Hawaii’s former leprosy colony at Kalaupapa reopens, providing a uncommon glimpse into historical past

For the primary time in additional than 5 years, guests can now return to one in all America’s least-visited nationwide park websites in Hawaiʻi. Closed since March 2020, Kalaupapa National Historic Park is open once more, albeit underneath strict limitations, with the introduction of a brand-new tour that gives vacationers a uncommon glimpse into a robust, ongoing chapter of Hawaiian historical past. 

Even earlier than the pandemic closure, Kalaupapa was traditionally and statistically one of many least-visited nationwide park websites resulting from its distant location, issue and expense of entry, strict limitations on guests, and its distinctive state of affairs of housing “patients.”

When leprosy, also called Hansen’s disease, broke out on the Hawaiian Islands throughout the mid-1800s, everybody who contracted the illness—adults and youngsters alike—was despatched to Kalaupapa to reside in pressured isolation. Over the subsequent 100 years, greater than 8,000 folks would die there on Molokaʻi’s distant north coast, separated from their households. 

“Kalaupapa preserves the stories of those who lived in isolation after being diagnosed with Hansen’s disease,” says Nancy Holman, superintendent of Kalaupapa Park. “Today, the settlement remains home to a small number of cured patient-residents whose privacy is protected by restricting visitation to guided tours only.” 

Once a spot of exile and tragedy, the park and its resident sufferers hope the tour will encourage a renewed compassion and understanding because it enters the subsequent chapter in its historical past. 

A quick historical past of Kalaupapa

In the mid-1800s, leprosy started to unfold within the Hawaiian Islands. People didn’t know a lot concerning the illness on the time, however its contagious and often-disfiguring nature sparked vast public concern. In response, the Hawaiian authorities ordered all individuals who contracted leprosy into pressured isolation on the Kalaupapa Peninsula.  

Its geography made the peninsula the right place. The base of the 17-square-mile, comparatively flat peninsula juts out beneath 3,000-foot sea cliffs, that are among the many tallest on the planet, making it extraordinarily troublesome to entry. Or on this case, extraordinarily troublesome to flee. 

In 1865, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi’s Board of Health enacted The Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy. The Board started sending sufferers to Kalaupapa in 1866. Researchers didn’t develop efficient therapy strategies till after World War II. The strategy of pressured isolation at Kalaupapa didn’t finish till 1969, and by that point, greater than 100 years had handed, and roughly 8,000 folks, principally Native Hawaiians, had died there.

When the federal government ended pressured isolation in 1969, officers allowed sufferers to decide on whether or not to remain or go away, and plenty of—maybe surprisingly—selected to stay at Kalaupapa. But there have been good causes to remain. Some had lived there so lengthy, having been introduced as youngsters or younger adults, that it had develop into their house—in lots of circumstances, the one house they knew. Hansen’s illness carried a stigma together with it. Patients who left Kalaupapa had been certain to face challenges within the outdoors world. 

The deal was that any affected person who determined to remain would obtain help from the State of Hawaiʻi for the remainder of their lives, and so, many stayed. Today, six nonetheless name Kalaupapa house, ranging in age from 84 to 101 years previous. 

(Discover extra about this nationwide park that was as soon as an remoted quarantine zone.)

Tours resume underneath a novel state of affairs

Kalaupapa Peninsula grew to become a nationwide historic web site in 1980 with a mission to not solely protect the deep, darkish historical past of the place, however to help and share the tales of kindness and compassion of the individuals who lived, labored, and died there, together with historic figures like Father Damien, canonized as a saint for his work at Kalaupapa. 

Another key a part of the settlement with the Park Service is that it could help the remaining sufferers, medically and socially, and supply them the precise of first refusal to arrange any public excursions to Kalaupapa. This approach, the patients-residents can be assured their privateness and have full management over any industrial actions within the park.

It was for that reason—together with a few other logistical hurdles following the pandemic—that Kalaupapa remained closed for thus lengthy. Patients sponsored all earlier excursions, and the hope was that the custom would proceed. It took a while to get every part so as, however now, one of many remaining sufferers, Meli Watanuki, is aiming to provide the general public a contemporary perspective along with her new tour, the Kalaupapa Saints Tour, which launched in late September.

Brought to Kalaupapa when she was simply 18 years previous, Watanuki turned 91 in October 2025. She says having guests again to the settlement ensures that future generations know the entire story of Kalaupapa. As with many historic occasions, smaller tales of group, hope, compassion, and kindness usually emerge to counter the bigger tales of tragedy and wrongdoing.

“It warms my heart to see visitors walking in the footsteps of the saints and of so many who came before,” Watanuki says. “Kalaupapa has always been a place of love and faith, and it’s a blessing to share that spirit again.”

‘A golden cage’: A mixture of hope and tragedy on the tour

A go to to Kalaupapa could be a complicated expertise. Upon arrival, guests can’t ignore the great thing about the place—towering sea cliffs, stunning ocean views, a seemingly idyllic village, and a peaceable, calm ambiance. You might wish to transfer there, or at the least, take into account it as a “golden cage,” as I did on my first go to again in 2013.

The Kalaupapa Saints Tour goals to seize this dynamic by sharing each side of the story, the nice alongside the unhealthy. It visits key historic websites on the peninsula, which was as soon as a bustling group with greater than 200 buildings, full with houses, a theater, a bar, a grocery retailer, a gasoline station, an airport, cemeteries, a submit workplace, a jail, and a lighthouse. 

Interactions with the sufferers, together with Watanuki, are potential however situationally dependent (or not assured) resulting from their age and ongoing medical wants.

Currently, the tour originates on the Honolulu Airport on O’ahu. From there, after a briefing, visitors take a 30- to 45-minute flight over to Molokaʻi and land instantly on the Kalaupapa Peninsula for a full day of exploration, lasting greater than seven hours. Then, visitors take the return flight to Honolulu on the finish of the tour. 

As of this writing, solely eight folks per tour are permitted to go to Kalaupapa resulting from restricted transportation capability, flight availability, and the truth that solely a handful of excursions are supplied every month. Because of the restricted variety of airline seats to Molokaʻi (9 per flight), the restricted tour dates (solely 4 in December, for instance), the restricted on-ground transportation capability (most 16), and the truth that the tour originates on Oʻahu, the price is an eye-popping $625 per particular person. At this level, visiting Kalaupapa seems to be reserved for high-end vacationers, which hasn’t impacted demand, with sold-out excursions for the rest of 2025.

However, Randy King, founding father of Seawind Tours & Travel, the corporate working with Watanuki to assist execute the tour, says that 2026 tour dates shall be introduced quickly, hopefully with extra frequency. Tours will ultimately launch from Molokaʻi as nicely, which may doubtlessly cut back the value. When that occurs, visitors will be capable of fly to Kalaupapa from Kaunakakai Airport on “topside Molokaʻi” or the accessible space of the island, north of the ocean cliffs on the island’s northern coast.

For those that have visited Kaluapapa beforehand and are questioning, there aren’t any plans to restart the extra reasonably priced mountaineering or mule journey choices that when existed from topside Molokaʻi. Patient-residents who beforehand ran these excursions not supply them.

When and if excursions originating from Molokaʻi develop into obtainable once more, vacationers ought to full the expertise by visiting the Molokaʻi Museum to view its Kalaupapa assortment, which incorporates previous pictures and paperwork, in addition to the Kalaupapa Overlook that gives a sweeping, panoramic view of the peninsula from the highest of the ocean cliffs.  

Regardless of the place the tour begins, King recommends making ready your self for an energetic and emotional day.

“Your day in Kalaupapa will affect you,” says King. “There’s a lot of beauty, a lot of sorrow. Take it all in and imagine what it was like when a thousand people were living there, when they all worked together to create a wonderful place to live. Yes, people were banished there, but they found a way to work together, to make it home, and this is the story that inspires us today.”