HAWAII NATURE NOTES
THE PUBLICATION OF THE
NATURALIST DIVISION, HAWAII NATIONAL PARK
AND THE HAWAII NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION

Boundaries

Adjustment of the park's boundaries has been in the making since the area was established almost forty years ago. As originally created, the park constituted three distinct tracts of land, the Kilauea Section, which numbered 35,865 acres; the Mauna Loa Section, of 17,920 acres; and the Haleakala Section, comprising 21,150 acres. In addition, the organic act authorized the inclusion in the park of a fourth tract that would connect the Kilauea and Mauna Loa Sections. Four-ninths of the land within the exterior boundaries was held in public ownership. The rights of private owners within the park were recognized, for the act specified that no lands held in private ownership would be affected by, or subject to, the provisions of the act; however, the act failed to provide machinery for the acquisition of the privately-owned lands.

In the case of the Kilauea Section, the private owners included the Bishop, Austin, and Campbell Estates; in the case of the Mauna Loa Section, the Bishop and Parker Estates; and Alexa G. Zabriskie, Robert G. von Tempsky, the Campbell Estate, and the Haleakala Ranch Company owned the private holdings in the Haleakala Section. The area proposed to connect the Kilauea and Mauna Loa Sections was in public ownership.

A 1910 map of the Island of Hawaii showing the proposed "Volcano National Park."

Recognizing that the inhibition (which provided that no public funds were to be appropriated for the park until the United States acquired easements and rights of way over private lands within the boundaries) contained in the act establishing the park would delay the improvement and development of the new area until the requirements of it were met, the Park Service began determining the names of the owners of the private lands within the three areas, the amounts of land owned by each, and the character of the lands. W. R. Castle, who some fifteen years before had suggested that the Federal Government undertake the preservation of the area, and Thurston happened to be in and around Washington at the time and advised the Park Service on these matters. They also made recommendations to the Park Service representatives in Washington with respect to the development of the park. By 1918, Governor Charles I. McCarthy and Land Commissioner Rivenburgh had succeeded in clearing up the private holdings in the Mauna Loa Section through the acquisition of 5,962 acres of Parker Estate and 1,964 acres of Bishop Estate lands. The remaining 9,994 acres in the 17,920-acre parcel were donated by the Territory. The Bishop Estate conveyed its acreage for $1, the Parker Estate for $100.

When Interior Secretary Lane visited Hawaii in the summer of 1918 to participate in the inauguration ceremonies of Governor McCarthy, he held several conferences with the Bishop Estate trustees in an effort to work out an arrangement for acquiring their remaining holdings in the new park. Lane suggested to the trustees that they consider exchanging their holdings including that part of Kilauea Crater owned by the Estate, for Territorial lands outside of the area. The trustees agreed to it; however, the laws governing the Territory of Hawaii did not contain authority for the consummation of a transaction of this character, and it was necessary to turn to Congress for specific legislation authorizing the governor to make the exchanges. Delegate Kuhio introduced legislation in the House in May 1919 for the purpose, and his bill was enacted and signed into law early the following year. Kuhio's bill paved the way for acquiring the private holdings through the method suggested by Lane and eventually for the operation of the Land of Pele as a national park.

The negotiations begun with the Bishop Estate by Lane were given strong impetus in the spring of 1919 with the visit to Hawaii of Director Mather. While in the Territory, Mather discussed in detail the terms of the land exchanges under consideration with the Bishop Estate trustees and further set the stage for the acquisitions. Mather got a good look at his far-flung national park in company with Thurston and others and apparently liked what he saw, particularly the volcanic activity in Halemaumau. But the Haleakala sunrise captivated him, and he wrote of it: "We watched for almost an hour, and then reluctantly went in to breakfast. It seemed like two worlds, one above the other, one alive and the other coming into life as the sun warmed it."

Less than one month after Kuhio's land exchange bill was signed by the President, Horace Albright arrived in Hawaii to advance the progress of the land exchanges as well as to inspect the new park and to recommend improvements that could follow behind the consummation of the land transactions. Albright reported that he was "amazed" at the wonders of the Kilauea Section, and of Halemaumau wrote: "I want to record my feeling that this is the most wonderful feature of the National Park Service, surpassing the geysers of the Yellowstone, the waterfalls of the Yosemite, and even the big trees of Sequoia." Few people in the Nation knew the national parks as did Albright, and he knew what he was talking about. At Carl S. Carlsmith's dinner table one night during his visit, Albright told his host that he would be content to spend the rest of his life as superintendent of Hawaii National Park. According to Carlsmith, Albright was "overwhelmed" by the park.

While he was in Hawaii, Albright visited the site of the famous City of Refuge at Honaunau and subsequently recommended its establishment as a national monument. The proposal remained dormant until 1947 when Delegate Joseph R. Farrington suggested to Superintendent Oberhansley that the site be brought under Federal protection. Congressman Lowell Stockman, of Oregon, who accompanied Farrington and Oberhansley to the site at the time Farrington made the suggestion, also endorsed the proposal. As a result of this, and the interest of various individuals and organizations, the Park Service sent Regional Historian Aubrey Neasham, of San Francisco, to Hawaii in the fall of 1949 to appraise the historical significance of the area. Assistant Director Hillory A. Tolson and Chief of Development Thos. C. Vint, of the Washington Office of the Park Service, assisted Neasham with the appraisal, as did Oberhansley, and it was the concensus of the group that the area should be given recognition as a national historical park. Neasham's subsequent survey report recommended inclusion of the site in the National Park System, and in the winter of 1949, the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and Monuments, approved the historian's recommendation. A resolution passed by the Advisory Board endorsing the proposal was later approved by Interior Secretary Oscar L. Chapman.

A bill, H. R. 9053, to authorize the establishment of the area as an historical park was introduced in the House in July 1950 by Farrington, but Congress adjourned without passing on it. A new bill, H. R. 1733, was introduced in January 1951 by Farrington and progressed through the House committees and the full House but did not get through the Senate's log jam of legislation before Congress adjourned in the fall. Farrington's bill lay before the Senate's Interior and Insular Affairs Committee during the short 1952 session of Congress but was not considered. Congressman Wesley A. D'Ewart, of Montana, introduced a new bill, H. R. 1525. in the House on January 13, 1953. By March 3, it had cleared the House committees and the full House and was up for the consideration of the Senate but Congress adjourned without acting on it.

The most strategic of the holdings in private ownership in the new park belonged to the Bishop Estate. These lands, numbering 12,195 acres, included the Volcano House site, most of Kilauea Crater, some forest land, and even a part of Pele's abode, the fire pit of Halemaumau. Back in 1912, Frank S. Dodge, the Bishop Estate Superintendent, had held that the shifting of the lake of fire in Halemaumau did not invalidate any claim the Estate may have had on it. He had said that the line of their lands was tied to the center of the lake and that their boundaries moved with it, that no matter where the lake of fire might wander, it dragged the Bishop Estate line with it. Asked whether there were any precedents for a fixed point with travelling proclivities, Dodge answered: "Well, none that I know of off-hand. The number of properties tied to a volcano are rather rare."

Shortly after the park was established, the governor began sounding out the Bishop Estate trustees on the acquisition of these lands for the new area. The trustees indicated that they were favorable toward the idea and desired to help in every way possible, at the same time objecting strongly to the inclusion of 650 acres comprising the Volcano House site, some adjoining house lots, and other lands to the northwest which they considered suitable for development by small holders. This objection represented the second one by the trustees to the inclusion of some of the Bishop Estate holdings in the park, the other having occurred in 1911 when they successfully resisted the inclusion of 1,000 acres they leased to C. Brewer and Company for the Kapapala Ranch operation. Governor Pinkham attempted to dissuade the trustees from hanging on to their 650 acres, stating in a letter to A. F. Judd, a member of the board: "I cannot believe it good policy to so restrict the national park area or to place public convenience and accommodation solely at the command of private interests."

Albright devoted particular attention to this problem on his 1920 visit to Hawaii, and with the help of Governor McCarthy, Land Commissioner C. T. Bailey, Thurston, and others, succeeded in resolving it. Under the new exchange law, the Bishop Estate exchanged its 12,195-acre tract for 3,558.72 acres of public lands that were producing an annual rental of $11,475 to the Territory. Through the exchange method, in later years the Territory acquired the Austin (3,239.1 acres) and Campbell Estate (2,526 acres) lands and an 18.9-acre tract belonging to W. H. Shipman, Ltd. Exchanges were also effected in the case of the private holdings (Zabriskie-von Tempsky, 81.2 acres; Campbell Estate, 1,984 acres; Haleakala Ranch Company, 9,543.8 acres) in the Haleakala Section, and to these the Territory added 5,521 acres of public lands. A law passed by Congress in 1927 revised the Haleakala boundaries, reducing the acreage to 17,130. Only once before 1949 did the Territory resort to condemnation to acquire lands for the park, and this occurred in 1938 when it condemned 1.9 acres of Campbell Estate lands in the strategic Thurston Lava Tube area. The Estate was awarded $100 for the land.

Various laws enacted by Congress have resulted in boundary revisions that have added lands of important scenic and scientific interest to the park. The 46,050-acre tract of public land connecting Kilauea and Mauna Loa was donated by the Territory in 1927; a 43,400-acre tract in the Kau Desert, also held in public ownership, was donated in 1928; and the 5,730-acre Footprints Addition, public land also, was donated in 1951.

The Footprints Addition brought into the park the site where eighty Hawaiian warriors, who were marching from Hilo to Kau against Kamehameha I about 1790, were annihilated by the suffocating ash particles and gases from an explosive eruption of Kilauea. A lone pig being transported by the warriors survived the asphyxiating blast. The footprints left in the cement-like ash by the warriors were soaked by rains and baked by the sun and thus preserved, but remained unnoticed until Ruy H. Finch discovered them in 1920. A less intense explosive eruption of Kilauea occurred in 1924, the second of record.

A 49,340-acre tract known as the Kalapana Extension, in the legendary and historic Puna District, was authorized for addition to the Kilauea Section by a law enacted by Congress in 1938, along with the Footprints Addition. The proposal for the Kalapana Extension did not originate with the Park Service but with several citizens of the Territory, who in 1932 urged Superintendent Leavitt to consider the inclusion of these lands in the park.

When the Reverend Ellis visited Puna in 1823, he found the region to be a comparatively densely populated community. Evidences of those and earlier days abound there in the form of petroglyphs, heiaus, burial caves, and other archeological and historical features which reveal the unique culture of ancient Hawaii. On these lands. Niheu, an Hawaiian Goliath who is said to have been nine feet tall, thrust a spear through a rock in an effort to kill a kolea (Pacific Golden Plover), which legend has it sought, through its warbling, to warn his friends of the giant's presence in a place restricted to him. The hole made by the giant's spear remains there still.

Wahaula. the second largest heiau in the Territory, is within the Kalapana Extension also. The temple was built by Paao, the famous Hawaiian navigator-astronomer. It is said that humans were sacrificed in the heiau, and a slab of rock identified as the Sacrificial Stone serves as a grim reminder of that primitive age.

Here, also, is the testing ground where young Hawaiians matched their strength against one another by bouncing a ten-pound stone against a wall some seventy feet away. The strength of the thrower was classed according to the distance of the bounce of the round, ball-like stone.

In these historic lands, too, is a puuhonua, a place of refuge where the oppressed and the fugitive from justice could find a haven that guaranteed him inviolable protection. However serious his offense, he had but to run faster than his pursuers and reach the refuge to be safe from them. The protection he found in the puuhonua assured him against harm for his offense after leaving the place.

A strong conviction that these and other evidences should be preserved impelled Superintendent Wingate to stimulate the proposal—this and a deep humanitarian interest in the vanishing Hawaiians—for he believed that, unless the lands were brought into public ownership, they would eventually end in the hands of a few who would exploit them commercially. He envisioned Puna as a place free, except for access, of the inroads of modern civilization, where the flavor of old Hawaii could be preserved.

Wingate personally drafted the legislation authorizing the extension, and he injected into it a provision that gave certain privileges to the Hawaiians, including the right to lease homesites within the area. The bill was introduced in Congress by Delegate Samuel Wilder King. When it was heard before the Senate Public Lands Committee, one of the Committee members objected to it on the ground that legislation governing the national parks should not distinguish between Americans, and persons of Hawaiian descent should not receive the special privileges proposed. Hearing of this, Wingate cabled King, asking the lawmaker to do his utmost to have the provision retained in the bill. As a result of Wingate's tenacity and his own conviction, King had the bill lie as pending business until the 1938 session of Congress convened.

Endorsements of the proposal by the Hawaii County Board of Supervisors, the Hilo Chamber of Commerce, the Order of Kamehameha, former Governor Lawrence M. Judd, and other organizations and individuals gave strong impetus to it. In a letter to Congressman Rene L. DeRouen, Chairman of the House Public Lands Committee, King stated: "For many years there has been strong popular support for the inclusion of these lands within the park." As a result of these endorsements and King's subsequent and effective steerage of it, the legislation was enacted with the special privileges reserved to the Hawaiians as proposed by Wingate.

The official assessed valuation of the Kalapana Extension (excluding 11,675 acres already in public ownership) was placed at $10,800 in 1936 by the tax office. The land was surveyed and appraised later by Territorial Surveyor Charles L. Murray, who classified it thus: "Waste area, 17,985 acres, @ 40c per acre; pasture inferior area, 9,550 acres @ $1.00 per acre; forest area, 13,230 acres, @ $1.50 per acre; forest-pasture area, 8,575 acres, @ $2.00 per acre.

Except for one family, which does not own but leases the land on which it lives, the Kalapana tract is unoccupied. The private holdings are now in the process of acquisition by the Territorial Government, principally through the exchange method. The complex and multiple ownerships in the case of eighteen private parcels has caused the Territory to resort to condemnation to acquire them. The acquisition of these lands will extend the park boundary to the vicinity of the village of Kalapana and expedite the development of a projected $2,000,000 highway between that point and Kilauea, making accessible the magnificent coastal features of the Island of Hawaii. At the same time, protection for all time will be extended to this historic and legendary land.

Assistant Interior Secretary William E. Warne visited Hawaii in December 1950 to conduct an investigation relating to the development of the Territory's water resources. While he, Colin G. Lennox, President of the Territorial Board of Agriculture and Forestry, and Oberhansley were riding along looking at the park and discussing boundary matters, Lennox said to the superintendent: "Frank, I think the time has come for the Park Service to take into the park a part of our Upper Olaa Forest Reserve. Strong pressures by commercial interests have recently made us open up 1,000 acres of this forest for farming purposes, and with this precedent we won't be able to hold the line. You people are the only ones who can guarantee the preservation of this area, but you'll have to act if it's going to be saved." Lennox went on to tell Warne about the forest and the arrangement under which it was being managed by the Territory. Warne endorsed Lennox's proposal then and there and Oberhansley lost no time in beginning negotiations for the acquisition.

The Upper Olaa Forest Reserve includes the most priceless and outstanding virgin forest to be found anywhere in the Hawaiian Archipelago, outdoing by far the forest values already contained in the park. Oberhansley had made several reconnaissances of the almost impenetrable rain forest and was thoroughly familiar with its values. At the Seventh Pacific Science Congress held in New Zealand in 1949, Oberhansley made a talk about the urgent need to preserve the forest and a resolution was formulated proposing the inclusion of most of it in the park. The resolution was adopted but remained dormant until the spring of 1950, when Oberhansley revived it at a meeting of the Honolulu Panel of the Pacific Science Board. Lennox's revival of the plan later that year and his and Oberhansley's steerage of it through Territorial Land Commissioner Frank G. Serrao and his successor, Norman D. Godbold, and Governor Oren F. Long made a reality of it in 1952 with the approval by Long of an Executive Order transferring 9,654.67 acres of the forest to the jurisdiction of the park. But for the foresight of these individuals, this part of the forest may well have gone under the plow. As the forest resources outside of the park dwindle, this tract will become increasingly priceless, and visitors a thousand or ten thousand years hence will be grateful that the interest of a few enabled their generations, too, to enjoy it.

The latest addition to the park was made in January 1953 through an Executive Order approved by Governor Long which transferred 8,193 acres of the public lands of Kaalaala, Kau, for rounding out the southwest boundary of the Kilauea Section along the natural line of the Great Crack. This tract added approximately five miles of coastline to the Land of Pele and brought into it the ancient Kuee Ruin, an archeological gem. As a matter of economics, the land is practically valueless, constituting barren lava flows almost exclusively. Its worth lies in its scenic and scientific values and in the opportunities for rest of body and mind that it will provide for visitors.