Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hayselden chose Keomoku as the site for his Maunalei Sugar Company in 1899, however,
the island's population had dwindled to fewer than 200. Lacking an ample labor force to
run his sugar operation, Hayselden set about importing laborers from Japan, and within a
year the population of Keomoku had surged to as high as 800 people. Keomoku, it would
seem, had become Lana'i's “capital.” Water was routed from Maunalei Valley, a locomot-
ive was installed to move cargo, and Keomoku bustled like any other Hawaiian plantation
town. The problem, however, is that the water around it soon turned brackish and the sup-
ply at Maunalei quickly dried up. In what is known as one of the state's shortest sugar ven-
tures, the Maunalei Sugar Company closed in 1901 after only two years in operation. Nat-
ive Hawaiians living in the area attribute the company's demise to the fact that the stones
from ancient
heiau
were used in constructing the plantation. This, it would seem, did not
sit well with Hawaiian deities.
With the laborers needing to find work elsewhere, the island's population again
plummeted to 125, with the majority still choosing to live at Keomoku. With the purchase
of the island by James Dole, however, many of Keomoku's residents would move into the
uplands of newly constructed Lana'i City and leave the shoreline of Keomoku behind. In
1951, the last resident of Keomoku—Daniel Kaopuiki—begrudgingly moved his family
into the uplands, and Keomoku, once the pulse of the island of Lana'i, was officially aban-
doned.
Keomoku remains almost abandoned to this day. Driving the sandy four-wheel-drive
road through the former plantation town is like taking a tour through Lana'i's ancient his-
tory. Simple beachfront fishing shacks dot the sandy road, their yards ringed with fish-
ing nets and the memories of years passed. The number one attraction in Keomoku is
Ka
Lanakila Church,
5.5 miles from where the pavement ends on Kemoku Highway. The
hauntingly beautiful wooden structure constructed in 1903 to house a Hawaiian-speaking
congregation. Abandoned for years, the church is currently in the process of being re-
stored, and special sermons are still conducted in Hawaiian intermittently throughout the
year. A small shrine 1.5 miles past the church honors the Japanese field laborers who died
on Lana'i in the few short years of the sugar plantation's existence, and a half mile bey-
ond the shrine is the abandoned pier at Kahalepalaoa which offers good fishing, sweeping
views of neighboring Maui.
