In very ancient times, the lands were not divided and an
island was left without divisions such as ahupuaʻa and ʻili, but in the time
when the lands became filled with people, the lands were divided, with the
proper names for this place and that place so that they could be known. (Kamakau)
Prior to European contact, each of the major islands or
independent chiefdoms in the Hawaiian chain comprised a mokupuni (island.) Over
the centuries, as the ancient Hawaiian population grew, land use and resource
management also evolved.
Each island was divided into several moku or districts, of
which there are six in the island of Hawaiʻi, and the same number in Oʻahu.
There is a district called Kona on the lee side and one called Koʻolau on the
windward side of almost every island.
(Alexander) The moku of Hawaiʻi
Island are: Kona, Kohala, Hāmākua, Hilo, Puna and Kaʻū.
Initial settlement of the Hawaiian Islands is believed to
have occurred along the wetter windward sides of the Islands, along the fertile
coastline. On Hawaiʻi Island, that included Hāmākua.
Waipi‘o (“curved water”) is one of several coastal valleys
on the north part of the Hāmākua side of the Island of Hawaiʻi. A black sand
beach, three-quarters of a mile long, fronts the valley, the longest on the Big
Island.
For two hundred years or more, Waipiʻo Valley was the Royal
Center to many of the rulers on the Island of Hawaiʻi, including Pili lineage
rulers - the ancestors of Kamehameha - and continued to play an important role
as one of many royal residences until the era of Kamehameha. (UH DURP)
Royal Centers were where the aliʻi resided; aliʻi often
moved between several residences throughout the year. The Royal Centers were
selected for their abundance of resources and recreation opportunities, with
good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored.
In 1872, Isabella Bird traveled by horseback along the Hāmākua
coast from Onomea to the Waipiʻo Valley and described the landscape she
travelled through. The journey was over very rough and steep trails and took
five days. Bird noted, “this is the most
severe road on horses on Hawaiʻi, and it takes a really good animal to come to Waipiʻo
and go back to Hilo.”
The Isabella Bird description that follows helps give a
perspective of what Hāmākua was like about 150-years ago:
“The unique beauty of this coast is what is called gulches -
narrow, deep ravines or gorges, from one hundred to two thousand feet in depth,
each with a series of cascades from ten to eight hundred feet in height.”
“I dislike reducing their glories to the baldness of
figures, but the depth of these clefts cut and worn by the fierce streams fed
by the snows of Mauna Kea, and the rains of the forest belt, cannot otherwise
be expressed.”
“The cascades are most truly beautiful, gleaming white among
the dark depths of foliage far away, and falling into deep limpid basins,
festooned and overhung with the richest and greenest vegetation of this
prolific climate, from the huge-leaved banana and shining breadfruit to the
most feathery of ferns.”
“Each gulch opens on a velvet lawn close to the sea, and
most of them have space for a few grass houses, with cocoanut trees, bananas
and kalo patches. There are sixty-nine of these extraordinary chasms within a
distance of thirty miles!”
“We had a perfect day until the middle of the afternoon. The dimpling Pacific was never more than a
mile from us as we kept the narrow track in the long green grass, and on our
left the blunt, snow-patched peaks of Mauna Kea rose from the girdle of forest,
looking so delusively near that I fancied a two hours climb would take us to
his lofty summit.”
“The track for twenty-six miles is just in and out of
gulches, from one hundred to eight hundred feet in depth, all opening on the
sea, which sweeps into them in three booming rollers. The candlenut or kukui
tree, which on the whole predominates, has leaves of a rich, deep green when mature,
which contrast beautifully with the flaky, silvery look of the younger foliage.”
“Some of the shallower gulches are filled exclusively with
this tree, which in growing up to the light to within one hundred feet of the
top, presents a mass and density of leafage quite unique, giving the gulch the
appearance as if billows of green had rolled in and solidified there.”
“The descent into the gulches is always solemn. You canter
along a bright breezy upland, and are suddenly arrested by a precipice, and from
the depths of a forest-draped abyss a low plash or murmur arises, or a deep
bass sound, significant of water which must be crossed, and one reluctantly
leaves the upper air to plunge into heavy shadow, and each experience increases
one's apprehensions concerning the next.”
“It is wonderful that people should have thought of crossing
these gulches on anything with four legs, formerly, that is, within the last
thirty years, the precipices could only be ascended by climbing with the utmost
care, and descended by being lowered with ropes from crag to crag, and from
tree to tree, when hanging on by the hands became impracticable to even the
most experienced mountaineer.”
“In this last fashion Mr. Coan and Mr. Lyons (missionaries
from Hilo and Waimea) were let down to preach the gospel to the people of the
then populous valleys. But within recent years, narrow tracks, allowing one
horse to pass another, have been cut along the sides of these precipices,
without any windings to make them easier, and only deviating enough from the
perpendicular to allow of their descent by the sure-footed native-born animals.”
“All the gulches for the first twenty-four miles contain running
water. The great Hakalau gulch which we crossed early yesterday, has a river
with a smooth bed as wide as the Thames at Eton. Some have only small quiet
streams, which pass gently through ferny grottoes.”
“The path by which we descended looked a mere thread on the
side of the precipice. I don't know what the word beetling means, but if it means
anything bad, I will certainly apply it to that pali.” (Byrd)
In more modern times, sugar defined the landscape. Production started with initial smaller
plantations that later merged into larger facilities.
The Hāmākua Mill Company was first established in 1877 by
Theo Davies and his partner Charles Notley, Sr.
In 1878, the first sugarcane was planted at the plantation and Hilo Iron
Works was hired to build a mill. The mill was located at Paʻauilo.
By 1910, it had 4,800-acres planted in sugarcane and
employed more than 600 people. The company ran three locomotives on nine miles
of light gauge rail. There was a warehouse and landing below the cliff at
Koholālole where ships were loaded by crane.
In 1914, the Kūkaʻiau Mill Company became a part of the Hāmākua
Mill Company. In 1917, the Kūkaʻiau mill was sold and moved to Formosa
(Taiwan.)
In 1917, the Hāmākua Mill Company was renamed the
Hāmākua Sugar Company. The Kaiwiki Sugar Company was merged with the Theo H
Davies Company-owned Laupāhoehoe Sugar Company on May 1, 1956 and operations
were merged with the latter beginning January 3. 1957.
In 1978, the Hāmākua Sugar Company, Honokaʻa Sugar Company
and the Laupāhoehoe Sugar Company were merged to form the Davies Hāmākua Sugar
Company.
In 1984 the Davies Hāmākua Sugar Company was bought by
Francis Morgan and renamed the Hāmākua Sugar Company (1984-1994). The
Hāmākua Sugar Company operated until October of 1994, and its closing marked
the end of the sugar industry at Hāmākua, as well as the Island of Hawaiʻi.
Hāmākua Sugar Plantation Days Festival is being celebrated
10 am – 5 pm, Saturday, August 16, 21014 in Honokaʻa, commemorates the closure
of the Hāmākua Sugar Co 20 years ago.
The image shows cable loading of sugar. In addition, I have added some other images in
a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.
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