Documenting my archaeological field methods course at Honouliuli Internment Camp through the University of Hawaii at West Oahu. Plus any tropical adventures around the island!
Trowels and Coconuts: Learning Fieldwork in Hawaii
Recreating the photo of a Japanese-American family revisiting the mess hall at Honouliuli Internment Camp. Notice the same wall in the background.
Field school ended today. It was a very loooong class day of 16 project presentations and grading the final exam.
Tomorrow morning I fly back to Virginia.
Once again I have fallen behind in updating this blog. I keep taking pictures, but creating a post is time-consuming and clearly my time has been full this last week!
I do not intend to stop now just because I will no longer actually be IN Hawaii. I will continue to update until I have covered all my adventures!
Then I will notify you of the last post, the true end.
Until then,
keep checking!
See that tiny plane? That’s me tomorrow. Minus the sunset :)
One of my classmates, Sandy, invited us to join her in a hike and Hanauma Bay today. Sandy picked myself and Ashlee up at 10am and we headed to the Makapu’u lighthouse trail. But on the way, she surprised us with a special secretive area off the side of the road where her husband had proposed! We crossed the road, over the side railing, climbed down, and through a cave to find a beautiful rock face by the water.
After that mini adventure, we hiked up the trail. Thankfully it wasn’t too long, and paved, since it was mostly up a mountainside. The pictures don’t do the view justice. It was stunning!
Next stop was Hanauma Bay! We snorkeled among coral outcrops and saw a plethora of tropical fish. One even rushed at me when I reached out!
By 3:30 we were starving because we’d only had small breakfasts in the early morning. Sandy graciously treated us to a meal at Kono’s Brewing Company. It was a perfect end to a perfect day in Hawaii.
Tonight, I plan to keep it low key after such an exhausting day. Ashlee & I made plans to go grab Bubbies milkshakes and lounge with a viewing of Jurassic Park. Sandy told us that it was filmed in Hawaii, some on O’ahu, and I coincidentally brought my DVD with me!
Pale Scale: undetermined/10
1/3 of me is pale white
1/3 of me is varying shades of tan
1/3 of me is lobster red…the sun & surf penetrated the SPF 50 on my backside hardcore. Looks like I’m sleeping on my stomach tonight!
This week we were in the field, at Honouliuli, every day.
The day would start with the usual 7:15am carpool pickup from the dorm, then a drive to the Kiss & Ride parking lot that the rest of the class met up. Since we usually waited there for about half an hour, a trip to the nearby Starbucks became habit. (I managed to resist the temptation yesterday, but caved for Jack in the Box after class..).
Once everyone arrived, we carpooled over to the Monsanto building to get a daily safety talk and make use of their nice bathroom. Then, the Monsanto rep would drive us down and open the gate to the gulch.
After parking and bug-spraying, we broke off into our assigned groups. Each day, we’d rotate to another group so as to learn/experience a new skill. Here’s the breakdown and some pictures:
Field Day 1: Excavation
Excavation! Working very hard to clear the laundry room slab of huge mounds of dirt holding the strong gilli grass. It was grueling in the sun.
Photo by Jeff Burton I believe. Grabbed from the Honouliuli facebook page.
Field Day 2: Feature Drawing
First, my group examined some fallen metal telephone poles and checked the electrical insulators for dates. Above is my field journal, below is an action shot!
Then, we moved to the aqueduct and attempted mapping part of it. I missed some numbers and my scale got all messed up…but it was a learning process ;)
Field Day 3: Metal Detecting
My first and best find was an old horseshoe. I also found a piece of iron, cement with barbed wire, and…a sun-bleached Coors Light can.
Photo by Brianne!
Field Day 4: Total Mapping Station
Ron Beckwith gave the group an introductory tutorial in how to use a total mapping station. It works by placing the station at a central point of your desired area or feature, and collecting different points from the borders by bouncing a laser from the station to the prism and back. It can collect data on the location and elevation, which can then be used in a mapping program.
This was also the day that a tour led by JCCH visited, and a reporter from KITV!
Here’s Ron attempting to teach Clint while the tour presents in the background:
Here’s Ron getting interviewed, and the cameraman taking some footage of us using the station!
Taken by Pua!
Field Day 5: Fence Post Documentation
Yesterday, Friday, I worked in a small group to help with the documentation of some old posts that are found along the new paved road. The goal is to figure out which ones were part of the Honouliuli camp and which were newer additions from the time it was used for farming. We used a GPS to record the points, took measurements and pictures. 
Next week we have two or three more days in the field, then we get a day to work on our project, then the class is over! It’s going by so fast, I can’t believe it!
The video wouldn’t embed, but just click the link to watch!
My group basically forced Clint to be the one to get interviewed and he did a great job! Also note Ron, one of the awesome geeky hilarious archaeologists that gives a carpool from the Manoa campus (where they, and we, stay) every morning at 7:15am.
There were some other great faces of my classmates shown, but too many and too quickly to name them all :)
