This Cultural Surveys Hawai‘i work trench uncovered the location and cornerstones of the Moku‘ula causeway. The causeway connected the King’s Road (Front Street) to the island and would have been guarded by sentries. It’s located in the Moku‘ula parking lot at the Front Street driveway entrance.  

LAHAINA – Friends of Moku’ula and the County of Maui will welcome back the Cultural Surveys Hawai’i team to the Moku’ula/ Mokuhinia restoration site on Front Street in Lahaina this month.

The team of archaeologists, led by Maui Island Director Tanya Lee-Greig, MA, will complete the Archaeological Inventory Survey work that was started last spring. They expect to be on the restoration site for six to eight weeks.

The goal for this year’s work is to find the perimeter wall of the holding pond that was located on the Front Street side of Moku’ula Island and to finish locating the outer edges of the island.

The county recently installed a chain link fence around the perimeter of the restoration site, so that any features unearthed during the archaeological work can be protected.

Lineal descendants of Pi’ilani and families from Ahupua’a Waine’e offered their support for Friends of Moku’ula to supervise and maintain the restoration site.

Maile Shaw, speaking as the oldest descendant of the Shaw family, said, “Friends of Moku’ula has always shown integrity and a strong commitment to keeping the restoration project alive. We’re excited to see archaeological work take place and urge county officials to support it. We stand behind Friends of Moku’ula as kahu of the sacred site in this ongoing process.”

Once the Archaeological Inventory Survey (AIS) report is submitted to the State of Hawaii Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) for review, there will be an opportunity for the public to comment over a period of 30 days, and a community meeting will be scheduled in September.

After that, SHPD has 15 days to submit its comments, and a final AIS report will be available by the end of November.

For updates, call the Friends of Moku’ula office at 661-3659, visit mokuula.com/events or view facebook.com/mokuula.