ISLAND HISTORY: The notorious Captain ‘Bully’ Hayes visited Hawaii
American ship captain William Henry “Bully” Hayes (1827-1877) commenced his career as a trader among the islands of the Pacific in the 1850s, and after raiding and robbing trading stations for a time, he was arrested by British authorities at Upolu, Samoa.
ISLAND HISTORY: Hawaiian artifact hunter Julius Scammon Rodman
Julius Scammon Rodman (1912-2001), of New Bedford, MA whaling stock, arrived in Hawaii in 1930 following a year at sea, and from then until 1940, he scoured the caves of Hawaii in search of age-old Hawaiian artifacts – bark tapestry, weapons, calabashes, ornaments of feather work and ivory, and the like – that he supplied to collectors such as Honolulu’s Bishop Museum.
ISLAND HISTORY: A brief history of Kauai’s early Germans
Johann Heinrich Zimmermann (1741-1805) was one of three German sailors aboard Captain James Cook’s ships “HMS Resolution” and “HMS Discovery,” when Cook made his discovery of Hawaii on Jan. 18, 1778, and was present aboard “HMS Discovery” when first contact with Hawaiians occurred off the coast of Kipu Kai, Kauai on the 19th.
ISLAND HISTORY: Kauai Territorial Rep. Yoshiichi ‘Big Mice’ Yoshida
Born in Kealia, Kauai, the son of Otomatsu and Tamano Yoshida, Yoshiichi “Big Mice” Yoshida (1904-2001) was educated at Kauai High School and was the owner of Y. Yoshida Service Station and Bus Co., which for nearly 50 years, was a Kapaa landmark located where the ABC Store stands today.
ISLAND HISTORY: Kenneth Shiro Shioi, founder of Shioi Construction Co.
Kenneth Shiro Shioi (1916-2011), the son of Japanese immigrant parents Taroku and Haruyo Shioi, was born at Makaweli, Kauai and moved to Honolulu with his family at an early age.
ISLAND HISTORY: John Wehrheim’s hippie Taylor Camp goes to Bratislava
In 1971, two years after photographer, filmmaker and author John Wehrheim first came to Kauai, he moved into an A-frame shack behind Howard Taylor’s home in Haena.
ISLAND HISTORY: The sacred burials of Koaia Gulch, Kauai
In early 1939, Honolulu police officer Harry Shupak informed treasure hunter Julius Scammon Rodman (1912-2001) that in 1934, while pig hunting in Waimea Valley, Kauai, he’d discovered a thatched grass house perched high upon a cliff in Koaia Gulch that contained a mummified corpse.
ISLAND HISTORY: William Somerset Maugham’s Hawaiian sorcery tale
“Honolulu,” British author William Somerset Maugham’s (1874-1965) tale of sorcery, is written with such authenticity that one has the impression that Maugham based it on a firsthand account he’d heard while visiting Honolulu in 1916.
ISLAND HISTORY: Herb Kawainui Kane’s 1st contact with Hawaiians painting
In the artwork that accompanies this story, there’s a reproduction of artist Herb Kawainui Kane’s (1928-2011) painting, “Moment of Contact,” his artistic interpretation of the first contact between Hawaiians and English Captain James Cook and his men off Kipu Kai, Kauai on January 19, 1778.
ISLAND HISTORY: Old Hawaiian trail once connected Kokee with Wainiha Valley
For the longest time, and well into the 20th century, there existed a steep, ancient Hawaiian trail that connected Wainiha Valley, at the base of Maunahina Ridge, with the Alakai Swamp at the Kilohana Lookout in Kokee.
ISLAND HISTORY: Nanaulu, the original discoverer of the Hawaiian Islands
According to interpretations of Hawaiian legends and radiocarbon dating estimations, it is speculated that sometime during 300-600 A.D. a Polynesian chief named Nanaulu became the first person to discover the uninhabited Hawaiian Islands.
ISLAND HISTORY: The World War II courtship letters of Yoshiharu and Naoko Ogata
In her book, “In Love and War: The World War II Courtship Letters of a Nisei Couple,” pub. 2015, author Melody M. Miyamoto Walters published the courtship letters of her grandparents Yoshiharu Ogata (1919-2007) of Kauai, and Naoko Tsukiyama Ogata (1917-2022) of Honolulu, which they exchanged during 1941-1943.
ISLAND HISTORY: A sampling of prices on Kauai in the good old days
In his book, “Kauai: As It Was in the 1940s and ’50s,” Mike Ashman (1921-2018) wrote nostalgically about prices on Kauai in 1940, the year he first arrived on the Garden Island to become an announcer at KTOH radio.
ISLAND HISTORY: Hawaiian sugar was refined in California and on Oahu
The California and Hawaiian Sugar Company (C & H) refinery, founded in 1906 at Crockett, CA, refined Hawaii-grown sugar until 2017, the year it refined Maui’s Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.’s final shipment of raw sugar.
ISLAND HISTORY: Hawaii’s independent sugar growers and Manuel Aguiar Jr.
Independent sugar growers in Hawaii worked their land as a joint effort with the sugar plantation in their vicinity.
ISLAND HISTORY: Queen Emma’s sojourn on Kauai during 1870 and 1871
Queen Emma (1836-1885), the wife of King Kamehameha IV, made three visits to Kauai.
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.