Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
land be leased to them for 99 years. Making a go of these 40-acre (
kuleana
) parcels was so
difficult that successful homesteaders were called “Moloka'i Miracles.”
In 1923 Libby Corporation leased land from Moloka'i Ranch at Kaluakoi and went into
pineapple production. Del Monte followed suit in 1927 at Kualapu'u. Both built company
towns and imported Japanese and Filipino field laborers, swelling Moloka'i's population
and stabilizing the economy. Many of the native Hawaiians subleased their
kuleana
tracts
to the pineapple growers, and the Hawaiian Homes Act seemed to backfire. Instead of the
homesteaders' working their own farms, they were given monthly checks and lured into a
life of complacency. Those who grew little more than family plots became, in effect, per-
manent tenants on their own property. Much more important, they lost the psychological
advantage of controlling their own future and regaining their pride, as envisioned in the
Hawaiian Homes Act.
For the next 50 years life was quiet. The pineapples grew, providing security. Another large
ranch,
Pu'u O Hoku
(Hill of Stars) was formed on the eastern tip of the island. It was
originally owned by Paul Fagan, the San Francisco entrepreneur who later developed the
Hana Ranch on Maui. In 1955, Fagan sold Pu'u O Hoku to George Murphy, a Canadian
industrialist, for a meager $300,000. The ranch, under Murphy, became famous for beau-
tiful white Charolais cattle, a breed originating in France.
