The Eruption of the Year 1855

On the evening of the 11th day of August 1855, around 10 o’clock, a dim light was seen from Hilo on Mokuʻāweoweo atop Mauna Loa, and it grew quickly, and flowed down the side of the mountain in white streaks like a blaze descending. In the midnight hours, and from then on, the darkness became like broad daylight; you could read a newspaper in its radiance. It was in this manner that the light continued through the nights, and many weeks passed by, the air filled with smoke, the fire could not be seen until it was blown away, the lava was then seen flowing, until the mountainous area between the hills were engulfed. The source of the flow was from within the old crater of Mokuʻāweoweo. That is where the flow began. But that is the lava that emerged once again from below, breaking through the side of the mountain, and from this new vent below is where the great flow occurred afterwards. This blaze was seen from very far away, on the ocean, and on Maui, and Molokaʻi, the distance of 100 miles or more. Hilo was nearly consumed completely by this lava. The lava flowed into Wailuku River, coming close to the bay of Hilo; a branch of the river was filled with ʻaʻā lava, turning the water red and foul-smelling. It surprisingly ceased there, and the people and the land had just escaped, along with Hilo Town. It was Akua who saved them. The flow lasted a year and then some. The jagged lava in the uplands did not cool until the month of October, in the year 1856. 300 and some miles of land were covered over by the new ʻaʻā lava. This was a much greater eruption than those witnessed by this generation.