Queeny Park Queens Rule! - Liliuokalani LbNA #22202 (ARCHIVED)

The "Queeny Park Queens Rule!" Series - Liliuokalani.

This is the seventh in the series.


NOTICE!!! This Queen has vacated her premises in order to dry out a bit!
You are welcome to seek her home in the meantime, but unfortunately she will NOT be there to greet you at this point!


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Background:
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This series features a set of historic Queens.
I selected "Queens" as the theme, because, obviously, the very name of the park just begged for that (even if Queeny is simply the last name of the man that originally owned the land there)!

Anyway, Some of the Queens that I chose to honor may be familiar to
some of you; others may be unfamiliar to most.

That is because, in selecting the queens, I attempted
to satisfy a number of things.

First, I wanted the queens to be true rulers. That is, not only were these women titular queens, they also had power and responsibility of rulership during at least some
part of their tenure.

Second, I wanted to select a variety of queens from relatively recent history, as well as some from distant to ancient times.

Third, I wanted these queens to be considered rather more
"historic" than "mythological."

Fourth, I wanted to try and repesent queens from various
continents and cultures.

This final criterion was particularly difficult to satisfy, since our western culture offers us far more historical material to work with in some areas, and very little in others.

In any case, these are all fabulous women who had fascinating lives, and I hope you enjoy learning a bit about each of them!


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How this works:
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I have planted 7 Queen letterboxes, plus one final box.
Each of the 7 Queen boxes will stand on its own, so you can track down any one of them,
in any order, and stamp in for as many or as few of them as you choose.

However, this is also a series. So, for those of you that wish to collect all 7, you have a further reward you can attain. I have also planted a final letterbox, which may be viewed as the "crowning glory" (um... pun intended ;-) of the series. The final letterbox requires that you find all the others first, and once you do that, the full instructions for the final one will become available to you.


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Featured Queen VII - Liliuokalani
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This Queen lived during 1838 - 1917.

This queen was born into the royal Hawaiian family in 1838
and became Queen of Hawaii at the age of 53. She was the last sovereign
to rule Hawaii.

At this time, American colonists led by Sanford Dole controlled most of Hawaii's economy. When Liliuokalani became queen, she tried to restore much of the monarchy's power that the previous monarchs had lost during the years of colonialization.

Dole wished to lose neither his power in the region nor his stronghold on the economy and decided to force her abdication. She fought this, and even appealed to
US President Grover Cleveland for formal international acknowledgment of her position. This was indeed granted, but Dole defied it and set up his own republic there.

When Liliuokalani and her supporters revolted, Dole squashed the revolt and jailed the Queen's supporters. In order to gain their release, she did abdicate.

Although bitter about the situation, she was always a very musical person,
and subsequently wrote the familiar song "Aloha Oe" for the event that formally transferred
the islands to US ownership.

Liliuokalani's story is not one of
a life of extended power and rule, like some of the other queens we have chosen.
But it is indeed a fitting representative of the lands and cultures of the "New World", and it is a reflection of modern times. Thus, she was selected to represent the history and progress of our current on-going experiments in modern government (democratic republics) and economics (capitalism).

In particular, the drive especially in the New world to change from rule by
monarchs to more democratic rule is reflected in her story. Hers is a bittersweet
story where the ruthlessness of capitalist supporters in her land allowed Dole's interests to prevail, despite their questionable tactics. However, this loss of
monarchic power is the story of modern times, and virtually no rulers remain in power in the absolute way that once was common.

So her story symbolizes life at the end of an age, the Age of Monarchies.
The new replacement Age of Democracy ushered in changes of all kinds, not the least of which
has been greater women's equality. As a woman of her own times, she dealt with the inevitable changes
with equinimity and grace despite her desperate attempts to reclaim monarchic power in order
to, in her opinion, better serve her people.

Liliuokalani lived her life with dignity both during her reign and after.
She exemplified the "woman of virtue" in the Victorian sense; and after her ruling period, she found
solace in her music, her gardens and in her life long work
in improving public education, health, and welfare of the poor.

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Directions
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This is a bit of a challenge, and probably not a good jaunt for kids.

Park in the Queeny Park parking lot that is accessed via Mason Road, and is
closest to the Dog Museum. Make your way toward the Dog Museum. Find the main
path that runs behind the museum. Take that path going left and
down the hill.

Follow the path down the hill, where you see the large Picnic Shelter. As the path
approaches the shelter, bear left. Follow the path a ways, past a pond, to a bridge.
Cross the bridge and keep going. Soon you will come to a T, and will see a
sign that says "Bridge Closed to vehicle traffic."


Instead of crossing the bridge if it is not crossable,
follow the treeline that encloses the bridge, all the way around
until you can actually find yourself on the other side of the bridge.

You will want to look for a path into the woods that begins at
the bridge, and runs across the meadow before running into the woods
on the other side. (You should be walking through the meadow for
at least 20 or 30 steps between the bridge and the correct path).

Once you find that path into the woods, you will go down it.
You will probably run into some brush blocking your path unless
someone has cleared it. You can navigate around the brush to the right
fairly easily.


When you come to a T, go right.

Follow this path a ways. When you see an option to take a little path off to the Left,
do NOT take it; just stay on the main path. You will come to a spot where you can see
some large fallen logs on the left. There is one that is the largest, that you might
consider the "Papa Bear" log.

If you look closely, you should be able to also find a "Mama Bear" log perpendicular
to Papa Bear. Then you might notice there are 3 "Baby Bear" logs.

That which you seek is hiding inside one of the Baby Bears.

NOTES:

Bring your own ink or ink pad, and of course paper or a logbook to stamp into,
as well as a pen to log your name, date and where you are from.

This stamp measures 3.75 X 4 inches, so you make sure your paper
or logbook is big enough for this.
You may enjoy using dark red, green, brown, and yellow-orange for this stamp.


Finally, Please be discrete when uncovering and re-hiding this letterbox, if you happen
to visit the site during one of its more crowded times.