In
Hawaiian mythology, Mauna Kea was the home of snow goddess
Poliʻahu, and the place of several other legends.
John Palmer Parker established the
Parker Ranch on the high grasslands of Mauna Kea in 1847. Over the years (especially under manager
Alfred Wellington Carter) it was expanded to encompass much of the mountain's slopes. Many small communities sprang up around
sugarcane plantations which were operating along the Hāmākua Coast through most of the 20th century. The demand for
sugar cane rose after the
Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 reduced
tariffs to the United States. The first mill processed the crop planted in 1876. Early investors included
Claus Spreckels,
Samuel Parker, and
Theophilus Harris Davies. The Hāmākua Mill Company, Honokaa Sugar, Kaiwiki Sugar, Kukaiau Plantation Company, Laupāhoehoe Sugar, Paauhau Sugar Plantation and Pacific Sugar Mill were eventually consolidated into the Hāmākua Sugar Company. The Hāmākua district was an endemic region of
bubonic plague in the early part of the 20th century. From 1910 to 1949, there were 112 confirmed cases of the disease, of which 109 were fatal. The Board of Health of the
Territory of Hawaii, in combined efforts with the local sugar plantations, engaged in a vast
rat extermination campaign. Despite these efforts, plague remained an
enzootic disease in the region up until 1957. It is unclear why plague eventually left the area. Sugar plantations declined and were consolidated in the latter half of the 20th century. About 10% of the population was lost each decade following 1970. The company was sold by
Theo H. Davies & Co. to Francis S. Morgan in 1984 who operated the property for ten years. The Hamakua Sugar Company had its final harvest in 1994. After years of high unemployment, the economy shifted to small diversified farms. Crops include
macadamia nuts,
papaya,
mango,
coffee, and other tropical fruits. Irrigation canals known as the Upper Hamakua Ditch and Lower Hamakua Ditch (not to be confused with the project of a similar name on
Maui by
Henry Perrine Baldwin) had been built in 1910, and were repaired in 2001. While virtually all of the pre-existing native forest below altitudes of several thousand feet was removed by sugarcane cultivation, several remnants of native forest can be found. Where the terrain of gulches such as Laupāhoehoe, Ka'awali'i, and Maulua was too steep for cultivation, for example, the original forest remains largely intact. There are also protected areas such as
Kalōpā State Recreation Area, which has preserved a small stand of native trees and their understory compatriots. Other protected areas include the Hamakua, Hauola, Manowaialee, and Mauna Kea State Forest Reserves,
Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, and
Mauna Kea Ice Age Reserve, all on Mauna Kea, and the Mauna Loa Forest Preserve on Mauna Loa. A comprehensive management plan was produced with local input. ==Transportation==