Relics of a Bygone Era
For over a hundred years, sugar was king along the Hamakua Coast
and Honoka`a Town flourished along with the nearby green fields of
tall cane and processing mills that together produced one of the
major cash crops of the islands (the other being pineapples, on
nearby Maui and Lana`i). This was a company town, with housing for
the workers in the fields and in the mill, stores to sell them
goods and the bars and movie theatres to consume their free time
and loose change.
Then, in the mid-1990's, the sugar business moved off-island and
the mills closed. Workers moved away, businesses shut their doors.
Fields were left to go fallow; you can still see abundant
'volunteer' sugar cane growing alongside the roads. But the town of
Honoka`a remained as a monument to a bygone era and a simple
agrarian way of life that has all but vanished in this century. The
stores along the historic main street re-opened as boutiques, fudge
shoppes and art galleries; now there is a new influx of residents
looking to reclaim those quiet times when sugar was king.
First to find congratulations to: Mrs. 21N157W