Today’s article will discuss the Hawaiian island of Lanai, the “Pineapple Isle”. This island has been handed off to multiple countries which each country & new leader changing its direction. Lanai’s history over the last few centuries was widely dictated by the Kingdom of Hawaii & the United States of America. Lanai has server many purposes which will all be delved into in this article. Lanai is an island with 1 municipality approximately 7.68 nautical miles (8.837986 miles or 14.223359741 kilometers) from the closest Hawaiian island of Maui. Lanai has 3,367 inhabitants. In this article we will discuss the discovery & documented history of Lanai, Lanai’s Aboriginals, the disaster history, & a segment on Lanai’s economy. Lanai has many hidden secrets & hidden treasures that are often discarded due to its perceived irrelevancy. With that being said, let us delve into the history behind the Pineapple Isle.
The Discovery & Documented History Before & After Colonization Of The Hawaiian Island Of Lanai (Not All Of The Hawaiian Islands)
Before American Colonization
Polynesian voyagers made their way to Lanai from the Marquesas Islands. These people were not identified. They did this approximately 2,000 years ago which sets the date at 23 AD / CE. After their venture into the territory many of them began settlement building on the Hawaiian Islands, and their population expanded. They largely began to stay away from the island known as the “glowing land mass of Lanai”. This area would remain unexplored for thousands of years. Lanai was largely unclaimed for it was thought to be the molten home of evil spirits. However, once some relative order came over & the Hawaiian islands, Lanai was largely used as an area to where the kingdoms based on the larger islands would banish prisoners. The prisoners all mostly were killed or permanently exiled to Lanai. However, one day as its told Chief Kaululuaau’s son committed a crime that demanded the highest form of sentencing. Pleas for mercy were heard & Kaululuaau’s son, Kauluaau was exiled to Lanai with a mandate to exterminate the island’s alleged evil inhabitants. Though the natives believed that Kauluaau would never be able to survive on the island, they were completely wrong. Every night, a bright flame of Kauluaau's fire could be seen burning bright along the shores of Lanai, proving that he could brave the island, survive, & remove all the evil spirits that inhabited Lanai. Above all odds the son achieved his goal by sending the alleged vile & evil spirits to island of Kahoolawe. Once he returned home he was known as a hero touting the beauty of the island paradise. With the island finally being rid of these supposed spirits the island gained its forest inhabitants around approximately 1500 A.D. These people built a village known as Kaunolu village. However these people weren’t well known, & fell into relative obscurity for many years. This was most likely due to the fact that Lanai had such a small number of inhabitants. However, The great king Kamehameha I, built his summer home here & would make frequent trips to partake in excellent fishing. It is also important to note, During his journey in uniting the Hawaiian islands he murdered most of the inhabitants of Lanai with weapons from the europeans. In fact, he murdered so many of them that in 1792 it was noted from Captain George Vancouver that Lanai lacked any settlement & as void of life. A time jump to 1854 reveals a small mormon group of missionaries from Utah attempted to form a colony on Lanai. They did this a few miles from Manele landing in the uplands of Palawai & established the colony called “The City Of Joseph”. In July of 1862, Walter Murray Gibson, then head of the Mormon settlement “The City Of Joseph” at Palawai, wrote to the King of the kingdom of Hawaii, King Kamehameha IV asking for support of the Lanai settlement. It is not clear whether the king thought in favourably of this of not. In 1873, Walter Murray Gibson penned an article in Nu Hou, a local Hawaiian newspaper, telling readers of the voyage to Lana’i and landing at Manele. He described their journey on horseback up to the Palawai Basin. After that it was primarily used for cattle grazing. After this point not much else went on with Lanai up until The 20th century.
After American Colonization
In 1922, 98% of Lanai was purchased by the dole corporation & those areas were used for a pineapple plantation. Out of this came Lanai city which the dole corporation built to house the pineapple plantations employees. At one point it was the largest pineapple plantation in all of the United States. Another thing that came out of the pineapple plantation, is the Manele beach resort. Manele used to be the beach resort for employees of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. In 1961 Castle & Cooke, Inc. merged with the dole corporation. After merging with Dole, Castle & Cooke took over the management of the holdings in Lanai and, with 98 percent ownership of the island, established luxury resorts, golf courses, residences, & many other commercial establishments. Unfortunately, in 1972 the pineapple plantation was officially closed due to rising cost of labor in Hawaii, cheaper pineapples being distributed by central America, & the cost of shipping the pineapples. The last commercial pineapple was harvested in October of 1992. After that Lanai mainly shifted to tourism as its main industry. Ij the year of 2012 The co-founder & CEO of Oracle Corporation Larry Ellison purchased the 98% of the island from the Dole Corporation. The actual price he purchased it for has never been confirmed at the time of publishing, however it is estimated at 300 million USD. At the time of the purchase Ellison announced his plans to invest up to 500,000 USD in improving Lanai’s infrastructure and creating an environmentally friendly and sustainable agriculture industry.
The Aboriginals Of Lanai
Lanai was uninhabited & was colonized much time after the rest of the Hawaiian islands. Lanai did not have any aboriginals or natives as the Hawaiians believed that the island had evil spirits as inhabitants until the 16th century. The Polynesians Did not want much to do with Lanai before that so that is why Lanai does not have any Aboriginals or Natives.
The Most Destructive Natural & Man-Made Disasters Of Lanai
No. 1 The LNY Plane Crash
On February 26th 2014 at approximately 9:28 A charted double engine Piper PA-31 Navajo aircraft operated by the airline of Maui Air crashed after takeoff from LNY one mile away. The plane was carrying a pilot and five employees of Maui County. The pilot and two passengers were killed, while the other three passengers were injured. The total fatalities count was 3. This was the only aircraft accident associated with LNY as of publishing.
No. 2 Hurricane Dot
Hurricane Dot was a category 4 hurricane that hit the Hawaiian isles on August 1st 1959. It formed as a tropical storm just off the western coast of Baja California. It was costliest hurricane at the time to affect the Hawaiian islands. It produced extremely heavy rainfall & swift winds. The highest wind sustained was 150 miles per hour. It affected all of the islands. It caused 2 direct fatalities & caused 6 million USD in damages. Calculated for inflation that would be 61,197,525.77 USD.
Lanai’s Economy & Real Estate Issues
There is not much to say about Lanai’s economy as it is incredibly small & does not export very much at all. They survive mostly off of tourism as that is one of their only current industries. The real estate on Lanai is incredibly expensive as their is very few housing options. The unemployment rate of Lanai is 12.2 percent. Their median income is rather low, standing at 23,078 USD. The median household income currently is at 53,482 USD.
The Prehistoric History Of The Hawaiian Island Of Lanai
Millions of years ago, the tectonic plates and volcanoes of the Pacific Ring formed what is today known as the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaiian Islands were formed by one of the most active geological “hot spots” on earth. A geological “hot spot” is a stationary reservoir that produces large amounts of magma. As the magma is pushed through the earth's surface and into the waters of the oceans, the magma cools and solidifies. The hot spots continue to produce magma, which is pushed upwards, forming underwater mountains that can break the surface of the water to create islands. Although these hot spots are stationary, the earth's crust sits on moving tectonic plates that shift & rotate. The Hawaiian Islands are located on the Pacific tectonic plate. As the Pacific Plate shifted and rotated, the stationary hot spot continued to push magma through the crust, eventually creating each of the Hawaiian Islands.
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