20 August 2023 Excellent Map: Lahaina in 1884

 Probably best to Download to a Desktop so viewing is easier.

Aloha,

BobbyC

19 August 2023 Musings about Water and Old Maps

Iʻm a daily reader and a donor to Civil Beat, a e-news communication based on Oʻahu.  GoLook.  They report and dig as deep as they can about issues many of us view as critical.  And I watch local network news, and CNN, MSNBC, etc.  A mix:  local reporters, malihini haole reporters and everything (almost) in between.  

A big topic over which media has been obsessing over is that Kaleo Manuel, then Deputy Director for the Commission on Water Resource Management, didnʻt release water in a timely fashion to aid fire fighting efforts.  Shortly after that news was circulated, Mr Manuel was "redeployed" to another position.

Those who know me know about my wide-ranging curiosities.  Anything related to science, natural history, geography, nā mea Hawaiʻi Nei, etc., count me in.  Iʻm not "Expert" in anything, but am, I believe, a fairly good observer.  Given that Iʻm bed-bound much of the time, I have the luxury of noodling around the ether, following interests where ever they may lead.  Until I get distracted by something else.

I wrote (yesterday?) briefly about the Seamenʻs Hospital in Lahaina.  It burned.  And about the homes across the street, oceanfront.  They too burned.  GoogleEarth has posted, uploaded, or whatever they do, aerial imagery taken on Aught 21, 2023, four days after the conflagration.  Go Nānā ʻĀina.  Look at the land.  About 4 miles of the coast, and, of course, ma uka areas were burned.

The turquoise-watered pools seen in an image posted yesterday are now black.  The oceanfront lush green lawn, held up by a seawall, grass now singed grey, is to the left of the Seamenʻs Hospital.  Looking, scrolling through GoogleEarth is overwhelming, the incomprehensibility of it all...

Back to The Water and Mr Manuel and Keaaumoku Kapu and Kauaʻula.  

Keeaumoku Kapu and the ʻāina and wai of Kauaʻula

The link above is to a Civil Beat article about a tedious, but ultimately successful court case, in which Mr Kapu successfully "took back" family land and water rights.  GoRead.

The property in question, I believe, is:

Active loʻi (wetland kalo patches) are the green rectangles at lower left.  The swath of land immediately to the right holds ghostly images of what appear to be long fallow loʻi.  Ke awāwa Kauaʻula (Kauaʻula valley).

Ka-ua-ʻula n.

1. A strong mountain wind, often destructive, at Lahaina, Maui. Lit., the red rain [referring to red soil washed away by a storm]. Ke kukui pio ʻole i ke Ka-ua-ʻula, the light not extinguished by Ka-ua-ʻula [in praise of Lahaina Luna school].

Please note, the definition above, from Place Names of Hawaiʻi.  Local knowledge of geographies is instructive.  We shouldnʻt be surprised, then, when get Big Wind!

The valley is in shadow at the bottom right of screenshot.  We can see the light green of kukui along the watercourse at right.  To me, the presence of kukui is often an indicator of water sufficient to support those moisture-loving trees.

A wider view of the area, again, GoogleEarth, August 12, 2023.

Ashgrey Lahaina at left, brown burned grasses, then ma uka, to the right of Hwy3000 (the Lahaina Bypass?) an Agricultural Subdivision on former cane fields.  I see the presence of what appear to be two reservoirs, the blackish trapezoids.  I donʻt see a reservoir upstream at the yellow-pinned loʻi of Mr Kapu.

Kauaʻula stream doesnʻt appear to be running.  

The ma uka Reservoir, Kauaʻula, seems full, and perhaps that water is meant for the AgLots ma kai?  

Thereʻs no direct road from either reservoir to town.

What/Which water was/is Mr Manuel concerned about?

How many gallons?

Even if he said GoGetUm, what would the logistics have looked like?

If indeed had ka makani Kauaʻula, pretty sure Nā Poʻe Kinai Ahi (Firefighters) wouldnʻt have been able to do their work.  Too dangerous.

Then thereʻs the problem of that "strong mountain wind, often destructive".  The National Weather Service had issued Red Flag Warnings, High Wind Warnings, Warnings.  

BeOutside, PayAttention.

Red Flag Warning issued August 7 at 3:15AM HST until August 9 at 6:00AM HST by NWS Honolulu HI

A Red Flag Warning means critical fire weather conditions are either occurring or will occur shortly. The combination of dry fuels, strong and gusty trade winds, and low relative humidity levels could produce extreme fire behavior. A Red Flag Warning does not predict new fire starts.

A Wind Advisory means strong winds are occurring. Winds this strong can tear off shingles, knock down tree branches, blow away tents and awnings, and make it difficult to steer, especially for drivers of high-profile vehicles.

All the Warnings, Advisories, and what-la mean nothing if the populace doesnʻt pay attention, or understand what they mean.  I believe that details matter, and in these times when inaccuracies are repeated through uncontrolled (anti)social media, and many Officials donʻt seem to understand weather phenomena and broadcast inaccuracies, The Populace is often left wondering.  What I supposed to do?

From wikipedia:
Though Dora did not pose a direct threat to the Hawaiian Islands, the National Weather Service in Honolulu did issue numerous weather warnings and advisories, especially red flag warnings, for portions of the various islands in expectation of the hurricane helping enhance trade winds in conjunction with an ongoing drought.^[63] A steep pressure gradient between a strong anticyclone to the north of Hawaii and Dora to the south produced incredibly strong gradient winds over the islands which in turn helped cause multiple wildfires in Hawaii. The fires killed at least 111 people, all on Maui, and damaged or destroyed more than 2,200 buildings, primarily in Lahaina. The wildfires are the deadliest natural disaster in Hawaii's recorded history.^[64]

And, to keep stirring the pot, here are some Rainfall Stats for Maui Komohana (West Maui)...

And then thereʻs Puʻukukui...up top...

Yes, the stats are old and perhaps not applicable for these times, but they may be instructive as far as relative amounts at various stations.  

Weʻre trying to get to a place where we understand how, with the climate and weathers we see today, how was Lahaina able to support loko (ponds), loʻi, and swamps?  The answer seems to be that Lahaina then is not the Lahaina now.  I need to dig deeper to understand, because I not from Lahaina, not from Maui. Stay tuned.  But for now, from the Map Collection of the State Survey Office, please see the following.

Search for Archival Maps

When the page above opens, Download the Registered Map Index.  Browse it, and when you see a map of interest, type the number in the Registered Map Number box. Click Search.  Have fun!

Two screenshots below of Registered Map (RegMap) #1262 by SE Bishop in 1884.  First of note is the large loʻi kalo (Taro Patch) on the waterfront next to the Court House.

And another screenshot of the same map, this one a little south of the above.  The legendary Loko (Pond) Mokuhinia in which was Mokuʻula, a domain of aliʻi o Maui.

about Mokuʻula

Map below is the 1916 Registered Map #2581

So wetness in Lahaina extended to the shore.  And if we mālama ka ʻāina it likely can again!

Some of my scribblings:

Out of the ashes, opportunities. "We" have the chance to put on display, for the world, ingenuities of Native Hawaiians and others in how to build and live within our means. No need complex "International Building Codes" that no one I know can read or comprehend. As we see, no code wouldʻve saved Lahaina from the blowtorch. Build smart, build simple, wide eaves, water catchment, big airy lanai.

But First:  

Take down all the seawalls.  Let the ocean seek equilibrium and form new beaches. Condemn or purchase all properties along the shore, much like the 2018 Lava Buyout Program. When the shoreline stabilizes, make a wide shoreline park. Then a new Front Street, then homes ma uka of that. 

Recruit UH Architecture students to design innovative dwellings based on local needs, local microclimates.  Simplify building codes. Simplify. We cannot, must not, design fortresses to protect ourselves. It does not work.   

Starting at the ma kai edges of the forests of Maunakahālāwai: Plant. Plant ʻōhiʻa, plant ʻaʻaliʻi, ʻōhiʻa, wiliwili, alaheʻe, plant kukui, ʻulu, kalo, uala, ʻōhiʻa, koaia, lama, ʻōhiʻa. Plant kīpuka, let kīpuka expand and connect.   

Resurrect Mokuhinia and Mokuʻula. 

Itʻs approaching nap time.  Till then...

Aloha, always aloha,

BobbyC

maniniowali@gmail.com 

18 August 2023 Remembering Then in Lahaina

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

Let it be.  No can help.  Goinʻ be OK.  Bumbai...  Words of wisdom from The Beatles, long long time ago,  Mary being Paul McCartneyʻs mother.  Iʻll leave it to you to goGoogle and learn more.  

Those of us of certain ages have witnessed more changes in and to Hawaiʻi Nei than we care to acknowledge most of the time.  We recall, try to recapture, remember, but ultimately, no can.  We have precious memories, multistrands of Lei Haliʻa, sometimes like food cravings, showing up unexpectedly.  And yes, many of us insist that those were indeed the Good Old Days.  They were.  Really.  Camping with four under three at Kīkaua, hiking up Maunaloa to Mokuʻāweoweo, hiking up to the tops of Maunakea, Hualālai, Moaʻula, Haleakalā, cruising many trails on the ʻāina pele of Kekahawaiʻole, and those glorious days on the whitesandyshore and in ManiniʻōwaliBlue waters.  Glorious, and how fortunate for us.  Then digital arrived, and with it an increasing clamor for more more more.  Now.  Quick. Faster!

All those photos flooding Media of ashengrey remains of buildings, between blue Pacific and green Maunakahālāwai.  All those photos.

Seamenʻs Hospital 1833

Iʻm fond of pōhaku, and also buildings made of pōhaku, or ʻākoʻakoʻa (coral).  The photo below, of the Seamenʻs Hospital in Lahaina attracted me.  Mostly because after nearly 200 years it still stands.  Ravaged, but standing, as are many kamaʻāina o Lahaina. Note the large anchor, bottom center.  And too the pool in the background may serve as a useful reference. 

Sigh...nothing much else to say...

Some are pointing out very real fears that real estate speculators will / are descending on the peoples of Lahaina, attempting to make them offers they, the people, canʻt refuse.  Auēēēēēē

The ultimate in pilau!  Weʻve all seen folks sell properties and move to other, more favored, places near or far.  If itʻs a free-will choice, for a bigger home, a better view, sure.  But if the move, as so many are these days, based on the fact that Hawaiʻi Nei is completely unaffordable, that must stop.  Government here now give some families major property tax breaks...at least to families kamaʻāina to a place, especially an oceanfront home of generations, no matter what their malihini neighbors pay.  As government should.

Below, if Imagery Dates (at bottom of photos) are trusted, see the change? That big, rust-colored oceanfront roof?  2016:  Next door, to the right if you face the ocean.  Had one lot with three (?) buildings? Driveway to rustyroofed garage, small hale, maybe another.

Then by March of this year, below, that property, transformed. Big House, Big sea-walled Lawn.  And that light turquoise pool on the right margin, compare with the upper photo of the burnt out Hospital.

How come always gotta build so big?  So fancy?  Why?  Cause can?  Cause you can afford the staff (low-paid local labor) to upkeep the place?  Clean the hale, clean yard, etc. No need!  Nuff aʻready!

OK, Bob.  Calm down...

In the late 70ʻs, after Hōkūleʻa came back from Tahiti, maybe in 1977 when we sailed her to Kahului, Jo, Leon, and I took a day trip to Lahaina just to holoholo.  Jo and Leon knew Keola Sequeira, so we tracked him down.  Part of the day was a short sail on recently finished Moʻolele, from the shore of Lahaina.  And she did fly over or leap over the swells, her single crab claw sail full.  Was good fun.  Then thereʻs progress...Most of the time Hōkūleʻa sails with traditional western rigs, rather than the crab claws she was born with.

Moʻolele was lost to the fire.

on HPR, August 16, 2023, Moʻolele lost

Keola Sequeira and nā waʻa

We strolled part of Front Street, where in a shop, I bought a tuluma. 

in the Collection at Tepapa Tongarewa, Aotearoa

Tuluma at Tepapa Tongarewa, Aotearoa

Itʻs a Tokelau islands fishing tackle box.  I still have it.

And then we ended up at Puamana, that famed place by the sea, for an afternoon barbeque.  We were offered cow udder, cooked on the grill.  Yup.  Cannot say No.  I hesitated, but was ʻono.  Chewy but delicious.  

Lyrics below from huapala.org

about Puamana

and the song, sung by Irmgard mā

OK?  May these histories, however theyʻre remembered, live on.  I know hard time listen now, especially for those rooted deeply to the ʻāina there, but time will pass and the pain will ease however slightly.

me ke aloha,

BobbyC

maniniowali@gmail.com

August 17, 2023 A Million Points of View

Nui nā ola i pōʻino, ā ʻo ka nui a nā pohō o nā waiwai i pōʻino

Many lives lost, and much loss of property through devastation

The mind is awhir, not knowing where to land or where to rest.  We seem to be in the Anger stage of grief.  

"The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. There’s no order to them and they serve as a reference instead of a guide on how to grieve." [psychcentral.com]

The ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi sentence above revealed itself as I wandered through the Pukui and Elbert (P/E) Hawaiian Dictionary.  Talk about a perfectly perfect summary.  I was attempting to understand the definition of "Lahaina".  Others, for no apparent reason other than itʻs the older (original?) pronunciation, use Lāhainā.

And note, dear readers, that the last sentence, bolded above, is wrong.  "Lele" does not, and has never meant, "relentless sun".  And tis a pity that it was apparently published in the Maui News.  So many errors by journalists.

And then, from Cody Pueo Pata, of Maui:

I apologize for the poor reproduction.  Itʻs from his book 

ʻohuʻohu nā mauna o ʻeʻeka, place names of maui komohana

"Komohana" is west, and Mānaleo are Native born, native speakers of ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi.  Two other scholars, both fluent speakers, and importantly, of Lahaina, agree with CPP, that Lahaina is correct.

And yet again, journalists and copy editors, unfamiliar wit, and ignorant of, language resources, choose to perpetuate errors.  Lele and Lāhainā.  No.  Except a little mayhaps:  Maybe particular families have perpetuated "Lāhainā".  Perhaps...

A good friend, perceptive, and an excellent observer and writer who lives in California, noted that most news coverage features malihini haole whoʻve lived on Maui XX years, lamenting the losses.  He has not seen Native Hawaiians being interviewed, and wondered Why?  I suggested that they NoLaik.  After many many decades of being ignored or exploited, they nolaik.  They are not inclined to talk with haole media who are clueless about the plight of Native Hawaiians.  NHs have no time to hold seminars regarding their cultural losses, and the fact that wealthy haole buy houses and property at inflated prices and NHs NoCan.  Native Hawaiians, many of them, call Lahaina home.  It is their one (oh-neh) hānau, the sand of their birth.  They live crowded into hot termite-infested houses on backstreets, multi-generations packed in.  They may work selling trinkets, or cleaning rooms at fancy houses, empty most of the year, or in any number of low-paying service industry jobs.  Or they move to the Continent, heartbroken and sickened, missing their homeland.

I really hope that the link below works.  Itʻs an excellent piece.

former Warriors Head Coach Don Nelson

And PLEASE can we please stop referring to Hawaiʻi Nei as "Paradise"?  Please.  Stop.  Whose paradise is it?  Retired haole who maitai at sunset on the beach till they tire of the ritual and move elsewhere?  Those who made obscene fortunes in Silicon Valley and elsewhere who come here and buy a beach house, and a mountain house, or a $20M+ place at the shore thatʻs empty for 50 weeks of the year?  And weʻre expected to smile and bow, or worse, remain unseen while time-controlled draperies reveal sunrises or sunsets?   Please stop with the "Paradise" and remember those who make your paradise possible.  Those who toil at two or three jobs, at their quotidian tasks trying to piece together enough money to pay the bills, to buy food, to buy gas, to buy... 

I know...kinda hard to see.  Maybe go GoogleEarth and Nānā ʻĀina.  Digitally, of course.  Look at and assess the land.  Fancy houses, green green lawns on a sere landscape.  At the foot of the mauna, Maui Komohana, high enough to be cool, great ocean views, etc.  Lahaina is just to the left of the screenshot.

All those oval-ish features, and the ghostly roads... The ovals are piles of pōhaku, gathered from adjacent former sugar cane fields as they were cleared for cultivation, and the roads are canehaul roads, formerly used to take cane to Pioneer Mill in Lahaina.  To cruise at leisure, in GoogleEarth search for Launiupoko.

Here on the Island of Hawaiʻi, another leeward landscape in Waikoloa...Many are fond of calling Waikoloa Village the "biggest cul-de-sac" in the State.  One (thatʻs right, 1, as in one) paved road in and out.  Thousands of people live there surrounded by Two Hundred Thousand Acres (200,000 acres) of alien, invasive, highly flammable fountaingrass.

about Fountaingrass

At the bottom left are Kaunaʻoa Bay, site of the Maunakea Beach Hotel, and Hapuna Beach.  The Hilton Waikoloa (actually in ʻAnaehoʻomalu) is at lower right, fronting Waiulua Bay, where huge tiger cowries used to be found, and where a number of anchialine pools were directed to be filled by Chris Hemmeter when the then Hyatt Waikoloa was built, completed in 1988.  The filling, a dastardly act, was accomplished during a 24 hour lapse in permitting.

Today I queried all councilmembers about building a road connecting Waikoloa with Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway, 2 miles makai.  I received a reply from an aide to Councilmember Evans:

"I spoke to Councilmember Evans about your message, and she would like to share that she has been in contact with Mayor Roth and Public Works Director Steve Pause.  They are aware of this problem and are working on a proposed solution for a second road.  Her concern is that the solution will take time and we need to act immediately. 

 

It is her hope to have discussions with the community and this administration soon and produce mitigation measures and short-term solutions on how to improve our rapid response and evacuation protocols.

 

In the meantime, thank you for writing, and if you wish to set up an appointment to discuss this issue, please let me know. "

It was the only reply so far.  Seems that "not my District, not my problem".  Evans is right to be concerned about the need to act immediately.  The middle paragraph, probably well-intentioned, reads like typical bureaucratic BS.  And no, no appointments for me.  Thanks.

The seemingly random disconnects of this post is because too much info is banging around in my head. Too many thoughts, too much frustration and anger, too much seething as a writer acquaintance put it.  

Just too damn much.

More to follow.

Be well.  Share this as you will.

Aloha, always aloha,

BobbyC

maniniowali@gmail.com