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Maui Information
| Kalaupapa |
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Island of Molokai: Kalaupapa
Current Real Estate Stats
Long after the sea cliffs of the Pali Coast were formed, a tiny volcano, Kauhako Volcano, erupted out of the sea at their feet and spread lava into a flat, leaflike peninsula called Kalaupapa. This remote peninsula, in the middle of the northern coast, became a place of exile for those afflicted by Hansen's Disease (leprosy) in 1866, when King Lot established the colony at Kalawao. Lepers were removed from their homes and families, taken by ship to Molokai and tossed into the seas near the windy peninsula and forced to swim to shore where they were often set upon by the inmates who were already there.
It was a harsh start to a harsh exile. Sheer cliffs, rising 3,000 feet above sea level, separate the peninsula from the main island. Rough seas block access from the sea for much of the year. There was no shelter from the cold winds blowing in from the sea and very little humane treatment.
In 1873, Father Joseph Damien de Veuster, a Belgian Catholic priest, arrived and spent the next 16 years ministering and caring for the wretched quarantined lepers and fighting to help make their lives more bearable. The colony was moved to the western, more protected side of the peninsula, called Kalaupapa, during Damien's last days.
In 1889, at the age of 49, Father Damien himself died of leprosy. He was buried at the settlement. In 1937, his remains were exhumed and reburied at Louvain in Belgium where he had trained for the priesthood. In 1995, Damien was beatified by Pope John Paul II, who presented a reliquary containing the right hand of Damien to be interred at the original gravesite in Kalaupapa.
In the 1960s, about 100 years after the first shipload of Hansen's Disease patients were shoved off the sailing vessels into the cold water off Kalaupapa, the admission of new residents ended. The settlement is being phased out.
In 1980, Kalaupapa became a National Historical Park, with visitors stopping into the small settlement daily. They come down the switchback trail along the cliffs by mule or by small plane to the small airport that services the peninsula. A small one-room shack serves as the airport terminal at Kalaupapa.
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Information is believed to be accurate but should not be relied upon without verification.
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