A new video from Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park entitled, “Forging a Path with a 12-Pound Hammer,” celebrates Black History Month and the story of the African-American soldiers who built the Mauna Loa trail.
The 10 minute film, available on the park’s website, will highlight how using only a 12-pound hammer and gunny sacks to move rock, these men toiled on the harsh, rain-soaked slopes of Mauna Loa. Thirty-nine days later, the Buffalo Soldiers finished the job.
Between 1915 and 1917, six companies of the 25th Infantry came to what is now Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. In addition to building Mauna Loa Trail, the Buffalo Soldiers helped measure lava within Halemaʻumaʻu crater and were among the first to recreate at the newly established Kilauea Military Camp.
For more information about the Buffalo Soldiers in Hawaiʻi visit https://www.nps.gov/havo/learn/historyculture/buffalo-soldiers.htm.
Photo credit: Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park