Hawaii - Big Island of Hawaii

Area: 4035sq.miles/10,451sq.km

Main town: Hilo

The Island of Hawaii, commonly known as Big Island, lies furthest south-east in the archipelago. Its area of 4035sq.miles/10,454sq.km makes it the largest of the Hawaiian islands. Measuring 93 miles/150km long and 76 miles/122km wide, Hawaii is more than twice the size of all the other islands put together.

Geologically speaking Hawaii is the youngest island in the archipelago and the only one which, as a result of sustained volcanic activity, is continuing to grow. Five volcanoes originally created Hawaii's land mass. The two largest volcanoes are called Mauna Loa (13,676ft/4167m) and Mauna Kea (13,800ft/4205m) which together comprise 73% of the island's surface. Mauna Kea, an extinct volcano, is the highest mountain (13,800ft/4205m) in the Pacific Basin. Add to that its enormous mass underwater - it descends to a depth of 18,051ft/5500m - and it becomes the highest mountain in the world. Mauna Kea has been inactive for thousands of years but Mauna Loa still occasionally erupts. Kilauea, one of Mauna Loa's neighboring volcanoes, is the most active in the world. Its countless eruptions occur independently of Mauna Loa's. During the last century, new volcanic eruptions have taken place on average every eleven months. A further geographical feature distinguishes the island - Ka Lae is the most southerly point of the United States.

Hawaii's rich and varied landscape is dominated by its enormous volcanoes. Tall volcanic craters, their peaks covered by snow in winter, wide expanses of lava in the south of the island and extinct volcanic mountains, with deep ravines and sheer cliffs, characterize the scenery. Although Hawaii has relatively few beaches, they are particularly charming because of the colored sand which can be white, green or black.

The meaning of the name "Hawaii" is unknown but it is clearly of Polynesian origin because it is used on several Polynesian islands in varying forms. In New Zealand it is known as "Hawaiki", on the Cook Islands it is called "Awaiki" and in Samoa "Savai'i" - the variations can be traced back to different alphabets which do not always recognize the same consonants. Actually, Hawaii should really be written as Hawai'i to pronounce it correctly but this is not generally done.

So as not to confuse the Island of Hawaii with the State of Hawaii, a string of other names exists for the island, of which Big Island is most frequently used. "Orchid Island" or "Volcano Island" capture the flavor of Hawaii but are not acceptable as names for the island.

The climate does not differ particularly from that of the rest of the islands but, because of the high volcanic mountains, it is more extreme in many ways. The east coast, particularly Hilo and its surroundings, has much rain with an almost tropical climate. Short, very heavy rain showers usually fall in quick succession. In contrast, the area around Kailua-Koa on the west coast is very dry.

Vegetation on the island is accordingly varied. While rain forests with tropical vegetation grow on the east coast, there is only desert on the west coast, particularly around Kau.

The population of the Island of Hawaii has increased in leaps and bounds in the last century. At the beginning of the 1970s, 63,000 people lived on the island. This number rose to 93,000 at the beginning of the 1980s and stands today at 112,000. Estimates as to the population of the island by the year 2005 range from 173,000 to 258,000 inhabitants.

Hilo, the island's principal town with some 40,000 inhabitants, is by far the largest town, followed by Karluna-Kona with just under 6000. Only nine other towns on the island have between 1000 and 2000 inhabitants. Whites make up the largest part of its population (34%), followed by Japanese (27%), Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians (19%), Filipinos (14%), Chinese (2%)and other nationalities (4%). In the Hawaiian Parliament, the Island of Hawaii is not very strongly represented. Of the 25 senators in the State Parliament, only three are allotted to Big Island; of the 51 seats in the House of Representatives, only four are taken by members from the island.

Farming on Big Island plays a greater role than on the other Hawaiian islands even though about two-thirds of the land is unsuitable for agriculture because of a thick top layer of lava. Forty per cent of the total sugar cane harvest is given to the state. About 16 million kg of the most expensive nuts in the world, macadamia nuts, are produced each year and the most sought-after and very expensive Kona coffee is harvested. The Parker Ranch (see entry), the largest family-owned ranch in the United States, is responsible for cattle breeding in Hawaii. It produces two-thirds of the beef requirement of the whole state. A further source of income is flower growing which is carried out on around 300 farms.

The Island of Hawaii relies on growing numbers of tourists and therefore plans rapid development of accommodation. There are proposals for no fewer than 30 hotels along the west coast, which is particularly attractive to tourists because of its sunny weather and fine beaches. The number of available hotel rooms will climb from the current 5000 to 21,000 if these schemes go ahead. This figure does not include plans for accommodation in apartments and holiday homes. As yet, problems of street building, water supply and waste disposal, which would arise as a result of such rapid development, have not been solved.A settlement was probably first founded on the Island of Hawaii in the 7th c. at Ka Lae, both the most southerly point of the island and the closest arrival place of the Polynesian islands.

The custom of offering up human sacrifices, which spread throughout all the islands, is said to have started in Hawaii and particularly in the southern-lying Wahaula Heiau (today a part of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, see entry). Thought to have begun with a Tahitian priest named Paao, it continued until the reign of Kamehameha I.

The fate of Kamehameha I is tightly interwoven with that of the Island of Hawaii. He was born in 1753 (or 1758 - the exact date is unknown) in the district of Kohala to the north-west of the island. With his birth the legend grew up that shortly before his mother Kekuiapoiwa's confinement, a priest predicted that the expected child would grow into "an exterminator of the chiefs". As a result, several chiefs decided to kill the child but Kekuiapoiwa outwitted them by giving birth in a Hawaiian temple and handing him over to a servant, who took him to the rugged coastal area of Kapaau on the northern point of the island, where the child grew up. The prophecy was nevertheless fulfilled by Kamehameha's conquering troops and the subsequent founding of the first Hawaiian kingdom (see Famous People).

Hawaii was also the starting place for the first wave of missionaries. On April 20th 1820 the first Christian missionaries landed in Kailua-Kona, only a few months after Kamehameha II had put an end to Hawaiian religion by lifting the kapus and destroying the wooden and stone images of gods found everywhere on the island.

In the following period the island lost its supremacy; first Lahaina (Maui) became capital city of the group of islands and soon after Honolulu. Only with the development of mass tourism did Big Island regain some of its historical position. Today it stands undoubtedly at a turning point in its development.