WAIMANALO HISTORY SNIPPETS
 

 





Queen Emma's Visit to Waimanalo

In October 1875, the queen decided to take a trek around the islands.  She asked part-Hawaiian  John A. Cummins, a member of the House of Representatives to organize the trek and to accompany her. "

Emma, Hawaii's Remarkable Queen 

by  George Kanahele

Chief John Cummins 

John Cummins, owner of the sugar plantation that first built the landing at Waimanalo, was born in 1835. He was the son of High Chiefess Kaumakaokane Papali'ai'aina and Thomas Jefferson Cummins Jr. His mother was a cousin of King Kamehameha I.  His father first developed the land in the 1840s as a cattle ranch and horse ranch. It wasn't until the 1880s in the face of the diminishing return of the cattle market that his son, John, began to grow sugar cane in place of cattle. This plantation was known as the Waimanalo Sugar Company (WSC). 

The outside of Mauna Rose, the home of John Cummins, can be seen today on Poalima Place.  Turn mauka off the highway at the main Waimanalo traffic light, onto Poalima Street.   Make the first left turn onto Poalima Place Mauna Rose can be seen at the end of the street on your right. 

Mauna Rose

Sport of Pue-wai  (1875)

"In the meantime I had a gang of men at work preparing to open the bar at the mouth of the Puha River.  This bar or dam had accumulated for some years and much water was backed up.  I had seen this opened on a former occasion and the sports of the natives in swimming the raging water, and determined to give her Majesty (Queen Emma) and party a view of this ancient sport....  An opening of 20' or more having been made in the dam, the water rushed out at the rate of 30 knots or more.  The bore or surge caused was very high, and only two men and two women dared to play on this water surf called Pue-Wai."

 John A. Cummins

Around Oahu in Days of Old

The Mid-Pacific Mag., Sept. 1913, p 235

 

"The stream in Bellows Field is Pu-ha."

Charles Alona, Informant, Sept. 14, 1939

Waimanalo, Oahu Place Names

    

The stream that crosses Bellows Field is today called Inoaole Stream.  The mouth of the stream, can be reached from inside Bellows, along the beach, or from the Waimanalo Beach Park.

 

Waikupanaha

A spring called Wai-kupanaha was pointed out to us( in valley mauka of mill), surrounded by tall taro plants, banana trees and fragrant white gingers. 

Waimanalo - 1847

At that time, it seemed that the valley was filled with breadfruit, mountain apples, kukui and coconut trees.  There were taro patches, with banks covered with ti and wauke plants.  Grass houses occupied the dry lands, a hundred of them here and sweet potatoes and sugar cane were much grown.  It was a great help toward their livelihood.    

The old kamaaina, Edward Niaupio, named nine terrace sections whose water came from small streams and springs flowing out of the high mountain range.  These sections ran for 1.5 miles in a semicircle at the foot of the mountains round the broad base of Waimanalo Valley

 

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