Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

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When I came here in ‘36, those buildings were already there.
Oh, okay.
And then there was a fellow by the name of Buzzard, and he was the boss man, and a
fellow by the name of Bob Lowrey, who was my brother Jimmy’s, brother-in-law. Worked
with him up here.
So, Martha’s brother, Lowrey Okay.
Worked up here. And then after the telephone got more modern, that might have been
the late ‘50s, maybe early ‘60s, when they gave this up. Then the ranch took over, and
previous to the ranch coming in here, everybody lived inside, where those trees are
[indicating the right hand side of the road].
Yes. And then there’s the stable and stuff, on just above the trees yeah
Yes. But that’s where the people all lived, below this road.
Yes.
And there was a school in there.
There was
And that took care of the Waiki‘i School kids, they had one teacher.
Now, was this school still in your time
Yes.
Do you have an idea of about when the school might have closed
[thinking] Gee, I went to Kahuä in about ‘44, I think maybe about ‘45, ‘46 around there,
because that’s when they were giving up on corn and getting less people up here.
[Closure of the school occurred in ca. 1955]
Yes, okay.
They were moving them to Waimea.
So it was really…the community at that time, was really tied to a lot of the agricultural
work The growing of the feed corn and the hay that they were doing
Entirely.
Oh.
They must have had twenty five or thirty employees up here.
Wow!
Each one with a family.
Hmm. Now you’d mentioned that there were Russians living up here
Yes. When I came here there was only one Russian left, so they were all before my time.
Okay. Do you remember the name of that last Russian family, by chance
[thinking]
Look at the turkeys [chuckles]. And there’s Turkey Pen.
Wasn’t Jess Hannah a Russian up here, Rally
[thinking] That was afterwards.
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:76