Remains of 30 people excavated in Kaka'ako

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

The remains of 30 people buried in what may be a 100-year-old cemetery were discovered by construction crews working on the state's Queen Street extension project in Kaka'ako.

Workers found the forgotten graves at the end of April while digging trenches for utilities, said Jan Yokota, executive director of the project overseer, the Hawai'i Community Development Authority. The graves were in the middle of the $5.5 million roadway extension that will link Queen and Waimanu streets, just diamondhead of Kamake'e Street.

"You never know, in that area," Yokota said. "Kaka'ako is a fairly old area. You just have to be prepared for it and work with it."

State burial experts were called, and have been on the site ever since.

"Those discoveries led to additional exploration to determine if there were more individuals — and sure enough, there were," said Kai Markell of the state's Burial Sites Program.

The site had long ago been swallowed by development in Kaka'ako. Several warehouses and asphalt parking lots had been built, and were removed when the project began in February.

"It's hard to really say what was there, or even put a date on the entire burial area," Markell said.

After examining the grave styles, he estimated the burial grounds were in use in the late 1800s to early 1900s. They could be a cemetery used by an old plantation-style community, he said.

Historians have said the area was once a bustling waterfront immigrant community. Homes and shops catered to dockworkers from nearby Honolulu Harbor. And a city dump sat where Ala Moana Park is now.

Graves are common in Kaka'ako, said historian Nanette Napoleon, director of the Cemetery Research Project.

"Almost every time they build a project in that area, bones come up," she said. And it was not uncommon for an old cemetery, even one marked with headstones, to be erased from the landscape by construction, she said.

"Until 15 years ago, there weren't any laws in place to protect human remains like that," Napoleon said. "Typically, they bulldozed them up and took them to the dump. I've seen it happen with my own eyes."

State officials hope to decide what to do with the remains "within a few weeks," Markell said. "We're trying to do research and contact some people who may know what existed there before. We are trying to see if we can find descendants or families of people who might be related."

State officials could end up moving the remains to park space that will be created next to the roadway. But relatives who can prove a link to remains will have the option of moving them somewhere else, Markell said.

Knowing the exact boundaries of the burial site would be an important factor in any decision to move remains.

"You can never be 100 percent certain," Markell said. "But if you relocate an individual (grave), you don't want to leave a family member behind."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.