Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

Discusses travel to the summit region of Mauna Kea; ranching operations on the ‘äina mauna;
and camaraderie among the cowboys:
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…Now, you brought up a couple of, what to me, are real important points. Just as you
were standing around here looking. We’re basically at, what they call Mauna Kea State
Park. Did the ranch have anything here at any time
No.
Okay. The territory by your time, you know forestry, they had stuff going here. Bill Bryan
them
Right.
Okay. You said, looking around here, the forest used to be a lot thicker, there used to be
more trees right
Right.
Mämane
Mostly naio.
Oh, naio.
Some mämane, but mostly naio. When we would bring sheep from Kalai‘eha down to
Pu‘u Mau‘u we’d come down the road. The road goes through here.
Straight through right
Yes.
No more this big bend that has now
No more.
Did the road come straight, in fact at the little intersection there’s a road that cuts, that’s it
[describing the dirt road that cuts across the entrance to the State Park from Saddle
Road].
Yes.
That’s the road that goes straight out to Kalai‘eha
Yes. So, we’d bring sheep down, and there was so many wild sheep in this area here.
We didn’t want the tame sheep to mix with the wild sheep because we’d lose them. So,
to get rid of the wild sheep off the road here, going down, one fella would come down
with a thirty-thirty rifle and he’d blow a few shots and all the wild sheep would take off. It
would be a clear shot down.
This crew, about how many people, cowboys, would be
About six.
Six like that, okay. You folks would run from Kalai‘eha, the road cuts straight through
almost immediately from the Kalai‘eha compound straight out, come to here.
Yes.
Connect back to this point, so the big bend that we see now, that’s new. Go up Pu‘u
Mau‘u, you were sharing, and as we were getting ready for lunch. You were sharing what
to me is a good story. You said a group of cowboys, what happened, who made lunch
Well, for this particular trip, you’d leave Kalai‘eha after lunch so you come down, drop the
sheep and then you’d get home about dinner time. Other than that, it was the cook at
Kalai‘eha.
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:109