Moloka'i - Hawaii - page 816

KALAUPAPA NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK
The spectacularly beautiful Kalaupapa Pen-insula is the most remote part of Hawaii's
most remote island. The only way to reach this lush green peninsula edged with long,
white-sand beaches is on a twisting trail down the steep pali, the world's highest sea
cliffs, or by plane. This remoteness is the reason it was, for more than a century, where
leprosy patients were forced into isolation. From its inception until separation ended in
1969, 8000 patients were forced to come to Kalaupapa. Less than a dozen patients (re-
spectively called 'residents') remain. They have chosen to stay in the only home they
have ever known and have resisted efforts to move them away. The peninsula has been
designated a national historical park and is managed by the Hawaii Department of Health
and the National Park Service ( www.nps.gov/kala ) .
State laws dating back to when the settlement was a quarantine zone require all who
enter the settlement to have a 'permit' and to be accompanied at all times by a guide. The
laws are no longer necessary for health reasons but they continue to be enforced in order
to protect the privacy of the residents. You can secure a permit through Damien Tours
( Click here ) or Molokai Mule Ride ( Click here ). Because the exiled patients were not al-
lowed to keep children if they had them, the residents made a rule that no one under the
age of 16 is allowed in the settlement - this is strictly enforced, as are the permit require-
ments. Only guests of Kalaupapa residents are allowed to stay overnight.
The guided tour is Molokaʻi's most well-known attraction but, interesting as it is, the
tour itself is not the highlight: this is one case where getting there truly is half the fun.
Riding a mule or hiking down the steep trail, winding through lush green tropical forest,
catching glimpses of the sea far below, is unforgettable.
MOLOKAʻI'S SAINTS
Moloka'i was a key locale for two of the US's first saints in the Roman Catholic
Church.
On October 11, 2009, Molokaʻi (and the US) got its first saint. The story of
Joseph de Veuster (better known as Father Damien ), the Belgian priest who sacri-
ficed everything to care for leprosy patients, has been the subject of many books
and TV movies, few of which rise above the treacly clichés inherent in such a story.
And yet Father Damien's story, once learned, makes the honor of sainthood seem
like the bare minimum he deserves.
In 1873 the famously strong-willed priest traveled, at age 33, to the Kalaupapa
Pen-insula, the leprosy settlement he'd heard called 'the living tomb.' Once on this
remote place of exile he found scores of people who'd been dumped ashore by a