Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement and National Historical Park | |
.jpg) Kalaupapa National Historical Park, April 28-30, 2015 | |
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| Location | Kalaupapa,Molokaʻi,Hawaiʻi, US |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 21°10′40″N156°57′36″W / 21.17778°N 156.96000°W /21.17778; -156.96000 |
| Area | 10,779 acres (4,362 ha) |
| Built | 1866 |
| Architect | Board of Health, Hawaii |
| Visitation | 30,774 (2024)[2] |
| Website | Kalaupapa National Historical Park |
| NRHP reference No. | 76002145[1] |
| HRHP No. | 50-60-03-01024[3] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | January 7, 1976 |
| Designated NHLD | January 7, 1976[4] |
| Designated NHP | December 22, 1980 |
| Designated HRHP | January 7, 1976 |
Kalaupapa National Historical Park is aUnited StatesNational Historical Park located inKalaupapa, Hawaiʻi, on theisland ofMolokaʻi. Nearly coterminous with the boundaries ofKalawao County,[5] and primarily on Kalaupapa peninsula, it was established by Congress in 1980 to expand upon the earlierNational Historic Landmark site of theKalaupapa Leper Settlement. It is administered by theNational Park Service.[6][7] Its goal is to preserve the cultural and physical settings of the twoleper colonies on the island of Molokaʻi, which operated from 1866 to 1969 and had a total of 8500 residents over the decades.
The only way for the general public to visit the settlement is by booking a guided tour. Tours were suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but resumed in September 2025 after the selection of a new tour operator. Current tours include a round-trip flight from Honolulu, and require a reservation.[8] The Kalaupapa Trail also provides access to the settlement, but it currently cannot be used by the general public due to trailhead access issues.[9] The Peninsula Overlook, situated high above the settlement withinPalaʻau State Park, is currently the only other publicly accessible part of the park
More than 7300 people live on the remainder of the island, which was a site of cattle ranching and pineapple production for decades. Much of these lands were purchased and controlled by the owners and developers of Molokai Ranch. This part of the island is also a tourist destination.
Archeological evidence has revealed human habitation by indigenous peoples for more than 900 years before European contact. The peninsula has house sites, cultivated taro fields and irrigation systems, stone walls, and temples (heiau), all constructed by ancient residents. "Historical accounts from the early to mid-1800s speak of populations of 1,000 to 2,700 people living on the peninsula, in the valleys, and in the villages" but by 1853, there were only about 140 people remaining after epidemics of Eurasian diseases.[10]
In 1865 theKingdom legislature passed a law to try to prevent transmission ofleprosy, now known as Hansen's disease after the scientist who discovered the bacterium. The disease had been introduced to the islands about 1830 by foreign workers. At the time it was incurable. Sugar planters had brought pressure on the government as they were worried about the labor supply.[11]
The government arranged forNative Hawaiian inhabitants to be removed from the Kalaupapa to prepare for its development as an isolation settlement for persons with severe leprosy. This cut off the island people's cultural ties and associations with the ʻāina (land), which had been established for centuries.[10]
Bringing patients to theisolation settlements, first atKalawao and then atKalaupapa, led to broader dislocations across Hawaiian society. In the long term many families were affected and some divided when a member contracted leprosy. The governments of the Kingdom, and subsequently, theTerritory and State of Hawaiʻi tried to controlleprosy (also known as Hansen's disease), a much feared illness, by relocating patients with severe symptoms to the isolated peninsula. Other patients were treated in quarantine at facilities on the main islands; but families were still broken up in the process.[citation needed]
The first settlement was started on the windward side at Kalawao, followed by one at Kalaupapa. In 1890 a total of 1100 persons with leprosy were living here, the peak of resident population. In those years, they generally had to leave family behind on other islands. The effects of both the broken connections with the ʻāina and of family members "lost" to Kalaupapa are still felt in Hawaiʻi today.[10]
The settlements were administered by the Board of Health, with local financial control held by Rudolph Meyer, a German immigrant who worked for the Molokaʻi Ranch and lived on the island. Local supervision for decades was by superintendents of Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian ancestry, some appointed from among the patients or family members with persons with leprosy.[12]
Belgian missionary priests from theCongregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary were among those who cared for persons with leprosy on Molokaʻi. The most well-known was Belgian-bornFather Damien, who served there from 1873 to his death in 1889. For his charity he wascanonized by the Roman Catholic Church as asaint in 2009, the 10th person recognized in what is now the United States. Among other missionaries and caregivers, wasMother Marianne Cope, a nun and administrator of St. Joseph's Hospital inSyracuse, New York. As the General Minister of theSisters of St. Francis of Syracuse, she brought six sisters with her to the islands to aid in the care of persons with leprosy and develop the medical facilities.[13] Mother Marianne and sisters of her community developed hospitals, homes and schools on the islands of Oʻahu and Maui from 1883 to 1888, at which time they traveled to Kalaupapa where she lived and worked there until her death in 1918. In 2012 she was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.[13] Also serving in the colony was BrotherJoseph Dutton, who went to Molokaʻi in 1886 to aid the dying Father Damien.
The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts continued to have brothers who devoted their lives to work on Molokaʻi and assist the residents. From the late 20th century, recent figures includedHenri Systermans and Fr. Joseph Hendricks, whose death in November 2008[14] marked the end of this 140-year-old tradition. Since St. Marianne arrived in 1888, sixty-five Sisters of St. Francis have maintained a continuous presence in the settlement.[15] There aretwo Sisters currently residing at the Bishop Home, established by Mother Marianne in 1888 as the Charles R. Bishop Home for Unprotected Leper Girls and Women[16] to care for those she deemed the most vulnerable of the population.
Hansen's disease, found in 1873 to be caused by a bacterium, has been curable since the 1940s with the use of modernantibiotics. There are no active cases of Hansen's disease among residents of the Kalaupapa settlement or on the island of Molokaʻi. After the management of the settlement was turned over to the National Park Service, residents of the former colony were allowed to stay if they chose to do so. They and their descendant families who wish to continue to live in the neighborhood of housing maintained on the peninsula.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park, established in 1980, preserves the physical settings of the historic Hansen's disease settlements ofKalawao andKalaupapa. The community of Kalaupapa, on the leeward side of Kalaupapa Peninsula, is still home for a few elderly surviving former Hansen's disease patients. Some were disfigured by the disease before being cured and wanted to continue refuge here. They have shared their memories and experiences of their ordeals and of life on the island.[citation needed]
Surviving structures at Kalawao, on the windward side of the peninsula, are the Protestant church ofSiloama, established in 1866, andSaint Philomena Catholic Church, which is associated with the work of St. Father Damien.
Islands, municipalities, and communities ofKalawao County, Hawaii,United States | ||
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| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
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