Sugar and rust
The whistle blew. They closed the door behind them.
It was over.
The Old Sugar Mill was part of the first commercially successful sugarcane plantation in Hawaii, which was founded in 1835. This was the beginning of what would quickly become Hawaii's largest industry.
With any beginning, there comes an end.
Sugar crash.
Office closed.
Time stands still for no-one but there are places it holds on strong. Behind patina doors for “authorized personnel” is a rare capsule of daily life piled high. Manuals, handwritten diaries of daily yields, operating schedules, scribblings, and architectural plans were left behind. It’s pau hana, it’s closing time.
Echos of men and machine lurk about.
Like most of Hawaii’s remaining mills, this place has a vibration that has settled over the years but is still evident. This is a positive place, it is not dark. It resonates with a hundred years of energy that the rigor of work can bring. Tracers of workers milling and whirring machinery can be imagined about. Noises creep from every corridor and overhead. Birds have found refuge and flutter when disturbed. The clatter of metal rattles from wind from loose steel cladding that wraps the rusty giant like weathered, and aged skin.
