Cattle Ranches

To commemorate Honokaa’s “Western Week” this month’s article of “Old Plantation Days” will attempt to relate how closely Sugar Plantations and Cattle Ranches of the past were intertwined.

Let’s start with Mr. Samuel Parker. Many of you may not know it but Parker owned vast land holdings that he sold to the early fledgling sugar plantations. The name of Parker (and wife Hattie) shows up in deeds in the late 1800’s. Parker bought many large ahupua’a land tracts from Princess Ruth Keelikolani and other Hawaiian nobles. These parcels were then sold to the plantations. Parker had land in Naalehu, Hilea, Laupahoehoe, and of course in the realms around Honokaa. Now let’s imagine that Parker decided not to sell to the sugar barons, and instead kept it all in ranching? Wow, Parker Ranch would have covered the entire island in all districts! But he didn’t, he sold these prime cultivating lands and sugar started their operations then grew ever larger.

In the early days of the sugar industry many of the plantations and camps were somewhat isolated. Supplies were brought in by ships anchored off shore or hauled by mule carts many miles from the distant ports of Hilo, Mahukona, or Kawaihae. If you wanted to buy some hamburger or maybe a gallon of milk the people of that era did not just hop into their car and drive to the supermarket. Food and supplies came from the plantation store. Where did the store get it’s milk or meat? It was from the Plantation Dairy and the Plantation Ranch operations! The plantations needed to be self-sufficient in order to keep the workers and their families supplied with common food staples. Perishable items like meat and milk did not take well to long travels, so Beef Cattle and Dairy Cattle were brought in to supply those needs.

The land holdings of the plantation were vast, coming from the ocean to way up near Mana Road on the slopes of Mauna Kea. The lands that were too high for sugar or too rocky were put into ranching and dairy. A look at old plantation maps will show several tell-tale signs about how ranching, dairies, and sugar plantations co-existed. Sites such as “Slaughter House”, “Milking Barn”, “Stable”, “Mule Paddock” are clearly depicted. There were camps named after their ranching connection, camps such as Stable Camp or Dairy Camp were common. One camp name is quite unique in Kau, “Waiubata Camp”. This is a compliation of Hawaiian for milk: Wai’u, with pidgin English for butter: “bata”…Buttermilk Camp! Today bottle collectors lust after the possibility of finding an old dairy milk bottle from these small plantation dairies such as these.

Mules and horses were the mode of transportation of men and supplies, so again we see a clear connection of sugarcane with things that are all considered “western”. One of the photos in this month’s edition shows a mule hauling flume segments through the fields. A search through the C. Brewer vault files for photos of western plantation action provided some beautiful shots. One shows a Paniolo and his horse, such an iconic photo.

Honokaa, Haina, Paauhau, Paauilo and the rest of Hamakua, HAVE A GREAT WESTERN WEEK!!