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Maui Information
| Haiku |
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Haiku
Elevation: 200 - 1200 feet
Current Real Estate Stats
 Haiku is a scattered community that stretches north from Makawao down the slopes to the Hana Highway. Shades of green predominate, the lushness of the landscape due to the warm rains off the ocean.
One of the problems with driving around Haiku is the lack of landmarks and labeling. Bored kids have a habit of stealing the street signs that are there, leaving you lost at an intersection in the middle of green, wondering which direction you should be heading. It's okay. All roads eventually wend their way to either the Hana Highway or to Makawao... or to a friendly neighbor who'll smile quietly as they tell you where you need to be heading to get to where you want to go.
Because of its location between Makawao and Hookipa, a premier windsurfing spot, much of the area has been settled by surfer dudes, artists, New Age-flavored folks, and others looking for a simpler way of life where once simple farmers and ranchers were in force.
Alexander and Baldwin grew their first 12 acres of sugar cane near Haiku in 1870. The following year they added another 500 acres, the start of Hawaii's largest sugar company. There was a mill there once as well. And, in 1876, Alexander and Baldwin began constructing the Hamakua Ditch bringing water to the Haiku plantations from 17 miles away. It was the site of Henry Baldwin's one-armed feat during the construction of the aqueduct in the 1870s. The ditch was the start of an extensive irrigation system that turned Wailuku's dry plains into green sugar land.
About 30 years later, pineapple became the second major cash-producing crop in Haiku as another pair of Baldwins (Dwight David and Henry Perrine) established the Haiku Fruit and Packing Company, built a can-making plant and cannery, and convinced neighboring ranches and small farms throughout Haiku, Kaupakulua and Makawao to grow the fruit.
Times have changed some. There's not so much pineapple grown in the area any more. Instead, there's diversified agriculture, with crops such as ornamental plants, papayas, bananas, vegetables, and tropical flowers.
Around the old Haiku cannery buildings, in their latest reincarnation as a center with a variety of shops, stores and eateries, the post office and the old Fukushima Store provide needed services and a bit of local-style neighborliness for the residents of this far-flung area.
Since the 1970s, numerous "gentleman farms" have been built and continue to develop in the agriculture zoning which allows two-acre farm lots. Developments of housing subdivisions along the coastline has resulted in conflicts regarding shoreline access across private lands to reach Kuiaha Bay, a traditional fishing spot in the area.
Once upon a time, the forests to the east of Makawao teemed with native ohia, kou, hau, mamane and koa trees. Maui's first water-powered sawmill was constructed in 1860 at Kaupakalua to mill the koa that was harvested from the forests. A steam-powered successor built in 1880 at Kailili above Kokomo also focused on koa and provided wood for both local and mainland markets.
Nearly 7,000 feet of prime koa from the mill at Kailili was used for the interior woodwork for King Kalakaua's 'Iolani Palace, which was completed in 1882. By the turn of the century, lumber business had proven so profitable that the koa forest was gone.
During World War II, thousands of U.S. Marines were stationed in Haiku. A military outpost known as Camp Maui was established at Kokomo and for several years it served as a training ground and recreational center for the Fourth Marine Division. Many veterans from that era have fond memories of the place and the people who took them in and treated them with kindness and aloha. There is a Memorial Park dedicated to these Marines at Giggle Hill (so-called, it is said, because of all the giggling going on when young man meets pretty girl in secluded place). |
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Information is believed to be accurate but should not be relied upon without verification.
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