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. After the Land Act of 1895, California families acquired lands and settled on the Wahiawa peninsula at the turn of the twentieth century. The settlers planted crops, constructed homes, built roads, and created a post office, schools, and more. These settlers also started the thriving pineapple industry, creating plantation villages around the central town for workers from around the world. 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. Farms, shopping, dining, fishing, museums and more: There is much to see and do in the quiet, family-oriented and militaryfriendly towns of Mililani and Wahiawa. Mililani Town & Wahiawa 259
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