HC&S History- The Big Ditch

The Big Ditch

The complementary natures of Samuel Alexander and Henry Baldwin are illuminated by the story of the Hamakua Ditch - perhaps the most dramatic water story in Hawaii's history. By 1876 the partners had expanded their sugar acreage and begun to seek a reliable source of water for their thirsty crop. Their plantings, however, were in Maui's semi-arid (though fertile) central plain, while the rain fell more dependably miles away on the forested windward slopes of Haleakala, the island's dormant eastern volcano.

Although not an engineer, Alexander painstakingly devised an irrigation system that would gather water from dozens of mountain streams and rivulets, then meander 17 mostly rain-forested miles through ridges and across ravines to deliver enough water to irrigate 3,000 acres of cane - their own and those of several neighboring plantations, which would help finance the project. It would become a model for other irrigation systems throughout the islands. Alexander arranged a preliminary survey, worked out the financing and negotiated a lease from the government.

It was Baldwin who oversaw the digging of miles of ditches and tunnels, the building of the flumes, and the placement of the pipes that would make up the aqueduct. It was a triumphant feat for a man who had lost his right arm in a sugar mill accident only a few months before construction began. For instance, when his work crew balked at scaling down the steep, 450-foot sides of the formidable Maliko Gulch - the last and most serious obstacle to completing the project. Baldwin grabbed a rope and, using his legs and his remaining arm, descended to the floor of the chasm. Their courage bolstered by his example, the workers followed him. Baldwin repeated his feat day after day till the job was done.

    And not a moment too soon, for they had been in a race against time. The terms of the partners' lease stipulated that if the ditch were not completed within two years - by September 30, 1878 - the lease would lapse and their work would revert to the government. In fact, it would effectively have fallen into the hands of a formidable competitor, Claus Spreckels.

    A wealthy San Francisco sugar refiner who had arrived in the United States from his native Germany with only a dollar in his pocket, Spreckels first traveled to Hawaii in 1876. There he soon began to establish himself as a major sugar planter. He bought considerable acreage in central Maui, formed the Hawaiian Commercial Company and - in July 1878, just as Baldwin was beginning his attempt to span the Maliko Gulch - obtained a lease for a ditch of his own, makai (seaward) of the Hamakua Ditch.

    Spreckels' lease gave him the rights to all the unused waters from the watershed that fed the Hamakua Ditch. This meant that if Alexander and Baldwin failed to finish on time, Spreckels would also take over their ditch and get its water for his own fields. Fortunately, Baldwin and his team managed to push their project through to completion before the deadline, and the Hamakua Ditch Company, known today as the East Maui Irrigation Company, was born, the oldest subsidiary of A&B.

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HC&S History - The Big Ditch

The Big Ditch