The building of a road to the summit was fulfillment of a promise to the people of Maui when the park was created. The first step had to be construction by the Territory of a highway from Pukalani Junction to the park boundary near Puu Nianiau. This was completed at a cost of $504,000 in April 1933 after 39 months of work. As with similar projects elsewhere in Hawaii, superstitions of long-ago reappeared. Although not antagonistic to progress, Hawaiians raised a cry that all effort was futile; the chicken god, Kalau-heli-moa, would conspire and never permit the project to be completed. Every mishap was attributed to this nemesis.
The Park Service completed its commitment soon afterwards at the cost of $376,000. The road was armor-surfaced in the fall of 1935. Extensive, appropriate dedication ceremonies were held for the opening.
With the establishment of a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in Kilauea, a strip camp of 25 men was set up near Puu Nianiau cinder cone. Part of the time, a tent camp was also established within the crater. Many improvements became possible through this undertaking. The observatory building on the summit was constructed in 1936; the three shelters within the crater, Kapalaoa, Paliku, and Holua, were built a year later. Prior to their completion, overnight shelter was sought in caves, the best known being Bubble Cave (see Numbered Points of Interest, topic 15) and Holua Cave which is in the pali wall behind the cabin.
The CCC camp was abandoned in April 1941, and its structures were turned over to the Army that greatly improved them. During the period of its occupancy, the Army constructed for radar installation the ugly concrete block house that still protrudes on the summit of Red Hill. With evacuation of the military, the CCC quarters were adapted for the service of a concessioner to supply meals and lodging within the park.
Normal travel to Haleakala was interrupted for a year when the section was closed following the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Annual travel had passed the 25,000 mark in 1939. Travel for the year 1958 reached a high of 56,940 visitors.
The summit of Haleakala attracted early consideration as a site for various scientific studies. It is a prime target for many scientific planners, because the high mountain is situated in the middle of a broad ocean, yet the summit is readily accessible by road. Often this eagerness has obscured possible use of other suitable sites and has clashed with the basic purpose of the area as a National Park. The National Park Service strives to keep the scene as primitive as possible, assiduously blending buildings and structures into the landscape, whereas the non-conformist gives no thought to this but follows the easiest way. Too often economy of construction and operation, together with careless housekeeping, invert an attraction to a repulsion which even the splendor of the scene cannot offset. Skyline buildings, obtrusively strung wires, thoughtlessly gouged land, and abandoned debris are not conducive to aesthetic experience, whatever their purpose or whoever the offender.