Camp History

History/Renovations Since 1990

When Hui o Laka’s ED, Marsha Erickson, came upon the camp in 1988, (site map) it had been abandoned since 1982, when Hurricane Iwa ravaged Kauai. Only one building, the old Recreation Hall,

was destroyed by the storm-the rest were fairly sound, but battens were missing and windows broken. Hunters began to camp out in the old buildings with their dogs.  Stainless steel kitchen tables “walked.” A muddy track traversed a pasture of weeds that is the center camp quadrangle. Blackberry brambles engulfed the buildings, growth as high as the eaves. The interiors were dank and filthy.

Erickson, long involved with historic preservation, immediately saw the potential of this abandoned “campus in the woods.” Hui o Laka needed offices, places for volunteers – and Erickson early saw that visiting researchers really needed overnight accommodations in the parks.

On  January 5, 1990, Hui o Laka submitted a Grant-in-Aid request to the Hawaii State Legislature to renovate the abandoned camp, proposing to name the center in honor of Joseph M. Souza, Jr. the director of Hawaii State Parks between 1964-1978, and co-founder of Hui o Laka.   Though Souza never knew the project was to be named after him before he died on February 6, 1990, when told about the idea weeks before his death, he said, “It’s about time someone was thinking.”

A Grant-in-Aid for $20,000 was awarded. Aside from that input, all renovations to the CCC Camp between 1990 and 2007 have been through volunteer labor and member’s contributions.  In 2008, a Grant-in-Aid will push renovations closer to completion.

As soon as Hui o Laka staff and volunteers dived into the nitty-gritty of rescuing the old Camp, scraping black-out paint off windows and fighting brambles, old timers began showing up with stories.  Volunteer efforts triggered spontaneous community recall. Hui o Laka collected oral histories and made copies of family scrapbook photos.  The collection of this previously undocumented history led to the designation of the Koke’e CCC Camp as a Hawaii State and National Historic landmark in late 1996.

Although work remains to be done on four of the eleven remaining buildings, the CCC Camp has been in operation since the beginning.  The old headquarters building serves as Hui o Laka’s administrative offices. Barrack C houses the offices of Koke’e Resources Conservation Program. The Camp can currently serve up to 26 overnight visitors at a time, and considerably more for meetings in the old Mess Hall.

Joseph M. Souza Jr., a one-time Kokee forest ranger who became the state park’s system’s chief architect, was one of Hui o Laka’s three founders.  He was President of the Hui o Laka board at the time of his death on Feb. 7, 1990.