Historic Photo of Kapiolani Park, 1900: Polo Fields. Early outings were held at Kapi‘olani Park’s polo field. By 1903, camps were held in Wahiawā, and in 1905 in Mākua — where they traveled by 80-cent fares on the O‘ahu Railway. The first official YMCA camp season began in 1908 at Camp Mākua, with rates starting at $8 a week. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, the YMCA of Honolulu hosted camps at various borrowed sites, building traditions and spirit that would one day take root permanently at Mokulē‘ia. That began to take shape in 1926, when Walter F. Dillingham leased a 10-acre shoreline site to the YMCA for one dollar a year so youth could experience camping and the outdoors, with one condition: campers would plant 1,000 ironwood trees annually as a windbreak for the rail line. Many of those trees still stand today, serving as living witnesses to the labor and laughter of generations. Tragedy also shaped the camp’s legacy when Harold Randolph Erdman — Walter Dillingham’s nephew — tragically died in a polo accident. On Christmas Day in 1932, the Dillingham family gifted the site to the YMCA in Harold’s memory so that “his spirit of contribution to the happiness of others carries on.” Two months later, Camp Harold R. Erdman was formally dedicated before a crowd of 200 including local leaders, Rotary members, and ‘ohana. Born of generosity and remembrance, the Dillingham family’s gift would go on to shape tens of thousands of lives. Early Hi-Y Boys camping May/June 2026 Hawaii Parent 87 85
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