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Long before the road, Hāna was one of the great places of old Hawaiʻi, and it remains one of the most traditional Native Hawaiian communities in the islands. For centuries Hawaiians have farmed kalo (taro) in its valleys and fished its bays, and Hāna was a seat of power and a contested prize among the chiefs of Maui and Hawaiʻi Island. In the 1500s the Maui ruler Piʻilani united the island and built the Alaloa, the ʻlong roadʻ that once encircled Maui — the ancient ancestor of todayʻs highway. Hāna is also the birthplace of Queen Kaʻahumanu, born here around 1768. These are living, sacred places, and they are treated here with respect: the great heiau at Piʻilanihale and the cliffs of Kaʻuiki are honored from a distance, not as souvenirs.
The modern town took shape more quietly than most of Hawaiʻi. A sugar mill opened in 1849 and plantations worked the coast for a century, until the last mill closed in the 1940s. When sugar failed, a San Francisco businessman named Paul Fagan bought up land, started the Hāna Ranch with Hereford cattle, and in 1946 opened the hotel that became the Hotel Hāna-Maui — turning Hāna into a small, slow, deliberately undeveloped retreat. It has stayed that way: a working ranch town and a handful of cottages at the end of the long road.
Why People Visit Hāna
People come the length of the highway for the quiet at the end of it: a pocket of old Hawaiʻi with black-sand beaches, waterfalls, and a slow, traditional pace. The drive is the point, and Hāna is the reward — so take it slowly, and travel with respect for a place that has kept old Hawaiʻi close.
