Moku'ula

Moku'ula, most notably associated with King Kamehameha III's royal residential complex in Lāhainā, is a cultural site of great significance in Hawaii's history. Located within Loko o Mokuhinia, a large spring fed natural wetland, the island of Moku'ula served as the home to centuries of ruling chiefs and was a center of traditional religious and political life.

The sacred site of Moku'ula has ties back to Maui's great King Pi'lani, who is believed to have lived on the ocean side of the freshwater pond now known as Loko o Mokuhinia. Upon the death of King Pi'ilani's daughter, Kihawahine, the princess was transformed into a sacred mo'o; thereafter referred to as Kihawahine Mokuhinia Kalama'ula. The fishpond associated with her family was given its name, Loko o Mokuhinia. It is believed that within Loko o Mokuhinia is where mo`o Kihawahine, half-dragon and half-woman, lived and guarded the sacred island of Moku'ula.

In the nineteenth-century Moku'ula became the private residence of King Kamehameha III and his court, as well as, a piko of the umbilicus for the Hawaiian Kingdom. Moku'ula was the intersection of social, economic, and political activities, and thus where King Kamehameha III chose to rule the Hawaiian kingdom. It was during his time on the island, King Kamehameha III built the infamous mausoleum for his beloved mother, Keopuolani, Princess Nahienaena, her child, and other members of the royal family. The mausoleum existed on the island from 1837 until around 1884 when the burials were relocated to Waine'e Church or O'ahu.

In response to the Hawaiian economy becoming more entwined with foreign commerce, King Kamehameha III strategically relocated the Hawaiian capital from the whaling port of Lahaina on Maui to the modern location in Honolulu on Oahu in 1850. Although Moku'ula was no longer the capital, the island continued to be maintained for the King until his death. After the death of King Kamehameha III, Moku'ula was abandoned by his successors and slowly fell into a state of dilapidation.

When the first explorers arrived in Lāhainā, they encountered a very different landscape than today. Referred to as the ‘Venice of the Pacific’, Lāhainā was once abundant with freshwater streams and rivulets.

Rich freshwater sources moved slowly down from the Kaua’ula Valley through surface streams and underground lava tubes. Water traveling underground would often percolate to the surface to create springs and wetlands.

Much of the water that supplied Loko o Mokuhinia and the rest of the Lāhainā wetlands was primarily supplied by a network of springs bubbling out of a series of subterranean solutional caves or sinkholes; the most famous being Kalua o Kiha – the watery grotto residence or “pit” of the Mo`o Kihawahine that purportedly lies directly under Moku`ula island.

A Mo`o is traditionally associated with flowing water and is believed to reside in numerous fresh and brackish ponds on Maui and throughout the archipelago. Often associated with more than one site, these Chthonic deities are mobile – utilizing subterranean lava tubes and solutional caves to fluidly travel beneath the surface of Maui from pond to pond.

Shortly after the first European contact, whaling ships and other interested parties began arriving on the shores of Lāhainā. Beginning in 1819, whalers stopped in Lāhainā during spring and fall while taking a break from hunting whales in the North and South Pacific. During these times, hundreds of sailors awakened the peaceful town of Lāhainā. Soon thereafter, the “Venice of the Pacific” became known as “Rotten Row” due to its numerous bars and raucous patrons.

Over time the whaling industry subsided and a new extractive industry took hold – industrial plantations. Once sugar became a significant crop, sugarcane production began to alter Lāhainā's landscape. As waters were diverted from the mountains above Lāhainā to the plantation's fields, waterways and spring-fed ponds below began to disappear. Over time Loko o Mokuhinia became a stagnant unpleasant-smelling breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The once 17+ acre magnificent wetland – and crowning jewel of Hawaiian culture – can be seen slowly shrinking over time as waters are diverted by the burgeoning plantation system

The 1840s reconstructed map of Lāhainā displays Loko o Mokuhinia and the surrounding area as thriving wetlands. By the 1860s, the banks of Loko o Mokuhinia had significantly receded and portions of this once sacred pond are now relegated to the lowly title of “marsh”. These two maps tell a tale of the neglect and decline of Moku`ula Island and Loko o Mokuhinia.

In response to the mosquito infestation and hygienic concerns related to the "marsh", plantation managers initiated a public project to have the waters of Loko o Mokuhinia backfilled. In 1917, Mokuhinia was filled and the sacred site of Moku’ula became a much-championed baseball diamond for plantation workers hosting its first game in 1918.

Evaluation of the stratigraphy seems to indicate multiple fill events as this area apparently continued to “sink” over time due to the effects of an active karst system. A second fill event took place during the dredging of the Lāhainā Harbor channel in 1954 and the revamping of the park in 1955.

A Karst is a landscape with surface and underground features like caves, sinkholes, disappearing streams, and subsurface drainage. These features result when a soluble form of rock, such as limestone, comes in contact with slightly acidic water. When the increasingly acidic water comes into contact with the soluble rock, e.g., limestone, and dissolves it to create an underground drainage network that eventually resurfaces at a spring, wetland, river, or pond.

The dusty red soil on slopes above Lāhainā, once covered in heavily-irrigated, verdant sugar cane fields, is known as Oxisol.   Oxisol is formed from basic igneous rock combined with alluvial deposits – including coral and gravel.  The Lahaina Series Oxisol is acidic.  Rainwater traveling down from the West Maui Mountains to Kalua`ehu percolates down through the acidic soils above and enters into a series of lava tubes that carry it to the alluvial plain far below.  

When the increasingly acidic groundwater comes into contact with the soluble rock, e.g., limestone, it dissolves it forming a complex network of solutional passageways that function as a natural drainage system. Over time, some of these “drains” eroded, forming larger passages and caves, increasing the flow of water from the mountain to the sea (Gunn 2004).  According to the 1995 Bishop Museum Phase I Final Report, 

“Initial documentation has shown the pondfield system in Kalua`ehu to have been a very dynamic system – the fertility of Lahaina in leeward West Maui depended on it” (Klieger and Lebo, 1995, Pg. 8).

In 2001, UH- Mānoa’s SOEST Sustainable Seas Expedition conducted an extensive mapping project focusing on the karst system joining West Maui and Lāna`i.   During the last glacial maximum (LGM), about 21,000 years ago, the Hawaiian Islands of Maui, Lanai, and Molokai were interconnected by limestone bridges, creating a super-island known as Maui-Nui -"Drowned Reefs and Antecedent Karst Topography, Au'au channel, S.E. Hawaiian Islands"

This area was a wetland long before human contact.  Water percolating through the West Maui karst system provides a constant subterranean flow through a network of lava tubes and solutional caves.  When the first Polynesians arrived; they recognized the value of plentiful water in an area with little rainfall and - with skill and ingenuity - indeed built on, enhanced, modified, personified, and deified what were naturally occurring anchialine ponds transforming them into a precious cultural resource

Traditional place names in Lāhainā, such as Waine`e (Flowing Waters) to the South and Kahoma (Thin or Hollow) to the North, provide important clues about what lies above and below.

To this day, brackish water can be seen being pushed up through the two, distinct layers of historic fill during times of heavy rains and/or high tides, leaving large patches of sea salt on the surface when the waters recede

Fresh water continues to drain into Makila Beach at the site of the old sluice gate of Loko o Nalehu and Mokuhinia between the present-day 505 Front Street complex and Lahaina Shores.

Located within the footprint of Loko o Nalehu, 505 Front Street has two large sump pumps continuously operating to remove the abundant groundwater to prevent their underground parking lot from flooding.

**Paragraph--Drainage systems were installed to move waters from wetlands to oceans**