History & Heritage 2007


Fourth, it was good to hear again from Chester Lao, the BWS Hydrologist-Geologist, who informed me among other things: “The comments by Ohrt about the sheet pile have come true. Seventeen feet of fill has accumulated over the lowermost gate. I think over 9 decades, compaction of the hydraulic fill has occurred, once the reason for sagging and crushing of the wooden outlet pipe in the early stages.

Achieving optimum compaction with hydraulic fill in wet tropical conditions is a problem. The downstream face has been cleared of vegetation and the upstream face will be done next.” The comment about the sheet piles came from Lippincott’s report but a transposed sentence in my October article gave Chester the wrong impression. Chester also talked to me about some of his ideas to control the depth of the water in the reservoir, the discussion of which, no matter how tempting, would open up another long series of articles about the Dam!


Finally, by 1934 Reservoir No. 4 had become, according to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, “primarily a flood control structure. Originally, it was built for the storage of domestic water... but since 1919 it has not been used for domestic storage and not for the generation of hydro-electric power since 1929 [SB, 2/1/1934].” Plans for a large filtering plan near Reservoir No. 1 by the Oahu County Club never materialized. Instead, stocked with fish, the reservoir was first opened to fishermen on a trial basis on July 5, 1969 [SB, 6/9/1969].


And now that I, at least temporarily, have disposed of my coverage of the Dam, I must move on to other historical subjects of general interest. Guiding me in this choice are the numerous messages I’ve received from readers concerning matters great and small. Here is a short preview:


In April 2006, Karl Cheng of the Pacific Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC PAC) asked:

“Professor: I was wondering if you have looked up historical information, such as photos of construction, concreting, frame works etc. for Pearl Harbor shipyard Drydock #1. I am particularly interested in the structural elements of drydock construction.”


It turns out that I had some information about the facility because its planning and construction, including a spectacular collapse, coincided with the Nu`uanu Dam. It also had a connection with the Panama Canal. Some additional research on my part provided more details about this fascinating story, which I shared with Karl and his consultant Mike Yamasaki of the URS Corp. (now with the City & County).


On October, 2006, Stanley Solamillo of the Maui County Planning Dept., wrote: 

“I am having difficulty finding out the full name of an engineer who was hired by Hawaiian Pineapple Company to lay out Lanai City in 1923. His surname is Root, but I cannot find his first or middle names anywhere. Do you know anyone who would know the full name of this engineer?”


Some obscure documents I found revealed engineer Root’s first name, but also the impressive and progressive concepts he incorporated in his design of Lanai City. After I supplied the information to Stanley, he came back with: 


“Mahalo for supplying the name of the engineer who designed Lanai City. I am preparing a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places for the Pioneer Mill Office in Lahaina. It was built in 1910 under Hackfeld & Company and may be the first board-formed concrete building on the island, predating Paia Mill Offices (1911), HC&S Offices (1913), and the Lahaina Store (1916). The contractor was W.J. Moody; R. Renton Hind was the consulting engineer for Hackfeld & Company but I know nothing about him...”

R. Renton Hind, I found out, belonged to the “`Aina Haina” (“Land of Hind’s”) clan and had an international career ranging from the Philippines to the Mainland U.S. 


Also in Oct. 2006, John Young of Belt Collins inquired:


“We have a project in Hawaii Kai, at the back of Kamilonui Valley adjacent to and mauka of the existing farm lots. We see concrete tunnels on the site (see photos), which we believe were once a batch plant used by Kaiser. Would you have any suggestions on where we could start our research to determine the past use of the concrete tunnels.”


For this one, I had to do some original research that, although not contradicting John’s idea, added to the intrigue of Henry Kaiser’s dealings in Hawai`i.


In Dec. 2006, ASCE Past President Richard “Dick” Cox sent me an excerpt from Alexander & Baldwin’s 1988 publication “Ampersand” (the symbol that links the two names!) with a note: “Here is an article on the Wainiha power plant and the power line... included is the notice of the 100th anniversary of the hydro.”


This information, with its emphasis on some of the people involved, would nicely supplement the material I included in the May 2005 article on the private hydroelectric plant.


In July 2007, Brent Hatherill of JWM Productions, LLC, wrote:


“Hi I’m writing from a television program called Digging for the Truth for the History Channel after having noticed your History and Heritage section of the ASCE’s Hawaii website. I’m in the process of researching the discovery of the Kalanikupule warrior remains during the construction of Old Pali Rd. and was curious if you might be able to help point me in the right direction.”


The answer, of course, was yes, but I had to do some additional digging myself.


​These are some of the many leads from our readers. Keep an eye open for the details to come.