Lānaʻi

Lānai, sometimes written Lanai, is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. It is colloquially known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple plantation. The island's only settlement of note is the small town of Lānai City. The island is 98% owned by Larry Ellison, cofounder and chairman of Oracle Corporation; the remaining 2% is owned by the state of Hawaii or individual homeowners.
Lānai has a land area of, making it the 43rd largest island in the United States. It is separated from the island of Molokai by the Kalohi Channel to the north, and from Maui by the Auau Channel to the east. The United States Census Bureau defines Lānai as Census Tract 316 of Maui County. Its population rose to 3,367 as of the 2020 United States census, from 3,193 as of the 2000 census and 3,131 as of the 2010 census. As visible via satellite imagery, many of the island's landmarks are accessible only by dirt roads that require a four-wheel drive vehicle.
There is one school, Lānai High and Elementary School, serving the entire island from kindergarten through 12th grade. There is also one hospital, Lanai Community Hospital, in Lānai City, with 24 beds, and a community health center providing primary care, dental care, behavioral health care, and selected specialty services. There are no traffic lights.

History

Lānai has been under the control of nearby Maui since before recorded history. Its first inhabitants may have arrived as late as the 15th century.
The Hawaiian-language name Lāna is of uncertain origin, but the island has historically been called Lāna, which can be rendered in English as "day of the conquest of Kauluāau". This epithet refers to a legend about a Mauian prince who was banished to Lānai because of his wild pranks at his father's court in Lāhainā. The island was said to be haunted by Akua-ino, ghosts and goblins that Kauluāau chased away, bringing peace and order to the island and regaining his father's favor as a consequence.
The first people to migrate there, most likely from Maui and Molokai, probably first established fishing villages along the coast and then spread into the interior, where they raised taro in the fertile volcanic soil. During most of this period, the Mōī of Maui controlled Lānai, but generally left its inhabitants alone. But at some point, King Kamehameha I or Kalaniōpuu-a-Kaiamamao invaded and killed many of them. The population must have been mostly eradicated by 1792, because in that year George Vancouver reported that he had ignored the island during his voyage because of its apparent lack of inhabitants or villages. Lānai is said to have been Kamehameha's favorite fishing spot among Hawaii's main eight islands.
The history of sugar cultivation in Hawaii begins in Lānai, when in 1802 a farmer from China, Wong Tse Chun, produced a small amount there. He used a crude stone mill he had brought with him to crush the cane.
In 1854, a group of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were granted a lease in the ahupuaa of Pālāwai. In 1862, Walter M. Gibson arrived on Lānai to reorganize the settlement. A year later he bought the ahupuaa of Pālāwai for $3,000; he used the church's money but titled the land in his name. When church members learned this, they excommunicated him, but he retained ownership of the land. By the 1870s, Gibson, then the leader of the colony on the island, had acquired most of the island's land, which he used for ranching.
By 1890, the population of Lānai had declined to 200. In 1899, Gibson's daughter and son-in-law formed Maunalei Sugar Company, headquartered in Keomuku, on the windward coast, downstream from Maunalei Valley. The company failed in 1901. But between 1899 and 1901 nearly 800 laborers, mostly from Japan, had been contracted to work for the plantations. Many Native Hawaiians continued to live along the less arid windward coast, supporting themselves by ranching and fishing.
By 1907, about half the island was owned by cattle rancher Charles Gay. Backed by sugar planter William G. Irwin, Gay worked to acquire the remaining land. The Hawaiian Organic Act made it illegal for the territorial government to sell such a large portion of land to Gay, but a land exchange deal circumvented the law. Gay transferred several acres of land of what is now downtown Honolulu in exchange for the rest of the land on Lānai. The transfer was completed on April 10, 1907, and Gay mortgaged the land that day to Irwin for $200,000. By 1909, Gay had defaulted on the mortgage and officially conveyed the land to Irwin for a rebuttable presumption of consideration of $1. From this comes the myth that the land was bought for a mere $1; the true cost included the $200,000 mortgage.
In 1921, Gay planted the first pineapple plant on Lānai. The population had decreased again, to 150—most of whom were the descendants of the island's traditional families. A year later, James Dole, the president of Hawaiian Pineapple Company, bought the island and developed much of it into the world's largest pineapple plantation.
Upon Hawaii statehood in 1959, Lānai became part of Maui County.
In 1985, Lānai passed into the control of David H. Murdock upon his purchase of Castle & Cooke, then the owner of Dole. High labor and land costs led to a decline in Hawaii pineapple production in the 1980s, and Dole phased out its pineapple operations on Lānai in 1992.
In June 2012, Larry Ellison, then CEO of Oracle Corporation, purchased Castle & Cooke's 98% share of the island for $300 million. The state and individual homeowners own the remaining 2%, which includes the harbor and the homes where the 3,000 inhabitants live. Ellison stated his intention to invest as much as $500 million to improve the island's infrastructure and create an environmentally friendly agricultural industry. He spent an estimated $450 million to remodel his Four Seasons Resort Lanai, which reopened in 2016. He also remodeled his other resort in 2020 and announced plans for further green energy projects by buying out diesel-powered utility assets, but he has since canceled this plan.
Ellison is rich and influential and has been described as a contemporary American king on Lāna'i. A provision in his rental agreement stipulates that anyone who loses a job with his company may also be evicted from their home, and many people both work for and rent from him; additionally, small enterprises' lease agreements, which could be as high as five-years previously, are now usually thirty days. According to Lānai's representative on the regional Maui County Council, Gabe Johnson, the government has limited authority over public infrastructure.

Legends

According to Hawaiian legends, man-eating spirits have occupied the island. For generations, Maui chiefs believed in these spirits. Differing legends say that either the prophet Lanikāula drove the spirits from the island or the unruly Maui prince Kauluāau accomplished that feat. The more popular myth is that the mischievous Kauluāau pulled up every breadfruit tree he could find on Maui. Finally his father, Kakaalaneo, banished him to Lānai, expecting him not to survive in that hostile place. But Kauluāau outwitted the spirits and drove them from the island. The chief looked across the channel from Maui and saw that his son's fire continued to burn nightly on the shore, and he sent a canoe to Lānai to bring the prince back, redeemed by his courage and cleverness. As a reward, Kakaalaneo gave Kauluāau control of the island and encouraged emigration from other islands. Kauluāau had, in the meantime, pulled up all the breadfruit trees on Lānai, accounting for the historic lack of them on that island.

Geography

The highest point in Lānai is Mount Lānaihale. It is an inactive volcano near the center of the island and east of Lānai City. Its elevation is.
Lānai was traditionally administered in 13 political subdivisions, grouped into two districts : kona and koolau. The ahupuaa are listed below, in clockwise sequence, and with original area figures in acres, starting in the northwest of the island.

Nr.	Ahupuaa	Area acres	Area km²	Population
1	Kaā	19468	78.78	207
2	Paomai	9078	36.74	147
3	Mahana	7973	32.27	1
4	Maunalei	3794	15.35	0
5	Kalulu	6078	24.60	1
6	Kaunolū	7860	31.81	3
7	Pālāwai	5897	23.86	1
8	Pāwili	1930	7.81	0
9	Kaōhai	9677	39.16	1
10	Kamao	2751	11.13	2
11	Keālia Aupuni	5897	23.86	2
12	Keālia Kapu	1829	7.40	1
13	Kamoku	8291	33.55	2804
	Lānai	90523	366.33	3170

Kamoku has the largest population because it contains most of Lānai City. Parts of Lānai City stretch to Kaā and Paomai., the remaining ahupuaa were virtually uninhabited. According to the 2020 census, Lānai City accounts for 99% of the island's population. As a census-designated place, Lānai City is defined solely for statistical purposes, not by administrative boundaries.
A giant wave generated by a submarine landslide on a sea scarp south of Lānai 100,000 years ago generated a megatsunami that inundated land to elevations higher than.