In May 1849, Minister of Finance Gerrit P. Judd proposed building a road directly between the two population centers of the Island of Hawaiʻi. Using prison labor, it started near Holualoa Bay at and proceeded in a straight line up to the plateau south of Hualālai. After ten years only about were completed, when work was abandoned at when the 1859 eruption of Mauna Loa blocked its path.