Ka‘ū News Briefs Monday, March 12, 2018

Workers moving lava at South Point to build the airfield at Ka Lae. Photo from state Dept. Transportation

     One reason for establishing an airfield at Ka Lae was to provide a fueling station at South Point and to take 200 miles off air travel time between the U.S., and Australia and the Philippines. Planes could stop at Ka Lae instead of Oʻahu. Some $2 million was appropriated for the project.

     By the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, at least two fighter planes were stationed at the South Point airfield. When war broke out, "military infrastructure was destroyed as a precautionary measure against enemy usage," states the Hawaiian Home Lands report. During World War II, however, the military completed the 6,000 foot-long temporary steel-grid runway, installed nine 50,000 gallon fuel tanks, built numerous support

P-36 fighters from Wheeler Field on Oʻahu fly in to South Point and taxi over to the refueling station, buried  in the ground and covered by a roof to the left of car.

Territorial Gov. Wallace R.  Farrington designated 517  acres of South Point to a US  Air Service landing field in  1926. Photo from Wikipedia

buildings, and stocked numerous weapons. The place was called not only Morse Field, but also Ka Lae Military Reservation and South Point Air Force Station. See a story and more photos.
     After World War II, the military declared the airfield surplus property, its management given over to the Hawaiʻi Aeronautical Commission. Ideas for its use came from such entrepreneurs as Kahuku Ranch owner James Glover, who proposed keeping it open to airlift slaughtered cattle to market and to use the runway for emergency landings. Calling it the South Cape Airport, the Commission worked with Glover

Morse Field at South Point during World War II, with Peashooter fighter planes.

and retained it as an emergency landing field. By 1952, however, new roads skirted the island, and trucks hauled cattle and other exports to the main port in Hilo for shipment out of Hawaiʻi. Demand declined for an airstrip and the place deteriorated.
     Landing at South Point came to a halt, the airport officially abandoned in 1955 by the Territorial Director of Aeronautics.
     Learn about the next phase of military and federal government use of South Point in Tuesday's Ka‘ū News Briefs. See March 3, March 5, March 6, March 7, March 8, March 9, March 10, March 11, and future Ka‘ū News Briefs for more in the continuing South Point Resource Management Plan. See the 799-page plan online.

A 1929 Model A Ford was light keeper Gibson's car at Ka Lae in 1941, when  he lent it to Pvt. Stanley Koenig who worked at the airfield at South Point. Photo from state Department of Transportation

To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. See our online calendars and our latest print edition at kaucalendar.com.


BIOSECURITY AND AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION are the focus of several state legislature bills with hearings this week. Testimonies are due 24 hours prior to meeting times, and can be submitted online. Hawaiʻi Farmers Union United supports the following, with links to provide testimony directly to the legislature:

‘I‘iwi III by Reyn Ojiri. Photo from volcanoartcenter.org

To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. See our online calendars and our latest print edition at kaucalendar.com.

A PAINTING DEMO WITH JOHN DAWSON AND REYN OJIRI, featuring Birds Of Hawai‘i - Volcanoes National Park, takes place Friday, March 23, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village.