126 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, VoL XX, January 1966 
Fig. 1. Map of the island of Hawaii, showing lo- 
calities referred to in text. 
— a custom that so much resembled that of sanc- 
tuary in medieval Europe. Secondary interpretive 
themes are the rise of the Kamehameha dynasty; 
the transition of the Hawaiians in the Honaunau 
area to the present; and the Hawaiian uses of 
the land and sea, especially the tidal pools 
and adjacent offshore waters. The interpretive 
method is to exhibit the structures and land 
surfaces, restored as appropriate, which are 
associated with these themes. The numerous 
prehistoric and historic features of the area con- 
stitute exhibits-in-place. 
Some of the coastal exhibits-in-place have 
been damaged or obliterated in whole or in part 
since 1823, when they were first accurately 
sketched, described, and/or measured by mis- 
sionary William Ellis (1917:123-128). Many 
man-made coastal features, such as bait cups and 
net-tanning basins, are now under water except 
at extreme low tides. The shoreline of Ke-one- 
ele cove (Fig. 2) has receded in recent years, 
and has cut back into the coconut grove. These 
and other forms of creeping engulfment portend 
major problems for the future in preserving the 
prehistoric scene and structures, even as they 
produce less severe problems in the present. 
Among the important features threatened is the 
dry masonry platform of the temple, Hale-o- 
Keawe, which is in an extremely exposed posi- 
tion. The temple that once stood on this 
platform and is now scheduled for early restora- 
tion contained by 1818 the deified bones of at 
least 23 chiefs and kings, all of them male an- 
cestors or relatives of Kamehameha the Great, 
including one of his sons (Barrere, 1957:70- 
80). 
Just inland from the platform of the Hale o 
Keawe is Ke-one-ele cove, beleived to be the 
royal canoe landing used by Kamehameha the 
Great in 1782, when he arrived at Honaunau in 
his single canoe "Noiku” to conduct state reli- 
gious ceremonies. Although it was not antici- 
pated at the time, these ceremonies marked the 
beginning of Kamehameha’s conquest of all the 
Hawaiian Islands and his founding of the his- 
toric Kingdom of Hawaii (Barrere, 1957:55- 
6 1 ; li, 1959:13). Photographs taken of the 
vicinity at Ke-one-ele cove in 1919 by members 
of the Bishop Museum staff show a rock rubble 
running between the sandy head of the cove 
and the platform of the Hale c- Keawe (Bishop 
Museum negative 3436, by J. F. G. Stokes). A 
U. S. Army Air Corps aerial photograph taken 
January 24, 1925 (Bishop Museum negative 
B2829), and a panoramic photo by Ray Jerome 
Baker taken between 1921 and 1925, show this 
rubble transformed into a neat seawall, estimated 
to be 6 ft wide and 6 ft above the sea level at 
the time the picture was taken. The seawall was 
probably built in the period 1921-24 by the 
County of Hawaii during the early years of its 
administration of the City of Refuge as a County 
park (Emory, 1957:35). Probably there was a 
local tradition, or perhaps physical evidence, 
that the rubble once had been a seawall. This 
neat seawall was very short-lived. A photograph 
taken by the U. S. Army Air Corps on January 
25, 1926 (Bishop Museum negative 2831), 
shows it reduced again to rubble. 
The sandy head of Ke-one-ele cove has crept 
inland since the 1920’s, and its movement to 
the south was watched during high seas on 
January 6 , 1962 (a movement that has not been 
restored by the building phase of the normal 
beach cycle ) . A snapshot taken by the Reverend 
Albert S. Baker in 1926, and a panoramic 
photograph by Ray Jerome Baker (no relation) 
at about the same time show presently Identifi- 
able coconut trees. The present waterline is 
dose to the base of one of the trees. In about 
1926 the edge of the water was an estimated 20 
ft away. The roots of this tree, which was young 
in the 1920’s, were protected in January, 1962 
