Coco Palms Resort was a resort hotel in Wailu?, Kaua?i, Hawai?i that was noted for its Hollywood connections, Hawaiian themed weddings, torch-lightings, destruction by a hurricane and long standing land disputes. The land is on or near some of the most important legends, historical events and culturally significant spots to Native Hawaiians. The land the Coco Palms Resort sits on is ancient Hawaiian royal property that has been in dispute since 1866 beginning with the petition of Junius Kaae along with Kapiolani, Kalakaua and others. Their petition, attempting to revoke the will of Kealiiahonui, filed in probate by Levi Ha?alelea in 1855 was eventually overturned by Sanford B. Dole almost immediately after the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Dole was acting as a justice of the supreme court of the provincial government after stepping down from the bench and then being seated as President. Litigants were made to sign an agreement for this adjudication to be allowed by Dole.
The resort was originally leased by Lyle Guslander from the Territory of Hawaii in 1952, opening in early 1953. The hotel manager Grace Buscher took control of marketing the hotel as a Hawaiian style get away for tourists. A number of films have been shot on location at this location including Elvis Presley's film Blue Hawaii. The hotel made a big business out of Hawaiian style weddings for decades. Buscher started tradition still in use at hotels throughout the islands known at the hotel as the torch-lighting ceremony. Buscher also initiated a tree planting ceremony to replenish the old coconut grove and honor individuals of note. Destroyed by Hurricane Iniki, the derelict hotel is allegedly scheduled to be restored and reopened as a Hyatt resort some time in the future.
Video Coco Palms Resort
Background and history
According to the book; "The Story of the Coco Palms Hotel" by David P Penhallow, the Coco Palms Resort is on an ancient site of Hawaiian royalty and hospitality situated at the mouth of the Wailua River on the eastern side of Kauai. The area around the mouth of the Wailua River is well known to Hawaiians as a place of many legends and events of historical, cultural and religious significance. This is the landing place of the Kahiki voyagers who came ashore here at Kaua?i at about 500AD, and the location of Hawaiian legends like the prophet Naula-a-Maihea and the origins of the Naha stone. On Jan. 18, 1778, Captain James Cook landed here.
Kaumualii and Kekaiha?ak?lou (Deborah Kapule)
In 1810 the monarch of Kaua?i, Kaumualii negotiated a peaceful agreement that allowed the island to become a part of Kamehameha I's new Kingdom of Hawaii while still allowing Kaumualii to remain the ruler. The agreement established Kamehameha's son Liholiho as supreme monarch. After Kamehameha I's death, a council was held in July of 1821 with Kaumualii and Liholiho, now styled as Kamehameha II along with the top chiefs and advisors. When Kamehameha II agreed to continue his father's agreement, Kaumualii asked the new monarch to take some Kaua?i lands for his wives, to appease Liholiho's guardians. While Kamehameha II refused to do so, stating that his father had left no instructions about the land, only that he should be the supreme monarch, he did take Kaumualii's wife Kekaiha?ak?lou as one of his own wives and gave his wife Kek?uluohi to his most trusted advisor, Charles Kana?ina as a way to please the chiefs. It is believed the council decision displeased the new Kuhina Nui, Ka?ahumanu. A year later she would take Kaumualii and later his son Kealiiahonui as her husbands using the teachings of the missionaries on marriage to make herself their heirs.
After Kaumualii was kidnapped, Kekaiha?ak?lou (now known as Deborah Kapule), owned a home on the banks of the river were travelers knew they were always welcome long before any hotel on the island. She had converted to Christianity and remarried Simeon Kaiu who was to become an instructor for the missionaries. The couple had a son, Josiah Kaumualii and in 1837, in order that they may be closer to their own estates, they moved an entire retinue of people to Wailua. Shortly after relocating, Kaiu died from a stroke. Historian James Jarvis traveled up the river with Kapule in a double-hulled canoe in 1837, climbing to the top of Wailua Falls. Jarvis wrote:
"She lived in a beautiful spot....that looked more like park scenery than any work of nature."
It was a large house and, beginning in 1823 became open to visitors. It would become known as "Deborah's Inn" where Kapule would entertain for twenty years. In the 1840s Kapule played host to the Protestant Missionaries and the first Catholic Priest on the island. by 1853 Deborah Kapule had moved to the other side of Kaua?i and died and the property began to rapidly decay. George Washington Bates found the residence in complete disrepair with the canoes that had previously transported guests up the river, rotting in a shed. Several dilapidated buildings left abandoned included a small church. The villagers around the area continued to grow taro and care for the fishponds.
Kingdom Supreme Court probate decisions
Kealiiahonui was the son of Kaumualii who died on approximately June 23, 1849. On January 25, 1855 Levi Ha?alelea petitioned the Hawaiian Supreme Court as a beneficial representative of the estate of Kekau??nohi, for whom he was the sole heir. Ha?alelea had possession of the will of Kealiiahonui stating that Kekau??nohi was the monarch's sole heir but had also died previous to the petition. He filed the will into probate on February 16th of that same year. On July 2, 1866 a petition was filed on behalf of Kapiolani, her husband David Kalakaua, Poomaikelani and her husband Hiram Kahanawai, Victoria Kinoiki Kekaulike and her husband David Kahalepouli Piikoi, Kaluaipihana and her husband F.W. Malaihi, as well as a minor named Kamehaokalani through F.W. Malaihi. That case, involving the future king and queen and associates was dismissed on November 30, 1866.
In the case of the "ESTATE OF KEALIIAHONUI, Deceased. Appeal From Bickerton, J." of June 17, 1890, involving the amended petition of Junius Kaae, Ha?alelea's widow Amoe Ululani Kapukalakala Ena (1842-1904), represented by F. M. Hatch made a Plea In Bar: stating that the court had already delivered a judgement dismissing the case in 1866. The decision of Bickerton, J. was ; "After careful examination of this case, and of the authorities, I consider that the petitioner is estopped from what would amount to a re-hearing of the original petition..." "The plea in bar is sustained.". The full decision of the court was; "We support the decision appealed from". "[T]he application of one desirous of suing as a next friend of a minor, was substantially complied with. The Judge's order for the issue of process, endorsed upon the petition, was a sufficient "sanction" or authority for the person desirous of acting as the next friend of the minor to act throughout the proceedings in such capacity. Moreover, the minor in question was joined with several adult plaintiffs, and all were represented by counsel, and the case heard upon its merits. There is no claim that the case was not fully and adequately presented and tried."
Reversal by Dole acting as justice while president of provisional government
According to; "IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF KEALIIAHONUI, Deceased. PETITION FOR REVOGATION OF ORDER ADMITTING WILL TO PROBATE, AND APPOINTMENT or ADMINISTRATOR. APPEAL FROM DOLE, J. HEARING, FEBRUARY 23, 1893. DECISION, JUNE 2, 1893". The petition reads as follows; "An executor of a deceased wife's estate filed a petition to revoke an order admitting to probate the will of K., who it was claimed was the uncle of petitioner's tcstatrix, and a plea in bar thereto was sustained. (8 Hawl 93.) The same person filed another petition with the same object, claiming to be a purchaser of the rights of another person alleged to be a niece and heir of the testator, K. A party in interest pleads the former proceedings in bar. The plea is overruled". Junius Kaae was the petitioner who had filed a similar petition in 1890 along with Kapiolani, Kalakaua and others that was given a judgment dismissing it, pleaded in bar and sustained upon appeal of the full court. Levi Ha?alelea's widow, A.A. Ha?alelea (Amoe Ululani Kapukalakala Ena), pleaded the last proceeding in bar to the present (at that time) proceedings as; "that in a proceeding heretofore had in this Court in which said J unius Kaae was a party, the identical matter now set up by said Kaae was litigated and a judgment rendered against him." The plea in Bar, this time, was overruled. When the decision was adjudicated, both litigants were required to sign an agreement allowing Justice/President of the Provisional Government of Hawaii, Sanford B. Dole to continue to adjudicate even though he was no longer seated on the high court but President of the Provisional Government of Hawaii after the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The court wrote; "Now, therefore, it is hereby agreed that the said Honorable S. B. Dole may participate in, make, sign, file and enter a decision and judgment in this cause, upon said appeal, in like manner as though he were still in commission as a Justice of said Court."
Maps Coco Palms Resort
Plantation and hotel
Coconut grove
Although believed to have been a royal grove originally, the coconut grove was actually planted in 1896 by William Lindemann, a German immigrant, to harvest their oil and copra (dried meat). It was Lindemann's hope that he would someday operate a vast copra empire, however he was unaware of how long the trees took to mature and the plantation was a failure. Today the vast coconut groves along the coastline are often referred to as the Coconut Coast with many of the trees outliving their expected lifespan but thinning out over time.
Coco Palms Lodge, Island Holidays
By the early 1950s, the site had a small businessmen's lodge owned and operated by an elderly widow named Veda Warner Hills. She had advertised for the sale of the site in 1952 which was answered by Lyle Lowell Guslander, known in the tourist industry as "Gus". Guslander had made a reputation for himself as "cantankerous", "ornery" and "brilliant". Guslander was a former assistant manager of the Palace hotel in San Francisco, California and arrived in Hawaii in 1947 to manage the Niumalu Hotel (Hilton Hawaiian Village) but was fired by Walter Child who was known to be equally unpredictably. He then began working for the Moana Hotel, beginning as assistant manager and eventually becoming general manager. Guslander asked his friend, Henry Buscher to investigate the property for him but as a liquor distributor, Buscher gave a negative report back because he could not purchase drink a there. Although Guslander did not have the funds to purchase the property outright, he managed to get a lease with the option to buy from the Territory of Hawaii.
On January 25, 1953 the Coco Palms lodge opened with 24 rooms, five employees and two guests. The lodge consisted of the main residence which had been converted into the former businessmen's lodge with eight rooms and an additional 16 rooms in a reconfigured army surplus barracks. The entire property was set in front of the beach and encompassed 35 acres with over two thousand coconut trees remaining from the former Lindemann coconut plantation. Guslander hired Grace Buscher to assist him with the management of the new lodge. Although though she had no previous experience, Grace was creative and had a good understanding of buyer psychology. During this early period the hotel still had a sugarcane train running past the front of the property. The hotel was run by Island Holidays Ltd. which was owned and operated by Guslander as president. The group also included William Newport, William Mullahey and Grace Buscher, who became the general manager of the hotel. Mullahey was a regional director for Pan American Airlines. In an interview to The Garden Island newspaper, Mullahey announced the companies plans to expand and create a Hawaiian atmosphere. Development started immediately and by 1956 the lodge had converted into a cottage style hotel with 82 rooms. That same year, Guslander removed ten of the cottages to build a 24 room wing to the hotel, increasing capacity to 96 rooms.
Torch lighting, Hollywood Hawaiian weddings and tree planting
While the exact origins of any true Hawaiian torch-lighting ceremony is not known, it is known that the use of this dramatic incarnation of Hawaiian culture, done at many Hawaiian Hotels, began at the Coconut Palms Hotel with Grace Buscher making the first "call". The ceremony would become a big part of the Coco Palms story. Hawaiians dressed in a traditional malo would blow A conch shell and beat a drum, as the call is answered by one man running across the coconut grove, lighting torches on his way until the entire lagoon was lit. In the book; "Kauai: 100 Years in Postcards" author Stormy Cozad states that while the torch-lighting ceremony was synonymous with the Coco Palms, it was not actually a true Hawaiian ceremony but a dramatic call to dinner for guests using bits of Hawaiian culture displayed as parts of Hawaiian history were narrated during the lighting. Post cards from the time depict a number of local Hawaiian residents performing the ceremony including: Sebastian Alalem blowing the conch shell, Willie Carrillo beating the drum and John Keleohi lighting the torch. The event would be followed by an hour long Polynesian themed show in the dinning room. Bruscher had a firepit built for roasting a pig in full view of guest to entice them into the Lagoon Dinning Room, one of three dinning areas at the hotel, helping to distract guests away from the train passing by.
Almost immediately Hollywood took an active interest in the Coco Palms beginning in May of 1953 with the filming of Miss Sadie Thompson starring Rita Hayworth. The Chapel in the Palm was built by the studio in the Coconut Grove specifically for this production. The film was shot in Technicolor and 3D on location in and around the Coco Palms property and the Wailua River. Along with Hayworth were actors Jose Ferrer, Aldo Ray, director Curtis Bernhardt and the entire crew of the production also staying at the hotel. Using the Hollywood chapel, Grace Buscher would invent the Hawaiian Wedding for tourists. In 1926 Charles E. King wrote the song; "Ke Kali Nei Au" (Waiting There for Thee) for a musical production entitled; "The Prince of Hawaii". The song was originally recorded in 1928 by Helen Desha Beamer with its original Hawaiian language lyrics. It would then be recorded in 1951 by Bing Crosby with an English translation. In 1958 Al Hoffman and Dick Manning wrote additional English lyrics for Andy Williams. Now called; Hawaiian Wedding Song, it was featured prominently in the film; "Blue Hawaii", starring Elvis Presley, who's character is married at the lagoon at the Coco Palms in the movies finale. The hotel made a big business of selling "Blue Hawaii" weddings that recreated the floating wedding ceremony depicted in the film. Extras for this wedding package included two singers performing "Hawaiian Wedding Song" and a conch shell blower. The hotel looked alot like a movie set with similar details such as cement coco palm pillars.
Another ceremony established by Grace Buscher was the Coco Palms tree planting ceremony. it established on May 10, 1955, to honor notable people of Kauai, Hawaii and around the world.
Hurricane Iniki, closure and demolition
The resort has been closed since being hit by Hurricane Iniki in 1992. According to a hotel press release, the resort is scheduled to be restored and reopened as a Hyatt resort.
On July 4, 2014 the resort caught fire. No one was injured and the fire was controlled by early afternoon.
Demolition of the existing buildings began in June 2016.
In 2016, GreeneWaters LLC, operating as the Coco Palms Hui in conjunction with Hyatt Development's Unbound program, began demolition of the old structures in preparation for construction of a new resort. Tyler Greene, the lead developer, was quoted as saying, "Our mantra on this has been to honor the past and celebrate the future."
Native land controversies
2009 native burials complaint
In 2009 Waldeen K. Palmeira and the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation had attempted to seek a preliminary injunction and summary judgment against the Department of Transportation for a widening project that involved a portion of the Coco Palms property.
2016 ejectment, possession case
Noa Mau-Espirito, a student of Kaua?i immersion schools and 2009 graduate of Kapaa High School who has studied ??lelo Hawai?i since his childhood, began occupying a portion of the Coco Palms resort in early 2016 with a royal land patent from the Kingdom of Hawaii. After researching his genealogy and history of the local land, Mau-Espirito discovered a link to the area. With help from a few others, he began to plant taro and other traditional plants, care for burials and the nearby heiau, and clear a roadway of overgrowth with the goal of "living self-sustainably" on the land. Noa Mau-Espirito and his cousin Kamuela Kapule O Kamehameha believe their royal patent, called a Palapala Sila Nui, gives their family land rights in perpetuity. Mau-Espirita stated; "Because my bloodline goes straight to Kaumualii, because Kamu's bloodline goes straight to Kapule, we have vested rights and vested interests in this land that nobody can take away from us." and "Once a royal patent is made, it's in that family's name forever. All the kids in that bloodline will be able to come on this land." A number of other kanaka maoli, some who were formerly houseless and also descendants of Kaua?i royalty, joined in his efforts. The group has had encounters by police several times but Kapule believes this is a civil matter.
An attempt was made by the Coco Palms Hui to evict them and ban them from entering the property, calling them "squatters", and filing trespass complaints with the Kaua?i Police Department on February 11 and March 11, 2017. However, on May 17, Judge Michael Soong of the Fifth Circuit Court denied Coco Palms Hui's ex-parte motion to remove the families, ruling that property ownership had not yet been fully determined.
This situation closely follows arrests in Wainiha on Kaua?i's Northern Coast, involving similar land claim assertions, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's attempt to clear hundreds of ancient land titles from his 700-acre Pila?a, Kaua?i compound, which angered Hawaiians greatly, triggering international attention to the land issues on Kaua?i, and Hawai?i as a whole.
Citations
References
- Cozad, Stormy (2008). Kauai. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-5644-4.
External links
- "Abandoned Kaua'i Jewel: The Coco Palms." Sometimes Interesting. 19 Jan 2014
- Flickr Photos of Coco Palms
- "The Coco Palms, Kauai, HI, USA" Abandoned photoset and article
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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