1st Map of Maui printed by the Hawaiian Government

Maps of Individual Islands Ongoing

Frank S. Dodge started the task of completing and assembling Maui surveys into a general map of the island in 1879 and finished late in 1885, following completion of survey work on West Maui that was done in large part by Sereno E. Bishop. The map was sent to Julius Bien in New York, who printed five hundred copies in the spring of 1886.  The map shows the ancient districts, or moku, which have since been realigned on Maui, as well as the ahupua’a and the ili, along with the grants and awards by which they were held.

In addition to the standard colors of yellow for Crown land green for government lands, Dodge employed several other colors to cope with the land complexities of Maui.  For example, an unusual land in Hawaii is the ili kupono of Wailuku, shown in pink and covering the north half of the isthmus that connects the two halves of the island. An ili kupono was an ili that was independent of any ahupua’a. Wailuku was purchased by Claus Spreckels in 1882 and formed a major component of his sugar empire in Hawaii.

Dodge’s map of Maui, like the Lyons - Covington map ofOahu is a tribute to the skill and dedication of the staff of the Hawaiian Government Survey. Two sections of this map are worth examining in detail.  The northeastern portion of East Maui, famed for its twisting road that makes even hardy travelers of today carsick, is one of the most rugged pieces of land anywhere in the United States. Its deeply incised, steeply falling valleys are difficult passage for the strongest of hikers. Yet by 1883 the courses of most of the streams and the ridges separating.