Hāmākua is a district on northeast coast of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi and is approximately 50 mi (260,000 ft) long ending at Waipiʻo Valley. Hāmākua is used loosely to describe the region between Hilo and Waipiʻo, although the Hāmākua judicial district begins somewhere North of Laupāhoehoe. Hamākuā translates to "breath of god."
Many little towns sprang up around sugar plantations which were operating along the Hāmākua Coast from around the turn of the twentieth century until approximately 1990, notably Honokaʻa, the largest.
The Hamakua 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 dreaded 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 as to exactly why plague eventually left the area. [1][2]
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. One of these is at Kalōpā State Recreation Area, which has preserved a small stand of native trees and their understory compatriots.[3]
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