South Kona | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 10, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ohia Lodge

“For a number of years prior to the beginning of [WWII], home building was curtailed, and such materials as might normally be needed to meet the housing requirements of a growing population were diverted to national defense … these materials were actually frozen.” (DOI Annual Report, 1946)

Then, in post-WWII, “During the past year [1946] the problem has become even more serious. The Governor’s housing committee and a committee of the chamber of commerce of Honolulu, after a careful study, reported that 11,000 additional houses were needed”.

“A number of factors have militated against an adequate home-building program. The most important of these are: (a) scarcity of land even at an extremely high price, (b) unavailability of building materials, and (c) shortage and high cost of labor.” (DOI Annual Report, 1946)

“Two enterprising Honolulu business men, with faith in the future of Kona … have licked the building material shortage by using their brains and brawn. The are Howard O Redfearn, the former Honolulu contractor, and Chester Horn …”

“About the first of the year they started to work to create the timber and other material necessary for the construction of their Ohia Lodge, on Redfearn’s 350-acre tract in South Kona …”

“They were unable to procure material at that time, so set about making their own. First Redfearn moved his sawmill to the site and set it up. Then the two men went to work with ax and saw cutting down ohia trees, which grow in abundance on the tract. They selected uniform size and then trimmed off the bark and sawed the log in half.”

“With these halves, placed upright, they began the construction of the first lodge, which is 24 by 50 feet. … The interior of the building, including the bar, the tables, doors, bar stools and kitchen are built of koa and ohia.”

“The koa was obtained from a nearby forest but the ohia wood all came from the Redfearn ranch. … The floor is cement but is waxed for dancing. The foundation and all the masonry has been constructed from rocks gathered up on the place, as well as a great circular water tank, cemented inside …”

“A large parking space has been levelled off in front of the building and this will be paved. Around it there will be special landscaping and flower gardens.”

“The lodge bar will be opened for business [on May 29, 1947]. A little later the dining room, which will specialize in charcoal cooked steaks and short orders, will be opened. And as soon as possible a general liquor dispensary will be opened.” (Hilo Tribune Herald May 10, 1947)

“Plans have been prepared for the construction of 40 cottages in the rear of the lodge similar to many types seen on the mainland. These cottages will be 12×16 feet, and each will contain two three-quarter size beds, adequately spaced for privacy.”

“After the cottages have been constructed a modern gas station will be built, carrying all kinds of motor supplies. The whole setup will stimulate a miniature California Palm Springs, with mild desert air included.”

“Horn will be general manager. Orchestra music will be supplied every Saturday night and on any other occasion required.”

“As a special added attraction for tourists there will be saddle trails all over the tract so that guests will be able to go horseback riding at all times and since the tract is but a short distance from the sea arrangements to conduct fishing parties will be an added feature in the line of sports.” (Hilo Tribune Herald May 10, 1947)

‘Ōhia Lodge, the half-way house on the main highway between Hilo and Kona was “a showplace. Howard Redfearn built it as a volcano country club resort and opened it in [1947]. The lodge, built of Ohia, a native hardwood similar to mahogany, had a dining room seating 200 people.” (Spokesman-Review, Jun 6, 1950)

“[P]eople came from far and near to see for themselves what two men, alone and unaided, had accomplished in such a short time. … [I]t is so located that it gives a clear view of both the mountains and the sea, and is on the main highway into the Kona district.” (Hnl Adv, Aug 3, 1947)

“Mr Redfearn also revealed that he has begun the construction of another dwelling, to be occupied by Mr and Mrs William [and Helene] Hale, teachers at Konawaena school, and four tourist cabins …”

“… the first units of several to eventually be built for the convenience of tourists and others. Two dwellings have already been completed and occupied and a third is now under construction.” (Hilo Tribune Herald, Feb 24, 1949)

“The first three units of the proposed auto court at Ohia Lodge Kona is partially completed by Howard O Redfearn, proprietor of the lodge.”

“Work, however, has been temporarily suspended while Redfearn is engaged in the construction of a new … residence for Richard Penhallow at Waimea … This will be the fourth residence of the completed by Mr Redfearn of this unique design.” (Hilo Tribune Herald, Oct 1, 1949)

Then, disaster struck; Mauna Loa erupted … “Howard Redfearn’s handsome Ohia Lodge in South Kona was engulfed by lava between 8 and 9 last night. A fiery finger, separating from the main channel, moved steadily toward the lodge during the afternoon and finally reached the building, wiping out the Ohia and field stone structures.”

“It was the plan to expand Ohia lodge facilities with a group of tourist cabins. It is reported that two such cabins had been constructed before the lodge was destroyed by the flowing lava.” (Star Bulletin, Jun 5, 1950)

September 26, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

1919 Alika Eruption

“Alika was a man and Hina was his wahine, and their occupation was farming. Before they would begin farming, they would vow that should their crops mature, they would consume it along with Pele, the god. But when the crops reached maturity, the two of them didn’t carry out their promise, and the day that they ate of their crops, that was when they soon died.”

“This is how it happened: Hina urged Alika to eat sweet potato, and so Alika went to dig up some, and after finding some, he baked it in the umu¹ until done and then they ate it all; then the forest began to speak as if it were a man, echoing all about them.”

“During which time, the man soon thought of their vow. Alika said to Hina, “We will die because of you,” and before he was done speaking, lava soon flamed forth and they perished.”

“And it is for this man that this land is called by that name until this day; if you look at the aftermath of the lava, in this area, the burnt homes of Kaupo stand jagged because of the spreading flames²; the land is horrid in appearance in every way; but the kamaaina love it here, and it is only the malihini who disparage it.” (Zalika, South Kona, Kuokoa, 8/7/1886)

“The greatest volcanic event in Hawaii for the year 1919 was the activity of Mauna Loa itself. It was no surprise to the unsleeping keeper of Kilauea and the Long Mountain.”

“That autumn, with its unruly flock of seismic disturbances, was a busy one for Professor Jaggar, who made more than one lofty ascent to the flaming pastures of his charge.”

“Back at Kilauea observatory, [Jaggar] noticed the fume and glow from Mauna Loa’s 13,675-foot crater, Mokuaweoweo, spreading to the southward along a route he knew well.”

“By telephone he warned Kapapala and the other districts in the course the flow would take. Many is the account I have listened to from residents of those sections who saw destruction looming far above, and who hurried to pack their belongings in preparation for flight.” (Charmian London)

On September 26, 1919, a vent high on Mauna Loa’s Southwest Rift Zone erupted for just a few hours. Three days later, a breakout lower on the rift zone erupted fountains of lava up to 400 ft high and sent a river of lava down the volcano’s forested slopes.

Within about 20 hours, an ‘a‘ā flow several hundred meters (yards) wide crossed the circle-island “Government Road” (predecessor of Highway 11), burying the small village of ‘Ālika (north of Miloli‘i). This flow can be seen today at Highway 11, mile markers 90–91. (USGS)

“Some thought they would go grey in a night, through the freaks played by the fluid avalanche, which would seem to skirmish in avoidance of an obviously doomed home. And I noticed a hesitance among these, as well as other island visitors who rushed to the ten-days’ wonder, about telling what they had seen.” (Charmian London)

“‘It’s like this,’ they faltered. ‘We saw things that nobody would believe. How do we know? We tried it out when we got home. The thing was too big, too terrible, to impress those who had not seen it – in spite of the great smoke and glare that hid Hawaii from the other islands for days and days.”

“Why, I stood on the hot bank of that burning cascade, and saw bowlders as big as houses, I tell you, perfectly incandescent, go rolling down to the sea; and-but there I go. I don’t think you’d believe the things I could tell you.’” (Charmian London)

“The lava is creeping very slowly, but it is wiping out the koa forests and the ohia in its path; and the fine grazing lands are being covered, and the ranch land where the animals of a Portuguese man of Keei are kept, and whose name is John Deniz, is half covered over by blazing lava; the land owned by Mrs. Carrie Robinson of Honolulu also is land greatly covered by blazing lava.”

“In the estimation of Tom White and those who went up with him, the branch flowing to the sea of Opihali is almost 13 miles from the government road, and the branch flowing to the sea of Kaapuna is about eight miles from the government road, and the branch flowing to the sea of Papa of Honomalino perhaps has not at all reached the area called Puu Keokeo.”

“Because of the branching of the lava flow into three branches is one of the reasons for the great weakening of the flow, even if the flow from the caldera from the mountain side is very powerful.” (Hoku o Hawaii, 10/23/1919)

When the flow reached the ocean, “Noises were heard underwater of seething and of tapping concussions. The uprush of steam where the lava made contact with the sea carried up rock fragments and sand and built a black sand cone.”

“The lava ‘rafts’ or blocks of bench magma which rolled down the live channel, were seen to bob up, make surface steam, and float out some distance from the shore without sinking at first, as though buoyed by the hot gas inflating them. Lightnings were seen in the steam column.”

“There was much muddying of the water and fish were killed in considerable number…. For 50 or more feet out to sea from the base of the great column of vapor which was rising opposite the lava channel somewhere beyond …”

“… the water was dotted with small jets and sometimes a swirling “steam spout” or tornado effect, a foot or two in diameter, would rise from the water a few feet away from the main steam column and join the cloud above.”

“Sometimes a shower of small rock fragments each two or three inches in diameter would be jetted up from a place in the water close to shore, each projectile followed by a tail of vapor, to heights 15 or 20 feet above the sea.” (Jaggar, Moore & Ault))

“… the high fountains of lava, the great detonations of explosions, the lake of fire on the mountain, and the final plunge of the melt over old lava bluffs into the sea in a river speeding five to ten miles an hour. This red torrent coursed for ten days.”

“The heat of the stilled lava was not yet gone when, four months afterward, I motored upon it where it had crossed, a hundred yards wide, the highway in Alika district – a waste of aa as upstanding as the wavelet of a tide-rip, kupikipikio.”

“It had swept everything in its path, causing suffering, fear and death among the herds.”

“A temporary restoration of the highway was begun as soon as the heat had sufficiently cooled; but it made one nervous, in an inflammable vehicle, to see how a light shower caused the lava to steam, and to feel warmth still rising from crevices. ….”

“During the eruption there was a succession of short-period, shallow tidal waves ranging from three to fourteen feet in height. These kept in trepidation the passengers on vessels of all classes that swarmed off shore.”

“An authentic tale is told of the wife of an islander being swept some distance off-shore by a subsiding tidal wave. Fortunately she was a swimmer.” (Charmian London)

The 1919 ‘Ālika lava flow advanced 11 mi in about 24 hours, reaching the sea north of Ho‘ōpūloa, where it poured into the ocean for 10 days. The eruption then slowly waned until November 5, when all activity ceased. (USGS)

April 16, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

St Peter’s Chapel

“There are a few, very small fishing villages, Alae, Alika and Papa, which are reached by poor trails from the mauka road. It is necessary to travel from Hookena mauka to the main road to Papa, and thence by either road or trail to Hoopuloa, the last steamship landing in Kona.”

“This is another village which is dwindling in population, only a few Hawaiians and a couple of Chinese storekeepers remaining. A fair road leads across a barren a-a flow to Miloli‘i, the largest and best specimen of an exclusively Hawaiian village on the Island, which is seldom visited.”

“It is splendidly situated by a sand beach, the sea coming right up to the yard wall, and is inhabited by a rather large population of Hawaiians, who prosper through the fishing which is almost phenomenally good…”

“This region is seldom visited. Its chief points of interest are the remains of a heiau, mauka of the Catholic church at Milolii, some fine papa konane at the south end of the same village a well preserved kuula (still used) where fishermen offer offerings of fruit to insure a good catch, by the beach south of Milolii, where the Honomalino Ranch fence crosses the trail; while all along the trail are smaller kuulas, and at many points the foundations of villages, where old implements may still be found.” (Kinney, 1913)

“Hoopuloa was one of the few typically Hawaiian villages remaining in Hawaii. It comprised of a cluster of 10 to 15 homes of old Hawaiian style and boasted a population of approximately 100 persons … The wharf was a port of call for the Inter-Island steamers”. (Honolulu Star Bulletin, April 19, 1926)

Then … “The number of earthquakes recorded for April [1926] was 671 (compared with monthly average of 52 for the preceding 3 months. … The maximum daily frequency of earthquakes in the 1926 eruption was on April 15 (86 shock), the first day of free-flowing flank eruption …” (Jaggar)

Edward G Wingate, USGS topographical engineer, was mapping the summit of Mauna Loa in 1926, changing campsites as the work progressed. On April 10 his camp was along the 11,400-foot elevation, well into the desolate upland above the Kau District.

An earthquake wakened the campers about 0145; as they drifted back to sleep, a further series of quakes had them sitting up, talking, and wondering. About 0330 Wingate braved the cold and wind; with a blanket wrapped around him, he went outside and stood bathed in reddish light. (USGS)

There was a brief summit eruption, followed by 14 days of eruption on the southwest rift zone. “About 3 am April 10 (1926,) glowing lava spouted along the upper 3 miles of cones and pits of the Mauna Loa rift belt, immediately south of Mokuʻāweoweo, the summit crater. … The actual beginning shown at Kilauea by seismographic tremor was 1:36 am, followed by two pronounced earthquakes.” (Jaggar)

For three days the HVO party surveyed the sources of the eruption; then they descended and moved into Kona District, where roads, houses, and other property were threatened by the flows. Wingate and his crew stayed behind. Much of the area already mapped was under fresh lava, and there was a lot of remapping to do. (USGS)

“A crack only 1 to 3 feet wide opened southward from a point tangent to the ease edge of the bottom of the south pit of Mokuʻāweoweo, vomited out pumiceous silvery pāhoehoe froth lava, and extended itself S.30^oW. past the next two pits and over the brow of the mountain down to an elevation of 12,400 feet.” (Jaggar)

“Fortunately the main gushing of this first phase ceased about 5 am the same forenoon, after flowing 5 hours. … (Then,) The vent crack was splitting itself open downhill. The source pāhoehoe changed itself by stirring into scoriaceous aa half a mile from the vents”. (Jaggar)

“When it got close to the upland of Hoʻopuloa, the flow of lava separated into two, and one of the flows went straight for the village of Hoʻopuloa and the harbor, and the second flow went towards the village of Miloliʻi.” (Hoku o Hawaii, April 20, 1926)

“(T)he Honomalino flow to the west finally dominated, … This was also aa. … It crossed the belt road at 12:22 pm April 16, 3 miles above Hoʻopuloa village.” (Jaggar)

On April 16, Jaggar scratched marks about a foot apart across the rutted, gravel road (the only road) between the Kona and Kau Districts. A lava flow was approaching, and Jaggar wanted to measure the flow’s speed as it crossed the road.

St Peter’s Chapel, sometimes referred to as Ho‘opuloa Catholic Church, was on the makai side of the road. Perhaps a hundred people were waiting around the Hoʻopuloa Church, on the uphill side of the road, and at the Kana‘ana house opposite, on the downhill side of the road.

They had seen and heard the flow, 15-20 feet high and more than 500 feet wide, as it moved through the forest uphill. When it neared the road, people who lived on the Kona side of the flow moved off to the north, and those who lived on the Ka‘u side moved to the south, so they could go home after the road was closed. (USGS)

Jaggar recorded that it reached the uphill, inland side of the road at 12:22 at an estimated speed of about 7 feet/minute; within two minutes the road was crossed. Jaggar and his assistant, HS Palmer, stayed on the Ka‘u side. (USGS) St Peter’s Chapel, sometimes referred to as Ho‘opuloa Catholic Church, was on the makai side of the road.

“The Catholic church, where many Hawaiians worshipped, was one of the first building to be destroyed in the flow which buried Hoopuloa.” (The Star, NZ, May 21, 1926)

“It is true that I saw the church destroyed by the lava tide, which moved onward with irrevocable majesty, entering the house of worship by way of the open front door.”

“Through the windows I observed the red mass proceed to the alter as the whole structure, capable of seating 20 worshipers, burst into flames.”

“Most dramatic of all was the moment when the slow moving red-hot deluge, pressed on by the mass of lava from the rear, tipped the church from its foundations and set it careening upon the molten river.”

“Straightaway, the bell, which hung in an open steeple, began ringing. It pealed above the roar of the flames and the grinding of the blazing substance surging onward.”

“A dozen doleful strokes of the iron tongue echoed farewell before it fell from the cross beam ringing its own requiem.” (Father Eugene Oehman, Honolulu Advertiser, July 31, 1932)

A memorial to the church was erected; the plaque on the monument reads “1926 Hoopuloa Catholic Church.” “Under the cross, 25 feet below the surface is all that remains of a small Catholic church, over which the lava flowed without a moment’s halt.” (Honolulu Advertiser, July 31, 1932)

“The fiery lava engulfed the harbor and village of Hoʻopuloa, and now they are but a heap of pāhoehoe lava.” (Hoku o Hawaii, April 20, 1926)

“Families of Ho‘opuloa were forced out of their homes by the flow, and many eventually settles in Miloli‘i on state land. The displace families remained on the land although they had no legal title to the property.” (Hawaii Tribune Herald, July 10, 1985)

In 1932, St. Peter’s Catholic Church at Miloli‘i was built by Father Steffen to replace an earlier St. Peterʻs destroyed by the 1926 lava flow. (PaaPonoMilolii)

In 1982, the State Legislature passed Act 62 which designated 52.6 acres of state land to be leased to the refugees and the descendants of the Ho‘opuloa lava flow.”

The Act also created the criteria by which people could qualify fo5 65-year leases” Initial implementation of the Act took place July 12, 1985 with the signing of 12 long-term leases for families living on the designated property. (Hawaii Tribune Herald, July 10, 1985)

August 23, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

South Kona Colony

Sanford Dole was appointed as Hawai‘i’s first territorial governor, and his annual reports to the US Secretary of the Interior unfailingly emphasized his administration’s objective of settling Hawaii’s public land with family farmers.

According to a report by the Hawai‘i Legislative Reference Bureau, perhaps the most pressing and complicated task confronting Dole as Hawai‘i’s chief executive was a re-examination of public land policy, since the prosperity and continued development of the Islands’ agricultural economy depended decisively on the land laws.

Land policy in all its aspects was of long-standing interest to Dole. As early as 1872, he had argued that Hawaii’s future depended upon attracting immigrants able to resettle Hawaii’s land in the familiar, American pattern of family farming, rather than through development of enormous plantations worked by alien field gangs. Dole’s political-economic objective in Hawaii was the development of a resident yeomanry.

Settlement guided by these objectives, buttressed by other aspects of Jeffersonian agricultural fundamentalism, could, he contended, ultimately make Hawaii’s land productive and valuable.

“Homesteads will be incalculably more profitable to the country than a like area in grazing and wood-cutting lease-holds.”

Dole thereby pointed to the important relationship between public land policy and Hawaii’s critical problem of population, or, more specifically, underpopulation.

“With the present rapid decadence of the population we are in a fair way of learning the very important truth that land without people on it is really worthless; that the value of the land depends simply on there being somebody to collect its produce … upon the premises, …”

“… therefore, that if our islands are ever to be peopled to their full capacity, it must be brought about through the settlement of their lands; … homesteads, rather than field-gangs, are to be the basis of our future social and civil progress, and a careful study of our land policy becomes necessary to the formation of any practical plan for effecting this result.”

The US Congress also weighed in with changes in Hawaii’s public land laws that encouraged family farming much like the pattern established on the American mainland.

To further this objective, the Organic Act also made mandatory the opening up of land for family farm settlement whenever twenty-five or more persons eligible for homesteads presented a written application to the land commissioner.

This objective was apparently shared by Dole’s land commissioner, Edward S Boyd, who concluded the published report of his department’s work in 1903 with the promise that …

… “this office will use its best endeavors in every way possible to settle our public lands with desirable settlers, and will encourage by literature and otherwise the migration of American farmers”. (LRB)

Then, a headline and story ran in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, “California Ranchers Get Kona Land – Half a Dozen Families Will Settle on Island of Hawaii Men Have Taken Up Five Thousand Acres of Grazing Land.”

“A colony, second only to the Wahiawa farmers, is one of the first results of the campaign for settler, which Land Commissioner Boyd started a few months ago, after the receipt of a flood of letters from mainland people, who had read of the public lands offered for settlement in Hawaii.”

“The new colony is to be started in South Kona near Franz Bucholtz’ famous farm and will mean an increase in the population of the Territory of at least twenty-five souls.”

“The new colonists are ranchers and the men at the head of them have sufficient money to stock the place with fine cattle.”

“Six men have been promised by the government, tracts of grazing land of from 900 to 1200 acres each in the South Kona district, and they have returned to the mainland with the intention of bringing their families from California immediately, and such other settlers as might wish to come.”

“The six men are AH Johnson and his two grown sons, Alfred Johnson and Andrew Johnson; Ulysses Waldrip, WH Hollill and Frank Bolander.”

“They come originally from Texas where they had engaged in ranching, but went a few years ago to Southern California to engage in farming. The men have their homes in the vicinity of San Diego and Los Angeles, where each of them has a family. Altogether the members of the colony will number twenty-five or thirty.”

“The upper lands of Opihihali and Olelomoana in South Kona [near Papa], have been set apart by Land Commissioner Boyd for the perspective settlers and they have each taken up a section of from 900 to 1200 acres.”

“The land is about one half mile from the Bucholtz place and the splendid appearance of the famous farm of Mr Bucholtz was one of the principal reasons why the California men chose the land they did. Previously they visited Pupukea lands on this island [Oahu], but were not satisfied with them and they were then sent to South Kona by Mr Boyd.”

“The appearance of the Bucholtz place and the possibilities of the land in that vicinity as demonstrated by him decided the California men in taking the tract. Altogether about 5000 acres have been allotted to them, with the usual restrictions as to forest reservation.”

“It is the intention of the six settlers to return to Honolulu immediately with their families. Their purpose is to start a ranch on a large scale and they will probably import blooded stock for this purpose. All the men are competent ranchmen and they are said to have sufficient funds to make their undertaking a success.”

“The land allotted to the settlers will be purchased by them under the right to purchase lease. This simply requires the payment of a small proportion upon the taking up of the land, and eight per cent of the value as an annual rental.”

“Land commissioner Boyd stated yesterday that the Kona tract was classed as grazing land and the average price would not exceed two dollars per acre.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, October 20, 1903)

What was disheartening to the proponents of family farming was the surprisingly limited use of the congressional provision for groups of twenty-five or more prospective farmers to form “settlement associations”.

It was anticipated that members of the settlement associations would be able to cooperate in the formidable tasks of clearing land, planting, road building, and marketing, and thus would be able to overcome the myriad problems that had generally forced isolated homesteaders to abandon the struggle.

It was anticipated, too, that the united membership of a prospective settlement association would be in a stronger position to make more effective demands on the land commissioner for good land than solitary homesteaders applying for land under other provisions of the law.

This expectation was partly fulfilled, and some rather good land was made available in Wahiawa as well as the Pupukea-Paumalu area on Oahu, and in the Kinaha-Pauwela-Kaupakulua section of Maui.

The Wahiawa settlement area proved to be well suited for the cultivation of pineapple and other cash crops, yet even this isolated instance of successful homesteading was of rather short duration, for the settlers’ land was subsequently incorporated into the operations of an enormous pineapple plantation. (LRB)

December 28, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Papa Koa Lumber Company

“The marketing of a quantity of koa lumber will prove a noteworthy event in the history of our exports, it is to be regretted that so little is known on the mainland of the commercial woods of these islands.”

“A complete collection of Hawaiian economic woods, is greatly to be desired. In many cases the beauty of their texture is only equalled by their possibilities of utility.”

“Not only are hard woods of beautiful grain, capable of retaining a splendid polish, well represented in Hawaii, but also others whose peculiar properties would make them valuable tor special purposes. Notable among the latter is the wood of the wili-wili tree, whose extreme lightness will no doubt some day find an economic application.”

The ‘ōhi‘a forms the major part of the forest in South Kona and in many places the trees attain good height and fairly large diameter. The ‘ōhia forest extends up to an elevation of about 4,000 feet.

“Above that the character of the forest changes, the ‘ōhi‘a being replaced by koa in fairly pure stand, with less undergrowth. The koa occurs in groves more or less connected, rather than as a dense forest cover.”

The upper part is much rougher than that lower down, but nevertheless there are many pockets and little islands of good soil in the lava in which the koa develops well and reaches good size. Where the soil is scant the trees are short and spreading. (Hawaiian Forester and Agriculturalist, 1905)

Between 1906 and 1919, Papa Koa Lumber Company, owned by Cristel Bolte, was the major supplier of koa lumber for Hawai‘i and the US. (Jenkins)

Bolte was a German national who became a naturalized Hawaiian subject. He was a merchant in the corporation of Grinbanm & Co. and was connected with the Planters’ Labor and Supply Association and a sugar shareholder; “There is hardly any person of property in this country who is not an owner of some sugar stocks.”

Bolte leased about 600-acres of koa forest lands in Papa, South Kona, and in 1906 he negotiated a contract to supply koa logs to the American-Hawaiian Mahogany Company in Petaluma, California. He shipped 30,000 feet of unsawed logs to the American-Hawaiian Mahogany Company in the first year of operation.

In 1909, Bolte purchased sawmill equipment on the mainland and entered into a partnership with EH Cant to harvest ‘ōhi‘a in Pahoa. Cant and Bolte, Ltd. had picked up part of the Santa Fe Railroad contract that the Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company had. but lost.

By 1914, the once large market for ‘ōhi‘a in the US had all but disappeared and by 1915 Bolte consolidated his lumber business back at Papa, South Kona, now on approximately 1,200 acres.

He added a band saw and forty-two-inch circular saw used for sawing the logs. There was also a machine shop, a complete woodworking shop, a manager’s home, and six to ten workers’ cottages on the site. It was a modern sawmill, employing whatever machinery was practical in the rugged, steep terrain.

Two old lumber wagons with ‘wood wheels’ were also used for hauling lumber down to the Ho‘opuloa Village landing for shipment

Transporting the lumber to the shipping point was as difficult and costly as it had been 100 years earlier. The tortuous roads over the rugged lava were essentially wagon trails, and the lumber vehicles were in constant need of repair.

The company was a major supplier of koa lumber to Honolulu’s largest koa furniture manufacturer, Fong Inn Company. The Papa Koa Lumber Company was in fact the main source of all commercial koa lumber during that time.

Bolte died in April 1919 at the age sixty-five; two of his sons, Ernest and Fred, continued the business as Bolte Brothers Sawmills. In September 1919, only five months after Bolte’s death, Mauna Loa volcano erupted, destroying much of the company’s forest lands, but stopped short of the sawmill.

The lava continued around and past the mill, destroying more forest lands on its way to the sea. The Bolte Brothers continued for two more years, until May 1921 when the Security Trust Company foreclosed on a loan made the year before.

In September, the sawmill and land were sold to neighboring landowner CQ Yee Hop, who also took the name of the defunct Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber Company. The new company then became the major supplier of koa lumber in the territory. (Lots of information here is from Jenkins, Daughters of Hawaii.)

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