Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve & Garden

The Founder Dan Lutkenhouse Sr. discovered the Onomea Valley while on vacation to the Big Island of Hawai’i in 1977. Lutkenhouse was in the process of selling his 40-year-old trucking business in California and retiring. He and his wife agreed that this is where they would like to spend the rest of their lives. They purchased the 17-acre parcel for its seclusion and beauty, and once Dan began exploring the land, he decided to establish a botanical garden to preserve the valley and its beauty forever. Onomea Valley was once an overgrown and virtually impenetrable jungle, choked with invasive species, weed, and thorn thickets.

Every day, seven days a week, until the Garden opened in 1984, Dan, his assistant Terry Taikue worked with cane knives, sickles, picks, shovels, and a chainsaw to clear paths through the jungle. His wife, Pauline, would pack Dan a brown bag lunch, and he would disappear into the jungle, returning at night dirty and tired.

All the work was done by hand to avoid disturbing the natural environment or destroying valuable plants and tree roots. Trails were hewn from hard lava rock with picks and shovels. To keep the soil from compacting and the natural beauty from being destroyed, no tractors were used, excess rock was removed, and gravel brought in by wheelbarrow. Without formal botanical training but with a love of nature and the Onomea Valley, Lutkenhouse created a living tapestry of plants.