The Water of Kane

With a distinct style that breathes with life, O.A. Bushnell tells an epic story that has a huge cast of characters and the full drama of history. Two daring men set out to construct an immense irrigation project on the slopes of a vast volcano. This soon proves to be the costliest venture ever attempted in the Kingdom of Hawaii. The “Big Ditch” – six feet wide, a yard deep and seventeen miles long – has to be dug by hand, blasted and tunneled out of sheer rock, and shored up with massive pipes that span ravines. If not completed on schedule, the government waits to take possession of the ditch and others will reap the tremendous fortune to be made by growing sugarcane with the water it brings.

Author: O. A. Bushnell