Exactly 100 years ago today (Aug. 1st), Hawaii Volcanoes become our 11th national park.
To mark this day the park was open to everyone free of charge.
The park also held a BioBllitz, showing the endangerd Hawaiian Hawlksbill turtle and what is being done to protect and repopulate the spices, they where also giving out native plants to locals to help continue protecting the native land.
Another part of the day was a Hawaiian Cultural Festival that included lei makeing. The main person showing the history and techniques of lei makeing was Violet Makeakane who has been helping educate locals and tourists for years. She is a master lei hulu Manu (Lei's made with feathers) maker.
She demonstrated the art of selecting the feathers and positioning them individually and sewing each feather 5 times and how each lei can included hundreds of bird feathers attached to a central cord in small bunches.
Violet then started explanation the history and how they collected the feathers. She said "the Hawaiians would never kill the bird for the feathers instead they would trap the birds on a branch with the tress sap and then pick the feathers off but only a few then let the bird go"
