ISLAND HISTORY: Queen Liliuokalani’s three hanai children
Queen Liliuokalani (1838-1917) and her husband, John Owen Dominis (1832-1891), had no biological children.
ISLAND HISTORY: The mysterious Malae Heiau at Wailua, Kauai
In 1824, Kaahumanu (1768-1832) ordered the destruction of all vestiges of the old Hawaiian religion on Kauai by burning wooden idols and tearing down heiau, including Kauai’s largest heiau, Malae Heiau, located near the mouth of the Wailua River.
ISLAND HISTORY: Kauai land transactions of Victoria Kamamalu and Ruth Keelikolani
Both Princess Victoria Kamamalu and Princess Ruth Keelikolani sold their Kauai landholdings.
ISLAND HISTORY: Robert Iwamoto Sr. of Kauai, founder of Roberts Hawaii
Born in Wailua, Kauai, the son of Shintaro and Shime Iwamoto, Robert Iwamoto Sr. (1911-1984) was the founder of Roberts Hawaii, the largest tour and transportation company in Hawaii, with branches on Kauai, Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii Island.
ISLAND HISTORY: A history of the Wailua, Kauai Bell Stone
The Wailua Bell Stone, or Pohaku Kani (lava rock sound) is a fairly flat, oblong-shaped stone of roughly 12 square feet in area that produces a bell-like tone when struck with an object such as a hard piece of wood or a stone.
ISLAND HISTORY: A brief history of Puhi Camp, Kauai
Although previously published articles indicate that Grove Farm’s employee housing Puhi Camp (c. 1917-1980s) was built during the 1920s, newspaper accounts I’ve recently uncovered reveal activity at Puhi Camp as early as 1917.
ISLAND HISTORY: South Seas sugar laborers arrived at Koloa in 1859
During King Kamehameha IV’s reign (1855-1863), he proposed “bringing in Polynesian immigrants to … reinvigorate the Native Hawaiian stock.”
ISLAND HISTORY: Martin Mansfield, the haole kahuna of Kaua‘i
In 1932, fifty-one-year old Martin Mansfield first came to Hawai‘i as a cook aboard one of the steamships on the Honolulu-West Coast run.
ISLAND HISTORY: A brief history of Kaua‘i’s Huleia School
Established in 1905, Huleia School was originally located in Huleia Valley.
ISLAND HISTORY: The American military on Ni‘ihau during World War II
Prior to the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Ni‘ihau had long been a peaceful home to its 130 Hawaiian residents, virtually unknown to the outside world, and was only rarely visited by invited off-island guests of Aylmer and Lester Robinson, its owners.
ISLAND HISTORY: The Turning Point ghost at Kipu, Kaua‘i
William K. Yamanaka, PhD (b. 1931), the author of “Kipu-Huleia, The Social History of a Plantation Community” and “Huleia, the Journey Home,” was born and raised at Kipu Sugar Plantation’s (1907-1940) Rice Camp and was educated early on at Huleia Grammar School.
ISLAND HISTORY: ‘Auntie’ Emma De Fries’ Hanalei Ghost Marchers story
“Auntie” Emma De Fries (1925-1980) was a Hawaiian mystic and the great-great-granddaughter of Hewahewa (c. 1774-1837), the kahuna nui (high priest) to Kamehameha I.
ISLAND HISTORY: A personal history of ancestry and race in Hawai‘i
Since the early days of contact between foreigners and the people of Hawai‘i, there have been men hailing from faraway lands who married island girls and made their home in Hawai‘i.
ISLAND HISTORY: The haunted Hale Nani Hotel at Po‘ipu, Kaua‘i
Kaua‘i’s haunted Hale Nani Hotel once stood on Nahumaalo Point, across from Koloa Landing, at Po‘ipu, Kaua‘i.
ISLAND HISTORY: Robert Hamada and the Coco Palm’s fireworks fiasco
Born and raised on Kaua‘i, Robert Hamada (1921-2014) is best known as a woodturner who created works of art out of milo and hau wood.
ISLAND HISTORY: The story of the ‘Ghost Dog of Po‘ipu’
In 1972, Kaua‘i-born historian, author, and University of Hawai‘i professor Rubellite ‘Ruby’ Kawena Kinney Johnson (b. 1933) told “Honolulu Star-Bulletin” newspaper writer Lois Taylor the story of the “Ghost Dog of Poipu” that her father, Ernest Kaipoleimanu Kinney (1906-1987), had told her some years earlier.
ISLAND HISTORY: Coco Palms’ first entertainers were Ah Sau Ahana and his musicians
Born and raised on Kaua‘i, Ah Sau Ahana (1907-2008) learned to play the banjo, ukulele and steel guitar while attending Kaua‘i High School.
ISLAND HISTORY: Ni‘ihau owner Keith Robinson’s book ‘Approach to Armageddon’
During 1993, I became friends with Keith Robinson (born 1941), the co-owner, with his brother, Bruce Robinson, of Ni‘ihau, and a descendent of Eliza Sinclair, who purchased Ni‘ihau on Jan. 20, 1864 from Kamehameha V in the names of her two sons for $10,000, as indicated in Royal Patent No. 2944, dated Feb. 23, 1864.
ISLAND HISTORY: Larry Rivera’s early days at the Coco Palms Hotel
In 1951, Lawrence ‘Larry’ Rivera (1930-2023), was hired at the Coco Palms Lodge, which Alfred and Veda Hills had opened for business that same year as a lodge of 24 rooms with 5 employees.
ISLAND HISTORY: How Coco Palms employee ‘Big John’ Kauo got his nickname
Born in Anahola, John Pakahea “Big John” Kauo (1933-2013) had graduated from Kamehameha Schools and had labored in the Kauai pineapple fields, when one day in 1954, his Aunty Moki Hanohano, the night dining room manager at Coco Palms, offered him a job as a waiter.