Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

KM: Right here. All out in the grass field, the polo field.
HK: Is that right
KM: So, they’re taking down the stage and stuff now.
HK: We had house guests, and they came up here to enjoy the festival.
KM: Oh good, good.
HK: You see how nice the pastures are here. We had the least problem with these pastures
here because they were all in top shape and good grass. Strong grass.
KM: Beautiful! This, down slope is He‘ewai side
HK: He‘ewai, yes. Small He‘ewai and Big He‘ewai down here.
KM: Yes. Was there [thinking] another water station out this side later
HK: Water station
KM: You know a water pump, where they brought the water out to this side too
HK: [thinking]
KM: No more
HK: [thinking] No more. All gravity flow from up here go down.
KM: Yes.
HK: You know interesting thing, Ke‘ämoku is one of the stations on Parker Ranch where the
water system was by gravity flow. And the pressure was so strong, by the time it reached
Ke‘ämoku. We had a floater in the tank, the floater would stop the flow of the water as
soon as it got full.
KM: Uh-hmm.
HK: However, at the very bottom, the last tank to be filled with water, the floater cannot
handle the pressure because of the tremendous force of the water.
KM: You’re kidding! All downhill right
HK: Yes.
KM: It’s a long line.
HK: So what happened is since the floater cannot stop the flow of the water, when the tank
gets full, they let the water flow over the tank and into the pasture. Then they created a
little ravine so that overflow goes in the ravine and straight out in the pasture.
KM: That must have been a popular pasture too.
HK: Yes!
[Entering pasture land on Pu‘u Ku‘ikahekili.]
HK: Oh, my gosh what is this [looking at a plant on the hill side] This reminds me of…oh,
that’s a wild flower.
KM: Yes, wild flowers.
HK: I thought it was the gorse.
KM: No. Fortunately no, but you’re right, from afar it did look.
HK: [chuckling]
KM: I saw when you said, “Oh, my gosh!” Okay, I’m going to just open the gate, I’ll be right
back…
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:482