Volcano | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

July 27, 2026 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hoʻopuloa

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)

“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.30oW. 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”.

“(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)

“In 1926, there was a brief summit eruption, followed by 14 days of eruption on the southwest rift zone. A flow from this rift zone passed through a South Kona forest, crossed the main road on April 16, and pooled behind the coastal village of Hoʻopuloa.”

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)

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

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)

“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. The fiery lava engulfed the harbor and village of Hoʻopuloa, and now they are but a heap of pāhoehoe lava.”

“According to eyewitnesses of this engulfing lava, it was frightening seeing the lava coming down, and others say that it was truly awesome watching the flowing lava and its sweeping aside of all obstructions in its path.”

“The last word heard before the Hoku went to the press was that this Wondrous Woman of Halemaʻumaʻu returned to her Palace at Kilauea, and she is bringing to life her fires at the famed crater of Halemaʻumaʻu.”

“Perhaps her rage has been quenched as the skin of that woman has touched the sea, but the memory of the tragedy which befell the people of that section of Kona is heartbreaking.” (Hoku o Hawaii, April 20, 1926)

One enterprising youth used his small truck to haul water from the Hoʻopuloa tanks to Miloliʻi, the end of the road.

When the flow reached the sea, he and his truck were cut off; he later took his truck apart and transported it piece by piece by outrigger canoe to the road on the Kona side of Hoʻopuloa. (USGS)

“Between 0400 and 0900 HST on April 18, the flow buried the village, wharf and harbor and entered the ocean. As soon as lava began falling into the sea, steam shot up in jets. Hundreds of dead fish floated along the edge of the turbulent water that spread out from the contact area of hot rock and cold ocean.”

Hawaiians from Miloliʻi came in their canoes and gathered the dead fish for salting and preserving. Jaggar collected some dead, floating fish and noted that they were perfectly fresh and in no sense cooked. (USGS)

Destruction of the village was gradual and complete. … This was Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s first real experience with property destruction by a lava flow. (USGS)

May 20, 2026 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pele’s Hair

“In the afternoon, Messrs. Thurston and Bishop walked out in a NW direction, till they reached the point that forms the northern boundary or the bay, on the eastern side of which Kairua (Kailua) is situated. It runs three or four miles into the sea; is composed entirely of lava …”

“… and was formed by an eruption from one of the large craters on the top of Mouna Huararai, (Hualālai,) which, about twenty-three years ago, inundated several villages, destroyed a number of plantations and extensive fish-ponds, filled up a deep bay twenty miles in length, and formed the present coast.”

“An Englishman, who has resided thirty-eight years in the islands, and who witnessed the above eruption, has frequently, told us he was astonished at the irresistible impetuosity of the torrent. Stone walls, trees, and houses, all gave way before it ….”

“Numerous offerings were presented, and many hogs, thrown alive into the stream, to appease the anger of the gods, by whom they supposed it was directed, and to stay its devastating course. All seemed unavailing, until one day the king Tamehameha (Kamehameha) … as the most valuable offering he could make, cut off part of his own hair, which was always considered sacred, and threw it into the torrent.”

“A day or two after, the lava ceased to flow. The gods, it was thought, were satisfied; and the king acquired no small degree of influence over the minds of the people, who, from this circumstance, attributed their escape from threatened destruction to his supposed interest with the deities of the volcanoes.” (Ellis, 1823)

Others did the same in offering hair to Pele. “This volcano, which has the name of Peli (Pele) from the goddess supposed to inhabit it, is also called by the natives, Kairauea Nui (Kilauea,) or the greater, and the extinguished crater, Kairauea in, or the little …”

“Night increased the magnificence, perhaps the horror, of the scene. The volcano caused … ‘a terrible light in the air.’ The roar occasioned by the escape of the pent up elements, and the fearful character of the surrounding scenery, suited with that light; and all impressed us with the sense of the present Deity …”

“No wonder, then, that the uninstructed natives had long worshipped, in this place, the mysterious powers of nature. Here it was that they supposed the gods of the Island had their favourite abodes, and that, from this centre of their power, they often shook the land, when it pleased them to pass under ground to visit the sea, and take delight in open places.”

“The first pair who arrived at the Island, with the animals and fruits necessary for their subsistence, met the fire gods, say they, on their first landing, and propitiated them by offerings of part of their provisions. …

“Hence no ohelo berry was eaten on Peli, till some had been offered to the goddess of the same name: the sandal-wood was not cut, nor the fern roots dug, without propitiating her by locks of hair, and often more precious things.”

“Frequently the hog and the dog were sacrificed to procure her favour; and never was the ground disturbed or any thing carried away from Kairauea.” (Byron, 1825)

But these offerings of hair to Pele are not the focus of this summary; this is about Pele’s Hair – a volcanic phenomenon that internationally carries the name of ‘Pele.’

Missionary Titus Coan describes Pele’s Hair: “All at once the scene changes, the central portion begins to swell and rise into a grayish dome, until it bursts like a gigantic bubble, and out rushes a sea of crimson fusion …”

“… which pours down to the surrounding wall with an awful seething and roaring, striking this mural barrier with fury, and with such force that its sanguinary jets are thrown back like a repulsed charge upon a battle-field, or tossed into the air fifty to a hundred feet high, to fall upon the upper rim of the pit in a hail-storm of fire.”

“This makes the filamentous vitrifaction called ‘Pele’s hair.’”

“The sudden sundering of the fusion into thousands of particles, by the force that thus ejects the igneous masses upward, and their separation when in this fused state, spins out vitreous threads like spun glass.”

“These threads are light, and when taken up by brisk winds, are often kept floating and gyrating in the atmosphere, until they come into a calmer stratum of air …”

“… when they fall over the surrounding regions, sometimes in masses in quiet and sheltered places. They are sometimes carried a hundred miles, as is proved by their dropping on ships at sea.”

“This ‘hair’ takes the color of the lava of which it is formed. Some of it is a dark gray, some auburn, or it may be yellow, or red, or of a brick color.” (Titus Coan)

Scientists say Pele’s hair is “volcanic glass that has been stretched into thin strands by the physical pulling apart of molten material during eruptions. Most commonly it forms during fire fountain activity.” (Batiza)

Thin strands of volcanic glass drawn out from molten lava have long been called Pele’s hair, named for Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes.

A single strand, with a diameter of less than 0.5 mm, may be as long as 2 m. The strands are formed by the stretching or blowing-out of molten basaltic glass from lava, usually from lava fountains, lava cascades, and vigorous lava flows (for example, as pāhoehoe lava plunges over a small cliff and at the front of an ‘a‘a flow.)

Pele’s hair is often carried high into the air during fountaining, and wind can blow the glass threads several tens of kilometers from a vent. (USGS)

November 4, 2025 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Charles Furneaux

Charles Furneaux (1835–1913) was born in Boston and became a drawing instructor in that area. For many years he lived in the town of Melrose, Massachusetts.

In 1880, Furneaux came from Boston to Hawaiʻi as a tourist, intending to spend a few months in the Islands. The climate and the scenery appealed to his health and artistic eye, and he decided to remain in the Islands. (Hawaiian Gazette, November 11, 1913)

While living in Honolulu he taught at the private schools Punahou and St. Albans (now known as ʻIolani School.) He spent most of his time (about 25-years) in Hilo.

For many years and until the annexation of Hawaiʻi to the United States he was the American consular agent and United States shipping commissioner at the port of Hilo.

He reported, “A bill is now before the Hawaiian Legislature asking for an appropriation to construct a wharf on the east side of Hilo Bay. A wharf, such as contemplated, would greatly facilitate the loading and unloading of vessels, which, at present, is accomplished by lighters. Hilo Bay affords safe anchorage for the largest class of vessels.”

“In this connection, I may say, it is generally conceded that a diversity of industries will increase the wealth and importance of this island. Hawaiʻi, of which Hilo is the principal port, contains an area of 2,500,000-acres.”

“There are large tracts of unoccupied lands well suited to the culture of coffee, bananas, papayas, pine-apples, water-lemons, and other tropical fruits that would admit of transportation to the United States, where they would undoubtedly find a market. I am fully convinced that the introduction of steam communication will add materially to the importance of Hilo as a commercial port.” (Consular Reports, August 18, 1890)

Furneaux was president of the Hilo Agricultural Society. At a meeting of the group, “President Furneaux read an exhaustive paper on “Banana Culture” which contained much interesting and valuable information regarding various methods of cultivation and corresponding success, which had come to his attention.”

“There is a marked difference between the Hilo banana and the Honolulu banana. The skin of the latter is much tougher and consequently bears transportation easier. The Hilo banana if not properly wrapped becomes bruised and discolored, and unsalable. He suggested that greater care be exercised in the wrapping of fruit shipped from here.” (Hilo Tribune, April 22, 1904)

“Furneaux has had considerable experience in planting coffee and is the owner of some fine coffee lands in Olaʻa. … He noted, “All authorities seem to agree that coffee requires shade … (and) decomposed vegetable matter is one of the most valuable of fertilizers.” (Consular Report)

A successful farmer and responsive diplomat … but, Furneaux is best known as an artist.

His reputation is mainly based on the paintings he created in Hawaiʻi, especially those of erupting volcanoes. The Bishop Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, ʻIolani Palace and Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (South Hadley, Massachusetts) are among the public collections holding works by Charles Furneaux.

As a painter, Furneaux attained considerable distinction, especially of the Volcano of Kilauea and other Hawaiian volcanoes. He was an intimate friend of the noted painter Jules Tavenier.

Furneaux was well known throughout Hawaiʻi. When the news reached Hilo that the annexation treaty had passed congress and had been signed by the commissioners of the United States and the Republic of Hawaiʻi, Furneaux was the happiest man in the metropolis of the Big Island.

While some of his art were landscapes, many were portraits. Furneaux spent the rest of his life in Hawaiʻi as a painter, teacher and coffee farmer. He died in Hawaiʻi in 1913. A lane in downtown Hilo is named for him.

October 8, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Pele’s Grandson”

He was known as “Pele’s Grandson” to many – and “The Runt” to his boss, Thomas R Boles, Superintendent of the Hawaiʻi National Park (he was 5-foot 1-inch in height and weighed ninety-five pounds.) (NPS, 1953)

Alexander P Lancaster (aka Alex or Alec,) a Cherokee, was employed by Volcano House and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes Observatory, guided tourists to Kilauea’s active lava lake from 1885 to 1924. (Wright)

Lancaster was a firm believer in Pele and her powers; he took a proprietary interest in the volcanoes – thus the nickname. He enthralled thousands of visitors with his intimate knowledge of volcanoes.

When someone mentioned Vesuvius to him, his stock reply was, “Vesuvius is just an old man. Pele is sturdy on her job.” It was nothing short of a sacrilege to talk about other volcanoes in Alec’s presence. (NPS)

An interview with “Uncle George” Lycurgus Volcano House owner (on his one-hundredth birthday) reveals more on Pele. When asked if he had ever seen Pele, Lycurgus replied:

“Oh, yes. I tell you. I saw Pele, in the fire. There is a woman … you can see a woman, in the flames … she comes out and walks around … then she goes back in the fire … and prays ….”

“The Hawaiians believe in Pele. Certainly I believe in Pele, too. Pele belongs to the Islands. She will come to tell us what to do. She always comes when we need her. Pele is bound to come soon.” (Nimmo)

When Halemaʻumaʻu was inactive and business at the hotel was poor, Lycurgus decided to offer prayers and rituals at the volcano to coax the goddess back to the crater and thereby improve business at the hotel.

He and Lancaster “walked down to Halemaʻumaʻu and invoked some prayers to the volcano goddess. Following that, they tossed into the fire pit an Ohelo berry lei made by Lancaster … “

“As a final gesture, Lycurgus tossed in a bottle of gin which had been partially drained by him and Lancaster on the walk to the pit. More prayers followed and the two of them returned to the Volcano House for the night. Within hours after the men went to bed, the volcano began erupting.” (Nimmo)

“Alec Lancaster, the well-known guide at the crater, has made a trail to a ledge of pahoehoe, a distance of 200-feet from the brink, and takes down to that point those visitors who desire to make a closer inspection than can be made at the edge. So far not many have shown a willingness to accept Alec’s invitation.” (Evening Bulletin, June 15, 1902)

Thomas Augustus Jaggar, Jr was an American volcanologist; he founded the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and directed it from 1912 to 1940.

“Lancaster, probably wound up each trip into Kilauea caldera with one pocket full of tips and another full of Cuban cigars – until Jaggar put him on the Observatory’s payroll as janitor, guide and general roustabout. Lancaster’s experiences close to Kilauea’s flowing and fountaining lava made him a good hand for Jaggar.” (USGS)

“Once again, in the interest of science, Madame Pele has been braved by the investigators living on the volcano’s brink for the purposes of studying systematically the vagaries of the fire goddess and of reducing her phenomena down to rules of cause and effect.”

“Last week, while the pit of Halemaʻumaʻu was in a state of unusual activity, with lava fountains playing, spatter cones forming, streams of liquid fire swelling in flows over the hardened crust…”

“Dr ES Shepherd, of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution, and HO Wood, technical assistant of Professor Jaggar, accompanied by Alex Lancaster the veteran Volcano House guide, descended four hundred feet into the pit, crossed the hardened but heated lava floor and collected sufficient of the nascent gas from one of the open vents for analyses.”

“Rope ladders were used to descend the first one hundred and eighty feet of the pit, for which distance the walls are sheer. At this depth the walls were broken down and the intrepid scientists and their daring companion were able to scramble down the rest of the way to the fire level, over the smoking, crumbling lava.”

“During the greater part of their descent, the three were hidden from the view of those who tried to watch them from the pit’s rim by the swirling, opaque gases that swept in clouds over the surface of the lower levels. (Hawaiian Gazette, December 10, 1912)

Alec’s thirst for liquor was his undoing; he was dismissed from the Park in 1928. He spent his last years as a public ward in the Old Folks’ Home in Hilo. (NPS) (Reportedly born in 1861, Lancaster died in 1930.)

July 22, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mauna Loa

Mauna Loa (“long mountain”) is the world’s largest active volcano and probably the largest single mountain mass of any sort on earth. It rises 13,679-feet above sea level, and about 31,000-feet above its base at the ocean floor.

(Of course this relates to surface volcanoes – Tamu Massif, a rounded dome in the northwest Pacific, measures about 280 by 400 miles, or more than 100,000 square miles and lies about 6,500 feet below the ocean surface (Mauna Loa measures about 2,000 square miles.))

Mauna Loa’s volume is of the order of 10,000 cubic miles, as compared to 80 cubic miles for the big cone of Mount Shasta in California. This huge bulk has been built almost entirely by the accumulation of thousands of thin flows of lava, the individual flows averaging only about 10 feet in thickness. (NPS)

The enormous volcano covers half of the Island of Hawai`i and by itself amounts to about 85 percent of all the other Hawaiian Islands combined. (USGS)

Mauna Loa has grown rapidly during its relatively short (600,000 to 1,000,000-years) history. Detailed geologic research on the volcano has nevertheless shown that about 98-percent of the volcano’s surface is covered with lava flows less than 10,000 years old. (USGS)

Since 1832, Mauna Loa has erupted 39 times; its last eruption started in 1984. According to USGS estimates, the volcano has erupted an average of once every 6 years over the past 3000. (SOEST)

The Ahupua‘a of Kapapala encompasses both the summit area and eastern flanks of Mauna Loa; this relatively large ahupua‘a extends from the coastline (Nāpu‘uonā‘elemākule to Keauhou) to the summit of Mauna Loa and Moku‘āweoweo Caldera. (NPS)

The large size of the ahupua‘a may be accounted for because the area contains limited natural resources within its boundaries: coastal resources most likely provided residences with rich marine resources; upland areas were rich in forest resources (e.g. forest birds, canoe material). However, the remaining portions of the ahupua‘a include the vast Ka‘u desert. (NPS)

The first modern climb of Mauna Loa was made by Archibald Menzies, the acclaimed naturalist and botanist serving with Captain George Vancouver on the Discovery.

In February 1794, after receiving advice and assistance from King Kamehameha (guides, attendants and transportation to the southern point of the island,) Menzies and the team reached the summit (fueled by rations consisting of few ship’s biscuits, a bottle of rum, some chocolate and a few coconuts.) (NPS)

Later, between December 1840 and January 1841, the US Exploring Expedition, led by Lt. Charles Wilkes, was the first US exploring and surveying expedition to the South Seas.

“(I)t was my intention to proceed to Hawaiʻi, there to ascend to the top of Mauna Loa; to make the pendulum observations on the summit and at the base of that mountain; to examine the craters and late eruptions”. (Wilkes 1845)

The expedition team was supported by a throng of porters that stretched out across the landscape and Wilkes described the scene as consisting of “…200 bearers of burdens, forty hogs, a bullock and bullock hunter …”

“… fifty bearers of poe (native food), twenty-five with calabashes…lame horses, which, instead of carrying their riders, were led by them; besides a large number of hangers-on, in the shape of mothers, wives, and children, equaling in number the bearers, all grumbling and complaining of their loads…”(Wilkes, NPS)

Once at the summit, a camp (called Pendulum Peak) was set up with rock walls to buttress tents against the extreme weather conditions, and the expedition could carry out observations and mapping.

The expedition mapped the summit region and conducted scientific efforts in the relatively unknown alpine wilderness area. The culmination of the Expedition coincided with the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution and the Natural Museum of Natural History. (NPS)

Land Commission testimony (1845) notes that sandalwood was an important resource, “When the people used to go after sandalwood the Alii of Kapapala Naihe and Aikanaka took it for Kaaumanu.”

“The Kaalaala people went after sandalwood for their chief but the people of the other lands in Kau used to go after sandalwood on Kapapala and take to their chiefs. This was the last gathering of sandalwood for Kamehameha III to pay the debt.” (NPS)

After the Mahele of 1848, the lands of Kapapala were retained as crown lands under Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III). Upon his death, the title to the land was transferred to his successor, Kamehameha IV, who ruled the islands from 1854-1863. The land remained as crown lands until the overthrow of the Hawaii Monarchy in 1893. (NPS)

Others later climbed the mountain: “Struggling, slipping, tumbling, jumping, ledge after ledge was surmounted, but still, upheaved against the glittering sky, rose new difficulties to be overcome. Immense bubbles have risen from the confused masses, and bursting, have yawned apart.…”

“Earthquakes have riven the mountain, splitting its sides and opening deep crevasses, which must be leapt or circumvented. … stepping over deep cracks, which, perhaps, led down to the burning, fathomless sea, traversing hilly lakes ruptured by earthquakes …”

“… and split in cooling into a thousand fissures, painfully toiling up the sides of the mounds of scoriae frothed with pumice-stone, and again for miles surmounting rolling surfaces of billowy, ropy lava – so passed the long day, under the tropic sun and the deep blue sky.” (Isabella Bird, 1875)

Starting in 1906, George Lycurgus (early operator of the Volcano House) and newspaperman Lorrin Andrews Thurston were working to have the Mauna Loa and Kilauea Volcanoes area made into a National Park. In 1912, geologist Thomas Augustus Jaggar arrived to investigate and joined their effort.

In September 1915, Jaggar, Thurston and a US Army representative conducted a survey to determine a route for a trail up Mauna Loa. The following month, a local paper noted, “Soldiers Building Mountain Trail. Negro soldiers of the Twenty-fifth Infantry to the number of 150 are at work constructing a trail from near the Volcano House to the summit of Mauna Loa.”

“It is estimated that three or four weeks will be devoted to this work. The soldiers are doing the work as a part of their vacation exercises.” (Maui News, October 29, 1915)

The Buffalo Soldiers built the 18-mile trail to the summit of Mauna Loa. They also built the ten-man Red Hill Cabin and a twelve-horse stable, so scientists could spend extended periods of time studying the volcano.

On August 1, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the country’s 13th National Park into existence – Hawaiʻi National Park. At first, the park consisted of only the summits of Kīlauea and Mauna Loa on Hawaiʻi and Haleakalā on Maui. On, July 1, 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.