It’s the site of the famous landmark, Kūka’emoku, also known as the ‘Iao Needle, and for hundreds of years, ali’i were laid to rest in secret caves along its steep walls. It’s also the site of the terrible battle commonly known as Kaua i Kepaniwai o ‘Iao, Battle at the Dammed Water of ‘Iao. People have reportedly seen ghosts and the legendary night marchers.

When the lieutenant’s family moved into their beachfront house at Barking Sands, they knew right away that something was wrong. In a 1985 article, the wife of a Navy lieutenant commander said that she would get a strange, cold feeling sometimes when walking down the hall. It was like an air conditioner, even though she didn’t have one.

The oral traditions of the much-feared night marchers have survived countless years by being passed down from mouth to ear and then by the learned art of writing and documentation. Their stories have spread through hushed whispers during late-night storytelling around the dinner table. Their procession has been witnessed by Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians from different walks of life.

Seminarians have long talked of attacks by levitating pencils, of doors that would stick on one side but not the other, of pats that rattled without cause. Even laypeople who work at the religious institution talk of feeling a presence, hearing a voice, having something press against them. “It was real,” Ferraro said, “Told and corroborated by prominent men in the Roman Catholic Church.”

Ghosts are said to congregate in these places every evening from seven o’clock until midnight for a form of entertainment, including the legendary night marchers. Several people who happen to work in these locations today say that their buildings are indeed haunted. While most of Downtown Honolulu closes by 6 or 7pm, nights they have to work late are especially creepy.

This ahupua‘a extends inland from Āliapaʻakai crater to the crest of the Ko‘olau Range and holds many of O‘ahu’s most culturally important sites. Within this wahi pana, this sacred place, is Leilono, the entrance place where souls of the departed leap into Pō, the site of Kalaikoa’s hale iwi, his house of bones, a haunted high school, and a famous path for the legendary night marchers.

Away from the bustle of town, a wide, white strip of beach called Māhā‘ulepū is an important site in Hawaii’s history and culture. Before the 1920s, the sands at Maha’ulepu were white with bones scattered across the beach. Skulls were plentiful, sticking out of the sand anywhere one looked, and just dusting away a few inches of sand revealed more.