Waipahu Sugar Mill

As the skies turn a reddish gray and black ash falls from the space above. The smell of burning sugarcane fills your car and you turn on your headlights to drive through the thick smoke up ahead. As you pass through the smoke you turn to see the fields on fire and plantation workers controlling the flames. The end is here and it is all but a passing to you, but a part of life and history for Hawaii.

In 1802, the first stone structured sugar mill was shipped to the island of Kaua’i from China. This mill would harvest the first grown crop of sugarcane and start Hawaii on it’s journey to making Sugar king. As the migration of workers from Japan, Philippines and China grew, sugar businesses also started to grow. With many companies building mills around the island a shortage of work was never in view. Plantation Villages started to grow and so did the families that these mills employed.

Photo credit: Joel Abroad

Built in 1898 by the Oahu Sugar Company (OSC) The Waipahu Sugar Mill started her life as one of the biggest production mills on Oahu. This mill produced half of the sugar count for Oahu by servicing the fields from Campbell Industrial Park all the way to Mililani.

At first a line of workers would shovel the burnt cane and pack them into a train-cart that would then trek it’s way back to the mill to get off loaded and processed . As time evolved cane haul roads were built, cane hauling trucks and cranes brought in taking the place of the trains and workers. This meant more people in the field to plant sugarcane and more crops to harvest over time.

In 1995 after being opened for 98 years, The Waipahu Sugar Mill closed it’s doors and was no longer in business. Some businesses around the mill were forced to close down due to lack of customers and some families moved, but for others — the families and community businesses that did stay kept Waipahu a thriving town.

Planting of sugarcane told by former plantation worker, Mark,”The plowing machines would come in to till the dirt and get it all soft, trenches would be dug up for the irrigation tubes to be laid for the watering system,  workers would go down row by row digging holes 1 foot apart to lay 17 inch sugarcane stalks in them and covering them up. 18 months was the time span for the stalks to grow. A plane would fly over spraying crop ripping poisons and within 3 days the crop would be ready for burning. A blow torch would start each fire in sections and as the whole field would catch on fire workers would stand on each side making sure no flames would jump over to another crop or onto nearby dry brush. As the crops burnt down cranes would come in and start to haul out the burnt cane to be processed at the sugar mill.

In 2004 a restoration of the mill was done and three major business opened on the 15.5 acre land:

1. YMCA Leeward Branch
2. Filipino Community Center
3. Han’s L’Orange Baseball Field.

Although the mill is no longer in service and the sugar industry has ceased, the small community of Waipahu continues to thrive with new businesses.

Share your memories and stories about the Waipahu Sugar Mill and plantation life.

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