Hawaii State Maps

It's more than 2,400 miles from the American continent and a huge proportion of its population has come from the Asian continent. Its landscapes include volcanoes and rain forests, and the people work at keeping the native language alive as well as old customs. Of all the fifty states, Hawaii is the very least like any of the others. No wonder it's the first choice as a destination for so many vacationing Amercians and other people from all around the world. It's a place where all kinds of ethnic groups live together and enjoy each other's company.

When it became a state in 1959, Hawaii tossed out its old constitution, which, like every other, had grown cumbersome over the years, and drew up a whole new set of laws. City governments were eliminated completely in favor of county control. Independent school districts were merged together into one state-wide district that insures that all Hawaiian youngsters, no matter how affluent of poor thier neighborhood, get the same quality education.

Until the 1920s most Americans didn't think much about Hawaii. They knew it was out there somewhere, too far away to get to. They knew that it was where you get your pineapples from. Then in 1929, the Hawaii-based Matson Navigation Company announced the beginning of a weekly steamship service between San Francisco and Honolulu. Depression or no, Americans liked the idea of spending a week at sea, a week in Hawaii and another week on a luxurious cruise ship. But such vacations were more for the idle rich than for the average American.

During World War II, thousands of Americans got there the hard way and went home with a desire to go back. Pan Am had cut the travel time to just a little more than 19 hours from San Francisco even before the war began, but by the time it was over, wartime technology helped them find a better way. In the late 40s, they were taking as many as 45 people at a time from the mainland to the beach at Waikiki in slightly less than 10 hours.