Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

KM: We would just start to go around a bend in the…the reason I’m asking you. Do you
remember hearing about the Laumai‘a Road or Laumai‘a Trail It appears that we have
this mish-mash of traditional where the old Hawaiians would come mauka of the forest
edge. Because it was easier to travel
PG: Yes.
KM: And it cut the distance, you know. Later, when the ranch came in and as things were
modified like that. Then through the CCC, we have these three or four different sections
of trail to road that you can find there.
PG: That’s why Douglas was mauka there, he was taking the short way.
KM: That’s right, he was picking the short way, exactly. It’s real intriguing, I’ll tell you we’ll get
around here. We’d just start coming around the bend in a little bit and oh, Johnny would
say, “You’ll see where the old section of the road is.” Sure enough, you come and there’s
the old road. You get to Pua‘äkala, he’d show and right there, there’s the old road. You
look down you can see the edge of the old road, right there where the paving was.
RG: Yes.
KM: We should go, if you like, we go holoholo
RG: Old Johnny, he should know, he spent all his life up there.
KM: Yes, that’s right, it’s amazing!
PG: Gosh, that would be interesting. My son is a good mechanic, we can take two cars in
case because you don’t want to get stranded up there. You know David...don’t you think
David would be interested in this
RG: No [chuckling].
PG: He’s very interested in…
RG: You can ask him [chuckling].
KM: Sure, that will be good fun, we should try to go holoholo sometime. Maybe Jimmy would
like to go too, just to go cruising. He enjoys your company, you know.
RG: You know Kepä, it’s been so long since I’ve been around there, I’ve forgotten.
PG: Yes, but that’s good, it would refresh your memory.
The spread of gorse across the mountain landscape:
KM: That’s the thing too, let’s come back to here for a moment. I’m curious if you, all I’m doing
is asking a question, if you’ve heard it, yes or no. The gorse that we spoke about when
we met last time also. Did you ever hear a story maybe, about how that gorse was
brought in
RG: [thinking] No. I’ve heard in later years, that it might have come in with sheep, in the
sheep’s wool, they had imported sheep from Australia or New Zealand. Somewhere
down there. And it was thought that maybe the seed came in, in the sheep’s wool when
they brought it. The first gorse that I ever heard of, or saw, was down on the lava. You
know where Pu‘u Huluhulu is
KM: Yes.
RG: Down on that road, going down towards Hilo someplace.
KM: Not on the 1936 lava though, the older lava flow over there Remember that 1935 Mauna
Loa eruption
RG: Yes, very well. [thinking] It could have been on that flow.
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:30