No reminiscence of Mauna Loa Observatory would be complete without mentioning the white dog of Mauna Loa. Much has been told about the mysterious phantom dog that would appear on the mountain to forewarn of a volcanic eruption. Hawaiian legend relates a tale of Pele, who is the fire goddess of the volcanoes on Mauna Loa, and her companion dog, whom she would send as a messenger to alert the people whenever an eruption was imminent.

The white dog was first noticed by the observatory staff during the latter part of 1959. At that time the staff were living on site for up to a week at a time on rotating shifts. Because of this housekeeping, a rubbish dump was soon developed to the west of the observatory. The contention of the staff was that a stray white dog had discovered the dump and foraged it for food. Attempts by the staff to befriend it and later to capture it, no matter how persistent or devious, failed. The dog for some reason would have nothing to do with the observatory staff. Soon the dog disappeared and was presumed to have found its way back to populated regions of the island. In December 1959, Kilauea Iki erupted.

To the amazement of the staff the dog reappeared at the observatory several months later and again was spotted intermittently for a month or so and then disappeared. This pattern of appearances and disappearances continued until 1966. Since then, to my knowledge, no one has seen the dog.

Its appearances or disappearances were never regular, and at times it was seen at the summit as well as farther down the access road to the observatory. It would never have anything to do with anyone and whenever pursued would always easily outdistance its pursuers over the rough lava and run to the top of the mountain.

The staff could never determine where it obtained food when it was not at the dump (months at a time) in the desolate environment of the mountain nor why, if it did descend the mountain when it was not seen, it did return to roam the mountaintop for months at a time. This was especially puzzling in view of the fact that the staff sometimes discovered lost hunters’ dogs wandering close to the observatory, always in the most pitiful condition. In every case, starvation and exposure to the elements had just about done in these hunters’ dogs.

Concerning the belief that the white dog was a messenger of pending eruptions, it is true that it was sighted sometimes before an eruption, bit it was also sighted many other times when no eruption occurred.

The dog did create a problem for the staff in that when a staff member would describe the appearance of the dog to visiting scientists or to the public the response would invariably be looks of worry and discomfort or of concern and a fear that this staff member had finally gone start crazy.

The story of the dog was definitely out of place among scientific endeavors at the observatory, and soon the staff members were hesitant to talk about it to anyone they did not know. To this day the mystery of the white dog is just that - a mystery.