The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-03-09
THE H|LO TO HALANA ROAD
IMPORTANT PUBLIC WORK ABOUT
COMPLETED.
As Romantic and In Many Ways, as
Important An Undertaking AS the
Cape to Cairo Project.

Important An Undertaking AS the
Cape to Cairo Project.
The public works department is mo-
mentarily expecting the news from Ha-
wall, that the section of the great Ha-
makua coast road across Mauua gulch
is completed, and that the Hilo to Hala-
wa wagon road is open for travel from
! the windward to the leeward side of the
| island.
The completion of this road marks
a great stride in the progress of good
roads in the islands, and in the inn
| provement in means of communication
between different places, which, though
not separated by great distances are
separated by the toll of much travel
and the suffering of much inconve-
nience. The road about completed is
in many respects a remarkable piece of
work, not so much in the engineering
difficulties encountered though these
have not been few or slight, but in the
difficulties and expense of construction.
1t joins three of the most important
districts of Hawaii and makes commu-
nication, especially mail communication
easier between almost every district of
that island.
From Hilo it follows the coast line of
the districts of Hilo and Hamakua to
|
of the pail, here climbing down one of
the almost perpendicular sides of a
gulch and up the other, or climbing still
farther inland to get around the head
of the gulch. Sometimes 1t is a mere
shelf on perpendicular cliff whose feet
are in the ocean a hundred fathoms be-
low. Sometimes it leaves the ocean
several miles away For almost the
whole distance from Hilo to Kukuihae-
| lie 1t leads past sugar plantations, with
! fields of cane skirting it almost without
| a break. In the few places where the
canefelds are lost sight of in it's course,
| it traverses the primeval tropical forest
| with its dense and everlasting shade,
! or its bed is quarried out of the bare
| lava rock. At places it makes such
sharp turns on the face of the cliff,
! that until parapets are built it would
| be dangerous to travel along it by
| night.
For the most part it is a macadamized
road-bed sixteen to eighteen feet wide
with good grades. The road in it's en-
tirety is not new road. Sections of it
have been built from time to time con-
! Meeting a plantation here with one adj
| joining it, or leading from both to
landing place on the coast. The work
| which is now completed is the joining
together of these several sections of
road the improvement of grades in the
important new sections necessary to
make the road a through highway from
Kohala to Hilo.
Starting at the Kohala end the road
does not lead along the coast. Between
Multi and Kukuihaele, about IL miles
is geOlogicaly one of the oldest portions
of the island. This part of the coast
rises in the distance of about five miles,
from the sea level to the crest of the
kohala mountains nearly six thousand
feet high. The frequent torrents of rain
which have fallen on this slope during
the ages since the mountains rose out
OF the sea, have channelled the slope
into deep and wide gulches which it
would be the despair of the financier
If not of the engineer to span with
bridges, or to traverse with roads. No
attempt has been made to do either.
The most important of these gulches is
Waipio gulch, which, from the sea looks
like a II tremendous gorge riVen in the
mountain, extending back unfathoma-
bly, into the hills.
The road from Multi to Hilo starts in
the opposite direction to Hilo, past the
plantations along the windward Kohala
coast to Kohala. There it leaves the
sea and begins to climb the slopes of
the Kohala mountains around on the
leeward side. few miles from Ko-
hala another road branches off to Ma
hukona, and little farther on another
one branches off to Kawaihae The
main road pursues it's course along the
southern the leeward, slopes of the
Kohala mountains, rising to $500 feet
above the sea level to Waimea, the CEN
ter of region that in early days sent
wheat and potatoes to supply the gold
fields of California, and furnished beef
and mutton for fleets of whalers
From Waimea there is a road to the
seacoast at Kukuihaele just on the Hilo
side of the Waipio gulch, and from
this point the Hamakua coast road
begins. To traverse the distance from
Multi to Kukuhaele about twelve
miles, the road has gone clear around
the mountains, distance of thirty
miles.
But from Waimea another road leaves
to Honokaa, also on the coast but
nearer Hilo. From Honokaa to Ookala
the road has long been built. The I'M
finished section has been from Ookala
to Hakalau, past Laupahoehoe and
Maulua gulch and bay. Work has been
progressing from both ends and the
unfinished portion has been getting
shorter and shorter, AS it has short
ened, the pressure to have it complet-
ed has increased. Travellers from one
side of the island to the other have felt
more and more the inconvenience and
delay of waiting for steamers to cary
them, when only mile or two of hack.
less gulches and forest, prevented then
from passing straight through.
: The first man to go through on this
road, with any quantity of baggage, al
least in modern times, was David Ma.
chonachie, of 7. H. Davies e c.. HI
was at Ookala last December and
rather than retrace his steps, so back tC
kaWaihae, take steamer there for EIio
and then come up the coast within &
rev miles of Ookala, and then go bacl
10 Hilo again, he decided to push his
way through over the course Of the
then, two or three miles of unfinished
road, across the Maulua cullen. VIII
pack animals and Japanese carriers II
got his ton or more of samples and
sample cases across, the task occupying
two days. But even he was anticipa et
in this exploit, and that by corpse
A few days before he made his journey
a reckless rider seeking to go through
the same way was thrown from hi,
horse and killed. The corpse was Du
in coffin, and carried through tn
journey the living man had inten lee