(Puʻu Makaʻā)
| Feature: | Heiau |
| Comments: | Heiau in Kumunui ahupuaa near the road to Kaupo Ranch headquarters. Described by archaeologist Winslow Walker from a 1929 survey of Kaupo: "Location: Polikua, at the first bend of the road leading mauku from the schoolhouse at Kaupo. Description: Open platform type consisting of a series of rough terraced pavements. The top is carefully paved with beach pebbles in certain places shown in the plan. There are no walls at the edge of the heiau platforms, but a large modern wall parallels the road and many stones from the heiau have been taken for its construction. The height of the heiau platform is 12 feet on the south side and 6 feet on the east. It measures 71 feet across the front and has a depth of 110 feet at its greatest distance. Two divisions are apparent, a northern and a southern with a terrace front 4 feet high separating them. The southern terrace is about the same height everywhere except for three small low platforms. ... The northern division, however, is a series of five terraces each about 1 foot higher than the one east of it. Coral, pebbles found." Historian Samuel Kamakau linked Puumakaa to chiefs Kekaulike and Kamehameha I in "Ka Moolelo o Kamehameha I" published in the newspaper Ka Nupepa Kuokoa in the 1860s. Oct. 20, 1866: E noho ana oia ma Kaupo, e kukulu ana i mau luakini no kona mau akua. O Kanemalohemo ma Popoiwi, o Loaloa, me Puumakaa." (He [Maui chief Kekaulike] was living at Kaupo, building temples to his gods: Kanemalohemo at Popoiwi, Loaloa, and Puumakaa.) July 20, 1867: Hoala ae la o Kamehameha i mau hale no ke akua—O Maulili ma Kipahulu, o Kanemalohema a me Puumaka a me Loaloa ma Kaupo. (Kamehameha reconsecrated temples—Maulili at Kipahulu, and Kanemalohema, Puumaka and Loaloa at Kaupo.) Kamakau wrote in the newspaper Ke Au Okoa on Oct. 21, 1869, that the burial procession of the legendary chief Heleipawa went past Puu Makaa. Thomas Thrum in the 1909 "Hawaiian Annual" echoed Kamakau, writing: "Kekaulike was building the heiaus of Loaloa and Pumaka-a, at Kumunui, and Kanemalohemo, at Popoiwi, after which, gathering his forces together he set sail to harass and burn the Kona coast villages." |
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| Further reading: | Puu Makaa heiau (Ulukau.org) |