Mililani, located in central Oahu, was Hawaii’s first planned community, with spacious homes rising from the red clay of the plantation fields in 1968. Now the neighborhood has mature trees, and almost any amenity to make living comfortable. The H-2 freeway divides the two Mililani neighborhoods: Mililani Town, the older portion west of H-2, and Mililani Mauka, built starting in 1990 and to the east of H-2.
In the center of Oahu, four miles north of Mililani and about twenty miles north of Honolulu, lies the peaceful, historically agricultural community of Wahiawa. Situated on the Leilehua Plain between the Wai‘anae and Ko‘olau mountain ranges and surrounded on three sides by freshwater Lake Wilson, the natural beauty of the peninsula community provides an ideal location to relax with family members of all ages.
What Is The History Of Mililani And Wahiawa?
Before you embark on an adventure to Central Oahu, share with your kids (in an age-appropriate manner) a little about the history of Mililani and Wahiawa.
Here are some fun facts to include in your conversations:
- Central Oahu is steeped in histories of battles. The local Native Hawaiian chiefs fought battles to control the precious lands of Mililani and Wahiawa, which had fertile soil, a cool climate, and sacred sites, like the Birthing Stones, where ali‘i, or ruling, women delivered their children. The armies of Oahu also trained for war in the Mililani and Wahiawa mountains. In 1410, when the chiefs of Maui and the Big Island attacked Oahu, a decisive battle would be fought in Kipapa Gulch, which runs along the southeast side of Mililani. This bloody battle would result in an Oahu victory, but local legends still abound about the spirits of the warriors in the gulch.
- In 1850, King Kamehameha III granted the Waipi‘o Ahupua‘a, which included Mililani, to John Papa I‘i, the son of a Kona chief who adored exploring the Mililani lands during his childhood. John Papa I‘i named the land “Mililani,” which means “exalted” or “to look skyward.” After his death in 1870, the area was put into a trust and then leased or sold.
- Castle & Cooke obtained most of the land from the trust, first transforming it into flourishing pineapple and sugar plantations. Workers from around the world would settle into small plantation villages in the Mililani Town area, but as the economy changed, the plantations began to close a century after their commencement. Castle & Cooke would again transform the land, creating a comfortable residential community in the late 1960s.
- Wahiawa means “place of noise” or “rumbling” in Hawaiian, perhaps signifying the sounds of the gigantic waves breaking on the nearby North Shore or the thundering voices of ancestral gods as they welcomed royal offspring born at the Kukaniloko Birthing Stones. Wahiawa is one of the oldest communities on Oahu. The royal families enjoyed the lush mountain landscape, the cool climate, and the abundance of wild birds, from which they would pluck feathers to make capes.
- In July of 1900, James “Pineapple King” Dole won a government auction to gain 61 acres of land, planting pineapples and building a prosperous cannery. By 1904, Wahiawa became known as the “Land of Million Pines” and the pineapple capital of the world. In 1906, Dole convinced Walter Dillingham to extend the Oahu Railway to Wahiawa, and a dam was built to supply more water to the fields, creating Lake Wilson and growing the pineapple economy even further until the last plantation closed in 2007.
