Lānaʻi

Lānaʻi has a land area of 140.5 square miles (364 km²), making it the 43rd largest island in the United States. It is separated from the island of Molokaʻi by the Kalohi Channel to the north, and from Maui by the Auʻau Channel to the east. The United States Census Bureau defines Lānaʻi 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, Lānaʻi High and Elementary School, serving the entire island from kindergarten through 12th grade. There is also one hospital, Lanai Community Hospital, in Lānaʻi 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

Lānaʻi 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 Lānaʻi is of uncertain origin, but the island has historically been called Lānaʻi o Kauluāʻau, which can be rendered in English as "day of the conquest of Kauluāʻau". This epithet refers to a legend about a Mauian prince who was banished to Lānaʻi 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 Kauluāʻau 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 Molokaʻi, 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 Mōʻī of Maui controlled Lānaʻi, but generally left its inhabitants alone. But at some point, King Kamehameha I or Kalaniʻōpuʻu-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. Lānaʻi 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 Lānaʻi, 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 ahupuaʻa of Pālāwai. In 1862, Walter M. Gibson arrived on Lānaʻi to reorganize the settlement. A year later he bought the ahupuaʻa 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 Lānaʻi had declined to 200. In 1899, Gibson's daughter and son-in-law formed Maunalei Sugar Company, headquartered in Keomuku, on the windward (northeast) 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 Lānaʻi. 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 (equivalent to $6,911,000 in 2025).

In 1921, Gay planted the first pineapple plant on Lānaʻi. 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 (later the Dole Food Company), bought the island and developed much of it into the world's largest pineapple plantation.

Upon Hawaii statehood in 1959, Lānaʻi became part of Maui County.

In 1985, Lānaʻi 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 Lānaʻi 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 has been described as a contemporary American king on Lāna'i, which was his primary residence from 2020 to 2023. 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.