Kohala Ditch rides open window to history

Hawaii’s Backyard| Travel

Bernelle Camara is a proud daughter of Kohala. Her roots in that rural district of Hawaii island run deep — four generations, to be exact: Her paternal and maternal great-grandparents moved there from Maui and the Philippines, respectively, seeking a better life.

“My paternal great-grandfather worked for Hawaii Railway Co., which ran the ‘Sugar Cane Train,’” Camara said.

“The train carried processed cane from the mills to the wharf at Makukona, 7 miles west of Hawi town. My maternal great-grandfather worked for Kohala Sugar Co. as a truck driver.”

Kohala Sugar closed in 1975, six years before Camara was born. When she was growing up, the Kohala Ditch (see sidebar) was on privately owned land that was not open to the public. Her mother, however, shared many fond memories about that irrigation system, including swimming there with her two brothers. The ditch was a 2-mile bike ride from their Hawi home.

“If it weren’t for the ditch, my family, like many others, would not have made Kohala their home,” Camara said. “The ditch supplied water for sugar cane cultivation, which provided jobs for them.”

Today Camara is general manager of Flumin’ Kohala, which takes visitors on a leisurely kayak ride down the historic ditch. Flumin’ Kohala is the operating name of Kohala Eco Ventures, whose executives also run the Kohala Ditch Co., the manager and part-owner of the ditch.

Flumin’ Kohala is the third company to operate such a tour. The previous two businesses closed due to natural disasters that badly damaged the ditch: Flumin’ Da Ditch in 2006 because of a 6.6-magnitude earthquake, and Kohala Ditch Adventures in 2014 because of big back-to-back storms. Camara worked as a guide for both of those companies.

“By running the tour in-house, so to speak, rather than contracting it to an outside vendor, most of the revenues can be directed toward the rebuilding and maintenance of the ditch,” she said. “Our tour is supporting agriculture and contributing to the economic health of Kohala.”

It covers the same three miles on the ditch as its predecessors but adds a stop overlooking magnificent Pololu Valley and a short walk to the launch site on a flume bordered by mango, avocado, banana and other fruit trees.

“Over the years, those trees were planted by various caretakers of the ditch and their families,” Camara said. “Their homes were just mauka (toward the mountains) of the ditch.”

One after another the kayaks float over seven flumes and through 10 pitch-black tunnels ranging from 100 to 1,800 feet in length. Along the way the guides, most of whom were born and raised in Kohala, share anecdotes about life there and the building of the ditch.

Can’t swim? No worries. The ditch’s depth ranges from just 25 to 35 inches, depending on the amount of rainfall. Expect to get wet, though, from waterfalls by and in the tunnels and spring water that drips through the ceilings. Headlights worn by some participants reveal messages carved in kanji on the walls by workers more than a century ago.

“Gliding down the ditch is a unique way for people to get a glimpse of bygone days,” Camara said. “The ditch has outlived the plantations that it was built for, and it still serves its original purpose: to provide farmers with water. It is still the lifeblood of Kohala.”

About the Kohala Ditch

At the turn of the last century, seven plantations were cultivating about 10,000 acres of sugar cane in Kohala. They relied on rain to water their fields, but because of drought conditions at the time, yields were low. They needed a steady source of water to survive.

John Hind, owner of Hawi Mill and Plantation, had heard about Maui plantations’ success diverting water from upland rainforests to lowland cane fields. He sought the advice of Michael O’Shaughnessy, a respected civil and hydraulic engineer, to determine the feasibility of building such an irrigation system in Kohala.

O’Shaughnessy found that machinery couldn’t be used because of rough terrain and unstable soil conditions in the mountains. Instead, manual labor would be required, and the cost would be high — $695,000 ($19 million in today’s money).

Undaunted, Hind persuaded Sam Parker, grandson of John Parker (founder of Parker Ranch), to contribute about half of the project’s cost. Hind and a few other businessmen came up with the rest of the money.

They retained O’Shaughnessy to design and oversee construction of the Kohala Ditch. Six hundred men from Japan were hired at wages ranging between 75 cents and $1.50 per day, and construction began in late 1904.

In often cold, wet and windy conditions, the workers used dynamite, picks, shovels, hoes, chisels and their bare hands to dig through the mountains. They lined tunnel walls with hand-cut rocks, stabilized the ceilings with concrete and built 19 5-foot-wide, 4-foot-deep flumes made of redwood and concrete over ravines.

It was dangerous, arduous work, and over 18 months of construction, 17 laborers died. When the Kohala Ditch was completed, it stretched 23 miles. Dedicated in June 1906, it was hailed as an engineering marvel that kept the sugar industry alive in North Kohala for 70 more years. Only 13.5 miles of the original system are now being used.

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Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards