Wailea Milling Company: The Independent Homestead Mill

This month marks 100 years since the start of operations at the Wailea Milling Company.

Wailea Milling Company, in operation from 1921 to 1944, was exclusively for homesteaders. The homestead lands were interspersed with Hakalau Plantation lands owned by C. Brewer and Co., one of the “Big Five” sugar industry corporations in Hawaii. C. Brewer was openly doubtful that Wailea could be successful but also saw it as a threat.  As for the homesteaders, they did not trust Hakalau Plantation to give them a good price and were eager to be independent.
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The primary source of information for this history comes from the newspapers of the time. In the period from about 1906 to 1944, they addressed some of the basic questions that tell much of the story:

• How was homesteading even possible on the Hamakua coast?
• Who were these homestead-seekers?
• What was their homesteading experience before Wailea Milling Co?
• How did the idea of an independent homesteader-run mill develop?
• How did the Wailea Milling Co. itself come to pass?
• How did it do in its 23-year life?
• How did the Wailea and Hakalau plantations get along?
• Why did Wailea end and what happened to its people?

Learn More

Updates:
​June 27, 2021

Upcoming Events: 

• Updated events, including an additional yoga class at the Hakalau Jodo Mission with Alison Simpson for Friday mornings from 9:00-10:30 a.m. 
• There will be no Bon Dance at the Hakalau Jodo Mission this year. 

​Yesterday:​

• Redeveloped and expanded Wailea Milling Company 
• Expanded the overview of Camps to include development of Kulaimano Subdivision built to house sugar workers who were being moved out of old plantation housing.[The next step is redeveloping and expanding the content for each camp.]
• Expanded information about early member of the Hakalau Jodo Mission, Kikujiro Yokoyama.

Today: ​​​​

• Added the June Newsletter and July Newsletter to the Hakalau Jodo Mission Today. 

Overall:

• Redesigned the look to make text easier to read and photos larger and easier to see detail
• Redesign and reorganization will both support adding new information. Changes will be released over the coming months. 
• Eliminated secondary subpages in menu for ease of viewing on cell phones and tablets. Example, rather than listing 17 camps in the menu, the secondary subpages for camps are accessed via links on the Camps page. More changes to come.
• It's time to take all we've learned about the Hakalau Kuleana and convert it to a narrative that is easier to understand and navigate--with pictures, of course!

Aerial view of Wailea, Hakalau and Umauma taken from a Hawaiian Airlines flight by Hakalau resident, Julie Goettsch.