Maui County Condominiums Database

The Kalohi Channel divides Molokai and Lanai, the two smallest of Hawaii’s six major islands, which lie between Oahu and Maui. These islands are less developed and less visited than the other islands, Molokai and Lanai retain more of the old Hawaii in the wildness of their countryside and the character of their communities.

The small population of both of these islands gives visitors and Hawaii residents a quiet alternative to the more active beach resorts on Maui, Oahu, and Hawaii. Lanai and Molokai retain the flavor of its history in its enterprise and its unspoiled landscape. Visitors can choose a more upscale retreat on Lanai or a step back in time to the quiet, more pastoral simplicity of Molokai. Either way, these two islands offer a refreshing change from the ordinary.

Legend relates that man-eating spirits and ghouls haunted Lana`i. Mo`i Kalka`alaneo had a spoiled son named Kaulula`au whose final act of mischief, destroying a new planting of breadfruit trees in Lahaina, caused him to be banished to the island of Lana`i. No one expected him to live, but apparently the boy was even too much for the evil spirits, who were banished from the island by his presence. The mischievous boy had become a hero. This opened the way for settlement of the island around 1400 A.D. and became a burial ground for many of the ali`i. Word of Lana`i's treacherous waters spread between sailing ships and many captains tried to navigate around the island in stormy weather to keep their boats from running aground on Shipwreck Beach.

Early attempts at growing sugar cane on Lana`i proved unsuccessful, starting with a Chinese man in 1802, and continued by others, including some Mormon elders. Walter Murray Gibson, a Mormon elder, tried to build a "City of Joseph" at Palawai Basin, but was excommunicated when he defrauded the church back home. A New Zealander named George Munro tried raising cattle, and imported seeds to grow plants on the island. He failed in the enterprise, but the Norfolk pines he imported to Lana`i live on to this day. In 1922, James D. Dole purchased the entire island from the Baldwin family for $1.1 million, or about $12 an acre. He gave the island its nickname of "Pineapple Island" because his 12,000-acre plantation became the largest pineapple plantation in the world.

Lana`i no longer grows pineapple commercially, but is now home to upscale resort properties for tourists to "get away from it all", either in a luxury beach resort like Manele Bay, or up the hill away from the beach in the Lodge at Ko`ele. Visitors from Maui take day trips to Lana`i's sunny beaches, especially during whale watching season.

Moloka`i’s Halawa Valley may be the site where early explorers from the Marquesas Islands first settled on Hawai`i during the middle of the seventh century. Known in ancient times as a center for mysticism and sorcery, Ili`ili`opae Heiau hosted the most powerful kahuna (priests) on the islands, most notably the famous "Prophet of Moloka`i", Lanikaula, who performed sorcery in great secrecy during the 16th century. But the incantations of the kahuna could not keep Kamehameha from conquering the island in 1795. Moloka`i warriors, outnumbered by a force that lined the shore near Kaunakakai for more than four miles, were slaughtered by Kamehameha's men. The dead Moloka`i warriors, thrown into the sea for the sharks, caused such a feeding frenzy that the water appeared to boil. Captain James Cook first spotted Moloka`i in November of 1778, but bypassed it, considering it uninhabited. Eight years later, Captain George Dixon landed there, but wrote very little about the island. When Protestant missionaries landed there in 1832, they recorded the local population at about 6,000 people.

Moloka`i's lands became available for private ownership after the Great Mahele of 1848 and 70,000 acres of it became pastureland known as Moloka`i Ranch. Kamehameha V owned Moloka`i Ranch, but had it managed by a German immigrant, Rudolph Meyer. Moloka`i became famous for honey production, exporting large quantities of honey until World War I.

But Moloka`i became more famous as the island that leprosy patients were sent to by orders of Kamehameha V in 1865. The settlement at Kalaupapa became home to nearly 8,000 sufferers of this disease, who were apprehended and sent to this isolated peninsula of Moloka`i to die. In 1873, Father Damian, a Belgian missionary priest, arrived at Kalaupapa, and his ministry to the lepers there, and his death from the disease, brought world attention to the problem of leprosy and the plight of its victims.

Moloka`i offers a step back in time to a quieter Hawai`i, more like the 1950s than the new millennium. The rural, slow pace of the island allows for quiet reflection and developing ecotourism with camping, hiking, and outdoor activities at Moloka`i Ranch. Visitors come to enjoy the Moloka`i mule ride down the Kalaupapa trail to the national historical site of Father Damian's ministry. They can also hike through tropical rain forests or view ancient Hawaiian fishponds. Moloka`i remains a leader among the islands in "truck farming" of many diversified agricultural products, and its coffee products compare favorably in price and quality to the more famous Kona cousin.