Bank donates
archaeological site
on Big Island

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

KAILUA-KONA -- First Hawaiian Bank has donated to the state a 16.4-acre Kona site with significant archaeological remains associated with 17th-century Chiefess Keakealaniwahine.

The shoreline site, three miles south of Kailua Bay, is on the mauka side of Alii Drive from the undeveloped, 12-acre Keolonahihi State Historical Park, named for a chiefess who ruled about 1300.

Both sites are overgrown with vegetation and offer no public interpretation facilities.

The Department of Land and Natural Resources hopes to develop the two sites as a single large center for cultural interpretation, a First Hawaiian announcement said.

Michael Wilson, chairman of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, said the gift from First Hawaiian can serve as a model for other landowners interested in preserving cultural sites.

The bank acquired the property through a foreclosure last year.

Keakealaniwahine is one of 25 management "hot spots" identified in the Land Department's "Sustainability Hotspot Notebook," the bank said.

The notebook calls for stabilization, restoration, and interpretation of the sites, the bank said. Facilities could be developed on areas of the land which do not contain historic features.

Keakealaniwahine was the great-great-grandmother of Kamehameha I. She and her mother, Keakamahana, are generally recognized as the only two women to rule the Big Island, the bank said.

The site contains 29 archaeological features, including a walled enclosure which served as Keakealaniwahine's residence in about 1650.

The land also contains several heiaus and walls which which are 10 feet high and four feet thick.

Neighboring Keolonahihi, acquired by the state in 1980, contains 16 sites, including five heiaus.

Both sites are in the land division called Holualoa, one of seven areas along the Kona coast that were reserved for chiefs.