Discovery Harbor, Kau

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

I dunno, OpenD, which areas of Puna were sugar?

I dunno, because they were all long gone before I arrived, and I never really thought about it much. What i do know is that the largest old house in my area in Volcano was built by the sugar plantation manager, and that his son (or maybe grandson, now that I think about it), who must be in his 60s now, was once a machinist at the sugar mill and still lives in that house. Also pre-WWII the area was predominantly people of Japanese descent, and a lot of them were sugar workers. That's one reason there are so many small lots in the area, which were meant to make more housing affordable to the workers.

Also, I believe the Shipmans, who used to own most of Puna, once had a lot of land in sugar. And now the eucalyptus trees they planted to stabilize the soil after the sugar industry collapse are going to be harvested as biofuel for power generation. And I've heard that some folks as far down as Ka'u can't have vegetable gardens at home because of the residual arsenic in the soil from years of poisoning cane rats there.

Now I'm curious. I'll have to dig into this.

[hotzcatz]

Almost all the Hamakua coast was sugar and you'd see the fields as you drove up the coast. Sugar is a two year crop so some years you'd be driving in a tunnel of waving green, then it would all be gone and nothing but bare furrowed fields. Then the cane would grow up to ten feet tall again and the views would disappear into green. Big huge fast cane haul trucks would be all over the place zooming around bristling with cane sticking out the sides. There was a processing plant in Hilo and the sugar was brought in to the processing plant by the train, the flumes and eventually by trucks. There were also these nifty "sky hooks" which would fly the cane down hill to the processing plants. There were also cane processing plants in Pepeeko (or was it Papaikou?), Honomu, Hakalau, (I don't think Kolekole or Laupahoehoe had one even though ocean access is available there), there may have been a mill in Papaaloa, Kawiki Sugar was in Ookala and it eventually became Hamakua Sugar, I think it was. Pauuilo had a mill and Haina camp below Honokaa had a mill. Was there one in Paauhau as well?

Each of these mills had their own accompanying groups of housing for the workers which were called "camps". Each camp would have their own stores, doctors, machine shops, gyms, etc. They were little company towns and everyone had everything taken care of by the company. Ka'u had sugar and several mills, too, I think.

They are harvesting the eucalyptus trees along the Hamakua coast, not in Puna. At least, that I know of. I think they planted those as a money making plan to replace the sugar industry, they weren't really concerned with soil or they wouldn't have planted eucalyptus. When sugar went down, there wasn't any work for anyone or anything to replace it and they were looking for another big business to fill the gap. It was dismal, nobody had any work anywhere. The forestry industry was supposed to step in and provide a bright future for everyone, but that didn't happen. Oji paper mill said they'd build a mill if everyone planted so many acres in trees. After the trees were planted, then I heard Oji asked for more trees before they'd build the papermill. Everyone said they'd planted enough trees and no more acres in trees so Oji never built the mill. Now the trees are being harvested and shipped off island. I'd heard someone wants to make plywood with them, I dunno, I've not been keeping track for the past several years. Maybe they are being shipped to Oji after all. I wish they would have chosen to plant all that land with diversified local hardwoods. Then we'd have a lot of trees to start a lot of wood crafting businesses instead of trying to compete with bulk tree production against places that have a whole lot more area.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Ka'u had sugar and several mills, too, I think.

From what I've been able to determine so far, the Ka'u Sugar Company closed the last sugar mill on the Big Island, in Pahala, in 1996. Renamed Ka'u Agribusiness it now grows macadamia nuts and coffee.

I found an earlier reference to Naalehu Sugar Company, but no details. Also references to Ola'a Sugar Company (Ola'a Forest Preserve is east of Volcano, mauka the highway, and Ola'a was the original name for Kea'au), and Kea'au Sugar Company (the Shipmans!) had a mill, and there was also Puna Sugar company, which closed in 1982. I also found references to Pahoa, Glenwood, and Mountain View as all having spurs to the sugar train. So my best guess is that there was sugarcane cultivation going on all across Puna at one time.

Here's an interesting blurb on it:

"From its humble beginnings in 1899, the sugar industry in Keaau began to flourish when entrepreneur Dillingham chose the fertile soils of Keaau as the cite of his famed Ola'a Sugar Mill. W.H Shipman, another pioneer cane tycoon, created the Puna Sugar Company which has a mill and central office in Keaau. In 1984, when the success of the cane industry drew to a close, the Puna Sugar Company ended its operations and Shipman focused on other agricultural products apart from cane, though they still set foot in Keaau. At present, former sugar planters channeled their interest and effort in harvesting various crops each year.

Keaau's historic affair with sugar is unforgettable. Whenever one mentions this town, images of cane plantations are what residents and some tourists picture. Even if the cane industry was already replaced by other forms of industries, Keaau will always be associated with sugar. "

Keaau

Fascinating history. OK, now I'm kinda hooked.

Here's a funny factoid I tripped over while searching for this stuff... macadamia nuts are native to Australia, where they were considered a weed.

[hotzcatz]

Aha! There was sugar there in Keaau and Puna.

UHM Library Hawaiian Collection HSPA - Plantations - Puna Sugar Co.

I'm much more familiar with the sugar plantations up the coast above Hilo, but apparently there were some around Keaau, too. Probably when the sugar went down in Puna, the workers migrated up to the camps along the Hamakua coast. When - was it Ronny Raygun or Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA?, anyway, when NAFTA was signed, all the government subsidies for U.S. grown sugar and tariffs on imported sugar were removed, then growing sugar cane in Hawaii wasn't profitable anymore. Growing cane in Hawaii could probably have survived one or the other of those two events, but both at the same time killed it. Sugar cane was grown in Hawaii, then processed to it's "raw" state that still has some molasses on it and then crystallized. At that point it was shipped to the mainland for further processing and packaging. C & H sugar was one of the big processing places.

The raw sugar was what the workers used in their homes. I remember a friend gave me a Hawaiian Cement bag full of raw sugar. One of their family members worked at Hawaiian Cement and had access to the bags, one of their other family members worked at the sugar plant and had access to the raw sugar. So, they'd put raw sugar in the Hawaiian Cement bags and those bags of sugar would end up at the houses of family and friends. It was really tasty sugar and fortunately sugar has a long shelf life since it takes awhile to go through a 100# bag of sugar.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

When - was it Ronny Raygun or Bill Clinton who signed NAFTA?,

Actually, it was George H.W. Bush who signed the treaty, in 1992, although it wasn't ratified by Congress until Clinton's term.

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

anyway, when NAFTA was signed, all the government subsidies for U.S. grown sugar and tariffs on imported sugar were removed, then growing sugar cane in Hawaii wasn't profitable anymore.

At the time the Ka'u mill was shut down it was costing $1.50 a pound to produce the sugar, which only sold for 60 cents. Obviously that was unsustainable.

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

At that point it was shipped to the mainland for further processing and packaging. C & H sugar was one of the big processing places.

Yep, sure was. California & Hawaiian Sugar, with a little hibiscus flower in the pink & blue logo. They're still in business, near San Francisco, but the raw sugar comes from elsewhere now. I remember the TV ads from long ago, with the kids' choir singing the call and response jingle:

C and H... (C and H)
Pure cane sugar... (Pure cane sugar)
From Hawai'i... (From Hawai'i)
Shining in the sun.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by OpenD

They're still in business, near San Francisco, but the raw sugar comes from elsewhere now.

I did a project at C&H about 10 years ago - the bulk of the sugar cane is from the Philippines.

The C&H building is well over 100 years old - what strikes you very quckly inside the building is the extremely high brick walls and it makes you think to yourself - this is not the best place to be in an earthquake.