History & Culture

 (Fall/Winter 2005-2006) From the lone shieling to the misty island Mountains divide us, and the waste of seas! Still, the blood is strong- the heart is Highland! and we in...

 (June 1997) Scholars theorize that of the twenty-seven plants thought to have been brought to the Islands by the first Polynesian explorers, only two - kamani and kukui - bore seeds...

 (1998) Somewhere in "Hidden Hawaii", there remains a place of mystery, intrigue, and places to be explored. Kelly Slater sat on the black stone wall, staring out at the moving blue...

 (February 1998) The Big Island of Hawaii's two tallest volcanos, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, have elevations reaching 13,677 feet and 13,796 feet respectively. 

(1995) There is an unusual activity available for the more adventurous tourist on the Big Island, it's called petroglyph hunting. On such a hunt, bring water, good shoes, and sunscreen. 

 (January 1998) "The latest mania in Kohala is going to the station at Hawi, below Hind's. On a fine day even the ladies may be seen wending their way to...

 (May 1998) Hundreds of years before European seafarers sailed into Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island, early Polynesians systematically navigated through 16 million square miles of the Pacific. 

(Spring/Summer 1999) The tsunami that pounded the northeastern shores of the Big Island on April 1, 1946 was the cruelest April Fool’s trick that Mother Nature could have played.

 (Spring/Summer 2000) By the time King Kamehameha the Great waged war to unite the Hawaiian Islands under his rule, Europeans had introduced guns and cannons to a population which previously had...

 (Winter 1999) Weaving was once such a highly developed skill that many of the pieces rendered by artistic Hawaiian women of old are considered works of art today. Deft fingers propelled...

 (Fall/Winter 2001-2002) In 1832, David Douglas, a respected Scottish botanist, was found dead in a pit dug to trap wild bullocks at Kaluakauka, in the ahupua'a (land division) of Laupahoehoe.

 (July 1998) Without Queen Kaahumanu, the favorite wife of King Kamehameha I, it is doubtful that the man who united the Hawaiian Islands under his royal reign would have succeeded...

(Fall 1998) When there is no written language imagine selling property, traveling without any form of identification, or proving who your parents are, all without a paper trail. Imagine, as...

(Fall/Winter 2000-2001) Just a few blocks up from picturesque Hilo Bay in downtown Hilo, on Haili Street, stand two buildings. One is old-the oldest wooden frame structure on the island, in...