Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

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Yes. Where was he from
Kahuku.
He was Ka‘ü
Ka‘ü, working at Kahuku Ranch, he was the manager of Kahuku Ranch. When Parker
Ranch had it. This is his son, Sonny. Willie Kaniho married Martinson’s daughter.
Martinson said…
His first wife
Last.
Last wife, okay.
Somewhere along the line, Martinson told his son-in-law Willie who was in charge of
Humu‘ula, that he’d like to go to the top of Mauna Kea. Willie arranged the trip for Martin
Martinson. And I and my brother Jimmy were invited to go along, and Harry Koa.
Was Harry Koa a Waimea Parker Ranch cowboy
Parker Ranch cowboy. George Purdy was a cowboy, Sam Liana and they happened to
be working sheep or something at Humu‘ula. We planned this trip, so that’s how we all
went along together. It was mainly a trip for Martin Martinson who wanted to go up.
I see it was snowing when you were there. Did you folks go right up to the summit peak
Right to the top and I’ve never been so cold in all of my life!
[chuckling]
The wind was blowing and this guy Frank Vierra, wherever he is around here.
Let’s see Frank, oh he’s number one, right here Frank Vierra.
Okay. Whether he was going to show off or what, but when we started to come down,
Willie told us not to go down straight from the pu‘u there because it would slide. The
horse would pakika, go down, to go on a slant. We all started to go on a slant. Somehow
this guy’s horse started to slide and the horse went right down sliding down right to the
bottom. Hit a big boulder down there.
‘Auwë!
Frank was sliding down behind the horse, he had fallen off. He had a little stick that he
used for a switch, and he’d go ass-over-head once in a while [chuckling].
[chuckling]
Most of ‘um had started down, George Purdy and I were still on the top. We hadn’t
started down, we watched this. We laughed till we almost had a stomach ache to see this
whole show [laughing].
Toppling over, poor thing.
Then we came down.
Did the horse survive
Oh yes, no problem at all, the horse stood up, Frank got back on the horse again. So that
was this trip.
I realize there’s snow on top of the pu‘u at this time. May I ask if you’ve heard a name,
Pu‘u Kükahau‘ula for the summit of Mauna Kea
No.
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:36