From 1982 through 1984, I was employed by McBryde Sugar Co. as a haul cane truck driver.
My job was to haul cane from McBryde’s sugarcane fields to the Koloa mill for processing.
The harvesting gang I was assigned to was supervised by Cecilio Dacay and Cereal Fernandez, and was nicknamed the “Visaya Gang,” since several of its men were local Filipinos of Visayan ancestry.
On the graveyard shift one night in 1984, my gang was harvesting in Haiku, located north of the Koloa mill on the Lihu‘e side of the Ha‘upu Range.
In order to access Haiku from Koloa, haul cane truck drivers were required to pass through the Koloa Tunnel — the half-mile long, 20-foot-wide by 20-foot-high tunnel drilled through solid rock by Grove Farm Plantation during 1948 and 1949.
That night, near pau hana time, I’d driven my truck from the mill, into the highlands, through the tunnel, and into our Haiku harvesting field.
No other haul cane trucks were in the field.
Only the harvesting crane, the lilioko tractor, the push rake tractor, and Cecilio Dacay’s pickup truck were present.
After loading up alongside the crane, I drove onto the haul cane road and headed to the dark tunnel and the Koloa mill far below it.
Some distance into the tunnel, I noticed bright lights reflected in my rear view mirrors.
I supposed they were Dacay’s pickup truck’s headlights, and since he was tailing me closely, I figured he must be in a hurry.
So, upon exiting the tunnel, I pulled over to the side of the road and parked to let him pass.
But, no vehicle exited the tunnel as I expected.
I then got out of the truck and peered into the tunnel.
Strangely, it was entirely dark, with no vehicle in sight.
Later, Claudio Lumacad, an old-timer in my gang, told me that what I’d experienced was not the first time a strange phenomenon had occurred at the tunnel or in Haiku.
He said the place was haunted.
And, after word spread, no one at McBryde ever scoffed at my encounter.
