FOOTPRINTS TRAIL

Footprints of the Doomed

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In 1790 there was war on the island of Hawaii, and two of the strongest contenders were Kamehameha in the north and Keoua in the south. Chief Keoua was returning from a raid on the north with an army just before or during the Kilauea explosion. He divided his force of several hundred people into three groups that included men, women, and children and sent them homeward separately. The middle group of about eighty people was caught in a fierce windstorm filled with toxic gases and they all apparently died of asphyxiation as they tramped through the muddy ash. It is thought that these are footprints from that group.

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