Spreckelsville is an unincorporated community on the northeastern coast of the west side of the island of Maui in the U.S. state of Hawaii.
Spreckelsville is an unincorporated community on the northeastern coast of the west side of the island of Maui in the U.S. state of Hawaii.
It lies to the west of Paia and to the east of Kahului Airport. It is the home of the Maui Country Club. As of 2010 [update] , the population was 461. [1]
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Spreckelsville is 22.6" (574 mm). The month with the most precipitation on average is January, with 4.0" (101.6 mm). The month with the least precipitation on average is June, with an average of 0.4" (10.2 mm). There are an average of 112.0 days of precipitation, with the most precipitation occurring in March, with 13.0 days, and the least precipitation occurring in June, with 6.0 days. [2]
Spreckelsville was founded in 1878 as a company town by German-American businessman Claus Spreckels, who later founded the Spreckels Sugar Company. Spreckels already ran the most successful sugar refinery in California. [3] He arrived in Maui in 1876 after the passage of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, which gave freer access to market for sugar exported to the United States. Spreckels initially opposed the treaty, fearing that low tariffs on sugar would be detrimental to his business. After its passage, he resolved to establish his own plantations instead. [3]
At the time, his rivals Henry Perrine Baldwin and Samuel Thomas Alexander were building the Hamakua ditch to irrigate their plantation in nearby Haliimaile. [4] Spreckels intended to compete with them, but had neither any land nor any water rights.
Spreckels was able to purchase and lease 40,000 acres (160 km2) of land and became friends with Walter M. Gibson, adviser to King Kalākaua. Together, they made arrangements where Spreckels would loan the king money and in return, he and Gibson would increase the Spreckels' land holdings. Furthermore, the king had the Hawaiian legislature grant use of royal lands in fee. [3] The royal government initially denied Spreckels' request for water rights, but Kalākaua dismissed his ministers and replaced them with others who would obey his orders. Spreckels then made a financial gift and loan to the government in return for water rights for 30 years. These political machinations on his behalf earned Spreckels the nicknames "the sugar king of Hawaii" [3] and "His Royal Saccharinity". [5] He was also granted the rights to the Hamakua ditch if Baldwin and Alexander could not complete it on schedule (they did). [4]
Spreckels then incorporated the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company (HC&S) with Hermann Schussler, chief engineer of California's Spring Valley Water Works, and others, which joined the "Big Five" to become one of the most powerful entities in Hawaii. [3] The HC&S built the "Haiku ditch" to deliver 50 million gallons (190 million liters) of water over 30 miles (48 km) daily to his plantation lands, crossing ravines several hundred feet deep, surpassing the Hamakua ditch in volume and scope. [5] Other technological advancements included using electric lighting to allow the plant to operate deep into the night, construction of a sugar mill that was capable of processing 20 tons of sugar per hour, [3] and being the first plantation to use rail to transport sugarcane from the fields to the mill. [6] The Haiku ditch, the Hamakua ditch, and the Lowrie ditch (built in 1900 for the plantation [7] ) are part of the East Maui Irrigation System, which has been recognized as a Historical Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. [8]
By 1892, Spreckelsville was the largest sugarcane plantation in the world, [3] and employed thousands of immigrant farm laborers from Japan, [9] Korea, [10] China, [11] and other countries, who often lived in squalid conditions. These camps no longer exist and the land they were on has been reclaimed for sugar crops. [4]
However, Spreckels began suffering setbacks after falling out of Kalākaua's favor in 1886. [notes 1] Besides Alexander & Baldwin (A&B), the HC&S faced new competition from the California and Hawaiian Sugar Company, which grew to become one of largest sugar refineries in the world. Other problems included deterioration of the Spreckelsville facilities and the annexation of Hawaii by the United States, which brought an end to contract laborers. A&B then gained control of the HC&S in 1898, forcing Spreckels out. [3]
Eventually, A&B sold off the desirable coastal lands to real estate developers, and those houses and vacation rentals are the ones that now make up the community.
Spreckelsville Beach is the historic name for approximately two miles (3.2 km) in length from Kanaha Beach Park on the west in Kahului to Maui Country Club on the east. The beach is not one continuous stretch of sand, but is broken up into sections by lava, boulders, and groins. [4] The different sections of the beach are now known by separate names. From west to east, they are:
Kahului is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) in Maui County in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It hosts the county's main airport, a deep-draft harbor, light industrial areas, and commercial shopping centers. The population was 28,219 at the 2020 census. Kahului is part of the Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina Metropolitan Statistical Area which comprises all of Maui County, including nearby Wailuku and the West Maui town of Lahaina.
Pā'ia is a census-designated place (CDP) in Maui County, Hawaii, United States, on the northern coast of the island of Maui. The population was 2,470 at the 2020 census. Pā'ia is home to several restaurants, art galleries, surf shops and other tourist-oriented businesses. It was formerly home to a Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar mill from 1880 to 2000.
Wailuku is a census-designated place (CDP) in and county seat of Maui Island, Maui County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 17,697 at the 2020 census.
Adolph Claus J. Spreckels was a major industrialist in Hawai'i during the kingdom, republican, and territorial periods of the islands' history. He also involved himself in several California enterprises, most notably the company that bears his name, Spreckels Sugar Company.
The Hana Highway is a 64.4-mile-long (103.6 km) stretch of Hawaii Routes 36 and 360 which connects Kahului to the town of Hana in east Maui. To the east of Kalepa Bridge, the highway continues to Kipahulu as Hawaii Route 31. Although Hana is only about 52 miles (84 km) from Kahului, an uninterrupted car-trip takes about 2.5 hours to drive, since the highway is very winding, narrow, and passes over 59 bridges, of which 46 are only one lane wide. There are approximately 620 curves along Route 360 from just east of Kahului to Hana, almost all of it through lush, tropical rainforest. Many of the concrete and steel bridges date back to 1910 and all but one are still in use. That one bridge, badly damaged by erosion, has been replaced by a portable steel ACROW or Bailey bridge erected by the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
The Treaty of Reciprocity between the United States of America and the Hawaiian Kingdom was a free trade agreement signed and ratified in 1875 that is generally known as the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875.
Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. is an American company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company currently operates businesses in real estate, land operations, and materials and construction. It was also the last "Big Five" company to cultivate sugarcane. As of 2020, it remains one of the State of Hawaii's largest private landowners, owning over 28,000 acres (11,000 ha) and operating 36 income properties in the state.
Hāmākua is a district on the northeast coast of Hawaiʻi's Big Island, administered by the County of Hawaiʻi in the state of Hawaiʻi. It is also the name given for the coastline in the region, the "Hāmākua Coast".
Puʻunēnē is an unincorporated community in the central part of Maui, Hawaii, United States, with a population of approximately 50. Although the land is fairly level, the Hawaiian name for the area means "goose hill", in reference to the endemic nēnē.
Sugarcane was introduced to Hawaiʻi by its first inhabitants in approximately 600 AD and was observed by Captain Cook upon arrival in the islands in 1778. Sugar quickly turned into a big business and generated rapid population growth in the islands with 337,000 people immigrating over the span of a century. The sugar grown and processed in Hawaiʻi was shipped primarily to the United States and, in smaller quantities, globally. Sugarcane and pineapple plantations were the largest employers in Hawaiʻi. Today the sugarcane plantations are gone, production having moved to other countries.
The island of Maui with a relatively central location has given it a pivotal role in the history of the Hawaiian Islands.
Henry Perrine Baldwin was a businessman and politician on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. He supervised the construction of the East Maui Irrigation System and co-founded Alexander & Baldwin, one of the "Big Five" corporations that dominated the economy of the Territory of Hawaii.
The Haidu Mill or Haʻikū Sugar Mill was a processing factory for sugarcane from 1861 to 1879 on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
Samuel Thomas Alexander co-founded a major agricultural and transportation business in the Kingdom of Hawaii.
There are two heritage railways in Kauai, the birthplace of Hawaiian railroading. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 19, 1979.
Samuel Gardner Wilder was an American shipping magnate and politician who developed a major transportation company in the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Pāʻauhau is an unincorporated community on the island of Hawaiʻi in Hawaiʻi County, Hawaiian Islands. Pāʻauhau is located near the north coast of the island, 2 miles (3.2 km) east-northeast of Honokaʻa.
William Harrison Rice was a missionary teacher from the United States who settled in the Hawaiian Islands and managed an early sugarcane plantation.
Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum is located in the small sugarcane growing and milling community of Puʻunene, Hawaii, Kahului, Maui. The museum exhibits the history of Hawaiian sugarcane plantations and Alexander & Baldwin and its role in the sugarcane industry in Hawaii. The company itself continues in business and though it has diversified, it continues to produce sugarcane. The museum itself in the former mill manager's house.
William G. Irwin was a capitalist and successful sugar planter in the Kingdom of Hawai'i. He was born in England, and emigrated to Hawaii with his family while still a child. He would remain a British citizen throughout his life. Educated at Punahou School, he was in the right place at the right time to make a lot of money in the sugar plantation market. After the passage of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, Irwin formed the William G. Irwin & Co partnership. California entrepreneur Claus Spreckels offered him a separate partnership in 1881, a union that would come to include the Spreckels interests in sugar plantations, and have subsidiaries in banking activities and ship building. Two decades later, after amassing a fortune in his association with Spreckels, Irwin moved away from the plantation activities and relocated to San Francisco, where he continued his affiliations with financial institutions. At his death, Irwin's estate was estimated to be in excess of $10,000,000. His only child Helene married the first time into the wealthy Crocker family of California, and through her second marriage to Paul I. Fagan, became an owner of the San Francisco Seals baseball team.
Media related to Spreckelsville, Hawaii at Wikimedia Commons20°54′49″N156°26′05″W / 20.9135032°N 156.434778°W
Islands, municipalities, and communities of Maui County, Hawaii, United States | ||
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| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |