Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 4, 1 ʻApelila 2015 — Maui's Wailuku River [ARTICLE]

Maui's Wailuku River

Yes! There are two Wailuku Rivers. One we all know about on the Big Island and then there is the forgotten one, whieh is on Maui referred to as 'īao Stream since 1907. Fromancient times what is now called 'īao Stream was Wailuku River. During the more than 10-year struggle to have water returned to the streams and rivers of Nā Wai 'Ehā, I ran across documents showing the name of the waters flowing out of 'īao Valley as Wailuku River, of course some kama'āina of Maui remembered the name as it should be. After some water (by all means not all) but 10 million gallons per day was returned to 'īao Stream on Oct. 13, 2014, 1 felt now that wai was back in the river it was now time to put wai back in the name. So on behalf of Hui 'O Nā Wai 'Ehā I submitted an applicationon Jan. 16, 2015, to the Hawai'i Board of Geographic Names to do just that. Sixteen documents and six maps were filed along with the application all showing clearly Wailuku River. These documents are dated from about 1850 thru 1907. So now you are wondering "what's up," how and why did it heeome 'īao Stream? In 1894 Wailuku Sugar installed an intake that for the most part drained the river. James Taylor, who designed and built the Waihe'e ditch and was interviewed by the Pacific Commerciaī Advertiser on June 27, 1907, simply said, "we crossed Iao Stream." This is the first instance that I could find of it being called 'īao Stream. No govemment action, just one man making a name change. Heneeforth the name stuck probably because of the diversion and the laek of water in the river, so just why not eall it a stream? Then the U.S. Board of Geographic Names picked it up in 1914. And here we are today. John V. Duey 'Īūo Valley OHA reserves the right to edit a 1 1 letters for length, defamatory and libelous material, and other objectionable content, and reserves the right not to print any submission. All letters must be typed, signed and not exceed 200 words. Letters cannot be published unless they include a telephone contact for verification.

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