Halepalaoa | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

The total land area of Lānai is 89,305 acres, divided into 13 ahupua‘a (traditional land divisions.) In the traditional system, respective konohiki served as land managers over each. These konohiki were subject to control by the ruling chiefs.

At the time of the Great Māhele (1848,) lands on Lānai were divided between lands claimed by King Kamehameha III (Kauikeaouli) (40,665 acres,) which were known as the Crown Lands, and the lands to be claimed by the chiefs and people (48,640 acres,) which were called the Government Lands.

By 1907, more than half the island of Lānai was in the hands of native Hawaiians. Just 14 years later, in 1921, only 208.25 acres of land remained in native Hawaiian ownership. By 1875 Walter Gibson had control, either through lease or direct ownership, of nine‐tenths of Lānai’s lands. (Lānai Community Plan)

When James Dole bought Lānai, ranching was a thriving business under the control of George Munro. Shortly after the purchase, Dole got Munro working at removing cattle from potential pineapple lands. As soon as cattle were fattened they were sold. Ranching operations became a secondary priority to pineapple development.

During 1923, the company embarked on making major improvements to the island of Lānai. At first, Dole wanted to name the town Pine City, but the post office department objected because there were too many “pine” post offices in the mainland United States. So the plantation town was called Lānai City.

Dole hired Mr. Root, an engineer, to lay out and plan the town. Root arrived at Mānele Bay to begin his work. He designed the central park with a symmetrical grid of residential streets, which remains the configuration of Lānai City today.” (Lānai Community Plan)

Between 1922 and 1992, pineapple plantation operations provided the people of Lānai with a way of life. James Doles’ Hawaiian Pineapple Company evolved and many of the innovations in cultivation, equipment design, harvesting, irrigation and labor relations developed on the Lānai plantation, and came to be used around the world. (Lānai Culture & Heritage Center)

Mānele Bay was the main port of entry for Lānai; its primary purpose was to ship pineapple off the island. On the eastern side of the island, remnants of Halepalaoa Landing can be seen; this was used primarily to ship cattle. It’s also reported that in the late 1800s, a steamer landing was located on the western shore of Lānai Island and served as a docking grounds.

A new harbor was needed. In 1923 to 1926, Kaumālapaʻu Bay, a natural, sheltered cove on the southwest side of Lānai, was developed into the main shipping harbor from which pineapple and all major supplies for Lānai were shipped and received.

“… we learned that the breakwater is composed of 116,000-tons of rock blasted from the cliffs and dropped into the water. The Kaumalapau harbor entrance is 65-feet deep, and the minimum depth of the harbor is 27-feet. The wharf is 400-feet long and the boat landing is 80-feet in length.” (Lanai “The Pineapple Kingdom, 1926)

Bins filled with pineapple were unloaded from the trucks (steam cranes were still used through the 1960s), and placed on the barges for shipping to the cannery at Iwilei, Honolulu, Oʻahu. Tug boats were used to haul the barges – empty bins and supplies to Lānai, and filled pineapple bins to the cannery.

Because of the demands of work at Kaumālapaʻu, Lānai’s “second city” was developed, and known as “Harbor Camp.” The Harbor Camp included around 20 homes and support buildings, and sat perched on the cliffs above Kaumālapaʻu Bay. (Lānai Culture & Heritage Center)

Surmising from the vast archaeological features on the cliffs above Kaumālapaʻu Gulch, Kaumālapaʻu Harbor was probably a very important settlement (seasonal and/or permanent) for native Hawaiians. (Social Research Pacific)

Access to fishing, whether by boat or off the shoreline, is easily attained at Kaumālapaʻu. One of the sites immediately mauka of the harbor is called “Fisherman’s Trail.” In the 1862 letter requesting settlement and use of Lānai, even Gibson indicated the importance of fishing as the primary source of subsistence for the island’s inhabitants.

The village of Kaunolu, just to the south of Kaumālapaʻu was known as a “fishing village”. Given its proximity to Kaumālapaʻu, it is highly likely that neighboring Kaumālapaʻu also offered good fishing grounds to Hawaiians. The Kaumālapaʻu Trail extends from Lānai City down to Kaumālapaʻu. (Social Research Pacific)

In the Māhele, the ahupuaʻa of Kamoku and Kalulu (which adjoin the existing Kaumālapaʻu Harbor) were retained by the King (Kamehameha III), though the ‘ili of Kaumālapaʻu 1 & 2 were given by the King to the Government.

The Kaumālapaʻu Harbor breakwater was in disrepair for many years following several hurricanes and seasonal storms. Completed in 2007, 40,000-tons of new stone was added to the reshaped breakwater, 800 concrete Core-Locs (each weighing 35 tons) were put in place and a 5-foot- thick concrete cap was cast on top of the breakwater to complete the project. (Traylor)

Today, as in the early 1920s, Kaumālapaʻu Harbor is the main commercial seaport and Lānai’s lifeline to the outside world, with Young Brothers’ barge and other commercial activity in and out of Lānai.

In ancient times, the windward coast of the island of Lānai was home to many native residents. Maunalei Valley had the only perennial stream on the island and a system of loʻi kalo (taro pond field terraces) supplied taro to the surrounding community.

Sheltered coves, fronted by a barrier reef, provided the residents with access to important fisheries, and allowed for the development of loko iʻa (fishponds), in which various species of fish were cultivated, and available to native tenants, even when the ocean was too rough for the canoes to venture out to sea. (Lānai Culture and Heritage Center)

The history of Lānai is rich and diverse, spanning first, some 800 years of native Hawaiian residency and subsistence practices (ca. 1000 – 1800 A.D.). Then following 1800, there was a decline in the native population as foreign influences began to grow.

In 1861, Walter Murray Gibson came to Hawaiʻi after joining the Mormon Church the year before; he was to serve as a missionary and envoy of the Mormon Church to the peoples of the Pacific.

The experience with the Church was relatively short-lived; in 1864, he was excommunicated for selling priesthood offices, defrauding the Hawaiian members and misusing his ecclesiastical authority (in part, he was using church funds to buy land in his name.)

By the 1870s, Gibson focused his interests at Koele, situated in a sheltered valley in the uplands of Kamoku Ahupuaʻa. As the ranch operation was developed, Koele was transformed from an area of traditional residency and sustainable agriculture to the ranch headquarters. (Lānai Culture and Heritage Center) In 1872, Gibson moved from Lānai to Lāhainā and then to Honolulu.

After Gibson’s death in 1888, the ranch was turned over to his daughter and son-in-law, Talula and Frederick Hayselden. As early as 1896, the Gibson-Hayselden interests on Lānai, which held nearly all the land on the island in fee-simple or leasehold title, began developing a scheme to plant and grow sugar on Lānai.

They chose the ancient fishing community of Keōmuku for the base of operations. However, before completing the construction of the mill and associated facilities, and prior to the first harvest being collected for processing, the Maunalei Sugar Company went bankrupt.

In the period between 1899 to the 1920s, Keōmuku served as the hub of residency and commerce. Several motor-driven boats were engaged in providing transportation of people and goods between Lānai and Lāhaina. (Lānai Culture and Heritage Center)

Navigating the rough seas and near shore reef waters took exceptional skill. With names like “Akamai” (Smart,) “Naheihei” (The Racer,) “Mikioi” (Skillful,) “Lokahi” (Unity) and “Manukiiwai” (Bird That Fetches Water,) the boats regularly made runs to Lāhainā from Halepalaoa.

The return trip from Lāhainā brought back the mail, various food supplies, along with poi, rice and flour, fresh water in bottles, and passengers – including family members and visitors to the island.

Kupuna, Venus Leinaala Gay Holt, born at Keomoku in 1905 recalled that: “No matter how rough, Noa Kaopuiki knew how to wait. He would keep the engine running and everything. He’d wait. He knew how to count the waves. And we would all hold right there, see everything. And all the sudden, he’d go! He was gone. Right through the channel, gone. And the big waves are coming right after that. Gone on his way to Lāhaina.”

“Our boats ran twice a week to Lāhainā. They always came back with a barrel of poi, bags of flour, or whatever, whatever, whatever. We had sort of a store room with all the things in it… The boat went over and we bought most of our supplies from Lāhainā.”

“We brought in large supplies, by cases. Case of corned beef, case of canned salmon… Every Wednesday and every Saturday, they bought fresh supplies, poi, a whole barrel of poi once a week. We always had rice, and we grew a lot of things down here. We grew a lot of vegetables. We grew sweet potatoes, even down at the beach house. Lots of sweet potatoes were grown for the pigs…” (Venus Leinaala Gay Holt, January 28, 2006; Lānai CHC)