Around 1100 AD, the first Hilo inhabitants arrived, bringing with them
Polynesian knowledge and traditions. Although archaeological evidence is scant,
oral history has many references to people living in Hilo, along the
Wailuku and
Wailoa rivers during the time of
ancient Hawaiʻi. Oral history gives the meaning of
Hilo as "to twist". Originally, the name "Hilo" applied to a district encompassing much of the east coast of the
island of Hawaii, now divided into the District of South Hilo and the District of North Hilo. When
William Ellis visited in 1823, the main settlement there was
Waiākea on the south shore of
Hilo Bay. Missionaries came to the district in the early-to-middle 19th century, founding
Haili Church. Hilo expanded as
sugar plantations in the surrounding area created jobs and drew in many workers from
Asia. For example, by 1887, 26,000 Chinese workers worked in Hawai'i's sugar cane plantations, one of which was the Hilo Sugar Mill. At that time, the Hilo Sugar Mill produced 3,500 tons of sugar annually. A breakwater across Hilo Bay was begun in the first decade of the 20th century and completed in 1929. On April 1, 1946, an
8.6-magnitude earthquake near the
Aleutian Islands created a
tsunami that hit Hilo 4.9 hours later, killing 159 total in the islands, with 96 deaths in Hilo alone. In response, an early warning system, the
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, was established in 1949 to track these killer waves and provide warning. This tsunami also caused the end of the
Hawaii Consolidated Railway, and instead the
Hawaiʻi Belt Road was built north of Hilo using some of the old railbed. On May 22, 1960, another tsunami, caused by a
9.5-magnitude earthquake off the coast of
Chile that day, claimed 61 lives, allegedly due to the failure of people to heed warning sirens. Low-lying bayfront areas of the city on
Waiākea peninsula and along Hilo Bay, previously populated, were rededicated as parks and memorials. Hilo expanded inland beginning in the 1960s. The downtown found a new role in the 1980s as the city's cultural center with several galleries and museums opening; the
Palace Theater reopened in 1998 as an
arthouse cinema
movie palace. Closure of the sugar plantations (including those in
Hāmākua) during the 1990s hurt the local economy, coinciding with a general statewide slump. ==Geography==