Mark Twain Monkeypod Tree

Hawaiʻi the Big Island


In 1866 Mark Twain wrote in yet another long letter home that in Waiʻohinu, 'trees and flowers flourish luxuriantly, and three of those trees – two mangoes and an orange – will live in my memory as the greenest, freshest and most beautiful I ever saw.' A tree conspicuously absent from his travelogues, however, is the Monkeypod he supposedly planted. Nevertheless, legend has it that plant it he did. Here. Find the sign marking the spot mauka (inland) of Hwy 11 near Waiʻohinu city park.

A hurricane claimed that original tree in 1956, and the stately specimen now sprawling over the highway is what resprouted from its roots.


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