Vocational Training

When the missionaries established schools and seminaries (i.e. the female seminaries, as well as Lahainaluna, Hilo Boarding School, Punahou,) they included teaching of the head (‘common’ courses, the 3Rs,) heart (religious, moral) and hand (vocational training, manual labor.)

Later, shortly after the University of Hawaiʻi started (1907,) short courses or ‘special lectures’ of education of “less than college grade” were offered in agriculture as ‘extension’ work.  The community college system was brought into being. It replaced the technical schools that had existed previously.

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Pohaku O Lanaʻi

“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.  This is said to have been used as a lookout by fishermen in the region.

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Pulehunui

Pulehunui is an ahupuaʻa in central Maui; it extends from the rim of the crater of Haleakala, the western portion reaches to the low land of the Island and grows broader up to the western boundary joining the lands of Waikapu. During pre-contact times, agricultural uses were basically wetland or dryland.

Pulehunui does not have regular streams or springs; it is in the area known as Kula.  Kula was widely famous for its sweet-potato plantations; ʻuala was the staple of life here.  Here was the Maui Airport.  It was later abandoned and the old runway was used for drag races and time trials starting in May 1956.

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Boles Field

On August 1, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the country’s 13th national park into existence – Hawaiʻi National Park (Kilauea and Mauna Loa;) eventually, Kilauea Caldera was added to the park.  On-the-ground administration of the park began with the arrival of Superintendent Thomas R Boles in April 1922.

At the same time the Park was created (1916,) the military opened a rest and recreation Camp within the Park boundaries – the Kilauea Military Camp (KMC.) A military landing field called Sand Spit Horst was located just south of Halemaʻumaʻu crate; it was referred to as Kilauea Airfield.  In 1925, a new Army field was under construction on the bluff between Uwekahuna and KMC (it was named for Boles.)  By 1945, the airfield was determined incompatible with NPS policy.

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Kaluanui

Kaluanui is one of 23-ahupua‘a (traditional land division) that make up the district of Koʻolauloa on the island of O‘ahu It extends from the sea to the summit (approximate 2,700-foot elevation) and contains approximately 1,650 acres of land.  Kaluanui is perhaps best known for this deep valley and steep cliffs which form the waterfall of Kaliuwaʻa.

It was called Sacred Ravine, then Sacred Valley, and it wasn’t until the 1950s that the name Sacred Falls appeared in the literature.   On May 9, 1999 (Mother’s Day,) portions of the sheer rock face fell, killing 8 and injuring 50.  The former State Park has been closed since then.

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The First School

After the Pioneer Company of missionaries landed at Kailua-Kona, Hiram and Sybil Bingham sailed for Honolulu and arrived April 19, 1820.  It is said that Sybil started the first school in Hawaiʻi in May 1820.

Sybil’s June 20, 1820 journal entry notes, “After neglect of my journal for more than two months in a most interesting part of our history too … Very soon I gathered up 12 or 15 little native girls to come once a day to the house …. That was an interesting day to me to lay the foundation of the first school ever assembled in this dark land.”

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Pualani Mossman

“They say she is the most photographed girl in the Islands ...” Pualani Mossman was born on April 16, 1916 in Honolulu. In 1934, Mossman was tapped by the Hawaiʻi Tourist Bureau to star in the first color movie made in Hawaiʻi, intended to promote tourism.

She became known as the “Matson Girl,” appearing in Life, Time and Fortune magazines. For more than 50 years, Pualani Mossman epitomized the image of a Hawaiian hula dancer as the original poster girl for Matson cruises and the Hawaii Visitors Bureau.

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EK Fernandez Shows

By the end of World War II, Eddie (Edwin Kane ‘EK’ Fernandez,) was being called “the Barnum of the Pacific.” He produced Honolulu’s first circus, imported Hawai‘i’s first ice show, first bullfight, first boxing match and first rodeo.

EK Fernandez Shows “crossed the Pacific with tents, elephants and ice-making equipment to transport entertainment to Guam, Tokyo, Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, Java and Shanghai.”

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Hilo Coastal Defense

A key goal in the Pacific was to hold Oʻahu Island as a main outlying naval base and to protect shipping in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands.   The War Department looked to much larger reinforcement of Hawaiʻi; this led to plans for garrisoning the other islands of the Hawaiian group.  And, Hilo was a natural choice.

In 1908, construction began on the Hilo Bay breakwater along the shallow reef; piers were built and extended by 1927.  A mobile field battery of 155-mm guns was set up in December 1941. Four 4-inch naval guns were later emplaced in 1942.  The Hilo battery was abandoned in 1945.  The exact locations are undetermined.

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Chiefess Kapiʻolani

Kapiʻolani was one or the most distinguished of the female chiefs of the Islands.  In 1822, Kapiʻolani and Naihe (her husband) were among the first chiefs to accept Christianity.  Ever since missionaries arrived (1820,) Kapiʻolani has constantly been situated near them, and for nearly two years has listened to the words of eternal life in her own language.

She won the cause of Christianity by openly defying the priests of the fire goddess Pele in 1825.  She clambered down to the great lake of fire - Kilauea - the home of the goddess, and flung into the boiling lava the consecrated ohelo berries which it was sacrilege for a woman to handle.

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Academy of the Sacred Hearts

King Kamehameha III donated land for the first permanent Catholic Church; it was named the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace (it’s the oldest Roman Catholic Cathedral in continuous use in the US.)

On May 4, 1859 the Sisters of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament arrived at Honolulu; shortly after, they opened the Sacred Hearts Convent.  In 1909, a Catholic secondary school for women was started in Kaimuki, Academy of the Sacred Hearts.

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Declaration of War

It starts with the delivery of a simple package … two ʻulu maika stones wrapped in kapa.  It was an offer, and a threat - white and black stones.  The recipient was asked to make a choice.

The white stone signified peace and not war; the black stone was a symbol of war between the one who sent it and the one to whom it was sent.  Return the white stone for peace, the black stone for war.

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Waikahalulu Falls

The Pan-Pacific conference called for a meeting in Hawaiʻi, the establishment of a Pan-Pacific commercial college in Honolulu and the project of a Pan-Pacific peace exposition.

Folks selected a site along the Nuʻuanu Stream, in the heart of Honolulu, near two waterfalls, as the nucleus of a Pan-Pacific Park; here all resident races of the Pacific might re-create their national life and customs.  Ultimately, it never happened; it is now Liliʻuokalani Gardens.

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May Day

May Day is Lei Day in Hawaiʻi.  When you give a lei, you are giving a part of you.  Likewise, as you receive a lei, you are receiving a part of the creator of the lei.

The first Lei Day was in 1927 and celebrated in downtown Honolulu with a few people wearing lei.    From that it grew and more and more people began to wear lei on May 1.  In 1929, Governor Farrington signed a Lei Day proclamation.

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Puʻu O Mahuka

Pu‘u o Mahuka ("hill of escape”) is located on the north side of the valley; it is the largest heiau on Oʻahu (covering almost 2 acres.)  Archaeological research has indicated several changes in the heiau structure over time.

A story of its origin notes, in 1773, a leadership change was decided on Oʻahu where Kahahana would replace Kumahana.  Puʻu O Mahuka included a Hale O Papa, a specialized heiau designated specifically to women; kapu (forbidden) to men.

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Hilo Hattie

Clarissa Meleka Haili, Hilo Hattie, turned professional in 1936 when she entertained with the Royal Hawaiian Girls Glee Club.  She took part in the Kodak Hula Show. Clara participated in the summer shows from 1937 through 1940.

After the WWII, she became a disc jockey for Honolulu radio station KPOA. The notable song she sang and dance was ‘When Hilo Hattie Does The Hilo Hop.’

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ʻEwa Field

It started as a mooring mast for blimps, airships and dirigible balloons (lighter than air craft using gas to lift the craft.)  Back then, runways weren’t needed/used for the airship; a line from the mast was tied to the bow of the airship to hold it there, while not in use (however, none ever visited the station.)

Sometime later, the Navy also constructed an oil-surfaced, emergency landing field at ʻEwa.  What would become Marine Corps Base ʻEwa (ʻEwa Field) was part of the US military and economic expansion into the Pacific region starting in the 1930s and early-1940s.  ʻEwa was officially closed on June 18, 1952 and its property assumed by Naval Air Station Barbers Point.

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Ralph Sheldon Hosmer

“The forests and timber growing therein, shall be considered as government property, and under the special care of the minister of the interior, who may from time to time convert the products thereof into money for the benefit of government.”  (King Kamehameha III's Act No. 2)

On May 13, 1903, the Territory of Hawaiʻi, with the backing of the Hawaiʻi Sugar Planters' Association, established the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry.  The next year, Ralph Sheldon Hosmer (one of the Society founders) became the first Superintendent of Forestry in the Islands.

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Infanticide

“I have often wondered why there were no more children here than there appear to be, upon asking a white man who has resided here many years …”

“… the reason he replied that many infants are strangled to death by their mothers, especially if they are not able to support them and many die for want of care when young. We have seen a number of latter case.”

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“Your Affectionate & Unhappy Friend”

Queen Victoria is associated with Britain's great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and, especially, empire. (At her death, it was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set.)  Emma was adopted by Dr Rooke, an Englishman. On June 9, 1856, Emma married Alexander Liholiho, King Kamehameha IV, and then became Queen Emma.

The two queens were unlike in more than the size of their realms.  Victoria was almost a generation older than Emma.  Victoria had nine children, the last one born in 1857, a year before Emma’s one and only child.  Queen Victoria and Queen Emma wrote each other from time to time, sharing news of family events, happy and tragic.

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