Talk:Big Island

Even though the official name is Hawaii, almost every time I hear the Big Island mentioned, it's called the Big Island. I think according to our article naming conventions that's the name we should use. Comments? --(WT-en) Evan 06:34, 27 Nov 2003 (PST)

Yeah, I think it's a good solution. Better than both "Hawaii Island" (which just sounds wrong) and "Island of Hawaii" (which one would look for only because another page told you that The Big Island was listed that way). -- (WT-en) Eureka 27 Nov 2003

I think we'd probably end up doing "Hawaii (island)" and "Hawaii (state)", which seems like less of a good solution. P.S. Thanks for working on this! -- (WT-en) Evan 09:45, 27 Nov 2003 (PST)

I think Honolulu is going to be problematic, just because it includes so much territory. It may make sense to move a lot of the Oahu content on Honolulu over to the Honolulu page itself...but later you'll have the problem that Honolulu itself includes so many other neighborhoods with their own distinct identities. Anyway I hope you won't mind if I experiment with that somewhat. I'll try to look at what you've done in other regions with the analogous problem...? -- (WT-en) Eureka 12:00, 27 Nov 2003 (PST)

Regions

I have added these regions, because the descriptions for other places refered to them.

• Ka'u - Between Puna and Kona
• East Coast
• West Coast
• Northwest

In the case of Ka'u, it is described as a large area. Whether it rates as a top level region is up for discussion. However, until the regions are built out a bit it should sit here as it has nowhere else to go, yet. -- (WT-en) Huttite 04:01, 27 Dec 2005 (EST)

A lot of time has passed and there seems to be nobody weighing in on whether the regions are appropriate. The Big Island article is getting filled up with a lot of detail that should be in town articles. There is not supposed to be any Sleep section at all and the article should be just giving overviews, teasers if you will, toward the town articles. Do we have any locals working on this who can give an opinion about the regions? There is this: official site (WT-en) OldPine 16:26, 4 June 2007 (EDT)

Wikipedia, in it's articles about Puna, Kona, Hilo, Ka'u, etc. refers to these as districts or historic districts. There are 9 of them. See also http://www.hawaii-county.com/council/districts.htm which shows a map of these and describes what's included. This might be a way to clearly define the regions for us. There seems to be some variability between Wikipedia and this county map's regions. (WT-en) OldPine 23:17, 5 June 2007 (EDT)

Deleted Hawi and Keau in Cities subsection, as the list was getting rather long and the articles for those still don't exist. In regards to the regions, and even some of the other cities (several of which lack much content), consolidation should be considered. If an article doesn't have enough "See, Do, Sleep," etc. to stand on its own, it shouldn't. (WT-en) Zepppep 16:47, 12 April 2011 (EDT)

Stub?

Until tonight, this article had no "See" section, but I just made "Do" "See and Do". It should really have a separate "See" section, probably. And why on Earth does it have no "Understand" section? I'm shocked it's gone so many years without one. Kailua-Kona has a short "Understand" section; Hilo does, too, but it's pretty much specific to Hilo and environs.

So, I've been to the Big Island only once so far, but off the top of my head, we'll want to mention the following in an "Understand" section:

(1) The pre-colonization history of the island. Colonization/U.S. military presence during WWII, whatever, and relationship with the rest of the state. (2) Its identity as the newest island in the Hawaiian chain and the only one with active volcanoes, in particular, Kilauea, which is one of the most active in the world. We could also mention here Pele and the sacredness of the volcanoes to the Hawaiians, or we could save that for later when we mention highlights of a visit. (3) The largely rural and small-town nature of the island with huge areas of high ground in the interior and long volcanic beaches with black sand. (4) The Kona side being drier and more touristy and the Hilo/Hamakua side being the rainiest area in the United States (50 states, anyway), with 180 inches of rain a year but still nice to visit. (5) Going up to the Visitor's Center of Mauna Kea as a highlight of a visit, along with the attendant controversy between many Hawaiians and astronomers over the Observatory and the new planned one at the top of the mountain. Volcanoes National Park, hiking the Kalauea Iki Trail and looking into the caldera of the volcano as another highlight. We could also mention whichever beaches are considered the greatest and viewing leatherback turtles, whichever lava tubes are considered most spectacular and maybe some other hikes, but we should keep in mind what to leave for "See" and "Do". (6) Hawaii as a place with a relaxed lifestyle where the speed limit is often 25 mph (I think it was 35 between villages on the Hamakua Coast, but per this site, as there were at least as of the time I visited no divided rural roads, it couldn't be above 45) and most people drive under the speed limit. (7) The unique ecosystem on the island, including the use of some delicious wild berries such as poha berries that grow only on the Big Island.

Ikan Kekek (talk) 12:25, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

I made a start to "Understand". Please edit in any way that's helpful and engaging. Ikan Kekek (talk) 04:22, 2 March 2021 (UTC)