Kalaupapa, Hawaii - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Kalaupapa is a small unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

on the island

Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...

of Molokai

Molokai

Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...

in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

of Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, within Kalawao County

Kalawao County, Hawaii

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 147 people, 115 households, and 21 families residing in the county. The population density was 11 people per square mile . There were 172 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...

.

The village is located on the Kalaupapa peninsula at the base of the highest sea cliffs in the world, dropping about 3315 feet (1,010 m) into the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

Volcanic origin

Kalaupapa peninsula was created when lava erupted from the ocean floor near Kauhako Crater and spread outward, forming a low, shield volcano

Shield volcano

A shield volcano is a type of volcano usually built almost entirely of fluid lava flows. They are named for their large size and low profile, resembling a warrior's shield. This is caused by the highly fluid lava they erupt, which travels farther than lava erupted from more explosive volcanoes...

. This was the most recent volcanic episode on the island and of the larger Wailau

Wailau

Wailau, also known as East Molokai Volcano, is an extinct shield volcano comprising the eastern two-thirds of the island of Molokai in the U.S. state of Hawaii.-Description:...

shield volcano, occurring after the formation of the cliffs by erosion. Today the dormant crater contains a small lake more than 800 feet (240 m) deep.

Leprosy settlement

The village is the site of a former leprosy

Leprosy

Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...

settlement. Settlement was first established in Kalawao in the east, opposite to the village corner of the peninsula. It was there where Father Damien

Father Damien

Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai, SS.CC. , born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious order...

settled in 1873. Later it was moved to the location of the current village, which was originally a Hawaiian fishing village. The settlement was also attended by Mother Marianne Cope

Mother Marianne Cope

The Blessed Marianne Cope, O.S.F., christened Maria Anna Barbara Koob , was a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse, a religious congregation of the Roman Catholic Church...

, among others. At its peak, about 1,200 men, women, and children were in exile in this island prison. The isolation law was enacted by King Kamehameha V and remained in effect until 1969, when it was finally repealed. Today, about fourteen former sufferers of leprosy (now known as Hansen's Disease) continue to live there. The colony is now part of Kalaupapa National Historical Park

Kalaupapa National Historical Park

Kalaupapa National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park located in Kalaupapa, Hawaii on the island of Molokai. It was established by the National Park Service in 1980 to expand upon the earlier National Historic Landmark site of the Kalaupapa Leper Settlement...

.
Shortly before the end of mandatory isolation in 1969, the state legislature considered closing the facility in its entirety. Intervention by interested persons such as entertainer Don Ho

Don Ho

Donald Tai Loy "Don" Ho was a Hawaiian and traditional pop musician, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:Ho, of Chinese, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Dutch, and German descent, was born in the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako, but he grew up in Kāneohe on the windward side of the island of Oahu...

and TV newsman Don Picken resulted in allowing the residents to remain there for life. The opponents to closure pointed out that, although there were no active cases of leprosy in existence, many of the residents were physically scarred by the disease to an extent which would make their integration into mainstream society difficult if not impossible.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.