WAIMEA BAY:
A Century of Change

Waimea from above

This description provides a glimpse of the awesome forces of nature at work within this small bay. It probably took many summers to gently push a majority of that sand back into the bay, but 1998 and several years this century, more giant surf has repeated the cycle of beach profiling through sediment transport.

That coin may have been a victim of the great flood of 1894, buried deep under the silt and sand. Jones’s account of burials in the sand also corroborates with John Clark, who indicates that burial practices on the south side of the bay as well as in the caves continued until 1938. Guarded by luakini heiau (sacrificial temple) on either side of the bay, Waimea was a favorite locality for secreting the dead into caves in order to hide and protect the mana (spiritual power) of their ancestors from their enemies. Many ali‘i (chief), as well as Kamehameha I’s most powerful kahuna (priest), Hewahewa, lie in caves along the cliffs. Hewahewa is said to lie buried beneath the uppermost parking lot of Waimea Valley next to the Proud Peacock. Published accounts of these caves from the early 1900s indicate that surfboards were found with some of the burials, as were ceremonial canoes, poi pounders, adze, ulumaika (Hawaiian checkers), and a lei niho palaoa (whale tooth necklace). Unfortunately, grave robbers and looters have removed most of the burial items and ransacked these sacred spaces.

The development of Waimea Bay, Valley and adjacent Pu‘u O Mahuka heiau into public and private parks helped stabilize the area and end the many years of resource depletion, environmental damage, and destruction of cultural sites that have occurred. Recent events have solidified this healing process when the Audubon Society partnered with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the state government to purchase Waimea Valley Park from private owners, creating a cultural heritage site for future generations.

Sources: Sato, Hiroshi. TheBay: Big Waves of Waimea. Hinode Publishers, LTD., Japan, 1983. Clark, John R.K. The Beaches of O`ahu. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, HI, 1977. Sterling, Elspeth P. and Summers, Catherine C. Sites of Oahu. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, HI, 1978. Van Dyke, Fred. Personal Communications, 1999.