The Nifty Fifty: Hawaii

Hawaii is a state in the western region of the United States with the abbreviation of HI. It became the 50th state on August 21, 1959. This makes Hawaii 64 years old, as of August, 2023. Hawaii was admitted as the state of Hawaii, retaining its name from the former kingdom of Hawaii. The name Hawaii is the English spelling of the word Owhyhee, which is thought to mean homeland. Hawaii is traditionally spelled with an ‘okina, Hawai‘i, but most of the United States simply spells it Hawaii.

Hawaii is the 43rd largest state and the 40th most populous; Hawaii’s capital is Honolulu. The demonym of the state is Hawaiian; the state is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on all sides.

The motto of Hawaii is Ua Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono, which is Hawaiian for The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness.

The official nickname of Hawaii is The Aloha State, which aloha is the Hawaiian word to mean hello and goodbye. The state is sometimes called Paradise of the Pacific.

The landscape of Hawaii is covered in fern and bamboo forests, misty plateaus, craggy ocean cliffs, tropical coasts, and lava deserts; Hawaii even contains the inactive volcano of Mauna Kea, which is often snow capped.

Hawaii has the smallest county in the United States, Kalawao County, and the greatest average annual rainfall, nearly 64 inches. Hawaii is the only state that is an archipelago; the state is also closer to the equator than the 2,000 miles to the nearest continent, which is North America, more specifically, California. This remoteness makes Hawaii the most isolated population center in the world. The continent in which the state exists is surprisingly subjective: Hawaii exists within North America politically because of its status as a US State, but the state’s geographical location places it within the boundaries of the continent of Oceania, yet Hawaii’s existence outside both the North American and Oceanian continental crusts suggests that the state is not a part of either continent.

Hawaii is known for its comfortable temperatures, stunning blue waters, hibiscus flowers, tropical foods, and beautiful beaches; many of Hawaii’s beaches have white sand, however, the state’s beaches can contain green, red, pink, and even black sand. Hawaii contains some minerals such as sand, gravel, and stone, but the state also has some gemstones, which mostly consist of peridot, obsidian, and coral. While Hawaii does not naturally possess any native metal, the state’s rocks and sands do have iron, aluminum, and calcium oxides, though there are very few ores that are suitable for smelting in the state.

Hawaii is the final state to join the Union to date, and it is interesting to note that the approximate number of known caves in Hawaii is 1,776, which is the year when the United States officially became a nation, and the Hawaiian language has a mere 13 letters, which is the number of colonies that formed the United States. The Hawaiian alphabet contains the letters of A, E, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, U, W, and ‘, the last letter is called ‘okina.

On April 23, 1844, Sanford B. Dole was born in Honolulu, Kingdom of Hawaii, to missionaries from Maine. In 1894, shortly after the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Dole was elected as the first President of the Republic of Hawaii, but Dole only served 4 of the 6 years of his term before the Republic of Hawaii was organized as the US Territory of Hawaii, making Dole the only President of the Republic of Hawaii. In 1900, Dole was appointed as the first Governor of the Territory of Hawaii by US President William McKinley. Dole resigned in 1903 to accept an appointment by President Theodore Roosevelt as judge for the US District Court of Hawaii, which was an office he held until his retirement in 1915. Interestingly, this means that Dole’s allegiance was to the Kingdom of Hawaii, then the Republic of Hawaii, and finally the United States.

In 1911, Henry Ginaca invented a machine that automated the peeling and coring of pineapples at the request of a man named James Dole. James Dole was a cousin of Sanford B. Dole who moved to Hawaii in 1899 and founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, which later became the Dole Food Company, on the island of Oahu.

Between December 7 and 13, 1941, a Japanese pilot crash landed his Zero on the Hawaiian island of Ni‘ihau after participating in the attack on Pearl Harbor; the Japanese were using the island for damaged aircraft to await rescue. Local Hawaiian civilians initially treated the pilot as a guest since they were unaware of the Japanese attack 150 miles away, but once the Hawaiians heard about the attack, they apprehended the pilot, allowing him to stay the night with the Harada family, a Hawaiian family of Japanese decent, but with guards posted. The pilot told the Haradas about the attack on Pearl Harbor and they agreed to help him. They overpowered a guard and later took civilians Benehakaka “Ben” Kanahele and his wife Kealoha “Ella” Kanahele prisoner. The Kanaheles later managed to overpower the attackers and Ella killed the Japanese Pilot. The Ni‘ihau Incident resulted in two deaths, the pilot and one of the Haradas, and the detainment of the pilot’s two other collaborators. Ben Kanahele was injured in the process, for which he was decorated, but Ella apparently received no official recognition.

An interesting fact about Hawaii is that the Hawaii state constitution specifies that any of the Hawaiian islands not named as belonging to one of the 5 Hawaiian counties automatically belongs to Honolulu; there are a total of 137 Hawaiian islands, of which Honolulu possess 63. It is believed that Perth, Australia, is the longest city in the world, stretching over 93 miles, however, if you take all of Honolulu’s islands into consideration, the vast majority of which are uninhabited, Honolulu is technically the longest city in the world, spanning roughly 1,500 miles.

A strange fact about Hawaii is that the name of its state fish is the second longest word in the Hawaiian language: the Humuhumunukunukuāpua‘a. The name of this fish apparently translates to triggerfish with a snout like a pig.

What fact about Hawaii most interests you?