A Hilo “Luau” on the Island of Hawaii

A luau is a Hawaiian feast or party usually featuring food such as poi, kalua pig, poke, lomi salmon, opihi and haupia, along with beer (and rum drinks); and often entertainment, like Hawaiian music and hula.

On July 4^th we had some friends over to watch the fireworks over Hilo Bay and decided to turn it into a mini-luau.  For something special, my wife Devany and I wanted to prepare a Cuban style roasted pig, something similar to kalua pig which we have had at several Hawaiian celebrations here.

The word kalua literally means "to cook in an underground oven" and also describes the flavor of food cooked in this manner, i.e., “kalua pig.”  Kalua is an ancient Hawaiian cooking method that uses an imu, or underground oven.

At a traditional luau, a fire using kiawe wood (a species of mesquite tree) is built in a sand or dirt pit (the imu).  It is about six feet long, four feet wide and three feet deep. Rocks are placed in the imu to retain cooking heat after the flames have burned down.  Once the rocks have become extremely hot, the hole is lined with vegetation such as banana leaves.

Imu Ready for Firing

The meat to be cooked (in this case a suckling pig) is salted, rubbed with herbs, stuffed with more hot rocks, and covered with ti and banana leaves.  To maintain even heating and to retain the meat's natural moisture, it is covered first with wet burlap, then with a layer of sand or soil.  The meat is then left to cook in the pit for six to seven hours.

Since we did not particularly feel like digging up our yard, we did perhaps the next best thing which was to use a pig roasting box purchased from “La Caja China”.  The La Caja China is a box designed to accommodate the roasting of a marinated whole pig, butterfly cut.  The pig is placed inside the box, and charcoal is placed on top of the lid to roast the meat inside.  After about five hours the pig is well roasted and tastes amazing.

                                    

We were able to buy the big from a local abattoir in Hilo not far from our house.  It probably weighed about 60 pounds (80 pounds live weight) and barely fit in the La Caja China.

Devany had marinated the pig in a solution of sour orange and garlic with spices for 24 hours before the day of its cooking.  She also injected the pig with more of the marinade just before the coals were started.  Her recipe for the (marinade) is as follows:

2 gallons of orange juice

1 quart of lime juice

1 cup of dried chopped oregano

¼ cup garlic salt

3 cups of chopped garlic

½ cup of cracked black pepper

At the "Luau"

                                 

The results were well enjoyed by all, and while not quite a real luau, it certainly was a great feast.  I’ll discuss some of the other gastric elements to a traditional luau in subsequent postings.

Golfing on the Island of Hawaii (the Big Island)

Golf is a great game, in fact I have been playing it since I was twelve years old, but on some days it can be less than exhilarating – like when you shoot your weight rather than your age (Bob Hope's quote).  But for those who love the game like I do, there are few places better to live or visit than the Big Island.

Fairmont Orchid Golf

We live on the windward/East side of Hawaii Island in Hilo. While the best golf resorts are on the island’s other side (see my earlier entry All Around the Island),  the nearby Hilo Municipal public course is quite challenging with its multiple elevated greens and lava creeks that come into play on about twelve holes (slope: 121).  The course is well maintained and playing pressure is about average.  And unbelievably, if you are a resident over 60 years of age the monthly green fees are only $24 for unlimited play.

Courses on West Side of BI (Google)

Within 45 minutes of our house are two other public courses, one in Volcano and the other in Waimea, plus a nine hole course in downtown Hilo near the oceanside.  Volcano Country Club is beautiful and located at about 4,200 feet you can get some really nice drives (slope: 124).  Waimea Country Club is challenging for the beginner given its gorse-like roughs that make finding errant balls almost impossible, but a lovely course (slope: 132 ).

Four Seasons Golf

Most of the serious golf action is located on the drier west side nearer Kona/Kiluea and the luxury golf resorts around Waikoloa Bay.  The only three that I have been lucky enough to play have been the Hapuna Golf Club, Big Island Country Club and the Waikoloa Village Golf Club.  All were magnificent.

The Big Island course was designed by Pete and Perry Dye and features an island green (slope: 136).  Unfortunately, as I recall, no one in my foursome avoided the water.

Big Island Country Club

The other eight courses that I hope to play one day (listed from Kona northward):

+  Kona Country Club – Mountain and Ocean Courses

+  Makalei Golf Club

+  Hualalai Golf Club (near Hawaii’s only five-star resort, the Four Seasons) – designed by Jack Nicklaus

+  Waikoloa Beach Resort – Beach Course (Robert Trent Jones designed) and Kings’ Course (Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish Scottish links-style )

+  Mauna Lani Resort – North and South Courses (the favorite of Hilo’s golf guru George at Golf Treasures) 

+  Mauna Kea Golf Course

George at Hilo Golf Treasures

Numerous golf course vacation packages are available.  And for more information on these and other golf courses on the Big Island, check out the following link: Big Island Golf.  And, most important, if you are in town and need someone to play, let me know!  All of the above courses are closer than two hours from our Hilo home.

Sugar Cane in Hawaii

By the mid 1800s, the Hawaiian kingdom’s economy was not very bright.  Sandalwood, (wesisland.blogspot.com) an important trade item, was almost gone from the forests of Hawaii.  And whalers who wintered in Hawaii and restocked their boats were fewer in number; partially because the need for whale oil had diminished as petroleum became a source of fuel for lamps.

RagTime

The Great Mahele of 1848 allowed for the private ownership of land for Hawaiians and foreigners for the first time. Many American and European businessmen quickly gained control of large tracts of land that led to the development of agriculture and especially the sugar industry in Hawaii.

Sugar was brought to the islands by the early Polynesians who chewed on the plant as a source of energy and food.  In 1778, when Captain Cook happened upon the Hawaii islands, the lands were already abundant with sugar cane.  The first serious sugar plantation was at Koloa, Kauai in 1835 by Ladd and Co.

In September 1835, Ladd & Co., began the first major Hawaiian sugar plantation. Hooper, Brinsdale, and Ladd managed to do something that no one else had previously done in Hawaii. With the help of missionary settlers, they obtained the first major land lease in Hawaiian history.  The lease comprised 980 acres in Koloa, Kauai, which was set aside for sugar cane production. The lease ran 50 years at $300 per year.

Sugar Mill

The missionaries were bent on making farmers of the Hawaiian natives so Ladd & Co. fell nicely into those plans. By employing Hawaiian natives, they would be teaching them the skills missionaries felt were so necessary.  However, perhaps not so surprisingly, native Hawaiians were far from eager to work the fields and the native population had been reduced to 70,000 people by the 1850s, diminished greatly by disease. Ladd history

Sugar meant plantations and mills and the need for workers. Plantation owners turned to workers in devastated areas of the world that were ravaged by wars and famine initially in China, and then Japan, the Philippines and Portugal which explains the rich, varied racial make-up of present-day Hawaii.  http://www.hvcb.org/media/bigisland/

Sugar Cane Production

The Big Island's lava soil and regular rainfall offer ideal conditions for growing sugar cane.  Ah Kina, a Chinese planter, began raising cane at Amauulu above the town of Hilo in 1851.

Among the biggest producers of sugar cane was the Pepeekeo Sugar Company not far from where we now live along the Hamakua Coast. When it was established in 1857, it was named Metcalf Plantation after the owner Theopilus Metcalf.  When Metcalf died in 1874, the new owners of the plantation changed its name to the Pepeekeo Sugar Company.  http://www.hawaiistateinfo.com/pepeekeo.php

In the early 1960’s Hawaii produced a million tons of sugar cane annually.  One of every twelve workers participated in the sugar industry.  And these workers were among the highest paid in the world.

Ocean Vodka

Ultimately cheaper sugar from the Caribbean and other locales doomed Hawaii’s sugar cane industry.  The last plant closed on the Big Island in 1996.  However, the islands still possesses a rich agriculture industry, with large amounts of papaya, vegetables, coffee beans, flowers, and macadamia nuts still being grown and produced.  Hawaii Island is also known as the Orchid Isle due to its large production of tropical orchids. http://pinanius.org/tag/island-of-hawaii

Five Volcanoes !

All Hawaiians know the Big Island was created by the commingling lava flows from five immense volcanoes, but most visitors know only two – i.e., Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.  And, somewhat uniquely, the volcanoes of Hawaii are not where plates meet, but actually thousands of miles from the nearest plate boundary in what is known as a “hot-spot” in the Pacific Plate.  Also, Hawaii’s volcanoes are not the type like Mt. St. Helens or Mt. Etna that can have explosive eruptions; they simply release flows of relatively fluid lava.

http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/

Currently there are two volcanoes on the Big Island classified as active:

1.   Kilauea, actively erupting for almost the past 30 years is the world’s most active volcano.  It has been spewing lava continuously since January 1983.   Kilauea nestles into the side of Mauna Loa and was once considered a part of Mauna Loa, but subsequent research showed that it has its own “magma-plumbing system.”  http://hawaii.aloha-hawaii.com/hawaii/big+island+volcanoes/

Located in Volcanoes National Park near the caldera of Kilauea is the “fire pit,” which is known as Halemaumau (“House of Everlasting Fire”).  Halemaumau at times has a contained lake of boiling lava. The pit is enlarged periodically by steam blasts and collapsing walls. Typical eruptions consist of lava flows forming lava lakes in Halemaumau or elsewhere on the caldera through fissures and rift zones.  Volcanoes National Park is actually Hawaii’s most visited tourist attraction, with nearly 9,000 daily visitors coming to the park. http://www.hawaiilogue.com/active-volcanoes-in-hawaii.html

Pele, the Hawaiian Volcano Goddess, is said to live within the Halemaumau firepit.

2.   Mauna Loa (“Long Mountain”), which last erupted in 1984 is the world’s largest volcano. It is also considered one of the most active volcanoes, having erupted 33 times since 1843.

Both of these active Hawaiian volcanoes share the Hawaiian hot spot, but retain unique volcanic histories and compositions.

And three volcanoes on Hawaii are generally classified as dormant:

1.   Kohala, the oldest, which is believed to have emerged from the sea more than 500,000 years ago.

2.   Hualalai, with six different vents that spewed lava, two of which produced lava flows that reached the ocean. The Kona International Airport is build atop the larger of the two flows. It last erupted in 1801, but some still consider it still “active,” which would be a major problem for the population center around Kona-Kohala.

3.   Mauna Kea (“White Mountain”), reaching 13,796 feet above sea level is the world’s tallest mountain (measured from the floor of the ocean to its summit) which last erupted about 4,000 years ago.  It is often snow covered in winter.  It is also the site of 13 astronomical observatories and is expected to be home to what will be the world’s largest telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope.

       http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/HCV/haw_formation.html  //hawaii.aloha-hawaii.com/hawaii/big+island+volcanoes/

Since the vast majority of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur near plate boundaries, how did the Hawaiian Islands which are entirely of volcanic origin, form in the middle of the Pacific Ocean almost 2,000 miles from the nearest plate boundary?

“J. Tuzo Wilson came up with the Hotspot Theory in 1963. According to his theory, the Hawaiian Island chain resulted from the Pacific Plate moving over a deep, stationary hotspot in the mantle, located beneath the present-day position of the Island of Hawaii. Heat from this hotspot produced a persistent source of magma by partly melting the overriding Pacific Plate. The magma then rises through the mantle and crust to erupt onto the seafloor, forming an active seamount.

Over time, countless eruptions cause the seamount to grow until it finally emerges above sea level to form an island volcano. As the plate movement carries the island beyond the hotspot, the magma source is cutoff, and volcanism ceases. As one island becomes extinct another develops over the hotspot.”  http://www.pdc.org/iweb/volcano_history.jsp

In fact right now a young submarine volcano called Loihi (“Long”) is growing about 20 miles south of the Big Island.  Its ascending summit is currently 3,000 feet below the ocean surface.  http://www.bestplaceshawaii.com/island_insights/bigisland/volcanoes.html

When most people envision a volcano, they think of a tall and cone shaped volcano (think Mount Hood outside of Portland, Oregon). These strato volcanoes tend to have dramatic and explosive eruptions (think Mount Saint Helens).

The five volcanoes of the Big Island are shield volcanoes, which are long and broad and have gently sloping hills.  Shield volcanoes’ lava has a lower viscosity, meaning that the lava is thinner and more fluid.  Because of the fluidity of the lava, major explosive eruptions generally do not occur.  This is why the almost constant flowing lava of Kilauea can be approached and seen by visitors to Volcanoes National park. http://www.hawaiilogue.com/active-volcanoes-in-hawaii.html

All the photos in this post are by Bryan Lowry, are © protected and usage requires his permission.  Please visit Bryan‘s website to see the vast collection of images by this award winning photographer whose photos have also appeared in National Geographic (http://lavapix.com). Significantly, 20% of Bryan’s website sales profits go to Easter Seals Hawaii on the Big Island.

Big Island to Maui -- Crossing the Channel

The Alenuihaha Channel (or the “I'll-end-you, ha-ha” channel), between the islands of Hawaii and Maui, is 26 miles wide in its narrowest part and has sometimes been referred to as the most dangerous channel crossing in the world.

Roughly translated, Alenuihaha means “of very large, trough-like waves.” Like most Hawaiian words or phrases there can be several interpretations. Another one breaks down the channel’s name into ale meaning to swallow or engulf, nui meaning large or great, and haha meaning to breathe hard or pant. And a third translation suggests Alenuihaha is "the angry woman.”

The U.S. Coast Guard’s view is that the “channel is generally regarded as one of the most treacherous channels in the world because of strong winds and high seas.” Basically channel travelers are getting blasted by the venturi effect between two of the world's tallest mountains – on Maui, Haleakala and on Hawaii, Mauna Kea. Experts say all of the ocean has to funnel in between the two islands and this creates a pretty strong current. “It’s like the whole Pacific Ocean trying to squeeze through something.” Hawaii Kayaker

Oh, and the channel is also shark infested.

Penny Palfrey

In fact until just last year, there had only been one successful solo swim of the channel ever from the Big Island to Maui. Then, in March 2009, the Australian Penny Palfrey became the second person, and first female, to cross the channel. It took her 14 hours and 51 minutes. And she had to deal with occasional 20-foot ocean swells where her crew lost sight of her. Penny Palfrey

Then in quick succession in September 2009, Linda Kaiser of Hawaii became the third swimmer, at age 59, to do the channel -- in 17 hours. Also, Linda is the only person in the world to swim all eight Hawai’i channels

The first to accomplish this feat was Dr. Harry Huffaker in either 1969 or 1970 (“within a mile of finishing”) according to Hawaiʻi Sports: History, Facts, and Statistics by Dan Cisco, with a time of 20 hours and eight minutes. Not sure why the last mile does not count in solo swimming, but Dr. Huffaker is clearly considered the first to have swum the channel.

Mike Spalding, who was inducted into the Hawaii Swimming Hall of Fame in 2008 for his seven successful channel swims between Hawaiian Islands, said he has only one remaining, “the hardest one,” the 30-mile Alenuihaha channel.

Cookie Cutter Shark Teeth

His first attempt at age 61, was like Penny Palfrey’s in March 2009, but it lasted only 4-1/2 hours when he was bitten by a cookie-cutter shark. It left a three-inch diameter, one-inch deep would on his left leg. This species of shark grows to about 20 inches in length and takes melon-ball sized chunks of flesh from its prey. Spalding said. “I’ll be back in the hunt, back trying to train for the channel again. . . . I’m looking forward to the next time I get out there and finish this channel.” Maui News

An article about the channel in Sports Illustrated back in 1973 (Carlton Fisk was young) had the following title and teaser:

“Olly As In Jolly, Haha As In Crutch”

“The Alenuihaha Channel was no laughing matter; it was miles of thrashing current and biting wind that tossed the ocean racers. And it was only the beginning of the first around-a-state contest ever held.”

The article by Richard W. Johnston went on to say that yachtsmen would do well to memorize the name: “olly as in jolly, nooey as in hooey, and haha as in crutch.” I am certain that the haha part is not haha funny but probably more like haha sad. So the “crutch” part is either “funny as a rubber crutch,” or some nautical term, insider-joke that misses me totally. Richard W. Johnston

If anyone reading this knows, please leave a comment.

Aloha

Historic Overview of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Watching Ken Burns’ spectacular series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” I learned that parks were created both in Hawaii and Alaska way before they were States. In fact Hawaii Volcanoes National Park here on the Big Island was established in 1916 and was actually just the country’s tenth national park.

So how did this happen on Hawaii Island? It appears that suggestions that the Kilauea summit area become a national park began appearing in the Volcano House guest register and in newspapers in Hawaii as early as 1903. Apparently its territorial status did not inhibit the United States federal government from acting.

Two men’s passions, Thomas Jaggar and Lorrin Thurston, crossed -- the former in his role in establishing the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) and the later for his effort in convincing the United States government to protect the volcano by making it a National Park. It is possible that we would have had a National Park without the HVO but I doubt if it would have happened nearly so soon. My guess is that the HVO greatly facilitated travel to the volcano and helped to heighten interest in it.

Thomas Augustus Jaggar, Jr.

Philadelphia born Thomas Augustus Jaggar (1871-1953) not only had a great name but he had three geology degrees from Harvard (A.B., A.M., and Ph.D.), studied in Munich and Heidelberg, and taught at Harvard! There was then only one volcano observatory in the world, at Vesuvius established in 1847 and Jaggar thought America needed one. He traveled to Hawaii in 1909 determined that Kilauea was to be the home of the first American volcano observatory.

Within a year of meeting Lorrin Thurston who (along with others) provided financial backing, a small observing station was set up on the rim of Halemaʻumaʻu crater (a pit crater within Kilauea's summit caldera). In 1912 construction of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) began.

Lorrin Andrews Thurston

Lorrin Andrews Thurston (1858–1931) was born in Honolulu, grandson of one of the original missionaries from New England. He studied law at Columbia University and became a member of the Honolulu bar. In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Thurston served in both elected and appointed positions, but he was a leader in the revolution (January 17, 1893) that overthrew Queen Liliuokalani and ended the native monarchy.

He was also a volcano enthusiast and in 1891 he bought and expanded the Volcano House hotel at the rim of the volcano. Thurston commissioned a cyclorama of Kilauea which he displayed in his travels to the mainland, including the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.

Thurston in Center

From 1906 to 1916 he and friends lobbied with national politicians to create a National Park to preserve the Hawaiian Volcanoes.

Building the Observatory

Starting in 1912 a foundation had to be dug only about 20 feet from the rim of the caldera for Jaggar's volcano observation post.

To help stretch limited funds the diggers were prisoners of the Territory of Hawaii, sentenced to a term of hard labor. The prisoners dug through almost six feet of volcanic ash and pumice to a layer of thick pahoehoe lava—a firm base for the concrete piers on which seismometers would be anchored

Plans and elevations for the piers were hand drawn by Professor F. Omori at the Seismological Institute, Imperial University, Tokyo, Japan, and mailed to Jaggar. Also shipped to Jaggar were an Omori-type seismometer and a seismograph for the observation of earthquakes

Mauna Loa Lava Flow

Why Jaggar chose Kilauea for his volcano observatory included the following reasons: (1) Kilauea was the safest known volcano in the world; (2) Kilauea and Mauna Loa were isolated, more than 2,000 miles away from complications other volcanic centers might impose; (3) Kilauea was reasonably accessible—it could be reached by a 30 mile road from Hilo harbor or a day's sail from Honolulu; (4) the central Pacific was good for recording distant earthquakes and was served by good transportation east or west; (5) the climate was uniform, with air clear enough for astronomy; (6) small earthquakes were frequent and easily studied; (7) hot and cold underground waters were available for both agricultural and scientific purposes; and (8) "The territory is American, and these volcanoes are famous in the history of science for their remarkably liquid lavas and nearly continuous activity" (Jaggar, 1917).

Becoming a National Park

While Jaggar established the HVO, Thurston used his newspaper to promote the national park idea and convinced the territorial legislature to fund a group of congressmen to visit Kilauea in 1907. The trip included a dinner cooked over active lava vents. He hosted a visit by the Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield (son of the then late-President) in 1908, and another congressional visit in 1909. He convinced Territorial Governor Walter F. Frear to introduce a resolution supporting the idea, and formed a survey team to propose exact boundaries. His newspaper printed endorsements of the park by President Theodore Roosevelt (who happened to be a classmate at Columbia), conservationist John Muir, and powerful Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. In 1913 he explored a lava tube in the park that is now named after him.

Today Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is the largest of the five national parks in Hawaii. It contains the active volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Kilauea and covers some 520 square miles (over 320,000 acres) of land. Over half of the park is designated wilderness. The east rift of Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983. Kilauea’s crater covers more than four square miles and is the largest active volcanic crater in the world. Its inner pit, Halemaumau, is sometimes called the “House of Everlasting Fire.” The park’s landscape includes the Kau Desert on the arid eastern slope of Kilauea and a luxuriant tree fern forest on its moist western side. And not to be missed is the Jaggar Museum (the Hawaii Volcano Observatory which adjoins the museum is not open to the public) and its incredible views.

Blog 20 -- Hilo Harbor Breakwater

In 1946, Hilo, Hawaii, was struck by a tsunami generated by an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands; it was struck again in 1960 by a tsunami generated by the great Chilean earthquake. That is why I assumed that the Hilo breakwater was built…..but no, it is much, much older than that.

The Hilo breakwater was actually constructed between 1908 and 1929 upon a submerged reef in Hilo Bay to protect against winter storms. In fact both tsunamis overtopped the breakwater. (A plan to increase its height was rejected partially because no one could assure the public that such a project would indeed protect them from another seismic wave; not to mention questions of aesthetics about a towering wall that would block views to sea.)

Breakwaters

Ok, so what are breakwaters? According the US Army Corps of Engineers they are structures employed to reflect and/or dissipate the energy of water waves, thus preventing or reducing wave action in a protected area. They are used to create sufficiently calm waters in a harbor area, thereby providing protection for the safe mooring, operating, and handling of ships and protection of shipping facilities.

Why Hilo?

The growth of Hawaii during the establishment of sugar plantations and their use of immigrant labor and the up-and-coming visitor industry depended on the systematic development of secure harbor facilities. Hilo Harbor is one of two commercial harbors on the Big Island (the other is Kawaihae on the northwest side of the island). The first recorded improvement in Hilo was a stone pier constructed by an early entrepreneur, Thomas Spencer in 1861.

Hilo Harbor is located at Kuhio Bay, itself a small extension of the larger Hilo Bay. The harbor is two miles from the business district of Hilo and some 194 nautical miles southeast of Honolulu Harbor. Both overseas and inter-island ships and barges make regular calls at Hilo Harbor in addition to scheduled passenger cruise ships.

Blonde Reef

The submerged reef upon which the breakwater is built runs in the shape of a crescent, in a position reversed to the crescent of the bay. The average depth of water over this reef is about 23 feet, with occasional pockets of 40 or more feet depth.

It was named Blonde Reef in 1825 in commemoration of a visit by Lord George Byron, cousin of the poet. He arrived in Hawaii aboard the British frigate, H.M.S. Blonde which was carrying the bodies of Liholiho (King Kamehameha II) and his wife Kamamalu to Honolulu for burial there. The Hawaiian king and queen had died of measles within six days of each other while on a visit to London. Lord Byron proceeded to Maui and Oahu and returned to Hilo with Ka’ahumanu, regent of the kingdom. On their arrival Ka’ahumanu declared that Hilo Bay was henceforth to be known as Byron Bay, and from then on the reef that protects the bay has been known as Blonde Reef in honor of the ship that had returned the bodies of the royal couple to their homeland. (Beaches of the Big Island, John R. K. Clark, University of Hawaii Press, 1985).

Construction of Hilo Harbor Breakwater

The United States entered into a contract on June 12, 1908, for constructing the breakwater at Hilo Harbor. The specifications called for a jetty of the rubble mound type (rubble-mound breakwaters are the largest and most substantial of various breakwater types and are used almost exclusively in offshore and major coastal harbor protection schemes.)

Many stones in the slope walls were required to weigh more than two tons each. And across the top and down the sea side slope, to a point three feet under low water, the stones needed to weigh over eight tons each!

The required weight for the stones sent the contractor nearly thirty miles to Puna, on the east point of the island, to open a quarry. For while the whole island is virtually built of flows of lava rock, and the breakwater itself rests on a reef of it, there are comparatively few places on the slopes of Mauna Loa where rock of this weight could be found in large quantities. Nearly four miles of railroad had to be graded and built across lava flows in order to make connections with the tracks of the Hilo Railroad Company over which the stone was hauled.

The breakwater was completed in three sections respectively in 1910, 1911 and 1929. The third section extended the breakwater to its present length of about 2 miles. After dredging a deepwater channel in 1914 and from 1925-1930, the Hilo Harbor took roughly its present form.

In the 21 years of its construction the breakwater ended up using over 950,000 tons of rock -- truly a feat of engineering and worthy of our esteem for all involved. Mahalo !

Nā pana kēia o Keaukaha

Mai ka palekai a I Leleiwi

Pā mau I ka meheu a nā kūpuna.

Ha’alele aku ‘oe I ka palekai

Kahi māka ‘ika’I e nā selamoku

Lana mālie ke kai’ olu nā lawai’a.

These are the famous places of Keaukaha

From the breakwater all the way to Leleiwi

Resounding to the footsteps of our ancestors.

Your leave the breakwater,

The place visited by sailors.

Where the sea lies calm, the fishermen are pleased.

“Na Pana Kaulana o Keaukaha”

© by Edith Kanaka’ole, 1979