Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
funds from Utah, the only fly in Gibson's grand ointment occurred when the Mormon
Church discovered that the acres of Palawai were not registered to the church at all, but to
Gibson himself! He was excommunicated, and the bilked settlers relocated.
A few other business ventures proved uneconomical, and Lana'i languished. The last
big attempt at cattle raising produced the Lana'i Ranch (1874-1951), part of whose lands
make up the Cavendish Golf Course and the Lodge at Koele in Lana'i City. This enter-
prise did have one bright note in the New Zealander George Munro, who was hired as
ranch manager. He imported all manner of seeds and cuttings in his attempt to foliate the
island and create a watershed. Although the ranch eventually failed, Munro's legacy of
Cook pines stands as a testament to this amateur horticulturist.
In 1922 James D. Dole purchased much of Lana'i from the Baldwin family for $1.1 million
dollars at just $12 per acre. Dole had experienced success with canning pineapple on other
islands, and the expansive Palawai Basin seemed perfect for growing his business.
With pineapple well established on the world market, Lana'i finally had a firm econom-
ic base. From a few thousand fruits in the early days the flow at its peak reached a million
fruits per day. They were shipped from the port at Kaumalapau, which was specially built
in 1926 to accommodate Lana'i's “pines.”
At the industry's height, Lana'i had 18,000 acres of pineapples under cultivation, mak-
ing up the largest single pineapple plantation in the world. Virtually the entire island was
operated by the Dole Co., whose name had become synonymous with pineapples. In one
way or another, everyone on Lana'i owed his or her livelihood to pineapples, from the
worker who twisted his ankle in a field to the technician at the community hospital who
x-rayed it. As time wore on, however, the tiny island of Lana'i struggled to compete with
foreign operation (particularly those in the Philippines), and due to continual economic
hardship Dole Co. made the decision to cut its losses. In 1986 David Murdock—the CEO
of Castle & Cooke—acquired all of Dole's holdings on the island and started the transition
to luxury tourism.
While Murdock absorbed Dole's struggling pineapple operation on Lana'i, plans were put
into place to create a more sustainable economy. By the time that the last pineapple was
picked in 1992, the glitzy new Manele Bay Resort had been open for a year, with the
