (and others) had a hand in each, as well as the Maui Agricultural Company (which also grew and produced each).

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. He was the second of 12 children.  (Baldwin Genealogy)

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;’ they arrived at Honolulu, June 7, 1831.  (Baldwin)

Dwight and Charlotte 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.

Between 1836 and 1861 there was an initial flurry of sugar planting and refining throughout Hawaii; however, lack of capital and an adequate market forced many planters out of business.

Henry Perrine Baldwin, the most successful sugar producer of the Hawaiian Islands (Mid Pacific, February 1912,) was born on August 29, 1842 in Lahaina, Maui.

It was Mr. Baldwin’s intention – he was 21 years of age at the time – to earn enough money to enable him to go to Williams College to take a medical course.   (His father was a physician.)  His youthful ambition to be a doctor was never realized.

Once launched in the sugar industry he continued in it, an increasingly important figure, for the remainder of his life.  Baldwin was particularly successful as an agriculturist, a developer of plantations.

Christopher H Lewers founded Waiheʻe sugar plantation on Maui.  It the mid-1860s it was managed by Samuel Thomas Alexander. Henry Perrin Baldwin took a ‘Luna’ (foreman) job with Alexander. (HP Baldwin and Alexander grew up together as kids in Lāhainā and became close friends.)

In 1869, Baldwin and Alexander became business partners and bought 12-acres in Hāmākuapoko (an eastern Maui ahupuaʻa (land division.))  (They later formed Alexander & Baldwin, one of Hawai‘i’s ‘Big Five’ companies – and the only Big Five still in Hawai‘i.)

In 1876, with the signing of the Hawaiian Reciprocity Treaty, the islands received the final catalyst necessary to drive the Hawaiian sugar industry into the future. The treaty with the United States allowed for duty free admission of Hawaiian sugar, resulting in a substantial increase of profits for island growers.

With this economic boost, growers immediately began increasing cultivation of sugarcane. On Maui, acres cultivated in sugarcane expanded from 5,080 in 1867 to 12,000 in 1880, an increase of 136 percent.

Maui’s Historic Sugar Plantations were  Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S) (Puunene); Maui Agricultural Company (Paia); Pioneer Mill Company (Lahaina); Wailuku Sugar Company (Wailuku); and Kaeleku Sugar Company (Hana). Maui Island Plan)

“A heavy expansion of Alexander and Baldwin came with the acquisition of control of the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. of Puʻunene, Maui, formerly operated by the late Claus Spreckels.”

“Mr. [HP] Baldwin took personal charge of this plantation in 1902 and made it one of the most successful and productive estates in Hawaii. Today it ranks as one of the world’s finest and most modern sugar plantations.”  (Orr)

“As manager of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company, Mr. Baldwin had the satisfaction of seeing it become one of the greatest sugar plantations of the world, with other plantations under the control of his company ranking very high according to their size.”   (Mid Pacific, February 1912)

“In 1900 Alexander & Baldwin incorporated as an agency for sugar plantations such as Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company and Maui Agricultural Company, Ltd., an A&B creation and managed by H.A. [Henry “Harry” Alexander] Baldwin.” (Orr)

In 1917 Maui Agricultural Company, Ltd. built the first distillery in the US for producing alcohol from molasses; the plantations vehicles operated on molasses alcohol instead of kerosene or gasoline during World War I.  (Orr)

“Mr. [HP] Baldwin married Emily W. Alexander, daughter of Rev. and Mrs. William  Patterson Alexander, early missionaries, and a sister of Mr. Baldwin’s partner, S. T. Alexander, at Wailuku, Maui, on April 5, 1870.”

“Eight children were born to them, Harry A Baldwin, Frank F Baldwin, Mrs. Maud (Baldwin) Cooke, Arthur D Baldwin, Dr WD Baldwin, Mrs Charlotte (Baldwin) Rice, Fred Baldwin and AS Baldwin.” (Orr)

“Historically Maui’s second largest industry, pineapple, has also played a large role in forming Maui’s modern day landscape. The pineapple industry began on Maui in 1890 with Dwight D. Baldwin’s Haiku Fruit and Packing Company on the northeast side of the island.”

“West Maui was also cultivated with pineapple in the early 1900s by Baldwin Packers. Within just thirty years, the pineapple industry grew steadily; by 1930, over 28 percent of Maui’s cultivated lands were dedicated to pineapple.” (Maui Island Plan)

Baldwin Packers started pineapple canning in 1914 and at first its cannery was located close to its pineapple fields in the Honolua section.  Difficulty in securing labor in the busiest seasons of packing and the distance of the haul from the cannery to Kaʻānapali, which was then its shipping point, made it advisable to secure a location nearer town.

Baldwin Packers pineapple cannery was eventually located at Lāhainā, this addressed transportation (proximity to Mala Wharf) and labor concerns.  At Mala, the cannery was eight or ten miles from the fields and the fruit is transported to the plant by rail and truck.

The Baldwins’ growing and canning operations in Lāhainā continued for many decades. However, in 1962 the Baldwins’ east and west Maui holdings and pineapple operations were united when Baldwin Packers merged with Maui Pineapple Company. It was around that time that the Baldwin Packers pineapple cannery in west Maui was closed.

In 1987, the Lāhainā Cannery Mall was built on the same site where the original plant once stood; it was designed to look like a pineapple cannery with the corrugated style and factory-like open conduits inside were adopted for the design.

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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.

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Molokai

It used to be referred to as ʻĀina Momona (the bountiful land,) reflecting the great productivity of the island and its surrounding ocean.

It is about 38-miles long and 10-miles wide, an area of 260-square miles, making it the 5th largest of the main Hawaiian Islands (and the 27th largest island in the US.)

The island was formed by two volcanoes, East and West, emerging about 1.5-2-million years ago.  The cliffs on the north-eastern part of the island are the result of subsidence and the “Wailua Slump” (a giant submarine landslide – about 25-miles long that tumbled about 120-miles offshore – about 1.4-million years ago.)

In separate volcanic activity about 300,000-years ago, Kalaupapa Peninsula was formed.  Penguin Bank, to the west of the island, is believed to be a separate volcano that was once above the water, but submerged within the last 100,000-years.

Molokai is divided into two moku (districts,) Koʻolau on the windward side and Kona on the leeward side.  (These are common district names that are universally used across of the Hawaiian archipelago (“Koʻolau,” marking the windward sides of the islands, and “Kona,” the leeward sides of the islands.))

Archaeological evidence suggests that Molokai’s East end was traditionally the home of the majority of early Hawaiians; large clusters of Hawaiians were living along the shore, on the lower slopes and in the larger valleys.   Productive, well-kept fishponds were strung along the southern shoreline.

The water supply was ample; ʻauwai (irrigation ditches), taro loʻi (ponded terraces) and habitation sites were found in every wet valley. ʻUala (sweet potato) and wauke (paper mulberry) were cultivated in the mauka areas between long shallow stone terraces which swept across the lower kula slopes.

The windward valleys developed into areas of intensive irrigated taro cultivation and seasonal migrations took place to stock up on fish and precious salt for the rest of the year.

The drier coastal regions of the West end were sparsely populated on a year-round basis, although they were frequently visited for extended periods of fishing during the summer months.  (Papohaku on the west shore is the longest stretch of white sand beach in Hawaiʻi (3-miles long and 300-feet wide.))

East end’s Pukoʻo had a natural break in the reef, good landing areas for canoes and nearby fishponds built out over the fringe reef. Archaeological evidence suggests it was a heavily populated area; it was also destined to become the first town in the western tradition on the island of Molokai.

When the American Protestant missionaries arrived on Molokai in 1832, they settled at nearby Kaluaʻaha.  The first church was made of thatch (1833,) a school soon followed.  By 1844, a stone church was built.

It was not long before a small community was forming around the church buildings. It became the social center of the entire island, with people coming from as far away as the windward valleys, over the pali and by canoe, just to attend church sermons on Sunday and socialize.

In the 1850s, Catholic priests began to visit the island; during the 1870s, Father Damien, who had come to Molokai to serve the patients at Kalawao, traveled top-side to gather congregations of Catholics. He built four Catholic churches on the East End of Molokai, at Kamaloʻo, Kaluaʻaha, Halawa and Kumimi.

In later years they built a wharf at Pukoʻo – it became the center of activity for the island and the first County seat.  However, with economic opportunities forming on the central and west sides of the Island, Pukoʻo soon lost its appeal (there is no commercial activity there, today.)

Like Pukoʻo, Kaunakakai had a natural opening in the reef.  In 1859, Kamehameha IV established a sheep ranch (Molokai Ranch) and built his home, Malama, there.  “It is a grass hut, skillfully thatched, having a lanai all around, with floors covered with real Hawaiian mats. The house has two big rooms. The parlor is well furnished, with glass cases containing books in the English language.”

“On the north west side of the house is a large grass house, and it seems to be the largest one seen to this time. The house is divided into rooms and appears to be a place in which to receive the king’s guests.”  (SFCA)

Rudolph Wilhelm became manager of Molokai Ranch for Kamehameha V in 1864. However, Kamehameha V was probably best known on Molokai for the establishment of the Leprosy Settlement on the isolated peninsula of Kalaupapa in 1865.

Meyer started to grow sugar shortly thereafter (1876.)  By 1882, there were three small sugar plantations on Molokai: Meyer’s at Kalaʻe, one at Kamaloʻo and another at Moanui.

Meyer also served as the Superintendent of the isolated Kalawao settlement (Kalaupapa) (serving with Father Damien and Mother Marianne Cope (now, both are Saints.))

Kaunakakai Harbor was an important transportation link and key to these various activities.  After 1866, it became vital to bringing in supplies for the Kalaupapa Settlement. Goods, personnel and visitors were landed at Kaunakakai then transported by mule down the pali trail.

During the 1880s, sugar and molasses from the Meyer sugar mill were loaded onto carts and taken to the harbor where they were transferred into small boats. These boats came up to the sand beach and take the sugar and molasses to larger ships anchored in the harbor.  By 1889 a small wharf had been built at Kaunakakai.

After Molokai Ranch was sold to the American Sugar Company in 1897 a new, more substantial stone mole with a wooden landing platform at the makai end, was put up next to the old wharf to service their expected sugar shipments.

Finally in 1909, a political division of the island was made incorporating Molokai into Maui County and excluding the State Health Department administered area of the Kalaupapa Settlement. This district became known as Kalawao County.

During the 1920s Kaunakakai first began to develop as the main business center of the island. Several stores were built along either side of Ala Malama Street indicating the sense of prosperity of the times. This activity continued well into the 1930s, a period that corresponded to the largest increase in population on Molokai.

At that time and into the early-1930s, Kaunakakai gradually became the main hub of activity, partially due to its central location and increased population. It was here that a larger, improved wharf had been developed for the pineapple plantations and for the shipment of cattle.

Another major change occurred when the Government passed the Hawaiian Homes Act in 1921. Seventy-nine Hawaiian homesteading families moved to Kalamaʻula in 1922 and in 1924 the Hoʻolehua and Palaʻau areas were opened for homesteading on lands previously under lease from the government to the American Sugar Company Limited. The homestead population rose from an estimated 278 in 1924 to 1,400 by 1935.

In 1923, Libby, McNeil & Libby began to grow pineapple on land leased from Molokai Ranch; their activities were focused primarily in the Kaluakoʻi section of the island.  Lacking facilities and housing, the plantation began building clusters of dwellings (“camps”) around Maunaloa.  By 1927, it started to grow into a small town – as pineapple production grew, so did the town.

In 1927, California Packing Corporation, later known as Del Monte Corporation, leased lands of Naʻiwa and Kahanui owned by Molokai Ranch to establish a pineapple plantation with headquarters in the town of Kualapuʻu.  The town takes its name from kaʻuala puʻu, or the sweet potato hill, the hill to the south where sweet potatoes were grown on its slopes.

The town was first created when Molokai Ranch (American Sugar Company) moved their ranch headquarters from Kaunakakai to Kualapuʻu after the demise of their sugar enterprise.

After the Hoʻolehua homesteads were opened up by Hawaiian Homes Commission in 1924, the ranch headquarters began to take on the character of a real town. However the real change came with the arrival of California Packing Corporation in Kualapuʻu to grow pineapple for shipment to the Oʻahu cannery.

In 1968, there were 16,800 acres of pineapple under cultivation on Molokai. The Libby plantation was sold to the Dole Pineapple Corporation in 1970, which very soon closed down the plantation when they determined it was no longer a profitable venture.  After fifty-five years of operation, Del Monte began a phased shut down operation in 1982 which terminated in 1989.

Maunaloa and Kualapuʻu were towns created expressly for agriculture. Kaunakakai came into its own due to its harbor, central location, and the shift of population from the east end of the island. It gradually became the administrative and business center of Molokai, much as Pukoʻo had been many years before.

The image shows an 1897 map of Molokai.  (Lots of information here is from Curtis.)

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