Hamakua Roads from 1835-1864: Firsthand Accounts

Rev. Titus Coan arrived in Hilo in 1835. He was responsible for the area including Hilo and “thirty miles” on up the Hamakua coast, crossing “eighty water channels.”
 
These excerpts from Chapter III of his autobiography, Life in Hawaii: An Autobiographic Sketch of Mission Life and Labors (1882), describe travel in this area before horses and bridges:

• For many years after our arrival there were no roads, no bridges, and no horses….​
• In passing through the district of Hilo [Hilo to Ookala], the weather was sometimes fine and the rivers low, so that there was little difficulty in traveling. The path was a simple trail, winding in a serpentine line, going down and up precipices, some of which could only be descended and ascended by grasping the shrubs and grasses; and with no little weariness and difficulty and some danger.
• …But the streams were the most formidable obstacles. In great rains, which often occurred on my tours, when the winds rolled in the heavy clouds from the sea, and massed them in dark banks on the side of the mountain, the waters would fall in torrents at the head of the streams and along their channels, and the rush and the roar as the floods came down were like the thunder of an army charging upon the foe.

Although the use of horses in this area was limited by impassable gulch pali paths, they were present on the island in this period and became very popular after a time. J. S. Green wrote in the Polynesian, Apr 24, 1847 about the “natives'” love of horses:

• The rage of horses is immense. Every body, so to speak, has a horse, or is seeking one. … Not that they may thereby save time, … but merely because they love to ride.

In the Polynesian (Apr. 5, 1851) a long article evaluates the “road” prospects throughout the Kingdom by a person knowledgable in carriage road construction. These excerpts are about the area between Laupahoehoe and Hilo:

• It is impossible, under the present circumstances, to construct a [carriage] road between Laupahoehoe to Hilo. … It would cost, at best, however, a vast amount of money and unwarranted perhaps by the present amount of travel here. Besides, it would become, perhaps, unpopular among those who would have to bear the burden of construction. The utility would be far too remote to offer any encouragement.  It may well be, however, to have in contemplation, that part of this road situated between Waiakea [Hilo] and Honomu, since it offers the least obstacles to its construction of any part of this route - more force to do it - more people directly interested in doing it - and many plantations would have open to them at once, a free communication to the Bay. A good horse path could be made from Laupahoehoe to Waiakea [Hilo]… The only question is -Will the travel warrant it? The natives (the builders) would only be interested in such a road … partially, preferring to labor on the footpaths near the sea, benefiting themselves only and not the nation. A horse path near the sea would require too long construct it - cost too much to keep it in repair - and would be too tedious to travel when done to justify such an undertaking.

In a May 27, 1897 article, Hilo lawyer D. H. Hitchcock reported on his 40 yrs in Hilo. He recounted the problems crossing the Wailuku river before a bridge was built in 1865:

• … for some years after [1857], the Government had done little for the improvement of the roads leading out of the town into the country.

 

• The first bugbear in going northward on the Laupahoehoe trail was the Wailuku River. The trail led down into the bed of the river along the line of Jail Street [Kinoole….Here the stream rushes, when in ordinary water, through two narrow channels and then leaps over a fall of 10 to 15 feet. Across these were laid foot wide planks on which pedestrians could cross on foot. Horses had to be swum across some distance above and their trappings carried across the planks, or as was sometimes the case, taken down to the mouth of the river and there swum across to the Puueo shore. The crossing on foot wide planks, with the rushing water beneath tearing through these narrow channels, was very precarious, and especially so when the planks were muddy and slippery. Some lives had been lost by the slipping of travelers from the planks. Once in the stream, which ran with the velocity of a millrace, life was gone. No one was ever saved after falling into it. After my arrival here, and up to 1864-1865, nothing was done by the Government toward bridging the stream. In the meantime 3 more lives had been added to the number of those lost in crossing.

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• During periods of high water, there was no communication to be had with the Pueo side, unless some more venturesome one tried crossing in a canoe near the mouth of the river.

​​​​From the Polynesian (Apr 19, 1862) a letter remarks on the difficult “roads” of Hamakua: ​

• Let anyone who knows the value of good roads to a country, land at Kawaihae and go overland via “Mud Lane”, Hamakua to Hilo. Such an individual must be strong to withstand the fatigue…. “He would then begin to understand why such a large and apparently valuable district as Hamakua Is so little known.

From The Polynesian (Apr 19, 1862), the writer lays out both the merits of road improvements in Hamakua and some of the barriers to getting it done.

​Recognition that Hamakua has a great deal of high value agricultural land:

• …the principal and most valuable part of the Kingdom is sadly in need of the most necessary aid in the development of its agricultural wealth -good roads. …I have thus particularized Hamakua as being not only one of the largest and most valuable districts, but as one most in need of an outlet…

Recognition that lack of proper bridges has led to continual fatalities:

• Yet it was only after drowning two or three natives yearly in the Wailuku that the money was allowed for the bridge at Hilo.

Hamakua was considered relatively low priority for road appropriations:

All other appropriations for Hawaii have been swallowed up in Honolulu and Lahaina.

The road tax system resulted in inferior roads and low productivity:

• One of the first steps towards that improvement must be an alteration in the present system of paying the highway tax by personal labor. … It does not follow -because a man is a good poi-beater, canoe-builder, or house rider- that he should also be an experienced hand with the shovel, pick, &c in road-building.
• The road supervisors [selected by those living in the district] are persons living in the district who have business of their own.