Makua — a centuries-old tug of war

By Dan Nakaso and William Cole
Advertiser Staff Writers

The land continues to change at Makua Valley, just as it has since the days of ancient Hawai'i.

An official with the Nature Conservancy believes that the Army has done a good job of managing natural resources within Makua Valley, where the first military maneuvers took place in 1932. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

"This area represents a great deal of legendary history," said Sara Collins, archaeologist with the historic preservation division of the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Sandalwood forests and a cooler global climate probably meant that Makua Valley was once wetter and greener than today. For centuries, the Hawaiians fished along Makua Beach and worked the lands toward the back of the valley, under the strict governance of the chiefs controlling the area, Collins said.

A survey for the Army this year cataloged six archaeological sites dating back centuries — including a heiau, or Hawaiian shrine, and several imu, or underground ovens. The valley may once have had enough water to support two large villages, the survey found.

The first written history of the valley dates back to the early 1800s, when Christian missionaries came upon a coastal village of several dozen people.

Around the same time, Hawaiian royalty were ordering sandalwood trees in the upper Wai'anae range to be cut down as currency for trade with the Western world.

Altering the forest, Collins said, "quite likely was the start of real change in the valley."

With deforestation came erosion. Then measles and whooping cough from Western contact killed off some of the people farming the back end of the valley, further altering the landscape.

The Great Mahele of 1848 forever changed the concept of who controls land in Hawai'i and paved the way for ranchers to move into Makua Valley.

In 1864, Joseph and John Boothe leased 2,323 acres from the Hawaiian government for a total of $175. Their cattle operation further denuded an area that was rapidly becoming more arid.

The leases on the land changed hands until Lincoln L. McCandless gained control in 1910 from the Territory of Hawai'i for his own cattle operation. Windmills were soon pumping groundwater from the valley's supply.

By 1924, the Department of War had become interested in the valley, at the same time that McCandless and Big Island rancher Frank Woods were battling for the land. In March 1928, Woods finally signed over his lease on Makua lands to McCandless for $1.

The next year, the territorial government told McCandless he had to relinquish 8.8 acres in the back of the valley for the Army's batteries — part of the Islands' coastal defense program. The Army then took control of seven privately owned acres to install howitzers.

The first Army-Navy maneuvers began in 1932, and the Department of War liked what it saw in Makua Valley. With the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, martial law gave the Army the power to take over.

By 1942, the Army controlled 6,600 acres in and around Makua Valley and Ka'ena Point. During the war, between 15,000 and 20,000 troops lived and trained in the combined area. Military exercises included naval and aerial bombing; battleships lobbed shells from the ocean; troops went aground from amphibious craft.

When the war ended, the territorial government wanted its share of the valley back. Instead, the War Department suggested that the public could use the valley "when they weren't using it," Collins said.

"The Army was buying up the private land and using the territorial government land. It was clear the Army's goal was to establish a permanent Makua training area."

As the war in Vietnam heated up, the military used Makua Valley for artillery, ordnance and live-weapons exercises.

In 1964, the federal government and state Board of Land and Natural Resources finally settled on a 65-year lease for a total of $1. Combining leased, fee-simple and the former land controlled by the Kingdom of Hawai'i, the Army had gained control of 4,190 acres.

While the Army promised to retain the natural beauty of the valley and to preserve archaeological sites at Makua, it continued to engage in high-impact activities in the valley for another 20 years.

In 1973, the Army disposed of about 3960 pounds of hazardous chemicals at Makua and continued with similar activities until 1976. Open burning of flammable compounds and hazardous chemicals and open detonation of surplus ordnance were conducted at Makua until 1992.

In its latest environmental assessment, the Army notes that before 1985, use of Makua Valley was unconstrained, and all conventional weapons systems used by an Army division were fired at Makua, including artillery, air defense artillery, helicopter gunnery, rockets, and tank main guns.

Over the years since, the quantities and types of munitions used at Makua have decreased, Army records show, while environmental safeguards have grown.

This year the Army reintroduced about 200 rare haha plants. Five other rare species of plants also have been reintroduced to the valley, said Kapua Kawelo, interim natural resources manager for the Army on O'ahu.

Other environmental protections include 8.5 miles of fenceline to keep feral goats and pigs away from endangered plants, as well as the creation of a 10-acre, fenced-off area to protect an endangered species of tree snail and a colony of a rare palm.

Pauline Sato, O'ahu program director for the Nature Conservancy, believes that the Army has done a good job of managing the valley's natural resources.

"They may have the strongest program on O'ahu," she said.