Kalaupapa Molokai
The Kalaupapa National Historic Park is located at the base of the world's highest sea cliffs (rising close to 2,000 feet high) on the Kalaupapa Peninsula. The current site was once the isolated home to those afflicted with Hansen's disease, more commonly known as leprosy. The arrival of European settlers to the Hawaiian Islands also meant the arrival of western diseases not previously part of the Hawaiian culture. Leprosy was one of these diseases.
In 1865, king Kamehameha V was forced to isolate those suffering with the disease to this remote location as a national health crisis. Though the government sent food and supplies to the colonists, they did not have proper healthcare or spiritual guidance until the arrival of Father Damien in 1873. Father Damien worked to build better homes, schools, and a church. He eventually contracted the disease and considered himself lucky to suffer the same plight as many of his parishioners until his death in 1889. Though the government formally ended forced isolation for victims in 1969, many survivors still live at the site from which the disease has been fully eradicated.
In 2003, there were 40 survivor inhabitants with an average age of 75 and a fairly easy lifestyle resembling that of most retirees. Visitors to Molokai can take the authorized tours through the park and the surrounding landscape. One of these tours is the famous Kalaupapa Mule Trail in which you are transported by mule through the rugged landscape down the seaside cliffs to the Kalaupapa settlement.
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Molokai Hawaii
Kalaupapa Molokai
