Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hale Pa'i Printing Museum
All the way at the top of Lahainaluna Road on the grounds of Lahainaluna High School
(which is the oldest American high school west of the Rocky Mountains, having been
founded in 1831),
Hale Pa'i Printing Museum
(10am-4pm Mon.-Wed.) provides a phe-
nomenally informative view into the literary past of the Hawaiian Islands. If you're in-
volved in the education field or fancy yourself a historian, this is a must-stop venue for a
look at the history of Hawai'i's printed past.
In addition to the old printing press, there are a host of native Hawaiian artifacts. This
small, out-of-the-way museum in the parking lot of the island's oldest school is the best
learning experience you'll find on the island's West Side about the development of modern
Hawai'i.
FROM SUGAR TO COFFEE
The hills above Lahaina, once covered in flowing green sugarcane, have seen the
last of their harvest. Though the cane haul roads and irrigation ditches that divided
them are still in place, many of the fields themselves either now lay fallow or are
overrun with tall grass. Pioneer Mill-the company that had grown sugar in West
Maui since 1862 and employed more than 1,600 laborers at its peak-hasn't harves-
ted sugarcane since 1999 when it was forced to close due to mounting debt and
rising costs. Nevertheless, many are surprised to find it gone.
As with most things that die, however, something new will grow in its place.
Even though some of the land has gone toward development (Launiupoko), other
parts are now planted in a different crop that is surging in popularity: coffee.
Although coffee was first commercially grown in West Maui as early as 1988
(on land once used for sugar), the Ka'anapali Estate Coffee enterprise was forced
to close in 2002. MauiGrown Coffee (
www.mauigrowncoffee.com
) took over the
land and now plants over 350 acres of the caffeinated beans. The coffee farms are
on the hillside above Ka'anapali just past the Pu'ukoli'i sugar train station. Visitors
can take a self-guided drive through rows of the yellow catura, red catuai, typica,
and moka beans which are blended into fresh Maui coffee. MauiGrown Coffee's
commercial headquarters are-ironically enough-at the base of the old Pioneer Mill
Smokestack at the bottom of Lahainaluna Road.
Ka'anapali Coffee Farms isn't the only place you can find coffee in West
Maui. High on the slopes above Launiupoko Beach Park,
Piliani Kope Farm
