Kamilo Beach

Kamilo Beach (milo tree; the twisting (of ocean currents) (Pukui)) on the Kaʻū coast of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi expectedly has a stand of milo trees.  But that is not the only wood here.

Two places here were called Ka-milo-pae-aliʻi (Ka-milo landing (of) chiefs) and Ka-milo-pae-kānaka (Ka-milo landing (of) commoners.)  Drowned commoners washed in at the latter, chiefs at the former.

Kaʻū people traveling to Puna cast lei tied with loincloths and pandanus clusters into the sea at Puna; when the lei drifted back to Ka-milo, the Kaʻū people knew that the travelers had reached Puna.  (Pukui)

Native Hawaiians, seeking wood for dugout canoes, used to go to Kamilo Beach on the southern coast of the Big Island to collect enormous logs that had drifted from the Pacific Northwest.  (LATimes)

True to its name, ocean currents, actually two currents - one coming up from South Point and the other coming down from Cape Kumukahi - combined with fierce onshore winds to make this rocky stretch of shoreline the final resting place for plenty of natural debris – it was known as a magnet for driftwood.

However “the strangest thing about Kamilo is that it’s covered with plastic trash — things that we use every day. I find shoes, combs, laundry baskets, Styrofoam, toothbrushes and countless water bottles.

"There are even toys like LEGO blocks and a little green army man. Beneath the recognizable things are millions of tiny, colorful plastic pieces — the fragments of broken-down larger objects. They look like confetti.”  (Marinez, ScienceNews)

This plastic sand is coming from all around the Pacific rim, swirling into a vortex which eventually brings it to these shores. This is the place where Hawaiians came to find bodies of people who were lost at sea. Nowadays, this beach is where we come to find what our throw-away society has done to the environment.  (HawaiiNewsNow)

Algalita Research Foundation founder Charles Moore estimates that more than 90% of the trash on Hawai‘i beaches is not generated in the Islands. Kamilo Beach on the Big Island, gets the worst of the debris influx, with trash over a foot deep in some areas. (HonoluluMagazine)

“Our exploration brought us no answers but inspired more questions and speculations.  We confirmed that some debris on Kamilo Beach has travelled in the Pacific subtropical gyre from far away East Asia and from the North American West Coast.”    (Maximenko, IPRC)

“The current meters tell us that the waves and the tides provide the energy, pushing the debris to shore like a broom. The rather long shore break may contribute to debris accumulation. But, we still need to understand the interaction between large-scale currents collecting debris from the entire North Pacific and the coastal dynamics that move the debris over the reef.”  (Maximenko, IPRC)

Finds range from everyday items like shampoo bottles, combs and toothbrushes; fishing industry items like buoys, hagfish eel traps and glowsticks; mariculture leftovers like oyster spaces; children’s items like army toys; and a remarkable number of unidentifiable bits and pieces, broken fragments and resin pellets (aka “nurdles.”)

Some of the more interesting debris items include a full-size refrigerator with Japanese kanji, a military box with Soviet Union tags, and a select few glass floats made in Norway, Korea or Japan.  (NPS)

Some debris is generated in Hawaiʻi.  But much of the debris comes to Kamilo from much farther away. One piece of plastic had Japanese writing. Ropes were sprinkled with a species of barnacle found commonly in the Pacific Northwest.  (CivilBeat)

Volunteers regularly pickup and dispose of the trash.  Of the over 130-tons taken out, glass gets recycled, plastic garbage ends up in the landfill and old fishing nets are barged to Oʻahu, where they're burned in H-POWER to provide some of Honolulu's electricity. For every truckload of garbage that comes out, more comes in from the ocean. (Gilmartin, Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund (HWF))

HWF co-founder Bill Gilmartin and colleagues estimate that approximately 15 – 20 tons of debris wash ashore here annually. About every other month, HWF coordinates a community-based cleanup effort at the “dirtiest” section of this coastline.

On average, they bag and remove about 3,600 lbs. of marine debris in a single day’s effort. By weight, about 62% of the total debris removed has been derelict fishing net bundles.  (NPS)

The debris from the North Pacific Garbage Patch occasionally escapes and the model shows it floats towards the Hawaiian Islands, making windward shores of the islands trashcans for marine debris.

Kamilo Beach near South Point on the Big Island is arguably the most famous beach for the enormous amount of marine debris sweeping up on it. A BBC video labeled it as “The Dirtiest Beach in the World.” (iprc)

Lessons can be learned from HWF’s experience, and have been. Volunteers now see the relationship between beach litter and our own daily reliance on single-use, throw-away plastics.

Imagine if we each made a commitment to reduce the amount of single-use plastics we personally consume and dispose of on a daily basis; this would make a difference to the marine ecosystem.  (NPS)

Here’s a link to the Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund (please support them … you can volunteer, make a donation, etc.)

http://www.wildhawaii.org

The image shows the marine debris at Kamilo Beach.  In addition I have added other images related to the property in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10202787499151885.1073742351.1332665638&type=1&l=90c8d9b789

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Seasons, Months … Times of Year

In Hawaiʻi’s prior subsistence society, the family farming scale was far different from today's commercial-purpose agriculture.  In ancient time, when families farmed for themselves they observed and adapted; products were produced based on need and season.

Hawaiians divided the year into two seasons – Kau (Summer – when it was dry and hot; beginning in May when Makaliʻi (Pleiades) set at sunrise;) and Hoʻoilo (Winter season when it was rainy and chilly; beginning in October.)

The Makahiki celebrated the harvest and Lono, god of fertility and rain. It is similar in timing and purpose to Thanksgiving, Oktoberfest and other harvest celebrations (beginning in late-October or early-November when Makaliʻi is first observed rising above the horizon at sunset, the Makahiki period continued for four months.)

Various areas around the islands had different names for the specific months (some of the same names applied, but they were not always attributed to the same months.)  The succession of months begins with ʻIkuwa, the end of summer (Kau) and the beginning of Makahiki (harvest festival.)

As an example, the names of the months in the district of Kāʻu on the Island of Hawaiʻi in their order illustrate the family’s seasonal activities:

ʻIkuwa (October-November)—“Loud voice”: This is the time of thunder in the uplands, wind in the lowlands, and crashing surf along shore.

The season of storm and rain was termed Hoʻoilo, including roughly the period of November through March. It commenced with ʻIkuwa, when Lono's thunder resounds over uplands and plain.

November is a noisy month with variable strong winds; and with the wind comes the roaring and pounding surf on Kāʻu's lava-walled shores and small steep beaches.

Welehu (November-December)—The “ashes” (lehu) of fires for cooking and warmth, as the wind swirls about the eating and work areas.

About this time, and continuing through the rainy months until March, there was and is little deep-sea fishing, and inshore fishing depended on those occasions when the sea was not too rough.

Equally, upland work, such as cutting timber, stripping bark for cloth and for fiber, collecting wild foods and hunting birds, was gradually abandoned because of the rains.

It was a time of being inside the respective homesteads: a time for work that could be done under a roof and out of the wind.

Makaliʻi (December-January)—The “little eyes” (makaliʻi) or shoots of yams, arrowroot, turmeric, looking like points or eyes (maka) are showing.

Kaʻelo (January-February)—The (ka) drenching (elo) time, as the rainy season and southerly winds culminate and subside, as northerly winds push in. This is the month when migrating birds are fat and greasy (eloelo).

Kaulua (February-March)—“Two together” (ka (the) lua (double)), i.e., partly cold and partly warm: alternating cool and warm spells. Kaulua also means “of two minds,” “indecisive”: the weather is “undecided,” so people are uncertain whether to go mauka or makai, go out or stay in.

With the ground well-soaked, and with the ending of the heavy rains that wash out the tilled soil on slopes, every household turns in February and March to the planting of their taro, sweet potato, gourds (in the lowlands,) paper mulberry and olona  for fiber (on the upper slopes,) yams and arrowroot (in the upland.)

Nana (March-April)—The word means “animation.” Life in plants shows vigor, young mother birds (kinana) are on the move, fledglings (pupua) are trying to get out of nests.

Welo (April-May)—“Vining out” (like a tail, welo): The sweet potatoes, yams, morning glory and other vines are spreading with little shoots, like tails.

During April, gardens are tended; by May plants both domesticated and wild are growing vigorously, and in May quick-growing varieties of sweet potatoes can be eaten, and wild yams and arrowroot are coming to maturity and can also be eaten. They come into their prime in late-May and June.

Ikiʻiki (May-June)—“Warm and sticky,” uncomfortable: Now there is little wind and it is humid.

This moves into the early hot season (Kau.)  This is the time when women are working at making bark cloth (kapa) at home. Men are actively hunting in the forest, fishing at sea, busy with their nets, canoes and gear at the hālau (shed) by the sea.

By June, wild foods are abundant in the forest, potatoes plentiful. Inland women-folk migrate to the shore, and there live in caves and shelters.

With their fishing baskets (hinaʻi), salt and fish baskets, mats and utensils, they catch small fish like manini spawn, collect and store salt that has dried in the pools in black lava depressions by the shore.

Kaʻaona (June-July)—“Pleasantly (ona) rolling along (kaʻa).” The serenely moving puffy clouds (kaʻalewalewa) roll along mountain and horizon. Ona means lure in fishing: figuratively, then, attractive, alluring.

Summer is the time for deep-sea fishing in particular. (In the old days, inshore fishing was restricted during spawning season, from February to late May.)

Hina-ia-ʻeleʻele (July-August)—“Dark (ʻeleʻele) clouds inclining (hina-ia) mountainwards.”

In July, gourds (and, after introduction, melons) ripen on the kula kai. It is increasingly hot and dry. Upland farmers have mulched their taro and potato patches with dried grass and fern.

August is hot, but some dark clouds appear and bring showers; as they fall, the mulch is turned back from plants, then replaced when the rain has soaked in. At the shore in caves, and at home, salt and dried fish and octopus are stored in quantity.

Then come the twin months, September-October, Mahoe-mua (Twin-before) and Mahoe-hope (Twin-behind, or after), with increasing showers and rough seas alternating with fine weather. The wild ground growths in the uplands are dying down; it is time to harvest potatoes before the heavy rains come.

Mahoe-mua (August-September)—“The twin before (first twin).”
Mahoe-hope (September-October)—“The twin behind (second twin).”
These two months, in weather, are as alike as twins. Rains and wind alternate with good weather.

It is time to be industrious at deep-sea fishing on good days, before the winter storms commence. Great pieces of the larger firm-fleshed fishes (bonito, tuna, albacore, swordfish, dolphin) are sun-dried to preserve them till eaten. Sweet potatoes are likewise preserved by cooking and sunning.  (Information here is from Handy, Handy & Pukui.)

This is the cycle – to be repeated, year after year.  The image shows the district of Kāʻu on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+  

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Waialua Female Seminary

Education in the US at the beginning of the 19th-century was primarily triggered by the need to train the people to help grow the relatively new nation.

Back then, it was believed that women should be educated to understand domestic economy, because they were to play the major role in educating the young, primarily in their homes, and later (as the school population grew and there was a shortage of teachers) as school teachers.  (Beyer)

Although schools for upper-class women were in existence prior to the 19th-century, the female seminary for middle-class women became the prevailing type of institution from 1820 until after the Civil War. The most prominent female seminaries were Troy Seminary (1821,) Hartford Seminary (1823,) Ipswich Seminary (1828,) Mount Holyoke Seminary (1837) and Oxford Seminary (1839.)

The seminary's primary task was professional preparation: the male seminary prepared men for the ministry; the female seminary took as its earnest job the training of women for teaching and motherhood.  (Horowitz, Beyer)

The founders of the female seminaries were at first men who were committed to providing education for women, but as time went by, more of the founders were women. The financial backing for these seminaries was typically from private sources and the tuition charged the students. Their enrollment varied between 50 to 100-students; they preferred girls between the ages of 12 and 16.  (Beyer)

Western-style education did not begin in Hawai'i until after members of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) arrived in 1820.

Because the primary educators responsible for developing the education system of Hawai'i were Americans, the educational practices for Hawaiian girls tended to mirror, but not necessarily duplicate, what was taking place on the continent.  (Beyer)

In 1835, at the general meeting of the Mission, a resolution was passed to promote boarding schools for Hawaiians; several male boarding schools and two female boarding schools were begun (Wailuku Female Seminary on the island of Maui and the Hilo School for Girls on the island of Hawai'i.)  Before the 1850s, both of these schools had closed.

Wailuku Female Seminary (or the Central Female Seminary, as it was first called) was the first female school begun by the missionaries. It received support at a time when the missionaries were experimenting with both boarding schools and a manual labor system.

The first female seminary to be established on the island of Hawaiʻi was the Kaʻū Seminary. In 1862, Orramel Hinckley Gulick and his wife, Ann Eliza Clark Gulick (a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary,) began the school. Both were the children of missionaries (Peter Johnson Gulick and Fanny Hinckley Thomas Gulick; Ephraim Weston Clark and Mary Kittredge Clark.)

Due to the isolated location of the seminary, it was difficult to attract many students to the school. As a consequence, tuition and board were free, as long as the girls were placed under the parental care of the teachers of the school until the girls were married or obtained employment.

In 1865, after struggling to fill the school, it was decided to move the school to Waialua, Oʻahu, on the Anahulu Stream.  It opened there on August 7 with 50-students, ranging in age from 11 to 15.  As with other schools at the time, the students were instructed in the Hawaiian language.

The girls are selected by the pastors, from among the most promising girls of the parishes; and every major district in the islands had one or more representatives in the school. It was hoped that this institution would raise up a class of educated women, who might make teachers, and suitable partners for native Hawaiian ministers and missionaries.  (The Missionary Herald)

The large two-story building, surrounded by a veranda, housed the girls, their four teachers, one temporary assistant and two children of the teachers. A second large building was the school-house, the lower floor of which was a spacious school-room, while the upper story was divided into recitation rooms. (The Missionary Herald)

The girls at Waialua Female Seminary came from families where the traditional Hawaiian culture was still practiced. However, at school the girls were dressed in calico, as opposed to their usual holoku; they slept in beds, rather than on mats on the floor; and they ate at a table with silverware, instead of on the floor using their fingers.

The schedule for the day began with breakfast, followed by each girl reading from the Hawaiian Bible; after the principal offered a prayer in Hawaiian, they were dismissed to begin the routine work, which included all the work necessary to maintain the school (except for carting and carrying firewood and baking and pounding the taro for poi.)

The older girls put the food away, washed the dishes and swept the floor. The younger girls did various tasks, which included sweeping and dusting the parlor, the sitting-room or the schoolroom, gathering up the litter of leaves and branches from the yard and garden paths, or putting the teachers' rooms in order. Some of the girls were involved with preparing the meals; all the girls washed and ironed clothes once a week.

The academic work took place between 9 am and noon and 1 pm and 4 pm.  The curriculum included geography, arithmetic, surveying, astronomy, singing, Bible history and the Bible in general. Manual training consisted of instruction in cutting and sewing dresses, in washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning house and painting; an hour and a half was spent on gardening and farming.

The school kept the girls until they graduated (40 percent of the enrollment,) married (34 percent of the enrollment,) were employed (4 percent of the enrollment,) left for health reasons (6 percent of the enrollment) or were dismissed for not applying themselves or for bad behavior (16 percent of the enrollment.)

In December of 1870, the school closed when the Mission sent the Gulicks to evangelize in Japan.  Waialua Female Seminary reopened on April 3, 1871, under the direction of Miss Mary E Green (another missionary descendent and graduate of Punahou and Mount Holyoke Seminary.)

Miss Green ran the school until 1882, when she became ill and could no longer run the school. The property was sold and the money was given to the trustees of Kawaiahaʻo Seminary in Honolulu to make further improvements there.  (Lots of information here from Beyer and Missionary Herald.)

The school was called ‘Hale Iwa’ by the girls (the first use of the name for this area.)  Later, that name came back to this area when OR&L opened the Haleiwa Hotel (1899;) when the hotel closed (1943,) the name of the area remained as Haleiwa, and it continues to be called that today.

The image shows Waialua Female Seminary (1865.)  In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Kalalea Heiau

Ka Lae is the site of one of the earliest Hawaiian settlements, and it has one of the longest archaeological records on the islands (included in the complex is the earliest recorded occupation site (124 AD.)  (NPS)  Ka Lae (Lit., the point, commonly called South Point) on the Island of Hawaiʻi is the southernmost point in the fifty states.

Kaʻū is poetically known as “Kaʻū kua makani” (Kaʻū with windy back.) (Soehren)  An offshore stone at South Point is called Pokakuokeau (stone of the current) referring to the meeting of the different ocean currents that come together here.  (k12-hi-us)

Nā kai haele lua o Kalae, ʻO Kāwili lāua ʻo Halaʻea
The two sea currents of Kalae - Kāwili and Halaʻea

The Halaʻea current (named after a chief,) comes from the east to Kalae and sweeps out to sea. The Kāwili (Hit-and-twist) comes from the west and flows out alongside the Halaʻea. Woe betide anyone caught between.  (Keala Pono)

Here at the point is a heiau, Kalalea Heiau, located in the ahupuaʻa of Kamāʻoa.  In 1906, Stokes, in describing the heiau, said, “This heiau was … 43 by 35 ft., with platforms outside … adjoining its western wall ….”  The heiau complex has a small terraced platform paved with ʻiliʻili (small, smooth pebbles.) When Stokes visited the heiau, an informant told him that the heiau was Kamehameha’s and was very sacred.

Ten years later another informant told Stokes the following:
“(This is the) history of the heiau of Kalalea at Kalae, and of Kūʻula, Wahinehele and ʻAiʻai. Kūʻula (a male) married Wahine (a female) and they had a son ʻAiʻai. They left Kahiki and came to these islands, settling on Kauaʻi. ʻAiʻai left his parents on Kauaʻi and went on a sightseeing tour to the islands of Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Maui and Hawaii.”

“When he reached Kalae, he looked around and saw that it was a fine country, and a nice place to live in and well supplied with fish. He returned to Kauai and brought his parents back with him, and they all lived at Kalae.  While his parents were living at Kalae, ʻAiʻai set out for Kahiki and brought back many people, -- kilokilo (seers,) kuhikuhipuuone (architects who made plans in the sand) and ai puʻupuʻu (stewards).”

“He also brought back many different kinds of food, such as breadfruit, bananas, awa, cocoanuts, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, kalo, papaya, hapuʻu and pala (both edible ferns) and other foods in great quantity.”

“And when ʻAiʻai saw that the food and the men were ready, he gave commands to all the Menehune and the erection of the heiau went on until the walls were completed. It was named Kalalea, which name still stands today.”  Today, people reference Kalalea as a fishing heiau. There were stones that represent the fishing gods Kūʻula and ʻAiʻai.

On the main platform is a stone called Kumaiea (female), but also attributed to Kāne, and on the smaller platform just mauka is another upright stone called kanemakua (male), associated with the god Kanaloa. Standing twelve feet to the north of the heiau are two more stones, the northerly one called ʻAiʻai, the son or Kūʻula.  Within the heiau, beside the mauka wall, is a rock called Kūʻula, the god of fishermen.  (k12-hi-us)

In 1953 Emory obtained the following information from Mary Kawena Pukui: “One must not wear red on the beaches at Kalae where Kalalea Heiau is located. Women never went inside the heiau. The kūʻula of this heiau is a shark. It is a heiau hoʻoulu (to increase) opelu (mackerel), malolo (flying fish), and ahi (tuna).”

Directly seaward of Kalalea Heiau is a rough ledge of lava, with low cliffs dropping into the ocean.  About eighty holes (like cleats) are carved into the lava to moor canoes (either for positioning over fishing grounds or to tie-up to shore.)  (Kirch)  While many have suggested the heiau is fishing related, it appears to also have links to navigation.

Immediately behind the heiau is a modern navigational beacon.  First proposed in 1883, a lens-lantern supported by a 34-foot wooden mast was ready for display on March 5, 1906.  Its light, visible for nine miles, was produced by incandescent oil vapor.

After several modifications and improvements, the present 32-foot concrete pole was built in 1972. The automated, battery powered light is charged by solar panels.

In at least the 1940s and early-1950s, the military had a landing facility, Morse Field, in this area.  There was limited infrastructure; the planes landed/took off on the grassy runway.

At a recent lecture at Mission Houses, I heard another series of stories related to Kalalea Heiau, told by John Laimana (a descendent of the area, whose family has direct association with the heiau;) while similar to much of the other explanations, he expands upon the navigational aspects of the heiau to Kahiki (Tahiti) and Rapanui (Easter Island.)

John says the heiau is actually the smaller of the structures there, makai of the larger, stonewalled rectangle (the larger he says is a fishers’ shelter.)  More importantly, he notes that the heiau structure aligns east and west – and one wall aligns with magnetic north.

Equally more important, he looks beyond the heiau structure and also looks at the larger surrounding perimeter wall structure.  Careful review of that shows the two walls are in precise, straight alignment.

OK, here’s another overlooked feature … extending the alignment of the walls, thousands of miles across the ocean lead you to Maupiti (in French Polynesia, near Tahiti) and Rapanui (Easter Island, Chile.)

In Hawaiian, Panana means compass, especially a mariner’s compass.  Panana are also referred to “sighting walls.”  The alignment of the walls (within the heiau and the perimeter walls,) may have been used for navigational purposes.

Oh, one more thing … Kaʻū is an ancient name with similar derivations in Samoa (Taʻū) and Mortlock (Marqueen) Islands (Takuu; an atoll at Papua New Guinea.)  (Pukui)  (This heiau may have links across the extent of the South Pacific.)

The image shows Kalalea Heiau (k12-hi-us.)  In addition, I have included other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+  

© 2013 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Whose Footprints Are These?

Geologic evidence suggests that the modern caldera of Kīlauea formed shortly before 1500 AD. Repeated small collapses may have affected parts of the caldera floor, possibly as late as 1790. For over 300-400 years, the caldera was below the water table.

Kilauea is an explosive volcano; several phreatic eruptions have occurred in the past 1,200 years.  (Phreatic eruptions, also called phreatic explosions, occur when magma heats ground or surface water.)  The extreme temperature of the magma (from 932 to 2,138 °F) causes near-instantaneous evaporation to steam, resulting in an explosion of steam, water, ash and rock – the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was a phreatic eruption.

The 1924 eruption at Halemaʻumaʻu documents and illustrates the explosive nature of Kilauea.  However, the 1924 explosions were small by geologic standards and by the standards of some past Kilauea explosions. The hazards of larger explosions, such as those that took place multiple times between about AD 1500 and 1790, are far worse than those associated with the 1924 series.  (USGS)

There were explosions in 1790, the most lethal known eruption of any volcano in the present United States. The 1790 explosions, however, simply culminated (or at least occurred near the end of) a 300-year period of frequent explosions, some quite powerful.  (USGS)

Keonehelelei is the name given by Hawaiians to the explosive eruption of Kilauea in 1790.  It is probably so named “the falling sands” because the eruption involved an explosion of hot gas, ash and sand that rained down across the Kaʻu Desert.  The character of the eruption was likely distinct enough to warrant a special name.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

The 1790 explosion led to the death of one-third of the warrior party of Kaʻū Chief Keōuakūʻahuʻula (Keōua.)  At the time Keōua was the only remaining rival of Kamehameha the Great for control of the Island of Hawaiʻi; Keōua ruled half of Hāmākua and all of Puna and Kaʻū Districts.  They were passing through the Kilauea area at the time of the eruption.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

Camped in Hilo, Keōua learned of an invasion of his home district of Kaʻū by warriors of Kamehameha. To reach Kaʻū from Hilo, Keōua had a choice of two routes one was the usually traveled coastal route, at sea level, but it was longer, hot, shadeless and without potable water for long distances.  (NPS)

The other route was shorter, but passed over the summit and through the lee of Kilauea volcano, an area sacred to, and the home of, the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele. Keōua chose the volcano route, perhaps because it was shorter and quicker, with water available frequently.  (NPS)

In 1919, Ruy Finch, a geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory discovered human footprints fossilized in the Kaʻū desert ash. Soon, this area of the desert became known as "Footprints."

Barefoot walkers left thousands of footprints in wet volcanic ash within a few miles southwest of Kīlauea’s summit.

Many historians and Hawaiians believe the footprints were made by Keōua and his warriors.  Keōua was known to be in the area at the time, and previous thought suggested this part of the desert did not have pre-contact use, so it was narrowed down to them.

Scientists later investigated – one approach was to look deeper at the evidence.

Forensic studies indicate that the length of a human foot is about 15% of an individual's height. A man's foot may be slightly more that 15%, a woman's slightly less, but it is possible to estimate the height to a couple of inches.  (USGS)

They measured 405-footprints to determine how tall the walkers were.  The average calculated height is only 4-feet 11-inches, and few footprints were made by people 5-feet 9-inches or more tall. Early Europeans described Hawaiian warriors as tall; one missionary estimated an average height of 5-feet 10-inches. Many now believe that most of the footprints were made by women and children, not by men, much less warriors.  (USGS)

Meanwhile, Keōua’s party was camped on the upwind side of Kīlauea’s summit - perhaps on Steaming Flat - waiting for Pele's anger to subside. They saw the sky clear after the ash eruption and began walking southwestward between today's Volcano Observatory and Nāmakanipaio.  (USGS)

Suddenly, the most powerful part of the eruption began, developing a high column and sending surges at hurricane velocities across the path of the doomed group. Later, survivors and rescuers made no footprints in the once wet ash, which had dried.  (USGS)

Then, archaeologists looked for other evidence to help identify who the footprints may have belonged to.  Contrary to general thought that the area was not used by the Hawaiians, archaeological investigations discovered structures, trails and historic artifacts in the area.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

Most of the features were along the edge of the Keʻāmoku lava flow.  Several of the trails converge south of the flow, suggesting a major transportation network.  The structures are likely temporary, used as people were traversing through the desert on their way to/from Kaʻū and Hilo.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

The sheer number of temporary shelters along the Keʻāmoku flow, as well as the trail systems and quarry sites, strongly suggest that this area was frequently used by Hawaiians travelling to and through the area - before and after the 1790 eruption.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

If the footprints aren’t Keōua’s warriors, then how did one-third of his warriors die?

Several suggestions have been made: suffocation due to ash; lava, stones, ash and other volcanic material; or strong winds produced by the eruption, asphyxiation and burning killed them.  (Moniz-Nakamura)

A more recent suggestion is that a “hot base surge, composed primarily of superheated steam … (traveling at) hurricane velocity” was the cause of death.  The wind velocity prevented the people from running away; they probably huddled together, then “hot gases seared their lungs.”  (Moniz-Nakamura)

Some now suggest that, if these observations and ideas are correct, the footprints were made in 1790, but not by members of Keōua’s group.  (USGS)

A reconstruction of events suggests that wet ash, containing small pellets, fell early in the eruption, blown southwestward into areas where family groups, mainly women and children, were chipping glass from old pāhoehoe. They probably sought shelter while the ash was falling. Once the air cleared, they slogged across the muddy ash, leaving footprints in the 1-inch thick deposit.  (USGS)

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 Kilauea and Mauna Loa on Hawaiʻi and Haleakalā on Maui.

Eventually, Kilauea Caldera was added to the park, followed by the forests of Mauna Loa, the Kaʻū Desert, the rain forest of Olaʻa and the Kalapana archaeological area of the Puna/Kaʻū Historic District.  (In 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.)

(Lots of good information here is from USGS, NPS and Jade Moniz-Nakamura)  The image shows the 1924 eruption column rising from Halemaʻumaʻu near the end of the explosion, taken from outside Volcano House (Tai Sing Loo, USGS.)  I added a couple of other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+  

© 2013 Hoʻokuleana LLC