I Love Mokena: Meet New Zealand's "Mokena"

Welcome back.

I started writing today's column with a high degree of confidence that I was fairly knowledgeable with the general history of the name Mokena. Such a unique name. Never came across the name on any maps or listings of cities or towns in America.

Except, when I started typing, that little voice in the back of my head, you know what I'm referring to, that little voice, the one that we tend to ignore, only to realize later we should have listened to, started to nag me.

I would soon come to realize that once again the little voice had meaning. As part of my effort to find that meaning I opened Google and typed in "towns in the world named Mokena."

Almost immediately a wealth of interesting and intriguing information appeared on the screen in front of me. I scanned down the page, pleasantly surprised at the abundance of data that echoed back from my search request. And then, as Emeril LaGasse would say, "BAM!" On the screen in front of me was a hit for the "Mokena Hou Geyser." Huh? Geyser? Mokena? Hou?

As it happens, way over, or should I say down under, in New Zealand, sits the only hot soda water geyser in the world (folks, you can't make this stuff up!). The geyser is named after a famous tribal chief from the mid 1800's, Chief Te Mokena Hou Kohere.

Seems that Chief Mokena became a hero to his people for going into battle on behalf of their land and freedom. There are even books written about him. This link will take you to a short bio of the chief.

I'm reasonably sure the name of our village and the chief's having the same first name are purely coincidental, but it is interesting that Chief Mokena Kohere was appointed to his country's Legislative Council just eight years before Mokena incorporated as a village.

Back in 1880, news from New Zealand could take quite a while to reach halfway across the world. This is definitely a job for the Mokena Historical Society.

Our great little town, maybe even known halfway around the world. So many reasons why we love Mokena.

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