Hakalau is a small

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

located along the Hamakua coast about north of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

at . The Hakalau Stream flows from the slopes of Mauna Kea, in the area of and flows into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. Hakalau was once a thriving,

multiethnic A multinational state or a multinational union is a sovereign entity that comprises two or more nations or states. This contrasts with a nation state, where a single nation accounts for the bulk of the population. Depending on the definition of ...

sugarcane

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

town up until the early 1960s when the plantation originally called Hakalau Plantation Company began to decline. In 1963 it was merged into the Pepeekeo Sugar Company, in 1973 merged into the Mauna Kea Sugar Company, and the mill shut down in 1974. Small family farms grow tropical fruits, taro, flowers, coffee, or cattle. Some historic sites remain from the plantation era. The privately owned sugar plantation manager's home, built in the early 20th century, still exists, along with two warehouses built in 1920 and an old theater, operating as the Hakalau post office, postal code 96710. Located just below the ocean cliff where the Hakalau stream meets the bay, the old sugar mill ruins are still visible. During the 19th century the Hakalau Bay was used to transfer goods and passengers from smaller boats to larger ships. Today, the bay is used mostly by local surfers and fisherman. Hakalau now has a small, day use, county owned park with picnic tables and ocean access for recreational use, located at the bottom of the Hakalau gulch. The

Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area on the Big Island of Hawaii. It is one of two units, along with the Kona Forest National Wildlife Refuge that is managed as part of the Big Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Ac ...

protects , located on the Mauna Kea slopes above the town. Located nearby is the

World Botanical Gardens World Botanical Gardens and Waterfalls is a commercial botanical gardens with a large waterfall, located between Umauma and Hakalau, at the corner of Leopolino Road and Hawaii Belt Road, State Highway 19, 16 miles north of Hilo, Island of ...

(WBGI).

Origins and early history of Hakalau

Until

Captain Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

made contact with Hawaiʻi (1778) the islands were inhabited by Native Hawaiians. The place-name traces to a couple of possible origins, the leading meaning is thought today to be a literal one, "many irdperches." After 1778, as with most of Hawaii, people from China and elsewhere came to the Hawaiian Islands. The initial Chinese immigrants to Hawaii Island were

Punti ''Punti'' ( zh, t=本地, j=bun2 dei6, l=locals) is a Cantonese endonym referring to the native Cantonese people of Guangdong and Guangxi. ''Punti'' designates Weitou dialect-speaking locals in contrast to other Yue Chinese speakers and other ...

and landed at Kohala on Hawaii Island. One immigrant in particular, Lau Sung Iu, was

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

("the guest people" of China) and came to Hawaii Island in this manner. He was ethnic northern Chinese, tall for his people at around . In China, he was an officer in the Chinese army, involved in one of the many conflicts involving the Qing Dynasty. He and another were smuggling powder across the Yalu River when they were discovered. He was shot and wounded but succeeded in escaping by hiding among the reeds in the river. He was later picked up by an American ship and did odd jobs aboard the vessel for passage. He made his way to Hawaii via Hong Kong. Being Hakka and tall, he attracted attention among the shorter and linguistically different Punti, who had also immigrated to Hawaii Island. He later became a merchant and opened a store outside of Hilo along the Hamakua Coast. The area where the store was located became a gathering or stopping point along the Hamakua Coast for travelers. The store, and later the area, became known as Hakalau, named after the tall Hakka proprietor and his actual name of Lau Sung Iu, owner of the general store. Thus, the name Hakalau.

References

External links

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Hawaii County, Hawaii Populated places on Hawaii (island) Unincorporated communities in Hawaii Populated coastal places in Hawaii

Origins and early history of Hakalau

See also

References

External links