Nicolas Grevet  •  Photography

In the sixteenth century, Maui's King Pi’ilani conquered East Maui and drew Hāna into his political sphere. Pi’ilani built the Alaloa, the "long road". When completed, the road was 4' to 6' wide (120-180 cm), 138 miles long (222 km), and paved with hand-fitted basalt (lava) rocks. Modern road construction to Hāna began in the 1870s, with an unpaved road built to facilitate the construction of the Hāmākua Ditch, part of the East Maui Irrigation System bringing water from the rainforests of Haleakalā to semi-arid central Maui to support the sugarcane industry in Hawaii.