PU'UKOHOLA HEIAU NHS • KALOKO-HONOKOHAU NHP • PU'UHONUA O HONAUNAU NHP A Cultural History of Three Traditional Hawaiian Sites on the West Coast of Hawai'i Island

CHAPTER VIII:
KALOKO-HONOKOHAU NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK (continued)

G. Description of Resources (continued)

5. Ahu (Cairns)

Near the boundary between Kaloko and Honokohau is a feature referred to as the "Queen's Bath." The site includes twelve lava mounds arranged in a rectangular form around a brackish pool hidden in the extremely rough a'a lava flow. Seven cairns in the southwest corner of the rectangle stand out because of their size and construction. They are graduated in height from ten feet to five feet, while the other mounds are smaller and more irregular in shape and construction. Each of the seven large structures is carefully faced with rough lava and all seven are crumbled on one side, possibly as a result of people climbing them. At the north end of the rectangle is an anchialine pond that has been modified into a bathing pool. A barely discernible trail leads to it from between the two largest cairns and continues on north. The sides of the pool have been cleared and leveled and the water lined with smooth lava blocks to form a sort of rectangular underwater bathtub. Smooth slabs have been set around the sides as seats. At the east end of the pool the lava was excavated to form an enclosure walled on three sides, the side facing the pool being open. Probably it was covered over and used as a bathing shelter. [81]

A traditional story is that "the queen" bathed here while guards on top of the cairns stood watch for intruders. Some traditions say she came by canoe to a landing nearby and was carried over the rough lava to the secluded and guarded pool in which smooth stone ledges had been placed for her comfort. [82] One local informant stated years ago that the pool was the private bathing place of Kamehameha, who stationed his guards by the ahu. Others have suggested these cairns are boundary markers. [83] Kelly recounts that one early ruler, Umi, used ahu like these as a way of taking census, requiring the population of each of his districts to erect an ahu to which each person living in that district contributed one stone. She knew of no such practice at Honokohau, however. [84] One informant stated that when she and her family stayed at Kaloko for weeks at a time, they bathed in this pool. [85]

The evidence for this pool actually being used as a bathing place for a "queen" in ancient times is tenuous. Cordy and his colleagues surmise that this complex has religious significance, perhaps as an ahupua'a shrine, but this may never be known with certainty. [86] The pool is used today by many people for bathing. Ongoing archeological survey work indicates the entire pool may be manmade.

Illustrations 124-26. Top: distant view of ahu surrounding "Queen's Bath." Middle: close-up view of an ahu. Bottom: anchialine pond referred to as "Queen's Bath." NPS photo, 1989.

Illustration 127. Ahu surrounding the temple of Kaili on the island of Hawai'i. From Wilkes Atlas (1845), facing p. 100.

Illustration 128. Agricultural enclosure near road to Kaloko Fishpond. NPS photo, 1989.

Illustration 129. Semicircular stone-walled enclosure, Kaloko area. NPS photo, 1989.