Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

DLNR’s Roles at the Ala Wai

During the 1920s, the Waikīkī landscape would be transformed when the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal, begun in 1921 and completed in 1928, resulted in the draining and filling in of the remaining ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

“Over the decades, all sorts of pollution – pesticides, heavy metals, sediments and even raw sewage –  has flowed into the canal. As Honolulu’s upstream population mushroomed, contamination in the canal has steadily increased …”

“… and over the years levels of pollution have tested well above limits considered safe. One local man died from bacterial infections he picked up after falling in the water.” (Civil Beat)

One role DLNR plays is dealing with the trash that floats down the respective drainage ditches up mauka that make their way into the Ala Wai.

Ala Wai small boat harbor is particularly prone to collecting trash that heavy rains, such as has been experienced this summer, wash down from watershed areas of Manoa, Makiki and Palolo streams.

Trash then flows down the Ala Wai canal, where a portion is captured in a debris trap, or amid the harbor front row piers and boats that is visible to the public.

“The trap utilizes a floating boom on the makai side of the bridge span next to Ala Wai Marine boatyard that captures tons of refuse after every rainstorm. But, like any trap, once it’s filled it must be emptied before it can function again.” (Pendleton)

DLNR Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR) is responsible for removing this mess from the traps. (DLNR) The trap is normally cleaned three to four times a year. The expense is paid through the Boating Special Fund (paid by boaters), not from General Funds from tax revenues.

That responsibility became more profound when, in 2006, “the city dumped 48 million gallons of untreated sewage into the canal – which flowed out into the ocean and polluted Waikiki beaches – in order to keep the waste from backing up into hotels, homes and businesses.”  (Civil Beat)

“This spill is such a large magnitude. We have never seen this before,” said state Health Department spokesman Kurt Tsue. “It’s pretty bad.”

“More than 100 warning signs to stay out of the water were posted along a 1 ½-mile stretch covering 18 beaches from Waikiki to downtown Honolulu.” (LA Times)

“Oliver Johnson, a 34-year-old mortgage broker, died April 6 from a bacterial infection after falling or being pushed into the sewage-contaminated Ala Wai Harbor on March 31.” (Star Bulletin, April 15, 2006)

DLNR had to clean up the debris trap and we viewed it as a biological hazardous waste removal/treatment and “Workers in protective gear will begin cleaning the sewage-polluted Ala Wai Boat Harbor today, under a $50,000 state contract.” (Star Bulletin, April 15, 2006)

Some may recall the ‘black noodle’ in and around the Ala Wai.  “The 5,135-foot sewage pipe that juts out of the water near community gardens on the mauka bank of the canal, has been a constant reminder of that environmental disaster.” (Civil Beat)

It took the City seven years to remove the large black sewage pipe that snaked along the bottom of the Ala Wai Canal and out toward the mouth of the boat harbor, adjacent to Waikiki’s famous beaches.

In addition to the surface collection of debris, DLNR is also responsible for periodic dredging of the Ala Wai Canal.  Just as debris comes downstream, accumulated silt and sediments come down and collect in the Ala Wai.

The Ala Wai Canal serves as an essential drainageway and sediment basin for the Ala Wai watershed. Over time, the build-up of sediments into the Ala Wai Canal has affected the canal’s sediment- and water-holding capacity, reducing the canal’s ability to temporarily contain and then release storm water when there are heavy storm events. (Army Corps)

At times, “some areas are only 4 to 6 feet deep at high tide and canoes ply inches-deep water at low tide” (Honolulu); dredging is targeted to get water levels closer to “12-6 feet below the mean lower low water mark”. (DLNR)

As reported in 2003, “The dredging is a state-financed, $7.4 million effort to restore a measure of health and self-respect to the Ala Wai, which began filling with sediment almost as soon as the Army Corps of Engineers dug it in 1927 to control floods and mosquitoes and to provide landfill for the swampland that was then Waikiki.”

“The canal, which collects runoff from streams and storm drains on the densely populated mountain slopes above Waikiki, has been dredged periodically, most recently in 1979.” (NY Times, March 3, 2003)

A challenge was that Hawaiian Electric has underground electrical cable crossing under the Ala Wai (first installed in 1956 replaced in 1990 with higher capacity cables).  “DLNR encountered Hawaiian Electric’s cables during routine maintenance dredging of the Ala Wai Canal” and “it was determined the cables were at risk of damage from dredging”.

“As a temporary solution, sections of the active cables on the makai side of the canal were covered with twelve 20-foot by 8-foot pre-cast concrete panels. The panels provided protection and allowed the dredging operations to continue in areas upstream of the cables.” (Belt Collins)

Later, “Hawaiian Electric relocated underground sub-transmission line cables that connect to HECO’s Waikiki Substation located on Kai‘olu Street.” This also shifted the alignment of the cable to the west of the existing route. New technology allowed for horizontal directional drilling to cross under the Ala Wai Canal.

In part, HECO’s action supported the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ efforts to provide continuous maintenance dredging of the Ala Wai Canal. The replacement cables also help maintain the reliability of the electrical distribution system. (Belt Collins)

DLNR Chief Engineer Carty Chang said, “The long-term benefits of this project include maintaining the ability of the canal to efficiently convey storm water flows to the ocean to reduce the risk of flooding, and to improve the aesthetics and safe use of the canal for recreational users.”

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William Twigg-Smith

He was born November 2, 1882 in New Zealand to Frederick and Alice Smith He was named William Twigg Smith. (Registration #1882/15452, New Zealand Government, Births, Deaths & Marriages Online)

He moved to the US in his late teens, living first in San Francisco, where he studied painting with Evelyn Almond Withrow, and then in Chicago, where he worked with Harry M. Walcott at the School of the Art Institute.

He was also a talented musician and supported himself by playing the flute while in Chicago. (For a number of years in Hawaii, he played second flutist with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra.) He became a naturalized US citizen and visited Hawaiʻi in 1916.  (Isaacs Art Center)

He seemed to more-often-than-not go by the first name ‘Twigg’ and last name ‘Smith.’ “The exhibition of paintings by Twigg Smith of San Francisco and Chicago, which began yesterday under the auspices of the University Club, is of interest not only to the lover of art, but the student and follower of island history and development.” (Star Bulletin, Dec 9, 1916)

“This is the third time Smith has visited Honolulu, and each time his stay has been longer. Until he has become to be well known as one of the local community.”

“Honolulu is now ‘home’ to Twigg Smith, and it is his intention to return here after doing his part in the conflict [WWI], if he is one of those so lucky as to return.”

To join the American artists’ battalion in New York Smith must pay his own expenses, and all painting sold during the exhibition will help to send him on his way to aid the trench-fighters on the front in France, or wherever the American troops abroad are placed when they take their share of the fighting.” (Star Bulletin, July 16, 1917)

In WWI he used his artistic skills as a camoufleur; “‘Camouflage’ is the very latest pet word in the great world-war and a well-known Honolulan, Twigg Smith, artist, is now on the road to becoming a first-class camoufleur.”

“[I]n another month he will be on his way to France to put into operation with the American troops some of this new branch of warfare, this new and wholly unique technique of concealment against the spying eyes of the enemy.”

“Twigg Smith was about the first man on the ground, and he carries No. 1 card showing him to be the first member of Company F, 25th United States Engineers, Camouflage, the official name of the unit.”

“The camouflage unit is in camp at Camp University, Washington. Here are artists of all sorts, sculptors, scene painters, scene shifters, electricians and a host of others. … They are learning how to disguise batteries, hangers, trenches, campos, observation posts, everything that can possibly be disguised by protective coloration or screening.” (Star Bulletin, Oct 20, 1917)

“‘Another feature of the work, perhaps the most dangerous. Is to simulate some feature like a dead horse or an old tree stump out in No Man’s Land between the trenches, so that it may be used as a shelter for sharpshooters.’”

‘‘Those who are detailed for this service creep out between the lines under shelter of darkness and take measurements which enable other artists to copy the object exactly. Then the next night the false object, which is armored, is substituted and the sharpshooter is placed behind it to get as many of the enemy as he can before some of them get him.” Advertiser, July 23, 1917)

After the war, Smith returned permanently to Hawaii. “In Honolulu, July 9, 1919, Twigg Smith and Miss Margaret Carter Thurston” married. (Annual Report, Volume 68, Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, 1920) Margaret was granddaughter of missionaries Asa and Lucy Thurston.

“[H]e recognized that this field [artist] was limited here from the standpoint of income, so he obtained a position with the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association as an illustrator. His responsibility was to reproduce accurately in illustrations the various forms of insect life that affect the growing of sugar.” Advertiser, Sep 21, 1950)

“Wm. Twigg-Smith was employed on a part-time basis starting in January 1923, and on September 1, he was appointed as Illustrator. Mr. Twigg-Smith immediately took up the study of the Jeswiet identification characters of cane varieties, a system of positively identifying any seedlings by the minute and almost microscopic hair groups of the buds and certain leaf areas.” (HSPA, History 1895-1945, Grammer)

William T Smith “was his real name … then he decided when he became the artist he’d hyphenate the name to have some distinction.” (Thurston Twigg-Smith)

Twigg-Smith was in the Volcano School. The Volcano School was a generation of mostly non-native Hawaiian painters who portrayed Hawaiʻi Island’s volcanoes in dramatic fashion during the late 19th century. (NPS HAVO)

This was in the days before color photography – painters were among the most eager to witness and recreate the explosive lava plumes and vibrant flows. (HuffPost)

A distinctive and recognizable school of Hawaiian painting developed. Kīlauea was such a popular subject for painters that a group emerged called the “Volcano School,” which included well-known Hawai‘i painters Charles Furneaux, Joseph Dwight Strong, and D Howard Hitchcock. Check out some of Twigg-Smith’s work at the Volcano House.

“So far as the observation of the present critic goes, Mr Smith is the first painter exhibiting here who has shown something like a sequence of Volcano paintings – an attempt to catch Madame Pele in a systematic series of her changeful moods. … Artist Smith is evidently proudest of his volcano pictures.” (Star Bulletin, Dec 9, 1916)

Twigg-Smith and Hitchcock exhibited their works together, here and in California, and elsewhere on the continent. (Advertiser, Feb 15, 1925)

“Mr Twigg-Smith kept on with his work as a freehand artist and his painting found wide favor here and abroad. It was his dream that when the time came for his retirement he would be able to devote his late years to his first and lasting love – painting. (Advertiser, September 21, 1950) He died April 21, 1950.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Peter Young Kāʻeo Kekuaokalani

Peter Young Kāʻeo Kekuaokalani was born March 4, 1836 in Honolulu.  His mother was Jane Lahilahi Young, the youngest daughter of John Young (advisor to Kamehameha I;) his father was Joshua Kāʻeo, Judge of the Supreme Court of Hawaiʻi (great-great grandson or great grandson of King Kalaniʻōpuʻu.)

At birth, he was hānai to his maternal uncle John Young II (Keoni Ana) (Kuhina Nui (Prime Minister) (1845-1855) and son of John Young, the English sailor who became a trusted adviser to Kamehameha I)

Kāʻeo was declared eligible to succeed to the Hawaiian throne by Kamehameha III and attended the Chief’s Children’s School.  (In 1839, Kamehameha III formed the school to groom the next generation of the highest ranking chief’s children of the realm and secure their positions for Hawaii’s Kingdom.)

King Kamehameha selected Missionaries Amos Starr Cooke (1810–1871) and Juliette Montague Cooke (1812-1896) from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to teach the 16-royal children and run the school.

Another student there was his cousin, Emma Naʻea Rooke (January 2, 1836 – April 25, 1885,) daughter of High Chief George Naʻea and High Chiefess Fanny Kekelaokalani Young and hānai by her childless maternal aunt, chiefess Grace Kamaʻikuʻi Young Rooke, and her husband, Dr. Thomas CB Rooke.  (Emma later became Queen, wife of Alexander Liholiho, Kamehameha IV.)

Kā’eo later served as a member of the House of Nobles (1863–1880) and on the Privy Council of King Kamehameha IV (1863–1864.)

At about this time, leprosy (later known as Hansen’s Disease) was noted in the Islands and it rapidly spread on Oʻahu.  In response, the Legislative Assembly of the Hawaiian Islands passed “An Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy” in 1865, which King Kamehameha V approved.

This law provided for setting apart land for an establishment for the isolation and seclusion of leprous persons who were thought capable of spreading the disease.

On June 10, 1865, a suitable location for incurable cases of leprosy came up for discussion.  The peninsula on the northern shore of Moloka’i seemed the most suitable spot for a leprosy settlement.

The first shipment of lepers landed at Kalawao (Kalaupapa) January 6, 1866, the beginning of segregation and banishment of lepers to the leper settlement.

Receiving and detention centers were established on Oʻahu.  Kalihi Hospital was the first hospital for leprosy patients in Hawaiʻi opening in 1865. Kapiʻolani Home opened in Kalihi Kai in 1891 adjacent to the Kalihi Hospital and Receiving Station; Kalihi Plague Camp (1900-1912) and Meyers Street, Kalihi Uka (1912-1938.)  (NPS)

Kāʻeo contracted leprosy and on June 29, 1873 joined the many others exiled to the leper colony at Kalaupapa on the island of Molokai (joining him were two servants.)

During his exile at Kalawao (Kalaupapa,) he and his cousin Emma, exchanged letters.  Kāʻeo reported in one such letter to his cousin (dated November 4, 1873) that he recently visited the settlement store and bought several yards of cotton twill “to make me some frocks palaka” this is the first known use of the word palaka to describe the style shirt with no tail and meant to be worn outside of the pants.  (Korn)

In another letter (August 11, 1873) calls attention to the conditions at Kalawao:  “Deaths occur quite frequently here, almost dayly. Napela (the Mormon elder and assistant supervisor of the Kalaupapa Settlement) last week rode around the Beach to inspect the Lepers and came on to one that had no Pai (poi) for a Week but manage to live on what he could find in his Hut, anything Chewable.”

“His legs were so bad that he cannot walk, and few traverse the spot where His Hut stands, but fortunate enough for him that he had sufficient enough water to last him till aid came and that not too late, or else probably he must have died.”

Mortality rates were confirmed by Dr JH Stallard, Board of Health in 1884:  “The excessive mortality rate alone condemns the management (of the settlement.) During the year 1883, there were no less than 150 deaths … more than ten times that of any ordinary community of an unhealthy type.”

“The high mortality has not been caused by leprosy, but by dysentery, a disease not caused by any local insanitary conditions, but by gross neglect.”  (Voices of Kaulapapa; SanDiego-gov – 1884)

Father Damien himself succumbed to leprosy on April 15, 1889.  Sister Mary Leopoldina Burns describes the place: “One could never imagine what a lonely barren place it was. Not a tree nor a shrub in the whole Settlement only in the churchyard there were a few poor little trees that were so bent and yellow by the continued sweep of the birning wind it would make one sad to look at them.” (Voices of Kaulapapa; SanDiego-gov)

Kāʻeo was released from Kalawao in 1876 and lived the remainder of his life quietly in Honolulu, returning to his seat in the upper house of the Hawaiian legislature.  (Korn; Spurrier)

The Hawaiian Gazette, December 1, 1880, noted his death, “The Hon. Peter Y Kaeo died at his residence, Emma street, on Friday night (November 26, 1880.) The funeral took place on Sunday, and was largely attended by the retainers and friends of the family. The hearse was surrounded by Kahili bearers as becomes the dignity of the chief.”

About 8,000 people have been exiled at Kalaupapa since 1865.  The predominant group of patients were Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian; in addition there were whites, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Filipino and other racial groups that sent to Kalaupapa.  The law remained in effect until 1969, when admissions to Kalaupapa ended.

Peter Young Kāʻeo was interred in the Wyllie Crypt at Mauna ʻAla (Royal Mausoleum in Nuʻuanu) along with many of the Young Family.  (Though the names are the same, I am not related to this Young family.  On my father’s side, Jack, youngest brother of Young Brothers, is my grandfather; on my mother’s side, Hiram Bingham is my GGG grandfather.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waihī Nui

“Manoa valley ends in what is called ‘the pen.’ It has walls with a trail into Pauoa valley.” (Towse)  “Rocky, wooded ridges enclose it to right and left, and straight ahead is the black, sheer face of Konahuanui.”  (Loomis)

Translated “his large seeds (testicles,)” the name Kōnāhuanui is said to come from a story summarized by T Kelsey: “when a man, probably a giant, chased a woman who escaped into a cave, he tore off his testes and threw them at her”.    (Kawaharada)

Kōnāhuanui is the highest peak in the Koʻolau Mountains and is the northwest corner of the Mānoa Ahupua‘a boundary. It was the home of the gods Kāne and Kanaloa.

It is also home to a moʻo goddess, a large mythic lizard that lives in freshwater pools and streams. Rain clouds gather around its peak, and its Kona side, often ribboned with waterfalls, is the wettest area of Honolulu: here is the source of the waters of Mānoa and Nuʻuanu valleys.

“[T]his cul-de-sac at its makai, or southern, angle, along the stream called ‘Aihualama. The trail into Nu‘uanu opened at its upper left, or northwestern, angle. Here was a good path for a kama‘aina going alone from valley to valley”.  (Loomis)

In an 1882 map of Manoa prepared by Baldwin, there are several waterfalls back in the valley, including, Waiihi-nui (Waihī Nui), Waihii-iki (Waihī Iki), Luaaulaea and Naniuapo.

“[T]he ground rises rapidly for a few rods, to a thicket of hibiscus and eugenia, at the foot of a magnificent mountain, exhibiting from the base to its summit a perpendicular height of a thousand feet – as rich a variety of projecting cliff and wild recess, of dripping rocks and mantling foliage, of graceful creeper, pendant shrub, and splendid flower, as Arcadia itself can boast.” (Stewart)

“On the curve of high cliffs at the mauka boundary of Manoa sheer white splashes of waterfall filled pools hidden from the casual eye in recesses where Kaahumanu herself loved to bathe among cool winds and soft air laden with fragrance of awapuhi and maile.” (Damon)

The water from these falls converge into Manoa Stream. Mānoa Valley formerly supported a large population with scores of lo‘i kalo that were watered by the many freshwater streams. (ASM)

“When we had seen the piece of land appropriated by Kalaimoku or Mr. Pitt to our use, and had given directions to the natives who cultivated the taro on the land, we indulged ourselves with a pleasant bath in a cooling stream that waters the valley, and we returned across a part of the mountain which lies between that place and Honoruru valley.” (Missionaries Chamberlain, Loomis, Blatchely and Bingham; Damon)

“The taro patches that followed the stream bed down the center of the valley were now either vegetable gardens, pasture land, or abandoned. … AIso much of the stream’s water had been diverted for the use of the island’s increasing population. The taro farms that were in the valley from the time the first foreign observer stepped into it were gone for good.” (DeLeon)

“In 1919 the Hawaii Sugar Planters’ Association established an experimental substation in the rear of the valley. Here sugar cane was raised for experimental purposes. Trees from all over the Pacific were also brought to the substation to see how they would adapt to the Hawaiian environment. The substation became Lyon Arboretum, which is part of the University of Hawaii.” (DeLeon)

There is something about falling water that fascinates a human being.

As noted above, here is Waihī Nui (‘trickling water’), Mānoa Falls. It’s in the backyard of Hawai‘i’s largest population and visitor destination. A bus line takes you within walking distance to the trailhead.

It is one of the most popular trail destinations on O‘ahu; Mānoa Falls sees an average of 200,000 visitors annually.  (DLNR)  The Mānoa Falls Trail is part of DLNR’s Na Ala Hele Trail & Access Program.

The video (done by DLNR) shows people down by the falls.  Don’t go there; rather, there is a viewing area contained by a rock wall at the falls – heed all warning and other signs, do not go beyond the rock wall.

The State does not charge a fee to hike this trail. The Mānoa Falls Trail is open seven days a week – sunup to sundown. The parking lot is managed by Paradise Park and is not associated with the management of the state trail.

The beginning of the trail goes through a shipping container into a big open lush field used as a location for many movies. The trail continues past the field, then crosses over a natural wood footbridge through a grove of Eucalyptus trees.

The 0.8-mile trail (each way) gradually ascends through a rainforest that eventually transitions into bamboo. There is a low-lying rest area on the right of the trail with benches, interpretive sign and tree arch throne.

Continue up ascending gravel terrace steps until you round the corner that reveals the water fall from a distance. On the left you will another rest stop with a bench and interpretive sign. There is one more short section of terrace steps that leads up to a nice flat section of trail that gently takes all the way to small section of cement steps.

Ascend up the steps and now you are at the falls viewing area. On your left is a bench and viewing area is straight ahead. The viewing area is contained by a rock wall.

Signs are posted indicating to not go beyond that point, and of the potential danger of landslide. Do not go beyond the rock wall viewing area, closed area signs or into pool area or to upper pools.  (DLNR)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kalaupapa

“The Makanalua peninsula – often simply referred to as ‘Kalaupapa’ or ‘the Kalaupapa peninsula’ – includes three ahupua‘a. Kalaupapa National Historical Park contains 10,725 acres over 12 square miles, including 2,000 acres of ocean.”

“Owners of the land include the State Department of Land and Natural Resources, the State Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (1,247 acres) and The National Park Service (23 acres at the Kalaupapa Lighthouse …). Some smaller land holdings at the top of the North Shore cliffs that separate the peninsula from topside Molokai are privately owned.” (Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa)

“The park service has a $250,000 a year lease with DHHL which runs through 2041, and another lease with DLNR which expires in 2029.” (OHA)

State law (HRS §326-34) states that the county of Kalawao consists of that portion of the island of Molokai known as Kalaupapa, Kalawao and Waikolu, and commonly known or designated as the Kalaupapa Settlement, and is not a portion of the County of Maui, but is constituted a county by itself.

Access to Kalaupapa is severely limited.  There are no roads to the peninsula from “topside” Molokai. Land access is via a steep trail on the pali (sea cliff) that is approximately three miles long with 26 switchbacks.

Kalaupapa National Historical Park became a unit of the National Park System in 1980. The primary story being told at Kalaupapa is the forced isolation from 1866 until 1969 of people from Hawaiʻi afflicted with Hansen’s disease (leprosy) to the remote northern Kalaupapa peninsula on the island of Molokai. (NPS)

The Park differs significantly from most other national parks in that nearly all of the 8,725 acres of land, 2,000 acres of water, and improvements within the authorized boundary may remain in non-Federal ownership to be managed by the National Park Service through cooperative agreements.

The primary responsibilities for the State Department of Health at Kalaupapa are to provide food, housing, health care, and social services for the patient community.  Patients have the right to take and utilize fish and wildlife resources without regard to Federal fish and game laws and regulations.

On a national level, Congress established the Park per (PL 96-565 (1980)):

  • to preserve and interpret the Kalaupapa settlement for present and future generations;
  • to provide a well-maintained community in which the Kalaupapa leprosy patients are guaranteed that they may remain at Kalaupapa as long as they wish and to protect the current lifestyle of these patients and their individual privacy. In addition, Congress called for preservation and maintenance of the present character of the community and its historic sites and structures.
  • to provide that the preservation and interpretation of the settlement be managed and performed by patients and Native Hawaiians to the extent practical, and that training opportunities be provided to such persons in management and interpretation of the settlement’s cultural, historical, educational, and scenic resources.

Under Lease No. 231, DHHL leases 1,247-acres of land at Kalaupapa to the National Park Service to and including July 14, 2041, “solely as an integral part of the Kalaupapa National Historical Park established by Public Law 96-565 and for the purposes expressed therein.”

The park has formal twenty-year cooperative agreements with the State of Hawaiʻi, Departments of Health, Transportation, and Land and Natural Resources. The cooperative agreements allow for shared responsibilities.

“The feared and then-untreatable disease arrived in Hawaii with merchant sailors in the 1840s. ‘The disease became epidemic. There arose a fear that perhaps Hawaii would become a bastion of leprosy,’ according to Dr S Kalani Brady, a professor and physician in Hawaii who treats the islands’ remaining Hansen’s disease patients. This fear spurred the authorities to take harsh action.” (NIH)

On January 6, 1866, nine men and three women were sent to what is commonly known as the Kalaupapa peninsula because of a new government policy that called for the isolation of anyone diagnosed with leprosy.

They would be the first of an estimated 8,000 people from Hawaii who would be taken from their families and relocated, first in the original settlement on the windward side of Kalawao and, later, at Kalaupapa on the leeward side. (Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa)

“[T]hey processed as criminals anyone suspected of having a telltale skin blemish. First, the person was arrested and examined, naked, by a circle of experts. Those convicted were boated to the Kalaupapa settlement on Molokai Island … and were left to spend the rest of their curtailed lives void of medical support, rule of law or any further contact with family.”

“[M]ore than 8,000 Hawaiians with leprosy were confined on the island of Molokai, where they could not escape due to the high cliffs on one side and shark-infested ocean on the other.” (NIH)

“Nine (9) patients remain of those individuals that chose to remain as residents in Kalaupapa after the repeal of Hawaii’s isolation law in 1969. Now ranging in age from 80 to 97 years, these individuals continue to suffer some disabilities related to Hansen’s disease, but also deal with chronic diseases and conditions commonly associated with aging.” (DOH, (2022))

Congress authorized a Kalaupapa memorial and in 2022, the Hawai‘i legislature appropriated $5-million for the Kalaupapa Memorial, to be located in Kalawao across from St Philomena – the names of the Hawai‘i residents removed from their homes and relocated to Kalaupapa Peninsula will be engraved in polished granite. (Tsai)

The memorial, designed in consultation with architects, planners, Native Hawaii cultural specialists and descendants of Kalaupapa residents, will consist of two-interlocking circles representing those who were forced to relocate and those they left behind and their descendants. According to Ka Ohana o Kalaupapa, the intersection of the two circles represents the reunification that most residents were never able to realize. (Tsai)

​Kalaupapa has been home for 100 years for people once banished from society, but it is in transition due to its ever-decreasing patient population. The settlement is much quieter than it once was. There are fewer buildings. Life today is lived at a somewhat slower pace. (NPS)

So, what’s next?

“[W]hen there is no longer a resident patient community at Kalaupapa, the Secretary [of the Interior] shall reevaluate the policies governing the management, administration, and public use of the park in order to identify any changes deemed to be appropriate.” (Public Law 95-565, Sec. 109, dated Dec. 22, 1980, to establish Kalaupapa National Historical Park)

“With the patient population getting smaller, there has been a tendency lately to refer to a time in the near future at Kalaupapa ‘when there are no more patients.’ The ‘Ohana does not believe such a time will ever come to be. While the patient population may no longer be with us physically, they will always be present spiritually. They will always be part of this land.” (Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa)

Per the NPS’ Revised General Management Plan (2021), “In the near term, Kalaupapa Settlement would continue to function much as it does today. …”

“In the long term, the NPS would strive to maintain buildings, structures, and cultural landscape features within Kalaupapa Settlement that are eligible for listing in the National Register and/or contribute to the NHL [National Historic Landmark] ….”

 “In the long term, houses and other structures may be adaptively reused and could be managed by other entities, such as agency partners, organizations, and concession operations, pursuant to appropriate agreements or contracts.”  (NPS)

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