Skip to main content

The mystery of Hawaii Route 144 and temporary Hawaii Route 11

By

The 1959 Gousha Road map of Hawaii features two largely unknown references in the form of Hawaii Route 144 and Temporary Hawaii Route 11.  Both corridors are shown running from the boundary of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park east to Glenwood via Volcano Village.  At the time Hawaii Route 11 was using the so-called "Volcano Road" which was constructed as a modernization of Mamalahoa Highway during 1927-1928.  This blog will examine the two map references and will attempt to determine what they might indicate. 



The mystery of Hawaii Route 144 and Temporary Hawaii Route 11

Hawaii Route 11 is part of Mamalahoa Highway (the Hawaii Belt Road) and is the longest Hawaiian State Route at 121.97 miles.  The highway begins at the mutual junction of Hawaii Route 19 and Hawaii Route 190 in Kailua-Kona.  From Kailua-Kona the routing of Hawaii Route 11 crosses the volcanic landscapes of southern side of the Big Island.  Hawaii Route 11 terminates at Hawaii Route 19/Kamehameha Avenue near Hilo Bay and Hilo International Airport. 

Mamalahoa Highway was declared by royal decree in 1783 via the Law of the Splintered Paddle.  The law was conceived based off an incident Kamehameha I was part of along the Puna coast.  During said incident Kamehameha I and his men were conducting a shoreline raid when they encountered two Puna fisherman.  While pursuing the fisherman across a lava field one of Kamehameha's feet was caught in a rock.  The fishermen seized upon the opportunity to retaliate and struck Kamehameha in the head with a wooden paddle. 

Kamehameha opted to not retaliate against the fisherman and used the incident as the basis of the Law of the Splintered Paddle.  The law essentially guaranteed safe passage to all travelers across the Hawaiian Islands and was used as a basis of Mamalahoa Highway on the Big Island.  The highway corridor was rapidly developed across the Big Island and was mostly annexed as early automotive roads.  

In 1955 the Hawaii Route System was modified and expanded to the Big Island.  The southern half of Mamalahoa Highway from Kailua-Kona to Hilo was assigned Hawaii Route 11.  The early routing of Hawaii Route 11 can be seen on the 1959 Gousha Map of Hawaii.      



Specific only to the 1959 Gousha Map of Hawaii an oddity along Hawaii Route 11 is shown east of Hawaii Volcanos National Park east towards Glenwood.  The corridor is displayed as "Temporary Hawaii Route 11" and part of Hawaii Route 144.  


The reference appears to refer to the original routing of Hawaii Route 11 along what is now Old Volcano Road east of the Hawaii Volcanos National Park boundary.  The original alignment of Hawaii Route 11 appears on the Old Volcano Road corridor on the 1964 United States Geological Survey map (courtesy historicaerials.com) of Volcano Village.  The map however does not indicate any reference to Hawaii Route 144.  Within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park the highway was shifted off of northern Crater Rim Drive to a bypass in 1961. 


There are two likely possibilities to account for why Hawaii Route 144 appears on the 1959 Gousha map of Hawaii.  The corridor of Volcano Road could have been for a time assigned as Federal Aid Program 144 whereas the planned realignment of Hawaii Route 11 would have been Federal Aid Program 11.  There is no known documentation supporting that a Federal Aid Program 144 existed on the Big Island for any road related project.  

The second possibility is that the Hawaii Route 144 and Temporary Hawaii Route 11 references were a form of copyright protection by Gousha.  During the 1950s era it was common for map makers to place intentional errors in an attempt to detect counterfeiting.  

The alignment of Hawaii Route 11 was shifted off of Volcano Road sometime during the 1960s or early 1970s.  The modern highway can be seen branching from Old Volcano Road east of the National Park boundary below.  Old Volcano Road serves the community of Volcano Village. 




Volcano Village was founded in 1894 following the improvement of Mamalahoa Highway (alternatively Old Volcano Trail) between Hilo and the Kilauea caldera.  Early Volcano Village served as a stage station for travelers departing the Hilo Railroad station in Glenwood (starting in 1901).  During 1916 the community would see a rise in prominence following Hawaii Volcanos National Park being declared.  The Volcano Road of Mamalahoa Highway was improved to automotive standards with the installation of a concrete surface circa 1927-1928
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hawaii Route 8930

By
Hawaii Route 8930 is a 2.5-mile State Highway on the Island of O'hau.  Hawaii Route 8930 is aligned over Kualakai Parkway over the course of its entire alignment south from Interstate H-1 to Kapolei Parkway.  Hawaii Route 8930 is one of the newest Hawaii Routes only having been completed during 2010.   This page is part of the Gribblenation O'ahu Highways page.  All Gribblenation and Roadwaywiz media related to the highway system of O'ahu can be found at the link below: https://www.gribblenation.org/p/gribblenation-oahu-highways-page.html Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 8930 The history of Hawaii Route 8930 is brief given it is a modern facility.  Hawaii Route 8930 and what was known as "North-South Road" were built to facilitate the developing areas of Kapolei on western O'ahu.  According to hawaiihighways.com the first stage of Hawaii Route 8930 was completed from Kapolei Parkway north to Farrington Highway as a four-lane highway during November...
Post a Comment
Read more

Madera County Road 607 and the Stockton-Los Angeles Road

By
Madera County Road 607 is an approximately seven-mile rural unsurfaced highway which spans from Road 600 near Raymond west to Road 29.   Road 607 west from Raymond Road Cemetery (established in 1905) is part of the Stockton-Los Angeles Road corridor surveyed in 1853. The corridor lies in the gap between Fresno Crossing at the Fresno River west to Newton's Crossing at the Chowchilla River. The Buchanan Copper Mine would be along what is now Road 607 in the namesake Buchanan Hollow during July 1863. The Buchanan Mine is thought to have once had a population of between 1,000-1,500 residents by the early 1870s. Copper prices would decline in the decade after the Civil War and much of the activity at Buchanan shifted towards cattle ranching. The last businesses in the community would shutter during World War II and it is now a true ghost town. Part 1; the history of Madera County Road 607 and the Stockton-Los Angeles Road What is now Road 607 was a component of the larger Sto...
Post a Comment
Read more

Old US Route 60/70 through Hell (Chuckwall Valley Road and Ragsdale Road)

By
Back in 2016 I explored some of the derelict roadways of the Sonoran Desert of Riverside County which were part of US Route 60/70; Chuckwalla Valley Road and Ragsdale Road. US 60 and US 70 were not part of the original run of US Routes in California.  According to USends.com US 60 was extended into California by 1932.  US 60 doesn't appear on the California State Highway Map until the 1934 edition. USends.com on US 60 endpoints 1934 State Highway Map Conversely US 70 was extended into California by 1934, it first appears on the 1936 State Highway Map. USends.com on US 70 endpoints 1936 State Highway Map When US 60 and US 70 were extended into California they both utilized what was Legislative Route Number 64 from the Arizona State Line west to Coachella Valley.  LRN 64 was part of the 1919 Third State Highway Bond Act routes.  The original definition of LRN 64 routed between Mecca in Blythe and wasn't extended to the Arizona State Line until 1931 acc...
3 comments
Read more