Natural History

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Arts & Culture

Pipi Tales

In 1793, when the first half-dozen or so California longhorns made it onto Hawaiian soil at Kealakekua on the Big Island, they were a marvel to the Hawaiian people.  The pipi, cattle, were the largest four-legged creatures they had ever seen.  (Before then, the heftiest quadruped in the islands was the pig.)  The creatures were a gift from the British explorer George Vancouver to King Kamehameha I and cemented their friendship. 

A decade later, horses joined the bovines and Hawaiians were awe-struck by these beautiful quadrupeds as well. 

According to some reports, the lone bull which made the long, exhausting sea voyage with Captain Vancouver died not long after landing, but one of the cows gave birth to a bull calf which became the progenitor of the Hawaiian herds.  The king imposed a ten-year kapu, making it a crime to kill or hurt the animals, at the captain's suggestion, and the herd grew.  As it grew, the animals spread throughout the kingdom. 

However, because of their protected status the herds quickly became a menace.  Before his death in 1819, the king ordered the construction of a stone wall to keep the animals out of villages and taro patches in Kona.  By then the animals were terrorizing the area's human population, ravaging vegetable gardens and planted fields, and stampeding through the villages, causing the people to run for their lives. 

The king had already lifted the kapu on killing the cattle around the turn of the century, and they were being hunted through the mountain forests for their meat, tallow, and hides.  Organized hunting parties of bullock hunters either trapped the animals in deep pits or stalked them safari-style.  (The animals were too wild to be driven to market alive.)  In their hunter camps, the hunters salted the meat, tanned the hides, and rendered tallow that was in high demand in Honolulu.

Around 1830, Kamehameha III invited three Mexican vaqueros to the Big Island to teach Hawaiians how to domesticate the wild cattle and the paniolo, the colorful Hawaiian cowboy, was born.  As cattle were domesticated and ranching became more widespread, new bloodlines were introduced to Hawaii.  The original longhorns were left to wander in the mountains as "scrub" cattle, while shorthorn Hereford, Angus and other breeds took over Hawaiian pastures. 

It was decades before beef from domestic cattle replaced meat harvested from the forest-dwelling wild cattle, however.  An 1848 estimate showed 35,000 head of cattle in the kingdom, of which 25,000 were still wild.  By the 1870's, when the ranching industry had reached its peak, the days of the bullock hunters were just about done.  According to tax assessments in 1879 there were about 79,350 domesticated cattle in Hawaii.  Just five years later, there were as many as 117,600.

Still, more than 150 years after the arrival of the first longhorns in Hawaii, descendants of the leggy, sharp-horned, ferocious "Old Vancouvers" still roamed the deep forests and remote mountains of Hawaii despite efforts by ranchers to hunt down the wild cattle to keep them from interbreeding with the tame herds. 

By the 1850s, Hawaiian beef and hides were already being shipped off to California, Alaska and other places.  In 1860, it was recorded that 250 barrels of beef were exported along with more than 577,000 pounds of hides.

Still, more than 150 years after the arrival of the first longhorns in Hawaii, descendants of the leggy, sharp-horned, ferocious "Old Vancouvers" still roamed the deep forests and remote mountains of Hawaii despite continuing efforts by ranchers to hunt down the wild cattle, the pipi 'ahiu, to keep them from interbreeding with the tame herds.

(In 1972, however, naturalist Arthur Halloran, a retired biologist for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service wrote "The Hawaiian Longhorn Story," which argued for the preservation of the wild cattle as a unique bit of Hawaiian history.)

As sugar grew to become the dominant industry in Hawaii during the first half of the twentieth century, land that was once prime pasture land was planted in cane. Grazing was pushed further and further into the fringe areas that were unsuited to cane-growing for one reason or another. Cattle were also grazed in areas that were too distant for the transport of the favored crop harvests to processing plants or to market.

The larger ranches still shipped to Honolulu markets, but some smaller ranches were converted into adjuncts that served the sugar (and later the pineapple) plantations, raising draft animals for the fields and beef for the workers.

Cattle arrived on Maui within a dozen years of their introduction on the Big Island. It is said that cattle first grazed in the Kaupo area in the early 1800's. (Kaupo Ranch continues to supply meat to local markets today.)

In 1806, Amaso Delano, a traveler of the time, recorded the story of one young bull in Lahaina who had apparently been transported to Maui to propagate a new herd. Delano commented that the bull "appeared to have disposition to do all the mischief he could, so much so that he was a pretty unwelcome guest …." The young fellow apparently wrecked gardens and sugar cane fields by tearing them to pieces with his horns and digging them up with his feet. He ran around, frightening the natives and generally created havoc.  (Perhaps the young bull was just too rambunctious to remain on the Big Island.)

According to another source, government lands in Wailuku were being leased for pasture by 1845 and five years later there were an estimated 3,500 cattle on the island. From 1893 until 1927, close to 1,600 brands were registered on Maui, representing operations throughout the island. Ranch sizes ranged from a few acres to the 80,000-acre Ulupalakua Ranch.

The central part of the island was eventually given over to sugar cane and to urbanization and commercial centers, but cattle still grazed on the slopes of Haleakala and the hillsides of the West Maui Mountains until the latter part of the twentieth century.

By then, soaring land values, the population pressures of urbanization, high labor costs and competition from imported beef crippled the established ranches and they diversified into real estate, tourism and other profitable ventures, or they faded. Many of the smaller ranches no longer exist. The 16,000-acre Grove Ranch, which once stretched from Haiku to Makawao, was liquidated in the 1960's, but two other large operations - the Hana Ranch and Ka'onoulu Ranch are still operating.

Historically, the three major ranches in upcountry Maui were Ulupalakua Ranch, begun in 1856 by Captain James Makee as "Rose Ranch"; the Baldwin family's Haleakala Ranch, which was founded in Makawao in 1888; and Ka'ono'ulu Ranch, which was founded by Maui senator Harold Rice.

Of the three, Ka'ono'ulu Ranch, which ran from the dry lands of Kihei up through Kula in its heyday and at one time even included pastures in the West Maui Mountains, is no longer the household name it was in the 1920's when it had a popular meat market in Wailuku. The ranch included over 30,000 acres and carried a 4,400-head herd at one time. It was a conglomeration of five older ranches: Robinson Ranch, Enos Ranch, Frank Correa Ranch, Freitas Ranch and Cornwall Ranch.

In West Maui, the Honolua Ranch above Lahaina was founded in 1880 and over time production shifted in and out of pineapple, sugar and other crops. In the 1920's', it covered about 16,000 acres and carried 800 head of cattle.

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon

Local Grinds

Banana/Mango Cream Squares

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 2 Cups all purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 Blocks butter (melted)
  
  

• 6 Bananas
• 1 Mango
• 2 Boxes instant pudding
• 3 Cups cold milk
• 1 8oz bar cream cheese (soften)
• 1 8oz tub cool whip
  
  

Procedure:

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