Kaumālapaʻu

The total land area of Lānaʻi is 89,305 acres, divided into 13 ahupua‘a (traditional land divisions.)  In the traditional system, respective konohiki served as land managers over each. These konohiki were subject to control by the ruling chiefs.

At the time of the Great Māhele (1848,) lands on Lānaʻi were divided between lands claimed by King Kamehameha III (Kauikeaouli) (40,665 acres,) which were known as the Crown Lands, and the lands to be claimed by the chiefs and people (48,640 acres,) which were called the Government Lands.

By 1907, more than half the island of Lānaʻi was in the hands of native Hawaiians. Just 14 years later, in 1921, only 208.25 acres of land remained in native Hawaiian ownership. By 1875 Walter Gibson had control, either through lease or direct ownership, of nine‐tenths of Lānaʻi’s lands. (Lānaʻi Community Plan)

When James Dole bought Lānaʻi, ranching was a thriving business under the control of George Munro. Shortly after the purchase, Dole got Munro working at removing cattle from potential pineapple lands. As soon as cattle were fattened they were sold. Ranching operations became a secondary priority to pineapple development.

During 1923, the company embarked on making major improvements to the island of Lānaʻi.  At first, Dole wanted to name the town Pine City, but the post office department objected because there were too many "pine" post offices in the mainland United States.  So the plantation town was called Lānaʻi City.

Dole hired Mr. Root, an engineer, to lay out and plan the town. Root arrived at Mānele Bay to begin his work. He designed the central park with a symmetrical grid of residential streets, which remains the configuration of Lānaʻi City today.” (Lānaʻi Community Plan)

Between 1922 and 1992, pineapple plantation operations provided the people of Lānaʻi with a way of life.  James Doles’ Hawaiian Pineapple Company evolved and many of the innovations in cultivation, equipment design, harvesting, irrigation and labor relations developed on the Lānaʻi plantation, and came to be used around the world. (Lānaʻi Culture & Heritage Center)

Mānele Bay was the main port of entry for Lānaʻi; its primary purpose was to ship pineapple off the island. On the eastern side of the island, remnants of Halepalaoa Landing can be seen; this was used primarily to ship cattle. It's also reported that in the late 1800s, a steamer landing was located on the western shore of Lānaʻi Island and served as a docking grounds.

A new harbor was needed.  In 1923 to 1926, Kaumālapaʻu Bay, a natural, sheltered cove on the southwest side of Lānaʻi, was developed into the main shipping harbor from which pineapple and all major supplies for Lānaʻi were shipped and received.

“… we learned that the breakwater is composed of 116,000-tons of rock blasted from the cliffs and dropped into the water.  The Kaumalapau harbor entrance is 65-feet deep, and the minimum depth of the harbor is 27-feet.  The wharf is 400-feet long and the boat landing is 80-feet in length.”  (Lanai “The Pineapple Kingdom, 1926)

Bins filled with pineapple were unloaded from the trucks (steam cranes were still used through the 1960s), and placed on the barges for shipping to the cannery at Iwilei, Honolulu, Oʻahu. Tug boats were used to haul the barges - empty bins and supplies to Lānaʻi, and filled pineapple bins to the cannery.

Because of the demands of work at Kaumālapaʻu, Lānaʻi’s “second city” was developed, and known as “Harbor Camp.” The Harbor Camp included around 20 homes and support buildings, and sat perched on the cliffs above Kaumālapaʻu Bay.  (Lānaʻi Culture & Heritage Center)

Surmising from the vast archaeological features on the cliffs above Kaumālapaʻu Gulch, Kaumālapaʻu Harbor was probably a very important settlement (seasonal and/or permanent) for native Hawaiians. (Social Research Pacific)

Access to fishing, whether by boat or off the shoreline, is easily attained at Kaumālapaʻu.  One of the sites immediately mauka of the harbor is called “Fisherman's Trail.” In the 1862 letter requesting settlement and use of Lānaʻi, even Gibson indicated the importance of fishing as the primary source of subsistence for the island's inhabitants.

The village of Kaunolu, just to the south of Kaumālapaʻu was known as a "fishing village". Given its proximity to Kaumālapaʻu, it is highly likely that neighboring Kaumālapaʻu also offered good fishing grounds to Hawaiians. The Kaumālapaʻu Trail extends from Lānaʻi City down to Kaumālapaʻu.   (Social Research Pacific)

In the Māhele, the ahupuaʻa of Kamoku and Kalulu (which adjoin the existing Kaumālapaʻu Harbor) were retained by the King (Kamehameha III), though the 'ili of Kaumālapaʻu 1 & 2 were given by the King to the Government.

The Kaumālapaʻu Harbor breakwater was in disrepair for many years following several hurricanes and seasonal storms.  Completed in 2007, 40,000-tons of new stone was added to the reshaped breakwater, 800 concrete Core-Locs (each weighing 35 tons) were put in place and a 5-foot- thick concrete cap was cast on top of the breakwater to complete the project.  (Traylor)

Today, as in the early 1920s, Kaumālapaʻu Harbor is the main commercial seaport and Lānaʻi’s lifeline to the outside world, with weekly Young Brothers’ barge and other commercial activity in and out of Lānaʻi.

The image shows initial construction of the Kaumālapaʻu facilities (1924) (Lanai-PineappleKingdom.)  In addition, I have added other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Wahiawā

During ancient times, various land divisions were used to divide and identify areas of control.  Islands were divided into moku (districts;) moku were divided into ahupuaʻa.  A common feature in each ahupuaʻa was water, typically in the form of a stream or spring.

The Island of Oʻahu has six Moku: Kona, Koʻolaupoko, Koʻolauloa, Waialua, Waiʻanae and ʻEwa.  The Waiʻanae ahupuaʻa, within the moku has an un-typical shape – it is sometimes referred to in two parts: Waiʻanae Kai, on its western side, runs from the ocean to the Waiʻanae Mountains (like a typical ahupuaʻa – this portion of Waiʻanae runs from the mountain to the sea.)

From there, however, the section referred to as Waiʻanae Uka continues across Oʻahu’s central plain and extends up into the Koʻolau Mountains – extending approximately 15-miles from the Waianae Mountains to the Koʻolau Mountains and ends up overlooking the windward coastline.  (Each section is within the same ahupuaʻa.)

Wahiawā, situated in Waiʻanae Uka, was from very ancient times, identified with the ruling aliʻi of Oʻahu. The name breaks down to Wahi (place), a (belonging to), wa (noise.)  (Handy)

Perhaps the name goes back to the time when Hiʻiaka was in this general area and could see waves dashing against the coast afar off and hear the ocean’s ceaseless roar... (Handy)

The chiefs of Līhuʻe, Wahiawā, and Halemano on Oʻahu were called Lo chiefs, poʻe Lo Aliʻi (”people from whom to obtain a chief”,) because they preserved their chiefly kapus...They lived in the mountains (i kuahiwi); and if the kingdom was without a chief, there in the mountains could be found a high chief (aliʻi nui) for the kingdom. Or if a chief was without a wife, there one could be found - one from chiefly ancestors. (Kamakau)

A “sizable population” filled the Wahiawā area in traditional Hawaiian times, based on the “various areas of loʻi northwest of the present town of Wahiawā. … There were extensive terraces that drew water from Wahiawā Stream, both above and below the present town. There were many small terrace areas along the sides of the valleys of all the streams of this general area. …  The peculiarity of this area, apart from distance from the sea, is that it is the only extensive level area on (Oʻahu.)” (Handy)

In more modern times, at the height of the sandalwood boom, Kamehameha was buying foreign ships, including six vessels between 1816 and 1818, to transport his own wood to the Orient. (Kuykendall)  According to Kamakau, Wahiawā was a prime source for the valuable wood; the largest trees were from Wahiawā.

Over the remainder of the decade, the population fluctuated.  Things changed at the end of the decade.  Following the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, western military and agricultural interests would transform the Wahiawā landscape.

Land that had previously been leased to Oʻahu businessman James Robinson for cattle grazing was designated Wahiawā homestead land by The Land Act of 1895 (as homestead land, including water rights from the Kaukonahua Stream (not DHHL homestead, this was for general homesteading.)

Then, in 1897, Californian, Byron Clark, became the Hawaiian Republic’s commissioner of agriculture. In looking for land for him to settle on, he learned of the availability of land at Wahiawā.

Clark organized a group of other Californians (as well as others) to join him in settling the whole tract of thirteen hundred acres — which became known as the Wahiawā Colony Tract. Having formed an agricultural cooperative called the Hawaiian Fruit and Plant Company, the homesteaders began formalizing and refining the physical organization of their Wahiawā settlement.

Initially each settler lived in a house on his five-acre parcel in the town site and farmed his other land in the surrounding area. It was soon discovered, however, that each settler preferred to reside on his own farmstead, holding his town lot in reserve. The homesteaders abandoned the village plan and agreed that one man, Thomas Holloway, would live on their 145-acre central lot site.

On August 27, 1902 a trust deed, referred to as the Holloway Trust, formally set aside the central town lots for the use and benefit of the Settlement Association of Wahiawā resident landowners. Within a few years, Wahiawā Town was underway.

Some of the town’s streets would be named for the early homesteaders - including Clark, Kellogg, Thomas and Eames streets (initial mapping shows California Avenue as the first, and main, road.)

Another notable change at this time was the result of a presidential order of July 20, 1899 setting aside Waianae Uka lands as the military reservation. Ten years later, in 1909, these lands would become the site of Schofield Barracks, named after Lt. General John M. Schofield.

Another homesteader to the area was James D Dole, who moved to Wahiawā in 1900 to attempt farming on 61-acres. Dole described Wahiawā at the beginning of the 20th century as “a park-like stretch of some 1,400-acres of third-class pasture land, dotted with shacks of 13 hopeful homesteaders for whom (the) general sentiment was merely pity.”

Dole founded Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901. Within a few years pineapple production at Wahiawā had increased that Dole planned a cannery at Iwilei, near the shipping facilities of Honolulu Harbor. In order to transport the pineapple from Wahiawā to Honolulu, Dole persuaded the Oʻahu Railway & Land Company to extend its rail line to Wahiawā. The line to Wahiawā was constructed in 1906.

Another change occurred on January 23, 1906 when the Wailua Agricultural Company, later known as Waialua Sugar Company, constructed the Wahiawā Dam and Reservoir, a 2.5-billion-gallon capacity reservoir (the largest in Hawaiʻi;) it is generally known as Lake Wilson, today.

The start of World War II further helped to accelerate developments within Wahiawā to accommodate the needs of the growing military population. Wahiawā Elementary School, which started in 1899 to educate children of farmers who were brought in from California, closed their doors in the 1940s to become the new Wahiawā General Hospital.

At the end of World War II, the facility continued to remain in operation under the leaders of the Wahiawā Hospital Association. The 72-bed acute care facility was dedicated in 1958, under the official name, Wahiawā General Hospital.

Post World War II, the old Wahiawā Hotel had been used as living quarters for area school teachers. By the 1960s, Wahiawā teachers, who had been quartered at the teachers’ cottages (as they referred to them), were forced to relocate as plans for the new Wahiawā Branch Library were underway; the library opened on July 19, 1965.  (Lots of information here from Cultural Surveys.)

The image shows welcome sign to Wahiawā.  In addition, I have included other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Daniel Dole

Daniel Dole was born in Bloomfield (now Skowhegan,) Maine, September 9, 1808. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1836 and Bangor Theological Seminary in 1839, and then married Emily Hoyt Ballard (1807-1844,) October 2, 1840 in Gardiner, Maine.

Daniel and Emily Dole sailed from Boston aboard the Gloucester, with the Ninth Company of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and arrived in Honolulu May 21, 1841.

Dole was a teacher and first principal of Punahou School; when the school was incorporated as Oʻahu College, he was appointed its president.

The site of Punahou School was given to Reverend Hiram Bingham, by Governor Boki and his wife Liliha, in 1829; in August 1840, on his return to the continent, Bingham left it to the ABCFM.

An associate for many years writes of Dole, "Many pupils scattered over the world will learn of his death with unfeigned sorrow. He was a pure-minded, thoughtful, scholarly, devout Christian missionary, whom we truly loved and who enjoyed the esteem of all missionary associates and the respect of the public. He will be remembered not only as a teacher, but as an acceptable preacher. His sermons were thoughtfully and carefully prepared, and enforced by a pure and holy example as a minister of the gospel."

Founded in 1841, Punahou School was originally designed to provide a quality education for the children of Congregational missionaries, allowing them to stay in Hawai'i with their families, instead of being sent away to school.  (Punahou)

The education of their children was a concern of missionaries.  There were two major dilemmas, (1) there were a limited number of missionary children and (2) existing schools (which the missionaries taught) served adult Hawaiians (who were taught from a limited curriculum in the Hawaiian language.)

During the first 21-years of the missionary period (1820-1863,) no fewer than 33 children were either taken back to the continent by their parents.  (Seven-year-old Sophia Bingham, the first Caucasian girl born on Oʻahu, daughter of Hiram and Sybil, was sent to the continent in 1828.  She is my great-great-grandmother.)

On July 11, 1842, fifteen children met for the first time in Punahou’s original E-shaped building.  The first Board of Trustees (1841) included Rev. Daniel Dole, Rev. Richard Armstrong, Levi Chamberlain, Rev. John S Emerson and Gerrit P Judd.  (Hawaiian Gazette, June 17, 1916)

By the end of that first year, 34-children from Sandwich Islands and Oregon missions were enrolled, only one over 12-years old. Tuition was $12 per term, and the school year covered three terms.  (Punahou)

By 1851, Punahou officially opened its doors to all races and religions.  (Students from Oregon, California and Tahiti were welcomed from 1841 – 1849.)

December 15 of that year, Old School Hall, "the new spacious school house," opened officially to receive its first students.  The building is still there and in use by the school.

“The founding of Punahou as a school for missionary children not only provided means of instruction for the children, of the Mission, but also gave a trend to the education and history of the Islands. In 1841, at Punahou the Mission established this school and built for it simple halls of adobe. From this unpretentious beginning, the school has grown to its present prosperous condition.” (Report of the Superintendent of Public Education, 1900)

The curriculum at Punahou under Dole combined the elements of a classical education with a strong emphasis on manual labor in the school’s fields for the boys, and in domestic matters for the girls.  The school raised much of its own food.  (Burlin)

Some of Punahou’s early buildings include, Old School Hall (1852,) music studios; Bingham Hall (1882,) Bishop Hall of Science (1884,) Pauahi Hall (1894,) Charles R. Bishop Hall (1902,) recitation halls; Dole Hall and Rice Hall (1906,) dormitories; Cooke Library (1908) and Castle Hall (1913,) dormitory.

Dole Street, laid out in 1880 and part of the development of the lower Punahou pasture was named after Daniel Dole (other nearby streets were named after other Punahou presidents.)

Emily died on April 27, 1844 in Honolulu; Daniel Dole married Charlotte Close Knapp (1813-1874) June 22, 1846 in Honolulu, Oʻahu.

Daniel Dole resigned from Punahou in 1855 to become the pastor and teacher at Kōloa, Kauaʻi. There, he started the Dole School that later became Kōloa School, the first public school on Kaua‘i.  Like Punahou, it filled the need to educate mission children.

The first Kōloa school house was a single room, a clapboard building with bare timbers inside and a thatched roof.  Both missionary children as well as part-Hawaiian children attended the school.  (Joesting)

Due to growing demand, the school was enlarged and boarding students were admitted.  Reverend Elias Bond in Kohala sent his three oldest children to the Kōloa School, as did others from across the islands.  (Joesting)

Charlotte died on Kauaʻi in 1874 and Daniel Dole died August 26, 1878 in Kapaʻa, Kauaʻi.  Dole’s sons include Sanford Ballard Dole (President of the Republic of Hawaiʻi and 1st Territorial Governor of Hawaiʻi.)  Daniel Dole was great uncle to James Dole, the ‘Pineapple King.’

The image shows Daniel Dole in 1874.  In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Lānaʻi City Walking Tour

Lānaʻi City is the last intact plantation town in the State of Hawai‘i. This unique status is in part a result of its isolation, with Lānaʻi being physically detached from any other town or city in Hawai‘i.

A walk through Lānaʻi City is like a walk back through time.  A walking tour has been established in the City that helps recall the people, places and stories of this community.

The walk around the historical business center of Lānaʻi City and Dole Park is about one-half mile long, and depending on how many stops you make, might take you 15 minutes to an hour or more to complete (37-sites have been identified.)

After methodically buying up individual parcels, by 1907, Charles Gay, youngest son of Captain Thomas Gay and Jane Sinclair Gay, acquired the island of Lānaʻi (except for about 100-acres.)  He was the first to establish the single-ownership model for Lānaʻi (with roughly 89,000 acres.)

Around 1919, Gay experimented with planting pineapple on a small scale.  He eventually sold his interest and James Dole's Hawaiian Pineapple Company, Ltd. purchased the island and began the subsequent establishment of its pineapple plantation.

The story of Lānaʻi City begins when James Dole purchased nearly the entire island of Lānaʻi in November 1922, as a part of the holdings of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, Ltd.  Prior to 1922, the lands on which the city would be built had been grazed as part of the old Lānaʻi Ranch operations.

Plans for building Lānaʻi City were drawn up in early 1923, as Dole and his partners set out to make Lānaʻi the world’s largest pineapple plantation.

Coming from Connecticut, Dole was familiar with the design of the “town square” and grid system of laying out streets in such a way that everything was connected to the “green” or park in the middle of town.

Under Dole’s tenure, the Lānaʻi plantation and city grew, and at one time the island supported nearly 20,000-acres of cultivated pineapple, making it the world’s largest plantation. For seventy years, from 1922 to 1992 (when the last harvest took place,) the name “Lānaʻi” was synonymous with pineapple.

With the advent of the plantation and establishment of Lānaʻi City, the new Lānaʻi Post Office building (still called Keomoku Post Office at the time, for its original location on the shore), which also served as home to the plantation manager’s office, was opened by November 1924.

That original manager and post office building is now the site of the present day Dole Administration Building (fronted by the flagpole). Immediately below was the park, or town square, around which was laid out all of the stores and shops, the bank, theater, Dole’s “clubhouse”, the Buddhist Church and a children’s playground.

As you begin your walking tour of Lānaʻi City enjoy the following overview of the early history published in a Maui News article in 1926—written at the time that Lānaʻi City and the plantation operations were “debuted” to the world. The article shares with readers, the vision, hard work and investment that went into making Lānaʻi City a vibrant community that has nurtured some five generations of residents:

“…There is more, much more on the fertile island of Lanai than broad fields for a yield of Hawaii’s premier fruit and a machine for getting that fruit from the fields and started toward the great cannery in Honolulu. There is the foundation for a considerable group of productive workers given facilities for production as nearly perfect as business skill and foresight can provide. And with it they are given the things which transform a group of human individuals into a real community.”

“Before this investment of approximately $3,000,000 began to return a penny, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company provided its workers not only with accommodations for living, but with accommodations for enjoyment and recreation to a notable degree.”

“Schools, churches, a model playground, a fine baseball field, a swimming pool, tennis courts, an ample and well equipped auditorium, and moving picture theater are as much a part of Lanai City as the fine roads, and well appointed office, or the model machine shop; as much a part of the whole enterprise as the harbor that has been hewn out of the cliff walled beach…“  (Maui News – December 24, 1926)

Here is a list of key locations identified in the Walking Tour:
1. Old Dole Administration Building and the Lānaʻi Culture & Heritage Center
2. First Hawaiian Bank
3. The Lānaʻi Theater, Playhouse & Fitness Center
4. Mike Carroll’s Gallery
5. Island of Lānaʻi Properties & Lānaʻi Visitor’s Bureau
6. Canoes Lānaʻi Restaurant
7. Blue Ginger Restaurant
8. Coffee Works
9. Gifts with Aloha from Lānaʻi & The Local Gentry
10. Launderette Lānaʻi
11. Lānaʻi Art Center
12. Maui Community College / Lānaʻi Education Center
13. Lānaʻi Senior Center
14. Lānaʻi High & Elementary School
15. Lānaʻi Gym
16. Union Church
17. Sacred Hearts Church
18. Old Police Station, Court House & Jail
19. The Sweetest Days Ice Cream Shoppe
20. Pele’s Other Garden Restaurant
21. Sergio’s Filipino Store, Ganotisi’s Variety Store, and Nita’s in Style Beauty Salon
22. Pine Isle Market, Ltd.
23. International Store
24. Cafe 565
25. Lānaʻi Community Center & Dole Park
26. Dis-n-Dat
27. Richard’s Market
28. Bank of Hawaii
29. Lānaʻi Community Hospital
30. Hotel Lānaʻi
31. Lānaʻi Plantation Labor Yard/Machine Shop
32. Lānaʻi City Service & Lānaʻi Hardware
33. Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Jordanne Fine Art Studio & Lānaʻi Beach Walk
34. Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah’s Witnesses
35. Department of Land & Natural Resources
36. Assembly of God Church
37. Lānaʻi Baptist Church

Click here for a link to the various sites plotted in Google Maps (this is part of the prototype for a web-based map that will have all of the various posts noted in the location where they occurred.)

(Click on the numbered icons for images of the respective sites – the square icons show some historic photos.)

The image shows Lanai City in 1924.  Much of the information here is from ‘A Historical Guide to Lānaʻi City (Prepared for the Lānaʻi Culture & Heritage Center.)  The Walking Tour map and images of each site are noted in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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