A Brief History of Maunalua

4 million years ago - Ko’olau Volcano begins building as a seamount.
2.9 to 2.1 million years ago - Ko‘olau Volcano surfaces
800,000 years ago Lē‘ahi (Diamond Head) and Kuamoʻokāne (Koko Head) were created as part of a rejuvenation stage of volcanic activity that began during the late Pleistocene era.
300-600 - Potential first migration occurs, as evidenced by linguistic and archeological evidence, indicating that these early Polynesian settlers came from the Marquesas Islands. Archaeological research indicates that populations of the first migration settled on the wetter, windward shores, with the possible exception of a few areas in leeward regions with abundant freshwater sources
1200/1300- Hawaiian oral history and some linguistic and archaeological evidence indicate that the second migration of Polynesians came to the Hawaiian Archipelago from the Society Islands in approximately the thirteenth or fourteenth century and may have landed first in Maunalua. One Hawaiian legend supporting the theory of this second migration tells of a man named Moikeha, a Tahitian chief who came to the Maunalua area of O‘ahu, then returned to Tahiti, and brought his sisters Makapu’u and Makaaoa back to Maunalua. This is consistent with the theories of some historians, who believe the second migration of Polynesians to Hawai’i landed first near Maunalua, and then spread throughout O‘ahu. High numbers of bird bones found in the lower layers of sediment inside a bluff shelter in Kuli‘ou‘ou Valley indicate that that this site may have been the location of an early temporary settlement of people. Artifacts at this site, along with other nearby rock shelters at Hanauma Bay and on Kaluanui Ridge in Maunalua, reveal a pattern of early, occasional, and short-term use, followed by a period of more intensive use post-1450 A.D.
1786 - Second known landing in the Hawaiian Islands by British Ships were made at Maunalua by Captains Portlock and Dixon who came ashore in search of fresh water and were directed to a spring at the mouth of Kuli’ou’ou valley from which they filled casks with the help of local natives. Portlock described a sparsely populated region of tattooed, physically strong, friendly and curious people eager to trade vegetables, water, and pigs for nails and metal pieces
1800 - King Kamehameha I is said to have helped repair the fishpond wall of Keahupua O Maunalua (also known as Kuapā Pond) when visiting the site during a trip around the Hawaiian Islands. King Kamehameha I and Queen Kaʻahumanu also maintained a summer residence on Paikō Beach.
1819 - Queen Ka’ahumanu breaks the kapu system by eating with the men at Kalauha’iha’i, starting a new chapter of Hawaiian history
1820-1860 - Whaling ships from all over the world frequented the Hawaiian Islands. Whaling ships anchored off-shore to collect freshwater from a spring in Maunalua and buy sweet potatoes grown in small valleys surrounding Kuapā Pond
Mid 1800’s - 1959 - Kuapā Pond functioned as a productive fish pond.
1848 - King Kamehameha III pronounced the Great Māhele, or land distribution, allowing the privatisation of land in Hawaii. Following The Great Mahele when it became possible to buy & sell property, most of the land and water rights in the area were acquired by Manuel De Pico, a Portuguese whaler for $800. Pico changed his name to Paiko. King Kamehameha gave 2,446-acres of Niu, including Kalauha’iha’i spring and pond, to Captain Alexander Adams who was commander of the Navy of The Kingdom of Hawai’i and loyal friend to King Kamehameha and Queen Ka’ahumanu.
1883- Maunalua area inherited by Princess Bernice Pauhi Bishop from Kamehameha land holdings and Bishop Estate leased the fishpond to a series of Hawaiian & Chinese Konohiki followed by farmers in the successive years. Cattle, pig, and poultry farms were leaseholders, flower farmers grew chrysanthemums, orchids, roses, gladiolas, carnations, dalias, plumerias and birds of paradise while truck farmers occupied the area growing corn, lettuce, string, lima and soy beans, eggplant, tomatoes, peanuts, peas, potatoes, carrots, turnips, cabbages, onions, radishes, squash, sorghums, watermelons and papaya.
1920’s Joseph Lukela was the Konohiki with rights to the Maunalua Bay fisheries
1921- Kuapā Pond acreage was reduced due to sediment fill to about 300 acres from its original 523 acres.
1930’s - 5,000 ft rock wall separated Kuapā Pond fishpond from the bay but was removed to be widened for the highway. Niu fishpond was also filled during this time to begin construction of houses.
In the 1930s and 1940s, ‘Aina Haina Valley was occupied by the Hind-Clarke Dairy Farm until its closing in 1948 when Wailupe fishpond gets filled and a five foot seawall was erected to build houses on top of it.
1950’s The Niu Valley estate was passed down to Adams’ granddaughter, Mary Lucas; Kalauhaʻihaʻi fishpond was later used for a family dairy by Mary Lucas. She started subdividing the property. Adam’s descendants remain in the area.
1959 - Population of Maunalua approximated around 2,000 people. Keahupua O Maunalua is dredged. The dredging and conversion of Kuapā Pond from a fish pond to a boating marina resulted in a new main channel created into Kuapā Pond. Majority of farming and ranching leases set to expire on January 1, 1960.
1961, Henry J. Kaiser entered into a long term land lease with Bishop Estate for 521 acre land parcel that would allow him to develop a large part of Maunalua into residential housing tracts and commercial properties. Over the next 5 years he would begin the development of what is now known as Hawaii Kai until his death on August 24, 1967 at the age of 85.
1967 - After becoming a hot tourist spot and suffering from overuse for decades, Hanauma Bay gets declared a protected marine life conservation area and underwater park.
1970/71 Native Hawaiian residents of Kalama Valley in Maunalua resist eminent domain and eviction to protest the condemnation of their land for residential and commercial development. Ed Michael, an executive who carried out orders to evict Native Hawaiian residents of Kalama Valley and raze their homes, declared: “In today’s modern world, the Hawaiian lifestyle should be illegal.” The protest is widely acknowledged as the beginning of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, modelled on the U.S. civil rights movement, seeking Native Hawaiian recognition, lands, and rights and eventually helps lead into the Hawaiian renaissance.
1970’s - An ongoing community effort aimed at preserving the Ka Iwi coastline started when plans were in the works to develop lands between Sandy Beach and Makapu’u as a resort and residential site. The prospects of traffic on Kalanianaole Highway, crowded beaches and pollution prompted “Save Our Surf” and other grassroots rumblings that fended off what was dubbed as “Makapu’u madness.” When the madness continued in the next decade, the “Save Sandy Beach” initiative took shape — with the Ka Iwi Coalition filing a lawsuit against the city to prevent it from granting a permit for condo construction along the beach, and collecting 40,000 signatures to qualify for a successful ballot initiative opposing development. Thanks to such efforts, these largely pristine open-space resources of the Ka Iwi coastline remain free of development.
1972 - Paiko Lagoon dredged by the Division of Fish and Game, converting Paikō from an intertidal lagoon into a marine embayment, resulting in less habitat availability for shorebirds and for prey species such as shore crabs. Once the dredging project was completed in 1974, the site was designated as a bird sanctuary for the native endangered Hawaiian stilt and other native birds
1980 - Nainoa Thompson of Niu Valley and descendent of Captain Alexander Adams is the first native Hawaiian in hundreds of years to use the ancient art of celestial navigation aboard a traditional Hawaiian voyaging canoe (Hōkūleʻa) from Hawai'i to Tahiti and back.
1981- Paiko Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary was established as a Marine Protected Area.
1990’s - Kalauha’iha’i spring damaged in a highway widening project that led to condemnation of the property and the diversion of over 1 million gallons of freshwater/day that flowed into the bay into the sewer line (where the water still goes to this day). During construction, they ruptured the lava tube connecting Kalauhaʻihaʻi Fishpond to the underground artesian source directly mauka of the pond that altered spring flow to the ocean, diverting the water to utility line trenches and the sewer.
1999 - Population of Maunalua region estimated at 50,000 people
2002 - Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH) declared Maunalua Bay an impaired water body, indicating pollution levels do not meet state standards for public safety. Causes of declining water quality in the bay include the channelization of natural streams, increased urban development, and sedimentation/runoff from land.
2007 - Maunalua Fishpond Heritage Center has been working to save Kalauhaʻihaʻi and the remaining fishponds in Maunalua including Kanewai spring; they happily reported that on July 11, 2013, they were given the keys to the property and permission to restore the fishpond and care for the grounds.
2016 - Ka Iwi Coalition, Trust For Public Land, and Livable Hawaii Kai Hui alongside many community members purchase 182 acres of private land vulnerable to development on the Ka Iwi Coastline to protect as conservation land in perpetuity.
2021 - Maunalua Fishpond Heritage Center after years of petitioning the city and county of Honolulu to restore the water at Kalauha’iha’i finally secure $1 million to go to DLNR Engineering Branch for the reconnection and long awaited repair of the water flow at Kalauhaʻihaʻi spring

Those Who Came Before Us

Joseph “Joe” Lukela
1879-1966

Joe Lukela was the famed Lawai’a (fisherman) of Maunalua Bay. Lukela held the konohiki rights, a traditional concept of ocean resource management, for over fifty years in the ocean area from Kuliʻouʻou to Makapuʻu, until his death in 1966. Lukela was respected for his traditional Hawaiian knowledge of the tides and currents and moon and stars. The ocean would turn black with fish under his management of the massive schools of mullet and akule that migrated to Maunalua. Lukela was also an expert in traditional Hawaiian navigation practices. He lived in a small fisherman’s shack on the beach across Kui Channel. Surrounding him was Keahupua O Maunalua, the largest fishpond in all Hawai’i. He would await the yearly mullet arrival by opening the makaha or sluice gate to allow them to enter and replenish. Lukela is remembered as a great provider of fish for the community who would generously share from his harvests. He created a flag system to protect the spawning fish and insure there were always fish left for tomorrow. We honor Joseph “Joe” Lukela for his Aloha for Maunalua Bay and for his love and practice of his Hawaiian culture which he passed down to his family, the Maunalua community and to future generations.

Laura Kalaukapu Low Lucas Thompson
1925-2020

Laura Kalaukapu Low Lucas Thompson was a lifetime resident of Niu, Oʻahu, and a renowned civic leader with a familial legacy of stewardship of Hawaiʻi’s lands and animals as well as natural and cultural resources. Laura, whose ancestor Alexander Adams received the ahupua’a of Niu Valley as a gift from King Kamehameha I, spent her childhood in a house on the beach near the ancient Kalauha’iha’i fishpond. “I remember how cold the water was, how clouds of opae would cluster near the rocks and how the pungent strings of limu eleele could be rolled into a ball,” which she later helped restore after it was cut off from the springs that fed it during the widening of Kalanianaole Highway in the 1990s.

“She was a powerful driving force to get the city and state to put back the fresh water, 1 million gallons of which were being diverted to a sewer plant in Kalama Valley,” Nainoa Thompson said. “She fought for I don’t know how many years and she won, they are giving it back.” Laura was a powerful force for good in the community but always chose to give her time quietly in the background for countless organisations and causes. She served as a board member of the Polynesian Voyaging Society for decades and was a guiding conscience in decisions that would ultimately affect thousands through PVS programs and voyages. She served on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve Advisory Council from its inception in 2001. She advocated for outreach and education programs for Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and was instrumental in securing it as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2010. Much of her time was dedicated toward resolving the dramatic deterioration of the coral reef ecosystems in Maunalua Bay. She was a founding member of the non-profit’s Maunalua Fishpond Heritage Center and Mālama Maunalua. “This is my home, this is my ʻāina, this is my responsibility,”.