Hoʻokena beach

Hoʻokena is a beach location and village in Kauhako Bay,[1] South Kona that is now known for a beach park, but was formerly a steamer port. Hoʻokena grew from a fishing village to a significant port town by the late 19th century, second only to Kailua-Kona.[2]

As seen by Stevenson
"Hoʻokena is its name. ..On the immediate foreshore, under a low cliff, there stood some score of houses, trellised and verandaed in green and white; the whole surrounded and shaded by a grove of coco palms and fruit trees, springing as by a miracle from the bare lava. .. In front, the population of the neighborhood were gathered for the weekly incident, the passage of the steamer, sixty to eighty strong and attended by a disproportionate allowance of horses, mules, and donkeys..." Robert Louis Stevenson Travels in Hawaiʻi[3]

Storm damage and desertion

The port village was struck repeatedly by storms and from the 1930s residents moved further north up the hill. By 1959 a travel journalist could record: "In the deserted homes of Hookena hand-carved chests of drawers and tables were left behind. The bell-rope still dangles, but a strong pull on it might bring the termite-riddled steeple crashing into the church. [4] The steeple did collapse in 1983.

References
  1. U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 1912 "Kauhako Bay , about 21,2 miles northward of Lepeomoa Rock , is marked at its head by a pali , or cliff , which is about 14 mile long and about 150 feet high at its southerly end . The bay is a slight indentation in the coast , and the village of Hookena is located on the lowland in front of the northerly end of the pali . A church with steeple is a prominent landmark in the northerly end of the village"
  2. Lonely Planet Hawaii the Big Island Adam Karlin, Luci Yamamoto · 2017 "Hoʻokena was once a bustling Hawaiian village. Novelist Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about his 1889 visit here in Travels in Hawaii. In the 1890s, Chinese immigrants moved in, a tavern and a hotel opened, and the town got rougher and ..."
  3. page 8
  4. Paradise of the Pacific - Volume 71, Issues 1-10 -1959 Page 29 "One-by-one, starting in about 1935, the Hawaiian families of Hookena began moving up closer to the highway. - Today, the ... tables were left behind. The bell-rope still dangles, but a strong pull on it might bring the termite-riddled steeple crashing into the church. Descendants of the villagers of Hookena and Kealia return to"

Images of Old Hawai'i - Hoʻokena

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