Improvements at heiau in works
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor
A $2.1 million visitor center and other improvements are planned for the Big Island's Pu'ukohola Heiau, a national historic site that played a key role in the founding of the Hawaiian kingdom.
Comments on the project may be mailed to Daniel Kawaiaea Jr. at P.O. Box 44340, Kawaihae, HI 96743, or e-mailed to PUHESuperintendent@nps.gov. Kawaiaea also can be reached at (808) 882-7218.
The project involves building a new visitor center below and to the south of the hillside heiau, with access provided from New Spencer Beach Road. Three buildings at the top of the hill that are now used as the visitor center will be moved out of view and used for park staff.
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A portion of the hiking trail will be moved farther south and a separate restroom building will be built.
Pu'ukohola Superintendent Daniel Kawaiaea Jr., a Hilo native who has worked 22 years for the National Park Service, said money for the project is contained in President Bush's proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. An environmental assessment should be available for public review and comment in a few months and, if all goes well, construction could start in the spring of 2004, he said.
Pu'ukohola, or "Hill of the Humpbacked Whale," attracts nearly 200,000 visitors a year to the park overlooking Kawaihae Bay on the Kona-Kohala coast. The heiau is considered a highly significant cultural site because it is the only structure in the Islands directly associated with the founding of the Hawaiian kingdom.
Following the advice of a kahuna, Kamehameha the Great built the massive stone temple between 1790 and 1791 to honor the war god Kuka'ilimoku. He dedicated the heiau by sacrificing his chief rival, and from there launched his final effort to consolidate the islands into a unified kingdom.
The 85-acre park includes the smaller Mailekini Heiau and the submerged Hale-o-Kapuni heiau believed to have been a temple to shark gods. It also includes the former homestead of British sailor John Young, who became Kamehameha's adviser and close friend, and helped the powerful ali'i take advantage of Western weapons.
The park was designated a national historic site in 1972.
Kawaiaea said Big Island residents and members of the Native Hawaiian community are participating in the planning and design process for the visitor center. "We don't want it to overpower the landscape or the temple site itself. We want something that will blend with the surroundings," he said.
The center likely will have the latest interactive technology, according to Kawaiaea, including a virtual tour of the site for visitors who may not be able to walk on the steep paths to the temple and its related sites.
