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Comm. 25-020 TIIE PUNA TRAIL AND OLD GOVERNMENT ROAD There is an historic trail that leads from the modern day Lili' uokalani Gardens area to HTena along the Puna coast. The trail is often called the old Puna Trail and/or Puna Road. There is an historic trail/cart road that is also called the Puna Trail (Ala Mele Puna) and/or the Old Government Road that continues from the south end of the Puna Trail through Waiakahiula Ahupua'a heading to points south. bass also refers to the entire route from Hilo to Ka'u as the Puna-Ka`u trail. The Old Government Road is also known as Papio Street through the Hawaiian Reaches Subdivision. Papio Street tronts the mukai (north) side of the current project area parcel. Whatever name the trail/cart road alignment is called by, it likely incorporated segments of the traditional f lawaiian trail system often referred to as the u/u lou or ulu hele (Hudson 1932:247, Kuykcndall 1966:23-25, Lass 1997:15, and Maly 1999:5). Lass suggests the fill length of the Puna Trail, or Old Government Road, might have been constructed or improved just before 1840 (Lass 1997:15). The trail was called the Old Government Road, or Ala iVui Aupuni (Maly 1999:5). The alignment was mapped by the Wilkes Expedition of 1804-41 (Figure 6). A general description of the area between the Old Government Road and the newer upper road from Hilo through Kea`au to Pahoa was recorded in 1889 by the Surveyor General of the Hawaiian Government Survey. The description at7ords a glimpse into inland and coastal settlement patterns and land use. The first settlement met with after leaving Hilo by the sea coast road, is at Keaau, a distant 10 miles where there arc less than a dozen inhabitants; the next is at Makuu, disUint 14 miles where there are a few more, after which there is occasionally a stray but or two, until l talepuaa and Koae are reached, 21 miles from Hilo, at which place there is quite a village; thence to Kaimu there are only a few scattered settlements here and there. A good many of those living along the lower road have their cultivating patches in the interior, along or within easy accessibility to the new road (Alexander 1891, cited in Maly 1999:107). 12