Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

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He was way at the bottom. He had two gas, a fifteen and twelve horsepower gas. He had
a two cylinder diesel. He started it the same way, the air compressor first. Not bad you
can start ‘em like that. When I used to have to pump down from Waiki‘i below you got to
use the gas engine. Open the valves and push the bugga down. Hey, that darn gas
engine, the fly-wheel is about seven feet high. I get on top of that… [shaking his head] I
came back later look, I thought, “How in the hell did I ever get on to start this engine.”
Yes.
I know a couple times, we had to go call somebody to help me. Not enough weight to
push the wheel down.
Wow!
I only weighed about hundred-twenty pounds, that’s all.
I can tell, you were small build.
I used to go call one of the other guys, come help.
Hmm. Now you were saying too, that when you would go out with Alex Bell, sometimes
you asked him if there was a story about…
Yes, about mostly old stuff. But, he was funny, he would talk something, some he would
say, “No, that’s…you can’t say anything about.” They just didn’t want to talk about it, I
don’t know why.
Yes. When you were out on the field like Waiki‘i and you know the big hill above the
houses
Yes.
In the old maps that I left for you, you’ll see the name on one map from 1858, it says,
Pu‘u Ku‘ikahekili, now they call it Pu‘ukahekili.
Yes.
Did anyone ever tell you, like you know some place where they have a heiau, where they
worship before, or where someone lived ,that’s an old, old house site or…
Those days the houses or what, if they know about them, Kanaloa them, they don’t talk
about ‘em. Even Alex, he knew ‘em all, they had something here and there, but they
would never pin ‘em down. You couldn’t pin point it. Something about how they were
brought up or raised, it was bad luck or hard luck to talk.
Yes.
So they just didn’t pass it on.
May I ask you Mr. Hannah, did you ever see any burials, anywhere out in the field when
you were working at Waiki‘i or out
I used to ask Alex about ‘em, if had burials. The only ones he knew of, is down by the
Ke‘ämoku where they had the old corral below the road.
Yes.
There’s burials inside there.
Yes.
I tell ‘em, “Where” he tell, “Oh, by where they brand and stuff, inside.” He says, “There’s
a lot of burials down in that side.”
So, at Ke‘ämoku
Yes.
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:437