Many of you have seen a picture from the 1824 Kaua`i notebook of missionary Hiram Bingham, on page 99 of Back to the Future in the Caves of Kaua`i, depicting 34 traditional grass hale that stood near the cave almost two centuries ago. On a recent trip to Honolulu for a Conservation Council for Hawai`i Board meeting, Lida visited the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society Library again and went through his 1824 notebook some more, to look some more at pictures he sketched of a cave nearby he called “Anakomo.”

So, is this our sinkhole?

Missionary Hiram Bingham made these sketches of a sinkhole on the south shore of Kaua`i in 1824. Look a little familiar? (Courtesy of Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society Library, Honolulu)

What do you think? Where else on the south shore of Kauai near Maha`ulepu is there anything like this? There is also a very rough sketch map of the floor plan showing a central round part a long cave on one end and a short one on the other.
We are grateful to the Museum for letting us search their collections for info about the cave and its surroundings, and would encourage all of you to check the place out if you have occasion to be in downtown Honolulu. These good folks are doing their best with limited resources (we know about that) to preserve a key part of Hawai`i’s history.

If you have old pictures of the cave and its vicinity, we would really love to copy them for the Reserve’s archives. Photos, sketches, and stories from the past are precious, and enrich the legacy of the place.