Lahaina has dazzled visitors long before it became a tourist haven on the coast of Maui. Wildfires on Maui have destroyed much of its rich cultural heritage—but historians say this is not the first time it has had to endure and evolve
“To the missionaries, this was the hand of God paving the way for them to convert everyone,” says DeSoto Brown, historian and curator for the archives at thein Honolulu. “Hawaiians pragmatically looked at Christianity as a useful system, replacing a huge pantheon of spiritual forces with just one god, and with a written list of rules to live by instead of innumerable unknown forces that were capable of taking your life if you made a mistake.
This aerial image, taken on August 10, 2023, shows homes and buildings burned to the ground in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii. The fires began burning early August 8, scorching thousands of acres and putting 35,000 lives at risk.Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
. “Although Honolulu was originally the port most favored by the whalers, Lāhainā often surpassed it in the number of recorded visits, particularly from about 1840 to 1855,” Hussey writes., which brought supplies, trade, and jobs to the island. But the drunken carousing of these sailors also brought strife to a society now heavily influenced by missionaries who preached temperance. By 1827, tensions grew when Lāhainā enacted a decree forbidding local women from visiting whaling ships.
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