Volcano Village Chronology
1819 – Kapu lifted on ahupua‘a of ‘Ola‘a. Dense ohia forest had been the domain of birdcatchers.
1825 – Queen Regent Ka‘ahumanu directed that a trail be established from Hilo to Volcano for Lord Byron and officers. The chiefs of Hilo and Puna cut a trail between the two ahupua‘a of ‘Ola‘a and Keaau.
1840 – ‘Ola‘a route to Kilauea taken by U.S. Exploring Expedition
1848 – ‘Ola‘a, Puna relinquished by Kaunuohua to King Kamehameha III. Retained as Crown Land by the King. Buke Mahele, pp. 91-92.
1866 – April 23. Thomas Spencer applied for the right to collect pulu in ‘Ola‘a, a “Pulu privilege”. The lands were noted for their growth of hapu‘u tree ferns. Native applicants Kaaukai & Kaaua also sought a five year lease to collect pulu.
1873 – ‘Ola‘a route to Kilauea taken by Isabella Bird and Charles Nordhoff, author of “Sandwich Islands.”
1875 – Henry M. Whitney publishes “Hawaiian Guide Book.” Includes commentary on travel via the old roadways from Hilo to Kilauea. “The overland trip from Hilo to the crater, a 30 mile uphill trail, would try the patience of most travelers.”
1876 – ‘Ola‘a route to Kilauea taken by E. S. Baker of Honolulu. Thrum’s Annual for 1877.
1882 – January. Lunalilo’s land, the ahupuaa of Kea‘au, offered at public auction. Bought by William Shipman, Calp. Elderts and Samuel M. Damon for $20,000. In 1883, Shipman and Damon became co-owners, then Shipman became sole owner.
1886 – Levi Lyman House built at 28 miles Volcano. Would in 1985 become Gordon Morse’s B&B in the Village, My Island Inn.
1888 – ‘Ola‘a route to Kilauea taken by M. Forsyth Grant, Canadian, author of “Scenes in Hawaii.”
1888 – The Hawaiian Kingdom legislature authorized a new road up from Hilo and appropriated $30,000 for a carriage road to replace the horse trail. Tourists now traveled from Hilo 2 hours by stage, then 4 ½ hours by horse or mule. The new road would follow a different route. The surveyors were sent out and they laid a route that went inland of the old trail above Ola‘a. This opened the land for homesteading. The road turned more north at Akatsuka bend to follow the ahupuaa boundary between Ola‘a and Kea‘au. Before the road was completed in 1894, people were using the area of what is now lower Volcano Village for cattle pens.
1891 – J. R. Wilson built Mountain View House as a rest stay on the new road. The new alignment was entirely in the ‘Ola‘a ahupua‘a.
1892 – Lower half of Volcano road, nearly 22 miles, rebuilt with another $90,000 appropriation. Work continued on the road, usually with prison labor.
1894 – September. Road from Hilo to Volcano completed. Mostly followed the Old Volcano Trail. The old trail to Volcano was a mile or so to the “right”. Begun in 1889. Entire distance is 30 miles. Regular stages run between Hilo and Volcano House every day. Thrum’s Annual 1894. The new carriage way from Hilo rendered Keauhou Road obsolete and it was abandoned.
1894 – The lower end of Volcano village began to develop after the completion of the new road in 1894. By this time the environs were being referred to as “Volcano.”
1895 – Shipman family built the Mountain House on Old Volcano Road. “First dwelling of any size to be built in what is now Volcano Village.”
1898 – Prior to this, only one residence at Volcano: Mountain house of William H. Shipman at 29 miles. The land of Volcano Village had been Crown land until the overthrow. Became Government Land in 1898.
1898 – July. Shipman sold 22 acres adjoining his land to C.C. Kennedy, manager of Waiakea Mill in Hilo.
1900 (circa) Ola‘a Homestead land leased from W. Shipman, “hundreds of acres.”
1901 – Hilo Railroad Co. began transporting passengers 22 miles from Hilo to Glenwood, where they boarded a stage for the last 9 miles to Volcano.
1901 – Log Cabin built on Hale Ohia Road
1902 – Territory of Hawaii gov’t opened Volcano area for settlement.
April. Kilauea Assn. formed, 7 lots awarded, each 200 acres, at $600 per lot. Called Kilauea Settlement Lots. Located at I’iwi Road to Road E in Cymbidium Acres and mauka from Kilauea Road.
1902 – A. James made the first automobile trip from Hilo to Volcano House, noting that it took 3 hours “over some of the worst roads possible to find anywhere.”
1905 (circa) Property across the street from Mountain Home was purchased and a house built for the newly married Mary Shipman and O.T. English. This dwelling was enlarged over the years with the addition of a bedroom wing at the Hilo end for the children, Margaret and Eldon Sr. Margaret lived in the place most of her life.
1906 – April. Peter Lee leased a homestead lot, 4.32 acres, on the Volcano Road, about two miles from the Volcano House. This is on the corner of Haunani Street. He built a home which is still standing. Here he raised his second family of several boys and another girl, Keakealani. By the second decade of the century, Haunani, a daughter from his first marriage (this wife died in 1893) had married McKenzie and was raising her own family on a cattle operation at the end of what is now Iiwi Road.
1907 – Olaa Summer Lots (5 acres each) offered for sale. Included a Koa Grove Reservation, now Volcano Art Center, Niaulani Site on corner of Kalanikoa and Old Volcano Road.
1910 – October. Letter from F. S. Dodge, Bishop Estate, to Gov. W. F. Frear: “The Bishop Estate has already decided upon opening a tract of land for residence and homestead lots along the volcano road, the new Halemaumau Road and the 29 mile Cut-off road, and the Assistant Land Agent, Mr. Sorenson, is already on the ground, making preparations for the surveys of these lots, and applications are on file for such lots. A 200-acre tract in the village area was granted to Hilo Trading Co., owner Martin Porter.
1910 - Over 75 people claimed residency and a few lived there year-round.
1911 – July. William Gifford had Kalanikoa Road built and built his bungalow, Kalanilehua.
Gustav Kretzchmar sells his Hamakua tobacco plantation and buys property near corner of Wright Road and Volcano Road. Plants strawberries.
Japanese truck farmers joined the cattle growers along the inner roads. Plantations built vacation cottages for their upper management.
Land adjoining Porter’s property to the east and south is subdivided. Called ‘Ola‘a Summer Lots subdivision. Several missionary families and Japanese families awarded land grants
1911 – August. Peter Lee leased 4.32 acre parcel from Bishop Estate at the south end of Old Volcano Road and opened the Crater Hotel where the old and new Volcano roads merge. It was operating from 1911 to 1921. Peter Lee held a grand opening in August 2011. Pages 159 – 171 of the Punaluu Hotel Guest Book were used for the Crater Hotel Guest Book Records, 1917 – 1922. In August 1912 an ad in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin lists T. A. Simpson as manager. By 1922, Peter Lee no longer managed the hotel and it was taken over by the Volcano House Company. Proposed consummation of a deal whereby Mr. and Mrs. Arthur T. Short are assigning to the Kilauea Volcano House their leasehold interest in the Crater Hotel for $5000 was made public on December 1, 1922.
1913 – Upper Ola‘a Forest made a reserve.
1913 – H.W. Kinney, a resident of Hilo, publishes a visitor’s guide, “The Island of Hawaii.”
He mentions the Crater Hotel. “Rates: $3.50 a day, $20 a week, for separate room. Cheaper rates by month.” The Hilo Railroad Company runs a line from Hilo to Glenwood, the terminus. There a connection is made with the Volcano House Auto-Bus Service which runs to Volcano House Hotel. The Volcano Stables & Transportation Co. provides an auto trip to main points about Hilo.
1914 – June. Keakealani School opened with 15 students. Located next to Peter Lee residence and named in honor of Lee’s daughter. First teacher, Mrs. Maud Simmons.
Approximately 35 Japanese families are living in ‘Ola‘a Summer Lots—farmers, groundskeepers, workers at Volcano House. Tsunesako Honma made ohia wood railroad ties for narrow gauge railway to run from Hilo to Glenwood.
1916 – August 1. Hawaii National Park established. Included the craters of Kilauea and Mokuaweoweo on the island of Hawaii, and Haleakala on the island of Maui.
1918 – Nov. C. S. Judd letter recommending a larger Ola‘a Forest Reserve. 1918, 1923, 1928, Governor’s Proclamations establishing Ola‘a Forest Reserve in district of Puna.
1919 – January. Gov. Charles McCarthy proclaimed 20,030 acres of Olaa as a forest reserve.
Mana Transportation Co. Ltd. Began daily automobile service between Hilo and Volcano.
August. 64.5 acre tract about one mile mauka of Volcano Road turned over to Kilauea Council of the Boy Scouts. In 1924 transferred to the Hawaii National Guard.
May. Tent City opens adjacent to Crater Hotel for summer camping, by T. A. Dranga. Dranga also opened the first store in Volcano, in one of the tents. Only lasted until Sept. 1919.
Lots are sold to finance construction of Wright Road, Laukapu, and Haunani Road.
1921 – January. Prohibition began.
Volcano House wired for electricity.
KMC converted to recreation camp by Hilo Teachers’ Union. Later reopened by the Army.
1922 – The buildings of the Crater Hotel were purchased by the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co. The building was torn down and the furnishings used in the Volcano House addition. (See Supt. Reports 1922 – 1923.)
1923 – Roads built: Haunani, Laukapu, Wright Road.
1924 – January. First tree felled on Boy Scout property. Sept. Boy Scout property transferred to National Guard.
May. Explosive eruption from Halemaumau. Sunday, May 18, twenty-one telephone poles were struck by lightning along the volcano road below Twenty-nine Miles, a number being splintered to matchwood; and the telephone at the Volcano House was repeatedly put out of order.
1923 – Kalij pheasants introduced by County Board of Supervisors.
1925 – Hawaii Consolidated Railway, Ltd. began offering connecting service by auto bus from Glenwood (train terminus) to 29 miles and KMC for passengers and freight.
1926 – Hawaii Country Club lots go on sale. (Course was foreclosed on, where Anuhea lots are now.)
1926 – Hilo Railroad Co. discontinued service to Glenwood, thereafter visitors traveled to Volcano entirely by road.
1927 – Volcano Road upgraded to a concrete highway, making auto access to Hawaii National Park and Volcano much easier.
Telephones installed in all rooms of Volcano House.
Japanese farmers form Japanese School Association.
1927 – Torao Hongo erected 3 buildings and opened Hongo Store, first year-round commercial establishment. He was from Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan. Son of a samurai. Followed an older brother, Torakiyo, who emigrated to Hilo. Daughters Charlotte and Lily ran the store. Son Albert came after the War. Torao then married Eveline. Eveline got the store after Torao died of cancer and lived in the house behind it. Post Office was inside Hongo store from 1929 to 1968. Volcano, p. 309. Pulu factory, Volcano, p. 77. Teahouse, Volcano, p. 137. Fern Grotto, Volcano, p. 139. Village was called “29 Miles” before having a name.
1927 – May. Kalanihonua subdivision opened, adjacent to Haunani lots.
1927 – Hale Ohia subdivision opened by Realty Investment Co. of Hilo
1927 – Martin Porter subdivided part of his tract into 59 parcels—Anuhea Volcano Houselots. Japanese families purchased 33 of the lots; Honma purchased five.
1927 – J. W. McKenzie opened Store & Service Station near the Peter Lee corner at 29.1/2 miles.
1927 – June. New bus service (18 passenger bus) between Volcano House and Hilo.
1927 – Volcano Japanese School House Assn. (Kazan Nihon Gi Chiho Kumiai) was formed. Honma donated Lot 32 in Anuhea Volcano Houselots for the school. Japanese contractor Miyano built a 576 sq. ft., one-room school house.
1928 – Volcano Road was reconstructed, a modern concrete highway, “a distance of 30 delightful miles.”
1928 – January. Japanese School opened. Land on Haunani donated by Tsunesaku Honma, farmer who raised cabbage and made ohia charcoal. James Tsuchiya elected president of the Japanese School Assn. Contractor K. Fujimoto erected a building for 30 pupils, teacher’s cottage, water tank, and outhouse. Mr. Fujimoto was the first principal, until 1931.
1928 – December. The Kilauea Forest Reserve was established. It comprised a section of Keauhou adjoining the Ola‘a and Waiakea Forest Reserve lands.
1929 – May. J. W. McKenzie Store (located where Kilauea General Store is currently) sold to L. Chong Co. of Pahala. X. L. Helbush of Glenwood named manager and store’s named changed to Maunalani Store and Service Station. McKenzie Bus Service continued to operate, leaving Volcano at 8 am and leaving Hilo at 2:30 pm.
Park expands. Postmark for area changes from Volcano House, Hawaii to Hawaii National Park, Hawaii.
1920s (late) and 1930s – Volcano Summer Lots was sub-divided and roads put in. A golf course was established in the area at the far end of the roads leading off Maile Loop, backing onto the MacKenzie cattle lands.
1930 – Feb. Hawaii County Golf Club golf course and Anuhea lots sold. Japanese farmers leased the fairways to plant truck crops. Japanese residents brought in Japanese pine, Sugi, camelia, azalea, Japanese plum cherry trees, etc.
1931 – Another room added to Keakealani School. Motoi Shiotani became the 2nd principal of the Japanese School, until 1941. He and his wife were held in detention for the remainder of WWII.
1933 – Prohibition repealed.
1934 – July. Hilo Electric Light Co. extended power lines from 9 miles Olaa (Keaau area) to Olaa Sugar camps, residents along Volcano Road up to Volcano House and KMC as well as Volcano Village.
Fishponds built at Keakealani School.
1934 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt visits
1935 – May. The Volcano Art Colony was founded, led by Merel S. Sager, landscape architect, to meet a growing interest in art and provide an outlet for artistic expression.
YMCA receives donation of 5 acre lot in Village.
1936 – June. YMCA Camp Westervelt (next to present Kilauea Lodge) held a work camp.
1937 – Spring. Several farms started by Japanese residents in back of the Village proper with the help of the Federal Gov’t. (Hagio, Yamashiro, Honma, Tomono, etc.)
1937 – 38. Construction of Hale-O-Aloha (present Kilauea Lodge) by Hawaii County YMCA. Included an International Fireplace of Friendship.
1938 – Trail built from “29 miles” to Kulani (CCC project).
1940 – A bus service operated between Hilo and Volcano.
1940s (WWII) A dance hall, restaurant, gift shop and possibly house of ill repute was built on the mauka corner of Volcano Road and Haunani. This is now a store.
1945 – Kilauea Vacation Lots developed by Hung Wai Ching, 531.137 acres, now Mauna Loa Estates
1950s – New Volcano Road completed. Then the Kea‘au side of the road below present-day Wright Road was sub-divided. Until then it was used as cattle pasture.
The new road was constructed to get the huge sugar-haul trailors out of both the Park and the Village. This isolated, across the highway, some homes that had been built on small roads on the Kea‘au side of the Volcano Road. It also opened up for subdividing the areas of 3 acre lots. Subsequent road re-alignments have taken out some of the bends in the road and shortened the distance to the Volcano area.
1950s – The Shipman’s Ohialani Dairy provided milk and cream until the early 1950s.
1950s – A Post Office was established at Volcano Village, largely in response to the proposal to make entry to the Park by fee. The Post Office was housed in the Volcano House until after WWII. The fee did not arrive until much later. The Volcano P.O. was originally in a corner room of Hongo store, moving to its new building in 19??
1961 – State Land Use Law, brought into being the Land Use Commission.
1969 – Statewide, minimum lot size for ag. Lots set at one acre.
1970s to 1980s – Marijuana growing in speculative subdivisions. Very big business in Puna – as big as sugar and pineapple combined. Land and Power in Hawaii.
1974 – US Geological Survey rated all areas of Big Island for volcanic hazard
1974—Volcano Art Center is founded
1981 – Volcano Community Association founded “to protect and improve the quality of life in Volcano on behalf of its residents”. Annual dues were $5.00.
1984 – Ground broken for Volcano Community Center.
1986 – Volcano Community Association began publishing a monthly newsletter, “The Steam Vent” in April 1986.
1986 – May. Community Center completed. Park Council formed. Held first meeting March 26.
Sources: •Kent Warshauer, “ Volcano Village Development,” pub. In Volcano Gazette (newsletter of Volcano Art Center ) July-Aug. 2001 – July-Aug. 2006, in 15 parts.