The Story of Palawai Basin

From crater to cattle ranch, sweet potato to pineapple, the Palawai Basin has always played an integral role in sustaining life on Lana`i.

Ask your Lana`i neighbor to describe Palawai, and he might say, "Well, it's that place you drive through to get from Koele to Manele."

The Palawai Basin is indeed a main thoroughfare for island life. The pine-lined ribbon of Highway 440 meanders through the lush, green bowl that extends from one horizon to the other. Ironwoods and buffalo grass bend in the wind, and cattle graze among fields of oat hay.

But Lana`i naturalist Darrell Stokes prefers to dig a little deeper into the past to describe Palawai. In fact, he says that throughout its varied history, the fertile area has always been an integral part of sustaining life on the island.

"Palawai Basin was one of the major volcanic craters that formed the island of Lana`i," Stokes says. A remnant of an ancient caldera not entirely filled by lava flows, the basin has a tilt that causes drainage to flow inward, rather than toward the ocean.

Author Ruth Tabrah describes Palawai as "the rich, hidden interior treasure of Lana`i." Indeed, history is still written in the rocks around the basin. Ancient Lana`ians inscribed human and animal figures on boulders dotting the lower slopes of the ridge that descends into the basin.

In ancient times, Palawai's volcanic soil was a fertile area for growing Hawaiian sweet potatoes. Dry land taro also grew in some of the valleys.

"The Palawai was also known to have held water in the form of a lake that was one of the best sources of drinking water in its time," Stokes says. Unfortunately, that water source was later destroyed by a rampant population of goats and sheep.

Archeologist Kenneth Emory wrote: "In the days before sheep, goats, cattle and horses were grazing on the plateau lands, dew could be collected from the thick shrubbery by whipping the moisture into large bowls or squeezing the dripping bush-tops into the vessels ... Water accumulating in natural depressions in rock or in cup marks was husbanded carefully."

But in the 1700's, hungry sailors dropped off goats and sheep on Lana`i in the hopes of creating a future source of meat for their return journey. Their wish was fulfilled many times over. By the late 1800's, the animals had multiplied to the point where they were destroying much of the otherwise untouched native forest of Lana`i.

"That includes the Akoko forest once located in the Palawai Basin, which at the time was probably the largest of its kind in the state," Stokes says. "The goats and sheep also destroyed up to 75 percent of the island's only watershed, also known as Lana`ihale, which is our one and only singular mountain that serves as the main source of our island's water replenishment."

When a congregation of Mormons came to Lana`i to survey the land in the 1850's, Elder Francis A. Hammond recorded in his journal: " ...We came to a beautiful basin of about two miles in width, gradually descending to the center and shut out entirely and secluded from the view of the sea ...It was a splendid piece of land and seemed to be well adapted for a gathering place so far as quantity of soil and situation is concerned."

However, the issue of Palawai's water supply was more troublesome to Elder Hammond. "... We found no running water, but only a few holes which were kept supplied by the oozing of the water through the soil and porous rock that composed the side of the mountain," he wrote. "This was the only water upon which the basin depended, and the prospect of supplying the wants of a community from such a source were very poor indeed."

Despite these fears, Hawaii's first Mormon settlement was built there in the mid-1800's. But after several years, the environment proved too harsh for the settlers, and the area was turned over to cattle ranching. The basin became home to a handful of paniolos traversing its miles on horseback, along with 40,000 head of cattle that roamed the island and grazed in the basin.

Little was done to protect the land, until in the early 1900's, the family of Charles Gay initiated programs to preserve the environment. When George Munro became ranch manager in 1920, he took the island's future even more to heart. Through his efforts, the wild goats, sheep and pigs that were ruining the natural vegetation were rounded up and destroyed.

For close to 30 years, Munro worked to replant and re-forest the barren land, erecting windbreaks and fencing for protection against animals and the elements. To halt erosion, Munro planted many non-native species, most notably the Cook Island Pines. Sadly, the native forests never returned, but Munro was still able to save the island from "pretty much eroding away to nothing by wind and rain," according to Stokes.

Then, in 1922, James Dole saw promise in the volcanic soil of Palawai and set out to cultivate the area for pineapple. The Palawai Basin soon became a sea of spiky silver-green plants-at 15,000 acres, the largest pineapple plantation in the world. But time moved on, and rising labor and shipping costs eventually halted production in 1994.

Since the reign of pineapple ended, Palawai has enjoyed a quieter period, a return to its natural beauty of red earth and wild vegetation. Evolution has left its mark in the lack of native forests, but the friendly spires of Munro's Cook Pines add a new beauty to the basin. According to Stokes, the pines serve the island well, "not only in holding the soil together, but in capturing the fog drip on Lana`ihale, which significantly contributes to the replenishment of the water supply."

For the moment, Palawai will play the role of passageway between beach and mountain, a peaceful place of grazing cattle and open sky. But plans for Palawai's next evolution are already underway.

It's just one more stage in the basin's colorful history, its next role as an intrinsic player in island life.