Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The island (11 miles long and 6 miles wide) and its surrounding waters are now a
reserve that is off-limits to the general public because of the unexploded ordnance
that remains on land and in the sea.
Pathway to Tahiti
The channel between Lanaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, as well as the westernmost point of
Kahoʻolawe itself, is named Kealaikahiki, meaning ʻpathway to Tahiti.' When early
Polynesian voyagers made the journey between Hawaii and Tahiti, they lined up
their canoes at this departure point.
However, Kahoʻolawe was much more than an early navigational tool. Over 540
archaeological and cultural sites have been identified. They include several heiau
(stone temples) andkuʻula(fishing shrines) dedicated to the gods of fishers. Puʻu-
moiwi, a large cinder cone in the center of the island, contains one of Hawaii's
largest ancient adze quarries.
A Penal Colony
In 1829, Kaʻahumanu, the Hawaiian prime minister, put forth an edict to banish
Catholics to Kahoʻolawe. Beginning in 1830, Kaulana Bay, on the island's northern
side, served as a penal colony for men accused of such crimes as rebellion, theft,
divorce, murder and prostitution. History does not say if Catholics were included,
and the penal colony was shut down in 1853.
Into the Dust Bowl
Kahoʻolawe, now nearly barren, was once a lush, forested island.
The territorial Hawaiian government leased the entire island to ranchers in 1858.
None were successful, and sheep, goats and cattle were left to run wild. By the
early 1900s, tens of thousands of sheep and goats had denuded most of the is-
land, turning it into an eroded dusty wasteland (even today, Kahoʻolawe looks hazy
from dust when seen from Maui).
From 1918 to 1941, Angus MacPhee ran Kahoʻolawe's most successful ranching
operation. Granted a lease on the grounds to get rid of the goats, MacPhee roun-
ded up and sold 13,000 goats, and then built a fence across the width of the entire
island to keep the remaining goats at one end. He planted grasses and ground cov-
er and started raising cattle. It wasn't easy, but MacPhee, unlike his predecessors,
was able to turn a profit.
Target Practice
The US military had long felt that Kahoʻolawe had strategic importance. In early
1941, it subleased part of the island from MacPhee for bombing practice. Following
the Pearl Harbor attack (December 7, 1941), the military took control of
Kahoʻolawe entirely. Until the war's end, it used the island to practice for invasions
