“It is different in character from the rocks that line the coast, and unlike anything for miles around.”
Hawaiians know it as ‘pohaku lanai,’ and is said by them to have floated ashore ‘from Kahiki,’ (Tahiti.) It is a balancing rock on a somewhat broader base, of limestone formation, with projecting top so as to afford material shelter in its shelving structure. (Thrum)
This is said to have been used as a lookout by fishermen in the region. When fish were sighted, the stone was beaten with a wooden mallet, and the resulting hollow sound was sufficient to gather together the fishermen of the village.” (McAllister; Ulukau)
On a trip around Oʻahu, Tyerman and Bennet (1832) noted, “Continuing our circuminsular tour we crossed a spacious plain, on the coast, of which the base was coral, and the soil a thin layer of vegetable mould.”
“On this level stands a mound, which might be taken for an artificial monument, consisting of two prodigious masses of coral-rock, the lower about six feet above the surface of the ground, but evidently imbedded in the stratum below;”
“… the upper, laid flat upon this, and overspreading it on every side, measured ninety-three feet in compass, and eight, at least, in the thickest part, the shape being conical.”
“The whole pile reached nearly five yards in height, and, when we consider that the substance must have been wrought under water, it is almost a necessary conclusion that the sea has considerably retired from this coast – from twenty-five to thirty feet in depth …”
“… or been repelled by some of the volcanic convulsions, which probably heaved the island itself from the bottom of the abyss, at a far distant period in the agency of that Providence of which the records are only preserved in the Eternal Mind.”
“There is no other rock of the same kind within several miles of this irregular formation. It was recently a marae (heiau,) to which the kings and chiefs repaired to consult Tani (Kane,) who was worshipped at it, on questions of peace and war, and to pray that in battle their bodies might be rendered invulnerable to the spears of their enemies.” (Tyerman and Bennet, 1832)
Pohaku Lanaʻi is a large balancing stone on Kalaeoiupaoa Point. A large oval-shaped stone 18 feet across is balanced on a smaller base, standing about 10 feet high in all. (Ulukau) It’s also referred to as Lana-ike-Kane (Fisherman’s Stone.)
“One of the lions of the village affording some study is a stone of peculiar formation, in which the natives of the district maintain not a little traditional interest.”
“It is located near the seashore, not far distant from the railroad station, but of late entirely hidden from sight among the tangle-growth of lantana and kolu bushes.”
“(W)hether this shape is the natural result of the erosion of ages, or of surf wearing, of which this may be evidence of a difference in shore line and elevation at some remote period, or the result of man’s rude chizeling for a resting place, are questions of interest for the geologist, for it stands alone”. (Thrum)
An 1890 map notes “Two Rocks called Pohakulanai” located in the Land of Ulupehupehu (in what would be the present Turtle Bay Resort.) (McAllister did not document the two rocks in Kahuku in his 1930s inventory.)
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