The view is the site of the pa visited by missionary, explorer, botanist, and politician William Colenso (1811-1899) in 1842. Here on the urupa (burial ground) the former armed constabulary built a redoubt initially seeking to capture or destroy support for the powerful Maori leader Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki (circa 1830-1893).

John Barr Hoyte painted Lake Waikaremoana at a time when few Europeans visited the area. Such images later began to create an understanding amongst the wider public of New Zealand's less accessible scenery.