Category Archives: Hawaiian History

Truck stuck

While I always prefer to take smaller, winding roads, such roads taken are not without pitfalls.

The last mile of the journey to Mo’okini Heiau in North Kohala is an uneven dirt road studded with rocks. When the road is dry it can be navigated by almost all vehicles (I saw a smart car there once!). However, care is needed, particularly regarding clearance. Almost every time I walk the road, I see fresh scrapes on the rocks. With rainy weather, the road becomes the territory of 4-wheel drives and jacked-up suspensions.

On this day, the puddles that often form on the road had become lakes. This truck had passed me earlier and when I saw it returning I ducked behind a bank to do a little whale watching and avoid the wave of spray that would surely accompany anything driving through the lake. A few minutes passed. I realized I hadn’t registered the truck passing. It had gone very quiet. So I wandered out to the road again and saw the truck marooned. They’d made it through on the way out, but weren’t so lucky on the way back.

The truck was a 4×4 but not with extra clearance. I think their problem was that the lake was deeper at the far end (in the photo). On the way out, they’d no doubt barreled into the water and their momentum had carried them to shallower waters and out. On the way back, the same approach would have propelled them toward the deep end. I suspect a bow wave built up, slowed them, and allowed water to penetrate parts of the truck that responded unfavorably.

The two young local men seemed quite cheerful. They waded through the muddy water, tried to coax life into the truck. One was on the phone (a miracle to have service there). After they insisted they had everything under control, I walked past on the high bank alongside the road, then turned and took this photo. When I returned a half hour or more later, the truck and its occupants were gone.

Better Days: Gravesite

In Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, north of Hilo, this gravesite sits close to the ocean, surrounded by tropical foliage. The wording on the sign reads:

Long ago, Onomea Bay was a fishing village, became a rough-water seaport in the 1800’s, and later was inhabited by Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos who came here to work in the sugar cane fields and to help build the Onomea Sugar Mill. In the early 1900’s, Onomea was deserted and vegetation grew so densely that few signs of habitation could be seen.

When our Founder and his tireless helpers were first clearing this area, they discovered this olden and dignified gravesite. We have never been able to authenticate the origin, although some old-timers believe the gravesite may have belonged to a caretaker’s family, since a cement-made gravesite would not have pre-dated the 1900’s.

Our commitment is to forever preserve this resting place with the utmost care and respect.

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden

For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.

The Painted Church at Honaunau

I’m not a religious person, but I’ve always enjoyed visiting churches. I grew up in England and the stone churches had a calm ambience with cool, quiet interiors. Usually, there was some feature of note, even in the smallest church – carvings on the pew ends, a font dating from Norman times, the tomb of some ancient notable under the floor.

The Painted Church at Honaunau, on the Big Island, is different from those churches, more fitting to its setting. A wooden structure, it dates back to 1899. Father John Velghe moved much of a previous structure to its present site and had it repaired and added to. A self-taught artist, he then painted the interior including several scenes from the bible on the walls.

What I like is how colorful the interior is, with a real tropical feel. But it too has that stillness that I associate with churches and an ambience all its own.

For more information about the Painted Church at Honaunau, go to thepaintedchurch.org.

King Kamehameha’s birthplace

At Kapakai Kokoiki Heiau in North Kohala, not far from Mo’okini Heiau (which can be seen on the hill in the background), stands this sign. Kamehameha Akāhi ‘Āina Hānau loosely translates as the birthplace of Kamehameha I. He was born here around 1736. The exact date isn’t known, with some accounts placing it as late as 1758. Known as Kamehameha the Great, he was the king who fulfilled Hawaiian prophecies and united the Hawaiian islands for the first time in 1810.

He was succeeded by four others in his family who took the name Kamehameha, so the name is in the forefront of Hawaiian history. In present day life it occurs in numerous ways. There’s Kamehameha Day, a state holiday, which celebrates his birth. Kamehameha Schools is an private school system with extensive land holdings on the Big Island and elsewhere. Hotels and other businesses sport the name. A fair number of them will be located on Kamehameha Street, Road, Highway, Avenue, or Boulevard.

In short, the name Kamehameha is still an integral and important part of everyday Hawaiian life.

Growth in the lava

In May of 1969, a series of earthquakes opened a large fissure alongside Chain of Craters Road in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This was the beginning of what is known as the Mauna Ulu eruption. For five years, lava poured forth in a series of eruptions. Chain of Craters Road, completed only a few years earlier, was buried for several miles. Landmarks along the road were destroyed or irrevocably altered. A swathe of forest disappeared in flame.

When the eruptions finally ceased, life soon began to reappear on the barren lava landscape. In this photo, vegetation has reclaimed a section of the original 1969 fissure. Roots are anchored in cool, moist cracks in the lava. The tree on the left is particularly striking. Having started out in a crack on a vertical face, it has reached up to the light and is going strong. I like to think it shows how resilient nature can be.

For more information about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, go to nps.gov/havo/. For more information about Kilauea Volcano and it’s eruptions, go to hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/history/main.html.

Puapo’o lava tube tour

The entrance to Puapo'o Lava Tube — The way in. No elevator here.

Ohia roots hang in the Puapo'o Lava Tube — Ohia trees on the surface send roots down into lava tubes. These roots take in water from the tube’s cool, moist air. In return they offer one of the few sources of organic material and are home to a kind of cricket.

Lava formations in the PUapo'o lava tube — A puapo’o (literally ‘flower head’) lava formation. There’s still uncertainty about how these are formed. To the left are lava-sicles, the lava tube equivalent of stalactites.

A low section of Puapo'o lava tube — Mind your head. There’s a 25-foot-long low section.

As part of the National Park Service centennial celebration, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has been offering a guided tour of Puapo’o lava tube. This tour has been offered in the past, but not for several years.

Puapo’o is a pristine lava tube meaning that its rock formations are intact and life in the tube is largely undisturbed. Contrast this with the park’s popular Thurston lava tube, where all the finer lava details have long since been broken off by visitors.

There’s a hike to the tube, which is deep within a forest rich in tree ferns.

The tube entrance is accessed by a ladder and then it’s on into the dark. Whereas Thurston lava tube is well lit and has a mostly flat floor for easy walking, Puapo’o, which is about a mile long, was lit only by our headlamps and rocks littered the tube floor. It’s not a tour for the claustrophobic or nervous.

The exit from Puapo'o lava tube — The way out. Heading for the light.

Those rocks on the floor match recesses in the tube ceiling show where rock falls have happened. A month before, one of our rangers had been leading a tour when there was an earthquake, a common occurrence in the park. The group left the tube, but the next visit found a new rock fall.

We scrambled over rocks, and sat in the dark in a large, amphitheater-like part of the tube. As we progressed, the rangers pointed out different lava formations from lava-sicles to bathtub rings to puapo’os for which the tube is named. And even in this pitch dark place, there is life – moths, crickets, and spiders, one a huntsman and the other a tiny, near invisible thing that builds gossamer webs. Also, living on the tube walls, are unique microbial colonies, which are being studied for medical uses.

Eventually, we scrambled up a rocky slope and out through a narrow opening, back into the forest.

For more information about the Puapo’o lava tube tour, go to nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lava-tube-tour.htm.

Bathtub rings on the walls of Puapo'o lava tube — Ranger Dean points out bathtub rings on the tube wall. These indicate the level of the flow through the tube at different times.

Kohala Girls’ School

The Kohala Girls’ School was founded in 1874 by Ellen and Elias Bond, missionaries who came to the Big Island from Maine in 1840. It remained in operation until 1955. Since then the buildings saw only occasional use, but they are currently being renovated as part of the Grace Learning Center, an educational program of the Kohala Institute.

The land managed by the Kohala Institute is called ’Iole and is one of Big Island’s the last intact ahupua’a. An ahupua’a was a land division that stretched from the sea to the mountains, giving those who lived there access to everything they needed for self sufficiency.

For more information about Iole and the Kohala Institute, go to kohalainstitute.org.
For more information about Kohala Girls’ School, go to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_District

Humuhumu-nukunuku-ā-pua-a

This is the Hawaiian name for the wedgetail triggerfish or picasso triggerfish. It’s also the state fish of Hawaii.

Back in 1984, the legislature decided an official state fish was needed and public input was sought. Eight species made the shortlist to be voted on by the people. Not surprisingly, those of a serious bent thought one of Hawaii’s endemic species should get the nod and lobbied accordingly. But kids liked the humuhumu-nukunuku-ā-pua-a, which gets a line in the song ‘My little grass shack,’ and children’s hula groups, dancing to this song, won people over. It netted nearly twice as many votes as the runner up.

An attempt to ‘Boaty McBoatface’ the result failed and the humuhumu-nukunuku-ā-pua-a was ultimately confirmed as state fish.

In my attempts to identify what I see in the water, I use John P. Hoover’s book The Ultimate Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fishes, Sea Turtles, Dolphins, Whales, and Seals. His website is hawaiisfishes.com.

Graham's Island

Life on the Big Island of Hawaii