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The Honoapiilani Highway (Hwy 30) which runs along the east side of the West Maui Mountains passes through the town of Waikapu, just a couple of miles south of Wailuku. The town has two private golf courses sitting above its pineapple fields, but the heart of the area remains mostly rural.


Also at Waikapu is the Maui Tropical Plantation, a tourist attraction that features a narrated tram ride past fields of sugar cane, pineapple and tropical fruit trees as well as a nursery, some very simple agricultural exhibits and a shop.

Waikapu was once the site for one of the earlier sugar plantations on the island. Waikapu Plantation was started by James Louzada and his brother-in-law Wlliam H. Cornwell in the 1860's. A mill was erected at the entrance to Waikapu valley. The Waikapu Plantation changed hands a number of times, finally passing into the control of the Wailuku Sugar Company in 1894. Wailuku Sugar eventually evolved, in the 1980's, into Wailuku Agribusiness.

There is one other interesting sidelight. For many years the sugar plantations had tried to get European workers to come to Maui and work on the plantations. Most of these men were skilled workers and they did not stay in the harshness of plantation worker camp life for very long. Their skills were so valuable, many opportunities opened up for them and they moved away.

In 1909 and 1910, workers from Russia were brought from Poltava, Kiev and Volga to work in the plantations at Waikapu, Spreckelsville and Lahaina as well as with the Kahului Railroad Company. Like most Europeans before them, the majority emigrated to Honolulu or to the Mainland shortly afterwards. Within ten years, almost no Russians remained on Maui.