Jay Lake: Writer

[photos|travel] Sugar mill between Waimea and Hanapepe

Driving back from Waimea, we stopped to look at another abandoned sugar mill we’d spotted on the way out.

There’s something complex and fascinating about this geography of economic transition. As always, we did not trespass, just looked from places we could reach on public roads.

In front of the mill was a charming little residential street that had obviously been built for mill managers and staff, back in the day. The nice end of a company town.

And a small building that might have been a school or a function hall once, but now seems to be offices.

Note how everything is coated in red dirt. That whole end of the island is made of red dirt.

The question of what a company town is led to a discussion between me and the_child of labor relations, company towns, exploitative hiring practices, the union movement and so forth. She’s interested in everything right now. It’s so cool.

Next up, old town Hanapepe.

And as usual, more at the Flickr set.

Photos © 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr. and B. Lake.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. and B. Lake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Child, Kauai, nature, Photos, Travel

Posted: 5:33 am Wed May 25 2011 |

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©2009 Joseph E. Lake, Jr.