Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

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No, I don’t think you can find very many.
Yes. So this is the old Spencer house
That’s right.
And the paddock was right across
Right in here.
Is that
Lucy Henriques.
Pu‘uloa
Pu‘uloa.
Okay.
You don’t see very many mules now. They used to use them down in Waipi‘o, the valley
down below. They used to make ‘ökolehao, a liquor made out of ti root, they fermented it.
They hauled ‘ökolehao out in demijons on mule back. They would have maybe ten or a
dozen mules tied together with four or five gallons of ‘ökolehao on each mule. They’d
come up Mud Lane and hit the main highway. There used to be… Now this is a story that
I heard, I never saw it. A liquor inspector would be up here to check them out. The China
men were so smart that they’d put the ‘ökolehao on the wild mules and the taro on the
other mules. They would walk them up and the inspector would be here waiting for them.
The inspector would go to each mule and the wild mules with the ‘ökolehao, they would
all move away and the tame one’s had the taro. They’d stand and let the inspector look
them over.
[chuckling]
The inspector finally gave up and he wouldn’t try and catch the wild mules. He’d say,
“Oh, that must be taro, so we let it go.” And that’s the one that’s carrying the ‘ökolehao.
Did you hear the names of any of the families or the guys that were running the mules
like that
No.
Interesting, yes.
Around what time does this story come from
I guess that was about in the ‘20s. Kepä would know more.
You know, we see in some of the old communications that by the 1880s they were doing
‘ökolehao back on the whole mountain valleys back here. They were arguing about
whether they should even formally build the Government Trail on the back of the
mountain because it was only being used by ‘awa growers and ‘ökolehao brewers.
[chuckles]
They used the mules when they were building the ditch up there to get water to
Hämäkua. One story I heard about mules were, they used to tie the mules together.
Maybe about ten or fifteen, all tied together. They would only have one man to lead them
down the trail. One time the last mule was hungry and wanted to eat grass, and it
reached over the bank to eat grass and it slipped and fell over the bank and pulled each
one over.
‘Auwë!
They had about maybe eight or ten mules in all, fell down, all died.
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:617