Mount Tantalus (Puʻu ʻōhiʻa)
[Edward B. Scott, "The Saga of the Sandwich Islands". Nevada: Sierra-Tahoe Publishing Co., 1968.] is an extinct
cinder cone in the southern
Koolau Range on the
Hawaiian Island
The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Ku ...
of
Oahu
Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O ...
. It also has a
summit crater, Tantalus Crater. The cinder cone formed after the demise of Koolau Volcano, during a time of
rejuvenated-stage volcanism in southeastern Oahu that also formed
Punchbowl Crater
Punchbowl Crater is an extinct volcanic tuff cone located in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is the location of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
The crater was formed some 75,000 to 100,000 years ago during the secondary activity of the H ...
,
Diamond Head and
Koko Head as part of the
Honolulu Volcanics
The Honolulu Volcanics are a group of volcanoes which form a volcanic field on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, more specifically in that island's southeastern sector and in the city of Honolulu from Pearl Harbor to the Mokapu Peninsula. It is p ...
. Tantalus overlooks the modern city of
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
, which is built on top of Tantalus cinders.
![Round Top Radio Facility, Oahu, Hawaii 05](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Round_Top_Radio_Facility%2C_Oahu%2C_Hawaii_05.jpg)
History
The Tantalus Loop was a popular wagon trail from the late 1800s for views and picnic parties. It had "rugged canyons, wooded valleys, aromatic
eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...
giants,
stag-horn fern, pungent
guava",
monkeypod, shower
cassias, and
myrtle, with a two-room, corrugated-roofed "Half-Way House", managed by 1900s forester David Haugh, offering a welcome stop for trekkers.
Many immigrant families of note settled there "in cool picturesque seclusion", including the Waterhouses, Giffords, Wilders, Dickeys, Davies, Isenbergs, Browns, and Alexanders.
A cliff of pitch-black volcanic sand was an attraction on Tantalus until it was mined for
blacktop
Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt, blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac, bitumen macadam, or rolled asphalt in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parkin ...
ping paths and yards.
As part of the U.S. Army's
coastal artillery
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications.
From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of ...
defense system, a fire-control station was built on Tantalus. In conjunction with the fire-control station at
Diamond Head, the two positions were used to control coast artillery batteries: at Fort DeRussey and Fort Ruger. The southern slope of Tantalus was bombed in
Operation K
was a Japanese naval operation in World War II, intended as reconnaissance of Pearl Harbor and disruption of repair and salvage operations following the surprise attack on 7 December 1941. It culminated on 4 March 1942, with an unsucces ...
, Japan's unsuccessful second attack on Oahu, which took place March 4, 1942.
Today, Tantalus is a popular destination for hikers, road bicyclists, and skateboarders as well as one of the most frequented tourist spots on Oahu. Starting in 1974, The Tantalus Time Trial, a bicycle race from the bottom to the top of the loop, is the longest continuously running cycling race in Hawai‘i.
Etymology
Tantalus was named in the 19th century by students from Honolulu's
Punahou School for
Tantalus
Tantalus ( grc, Τάνταλος ) was a Greek mythological figure, most famous for his punishment in Tartarus: he was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit ever eluding his grasp, and the wate ...
, the mythological Greek whose eternal punishment in Hades was to be frustrated and tempted by food and water receding out of his reach, unable to quench his thirst or hunger. "Perhaps similarly, as the students climbed, the peak seemed always to recede." This group of students also named other Hawaiian summits like
Olympus,
Round Top and
Sugarloaf
A sugarloaf was the usual form in which refined sugar was produced and sold until the late 19th century, when granulated and cube sugars were introduced. A tall cone with a rounded top was the end product of a process in which dark molasses, a r ...
.
[Mary Kawena Pukui, Samuel H. Elbert, and Esther T. Mookini, "Place Names of Hawaii". Hawaii: The University Press of Hawaii, 1974, p. 213.]
Popular culture
Tantalus Crater is a setting in the novel ''
Micro'' by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston.
References
Volcanoes of Oahu
Cinder cones of the United States
Mountains of Hawaii
Landforms of Oahu
Extinct volcanoes
Pleistocene volcanoes
Pleistocene Oceania
Cenozoic Hawaii
Tourist attractions in Honolulu County, Hawaii
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