История дома Элизы Синклер на острове Ниау: от усадьбы 1865 года до заброшенного состояния после урагана

During 1993, while employed by the USDA as an agricultural science technician engaged in insect surveys, I had the good fortune of visiting Niihau — with the permission of Niihau’s owners Bruce and Keith Robinson — one day a month for several months. On those days, Tom Mishler, the Robinson’s helicopter pilot, would fly me from the Robinson heliport, situated mauka of Pakala, to 10 insect study sites established throughout the island of Niihau at Pakehoolua, Kauwawea, Apana Reservoir, Puuwai Village, Awanui, Aliaiki, Kamalino, Popolonui, Mt. Paniau and Kiekie. Kiekie, the place-name of a bluff overlooking the western shore of Niihau south of Puuwai Village, had long before been the homestead of Scotswoman Eliza Sinclair (1800-1892), matriarch of the Sinclair, Gay and Robinson clan. In 1865, a year after she’d purchased Niihau from Kamehameha V, as is officially recorded on Royal Patent No. 2944, dated Feb. 23, 1864, she built a European-style house at Kiekie for herself and her family that she named The House. Then about 1869, she began building another residence — Makaweli House — within the highlands of the 21,844-acre Makaweli Ahupuaa she’d acquired from Princess Victoria Kamamalu. After Makaweli House was completed in 1872, Eliza Sinclair divided her time between The House at Kiekie and Makaweli House, until 1875, after which she resided permanently at Makaweli House. By the way, Makaweli House, which I was also lucky enough to visit, still stands, resting in tranquility, with a lawn sloping downhill before it, and Niihau can be seen below at sea in the far distance. Following Eliza Sinclair’s final move to Makaweli House, only a couple of Sinclairs and Gays lived at Kiekie for some years afterwards. Thereafter, until 1982, when Hurricane Iwa largely destroyed it, The House was occupied intermittently mainly by family members and ranch personnel. When I visited Kiekie with Tom Mishler during 1993, its several buildings were abandoned, and no one else was about. The only sign of recent human activity was Mishler’s vegetable garden. I recall that next to an aged building there stood an open garage containing a few worn and weathered 19th century sea chests.