ISLAND HISTORY: The Singing People of Lima Loa and Koke‘e, Kaua‘i
Kama‘aina rancher and legislator Valdemar Knudsen (1819-1898) would often listen to Hawaiians tell him stories of their encounters with the supernatural on Kaua‘i.
ISLAND HISTORY: The beautiful girl of Pokii, Kaua‘i
Pioneer Kauai rancher Valdemar Knudsen (1819-1898) was konohiki (headman) of over 100,000 acres of western Kauai he leased from the Hawaiian government.
ISLAND HISTORY: The Valley House Hotel, Kealia, Kaua‘i, 1946-1950
Valley House Hotel, once located off Hau‘a‘ala Road in Keapana Valley, Kealia, Kaua‘i, was in operation from its opening day on Dec. 1, 1946, until Oct. 1, 1950, when it was destroyed by fire.
ISLAND HISTORY: The Waipahee Slide at Kealia, Kauai
Waipahee Slide is a naturally created, rock water chute, about thirty feet in length, with a downward angle of some forty-five degrees, located on Kealia Stream within Kauai’s 6,500-acre Kealia Ahupuaa, roughly three miles west of the Spalding Monument.
ISLAND HISTORY: Historic vignettes of good food and good times on Kauai
Mercy Whitney, the wife of Kaua‘i missionary Samuel Whitney, wrote the oldest record of a formal dinner on Kaua‘i.
ISLAND HISTORY: The ancient rules of hukilau observed on Kaua‘i
In 1882, James H. Hakuole (1872-1937) was sent to Japan by King David Kalakaua to learn the Japanese language, and remained in Japan until he returned to Hawai‘i in 1888.
ISLAND HISTORY: Englishwoman Isabella Bird’s tour of Kaua‘i in 1873
English explorer Isabella Bird (1831-1904) spent nearly seven months of 1873 touring the Hawaiian Islands and published her experiences there two years later in her book “Six Months in the Sandwich Islands.”
ISLAND HISTORY: John Cook’s resurrection plus two more early Kauai medical histories
Firstly, sometime between 1849 and 1854, when James F. B. Marshall was manager of Lihu‘e Plantation, John Cook, an English carpenter who’d built some of Lihu‘e’s earliest buildings, suffered a stroke that rendered him paralyzed and unconscious.
ISLAND HISTORY: Kaua‘i legislator, McBryde Sugar Co. and Kaua‘i Pine administrator Abel Medeiros
Abel Medeiros (1920-2005) was born at ‘Oma‘o Homesteads, the son of John Medeiros, Jr. and Mary Medeiros, and was a great-grandson of Louis Medeiros, who’d immigrated to Hawai‘i from the Azores in 1878.
ISLAND HISTORY: Sgt. “Bowdy” Bowden served on Kaua‘i during World War II
Over 40,000 American soldiers and Marines were stationed on Kaua‘i during World War II, where the Army set up camps, training areas and firing ranges to prepare troops for combat in the Pacific, while the Marine Corps. constructed a camp at Wailua.
ISLAND HISTORY: Hula Girl canned tuna and the Nawiliwili Canning Co.
From 1950 until 1955, when it ceased operations, the Nawiliwili Canning Co. packed its Hula Girl tuna at its cannery in Nawiliwili Harbor.
ISLAND HISTORY: The pig shooting incident at Halfway Bridge, Kauai in 1856
In 1856, Samuel Thomas Alexander, a student at Punahou, spent his summer vacation working at Lihue Plantation for manager William Harrison Rice.
ISLAND HISTORY: Kipu Ranch and Princess Ruth Keelikolani
In 1866, William Hyde Rice – who in 1891 would become the governor of Kaua‘i under Queen Liliuokalani – began leasing land at Kipu, Kaua‘i from Princess Ruth Keelikolani on which he raised cattle and fine horses.
ISLAND HISTORY: The McBryde Sugar Co. plantation village at Wahiawa, Kauai
Founded in 1899 and demolished in 1985, the McBryde Sugar Co. plantation village at Wahiawa, Kauai was comprised of Camp 2 and Camp 3, situated in and above Wahiawa Gulch between Port Allen and Numila.
ISLAND HISTORY: A veteran’s return home to Kaua‘i from the Vietnam War
I was at Dong Ha, South Vietnam when it was rocketed one morning in July 1969 by the North Vietnamese Army.
ISLAND HISTORY: The historic Immaculate Conception Church at Kapaia
In 1882, Roman Catholic Bishop Herman Koeckemann purchased land at Kapaia, Kaua‘i from sugar planter Paul Isenberg on which to build a church for Catholics living in Lihu‘e and Hanama‘ulu.
ISLAND HISTORY: Bing Crosby and Toyo Shirai at Wailua Golf Course
While vacationing on Kaua‘i with his wife, Kathryn, and children Harry, Mary and Nathaniel Crosby during July 1962, popular singer, actor and golf enthusiast Bing Crosby said that the Wailua Golf Course was the best in the state of Hawai‘i and “one of the best in the world.”
ISLAND HISTORY: Philanthropist Emma Kauikeolani Napoleon Mahelona Wilcox of Kauai
Emma Kauikeolani Napoleon Mahelona Wilcox (1851-1931) was born in Honolulu, the daughter of Mr. Temanihi and Mrs. Pamahoa Napoleon, and was related, through her mother, to King Lunalilo.
ISLAND HISTORY: A history of Kauai’s Kipu Sugar Plantation
In 1866, William Hyde Rice (1846-1924), the son of American Protestant missionaries to Hawaii William Harrison Rice and Mary Sophia Hyde Rice, began leasing land at Kipu from Princess Ruth Keelikolani on which he raised horses and cattle.
ISLAND HISTORY: Visiting historic places on Kauai with Holbrook “Hobey” Goodale
Holbrook “Hobey” Goodale (1923-2014) of Kauai was a descendant of American Protestant missionaries to Hawaii William Harrison Rice and Mary Sophia Hyde Rice; his great-grandfather, William Hyde Rice, had been Kauai’s governor under Queen Liliuokalani; Charles Rice, his grandfather, owned Kipu Sugar Plantation and Kipu Ranch, and his mother, Juliet Rice Wichman, founded the Kauai Museum.