» Photo gallery: Koloa Camp

KOLOA, Kauai » Countless memories encircle John Kruse’s rustic plantation home at Koloa Camp, one of the last remnants of Hawaii’s first sugar fields.

A towering Norfolk pine marks the spot in the lush front yard where he buried his son’s piko, or umbilical cord.

Family photos of son Kepa and Kruse’s wife, Keani, who died of breast cancer in 1994, adorn the shelves and walls of the rented house tucked at the end of a narrow dirt strip called Camp Road.

At the peak of the sugar era, the camp had 32 houses. Through the years, houses came down as tenants moved away or died.

Kruse’s home is among eight at Koloa Camp threatened with demolition to make way for a 50-unit development called Waihohonu.

Landowner Grove Farm issued 120-day eviction notices in November to 13 tenants — eight living in houses and five on agricultural lots. They must vacate by March 8.

While Grove Farm officials plan to give camp tenants first priority to buy the new single-family residences, some residents say they want to stay where they have lived for decades.

Most are senior citizens on fixed incomes and are unable to qualify for 30-year mortgages. Prices at Waihohonu will range from $260,000 to $485,000.

The Kruses argue the project would wipe out the historic foundation of the town.

"This place represents the culture and community of Kauai, the simple life," said Kepa Kruse, a Los Angeles-based actor and musician who was raised in Koloa.

He and his father, 68, a former crew member of the voyaging canoe Hokule’a, are hoping that the company will agree to alternatives, which they discussed recently with Mayor Bernard Carvalho.

They want the camp preserved and refurbished, and are asking Grove Farm to sell the lots to the residents. They propose that the company put the new houses on more accessible, agriculturally zoned land along Ala Kinoiki Road.

Further, part of Koloa Camp lies in a flood zone, a problem the other property does not have.

Residents will meet with company officials at 6 p.m. Thursday to continue discussions.

Catherine Fernandez, 82, the oldest tenant at Koloa Camp, who has lived there for 57 years, said she has no intention of moving from the place where she raised five children.

"I’d rather die over here," she said.

Banana, lychee, mango and avocado trees, some planted by her husband, Cereal, who died of pneumonia in September, surround her three-bedroom home. In her yard are dozens of potted red anthuriums that she tends to daily.

A wooden plaque etched with her name and her late husband’s hangs above her screen door.

But beyond the personal touches, Koloa Camp remains one of the last symbols of the plantation era, said Fernandez.

"If they wipe it out, no more."

KOLOA CAMP was part of the first sugar plantation in Hawaii, established in July 1835 when Ladd & Co. obtained a 50-year lease signed by King Kamehameha III and Gov. Moses Kaikioewa for 980 acres east of Waihohonu Stream. William Hooper, the first plantation manager, lived in a grass house on the property, according to a book, "The Story of Koloa: A Kauai Plantation Town," by Donald Donohugh.

Camps for field hands sprouted up by ethnicity — Filipino, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean. The remaining houses, wooden structures with corrugated roofs, were part of Japanese Camp C.

Some of the structures are a century old, as are the mango trees scattered through the yards of the tightly knit community, where rents range from $600 to $1,000 a month.

The Kruses refer to lifelong neighbors as "auntie" or "grandma."

On a recent damp, cloudy morning, John Kruse sat on the carpet of his living room and shared stories of his voyages as an original crew member aboard the Hokule’a. He was on the ill-fated 1978 voyage, when the canoe capsized in the Kaiwi Channel and legendary waterman Eddie Aikau set out on a surfboard for help.

Kruse recalled how he and Aikau waved to one another as Aikau paddled toward Lanai, never to be seen again.

Sharks nudged their noses against the legs of the crewmen clinging to the canoe, battling hypothermia as they awaited rescue.

His memories of Koloa are just as strong as they are for his son.

"For me it’s a special place," said Kepa Kruse, 29, who won a Na Hoku Hanohano Award last year for his album, "Coconut Wireless." He comes home for the holidays to spend time with his father and to recharge his batteries in the bucolic setting.

As March approaches, Kruse said, some tenants are wondering where they will go with time running out and affordable housing scarce.

Grove Farm Senior Vice President Mike Tresler said company officials met with residents before the eviction notice to inform them of the plans, but some residents said the eviction notice came out of nowhere.

"It’s very emotional," Tresler conceded. "It’s very tough. It’s not something that we enjoy doing or look forward to doing."

The alternatives the Kruses proposed won’t work, he said in an interview. For one thing, the land along Ala Kinoiki Road is only 6.5 acres, significantly smaller than the 12 acres at Koloa Camp.

For another, Koloa Camp is zoned residential, while the other parcel would need a zoning change.

"That takes time to do," he said. "That won’t meet our time line."

Groundbreaking is scheduled for April, and the project will take about three years to complete, he said.

But permit applications have yet to be submitted to the county Planning Department, and some residents are asking to be allowed to stay until Grove Farm obtains the necessary permits.

Waihohonu will have prefabricated homes with prices ranging from $260,000 to $410,000 for two bedrooms and $280,000 to $485,000 for three, according to Grove Farm’s website.

Some 8,000 cubic yards of fill will be used to raise the flood-prone section, Tresler said.