The Lung Wah Chee Family
Lung Wah Chee, the first proprietor of the Kong Lung Company was among
the first group of Chinese immigrants that arrived on Kauai in 1876 to work for the Kilauea Sugar Company. Eventually Mr. Lung purchased the general store business from the plantation, later passing it down to his son Kwai Chew “Chow” Lung.
With the closure of the Kilauea Sugar Plantation Company also came the end of a family business. And although in 1973 the Lung family sold the property, the Lung family legacy
will live as long as this stone structure is here to remind us of the past.
-Image courtesy of Kauai Museum
THE HARAGUCHI OHANA
“Since 1924, five hard-working generations of the Haraguchis have farmed the fertile Hanalei Valley, then a patchwork quilt of rice paddies. The good-natured family has brought the land full-circle by replanting the traditional Hawaiian taro grown there centuries ago and has painstakingly restored the old tin-roofed rice mill on the river as a tribute to the North Shore’s agricultural past.”
The haraguchi family now operates the Ho`opulapula Haraguchi Rice Mill, an agrarian museum located in the taro fields of Hanalei Valley. It is listed on the National Historic Register of Historic Places and dates back to the 1800s.
It was built by the Chinese and purchased by the Haraguchi family in 1924. It is the ONLY remaining rice mill in ALL of HAWAI`I!
The Haraguchi family has restored the mill three times; after a fire in 1930, then again after Hurricane Iwa in 1982 and Hurricane Iniki in 1992.
The Haraguchi Family has humbly worked for years to preserve this historic site and in doing so have been able to preserve the memory of the people who lived, worked and farmed in Hanalei in the past.
The next time you are in Hanalei, Kaua`i, please visit their solar powered lunchwagon, Hanalei Taro & Juice Co, where you can try some of their delicious homemade taro & rice products, and farm grown fresh produce. Its located near the Rice Mill Kiosk, open M-F 11am-3pm.
For more information visit haraguchiricemill.org
—photo and text courtesy of the Sandwich Islands Quarterly
