Kalawao County | |
---|---|
![]() Kalaupapa peninsula | |
![]() Location within the U.S. state of Hawaii | |
![]() Hawaii's location within the U.S. | |
Coordinates: 21°11′49″N156°58′02″W / 21.196944444444°N 156.96722222222°W | |
Country | ![]() |
State | ![]() |
Founded | 1905 |
Named for | Kalawao |
Seat | none (administered by Hawaii Dept. of Health) |
Largest community | Kalaupapa |
Area | |
• Total | 53 sq mi (140 km2) |
• Land | 12 sq mi (30 km2) |
• Water | 41 sq mi (110 km2) 77.3% |
Population (2020) | |
• Total | 82 |
• Density | 1.5/sq mi (0.60/km2) |
Time zone | UTC−10 (Hawaii–Aleutian) |
Congressional district | 2nd |
Kalawao County (Hawaiian : Kalana o Kalawao) is a county in the U.S. state of Hawaii. [1] It is the smallest county in the 50 states by land area and the second-smallest county by population, after Loving County, Texas. [2] The county encompasses the Kalaupapa or Makanalua Peninsula, on the north coast of the island of Molokaʻi. The small peninsula is isolated from the rest of Molokaʻi by cliffs over a quarter-mile high; the only land access is a mule trail. [3]
Because of the small population (82 as of the 2020 United States Census [4] ), Kalawao County does not have the same functions as other Hawaii counties. Instead, it is a judicial district of Maui County, which includes the rest of the island of Molokaʻi. The county has no elected government. [5]
It was developed and used from 1866 to 1969 for settlements for treatment of quarantined persons with Hansen's disease (leprosy). [6]
The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, the Republic of Hawaiʻi, the Territory of Hawaii, and the state of Hawaii all exiled persons suffering from Hansen's disease (leprosy) to the peninsula, from 1866 to 1969. The quarantine policy was only lifted after effective antibiotic treatments were developed that could be administered on an outpatient basis and patients could be rendered non-contagious. [7]
Many residents chose to remain in their familiar community on the peninsula. [8] The state promised that they could live there for the rest of their lives. [9] As of 2015, the population consisted of the remaining patients, plus state employees and park staff. [10] Tourists 16 years of age and older and personal guests of residents may visit with prior government permission [11] [12] , and the general public must be part of an official tour. [9]
In 1980, the Kalaupapa National Historical Park was established to preserve the county's history and environment. [9]
Kalawao County lacks a local, county government. Instead, Kalawao County is administered by the Hawaii Department of Health because of the history of the settlement and current patients living there. Under Hawaiian state law, the Director of the Hawaii Department of Health, who is appointed by the Governor, also serves as the Mayor of Kalawao County. [13] [14] [15] [16] The Mayor holds executive powers within the county; the mayor also appoints a county sheriff, who is selected from local residents. [17] The only county statutes that apply to Kalawao County directly are those on matters of health. [18]
Kalawao is part of the First Judicial Circuit, which includes the entire island of Oahu. [19] For the purpose of notarization, the designated venue for the First Judicial Circuit is "State of Hawaii, City and County of Honolulu."
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 53 square miles (140 km2), comprising 12 square miles (31 km2) of land and 41 square miles (110 km2) (77.3%) of water. [20] By land area, it is the smallest true county in the United States; some independent cities in Virginia are smaller and are sometimes considered to be "county equivalents" for statistical purposes such as with the US Census Bureau.
Kalaupapa Peninsula contains the county's only settlement, Kalaupapa. The Kalaupapa Peninsula developed from lava that erupted from the ocean floor near Kauhakō Crater and spread outward, forming a low shield volcano. This was the most recent volcanic episode on the island and of the larger East Molokaʻi shield volcano, occurring after the formation of the cliffs by erosion.
![]() | This section needs to be updated.(September 2014) |
Kalawao County is composed of four ahupuaʻa. From west to east: [21] [22]
Ahupuaʻa | Area mi2 | Area km2 | Population | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Kalaupapa | 2.079 | 5.385 | 65 | West side of Kalaupapa peninsula. Includes a section of Molokaʻi's coast further west |
Makanalua | 3.229 | 8.363 | 8 | Strip of land in the center of the peninsula that runs to its northern tip. Includes Kalaupapa Airport. |
Kalawao | 3.294 | 8.531 | 9 | Eastern coast of Kalaupapa peninsula and Waialeia Valley to the southeast |
Waikolu | 5.544 | 14.359 | 0 | Includes namesake valley. Uninhabited. [23] |
Kalawao County | 14.146 | 36.638 | 82 |
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1900 | 1,177 | — | |
1910 | 785 | −33.3% | |
1920 | 667 | −15.0% | |
1930 | 605 | −9.3% | |
1940 | 446 | −26.3% | |
1950 | 340 | −23.8% | |
1960 | 279 | −17.9% | |
1970 | 172 | −38.4% | |
1980 | 144 | −16.3% | |
1990 | 130 | −9.7% | |
2000 | 147 | 13.1% | |
2010 | 90 | −38.8% | |
2020 | 82 | −8.9% | |
2023 (est.) | 81 | [24] | −1.2% |
U.S. Decennial Census [25] 1790-1960 [26] 1900–1990 [27] 1990–2000 [28] 2010–2018 [29] |
As of the census of 2000, [30] 147 people, 115 households, and 21 families resided in the county, declining to 90 inhabitants in 2010. The population density was 11 people per square mile (4.2 people/km2). The 172 housing units produced an average density of 13 per square mile (5.0/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 48% Pacific Islander, 26% White, 17% Asian, 3% from other races, and 6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race made up 4%. Kalawao County has the highest Pacific Islander population percentage of any U.S. county, and is the only county where they make up a plurality.
2% of households housed children under the age of 18. 17% were married couples living together. 3% had a female householder with no husband present. 81% were non-families. 79% of all households were made up of individuals, and 31% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.28 and the average family size was 2.27.
2% of residents were under the age of 18, 1% from 18 to 24, 18% from 25 to 44, 46% from 45 to 64, and 32% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 59 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.6 males. The population has declined since 1900: [31]
Current residents include 16 former patients, [32] 40 federal employees who work on preservation projects, and some state-employed health workers. [33]
The only access to Kalawao County is by air, or by a steep mule trail that descends 1,600 ft (490 m) from the rest of Molokaʻi. Kalaupapa Airport has scheduled air service to Molokaʻi Airport and to Honolulu Airport.
Freight is delivered to the county once a year, usually in July, by barge. [34]
Year | Republican | Democratic | Third party | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
2020 | 1 | 4.17% | 23 | 95.83% | 0 | 0.00% |
2016 | 1 | 5.00% | 14 | 70.00% | 5 | 25.00% |
2012 | 2 | 7.41% | 25 | 92.59% | 0 | 0.00% |
2008 | 6 | 19.35% | 24 | 77.42% | 1 | 3.23% |
2004 | 14 | 35.00% | 26 | 65.00% | 0 | 0.00% |
2000 | 11 | 24.44% | 30 | 66.67% | 4 | 8.89% |
1996 | 13 | 20.63% | 46 | 73.02% | 4 | 6.35% |
1992 | 24 | 32.00% | 48 | 64.00% | 3 | 4.00% |
Like the rest of the state, Kalawao County is a stronghold for the Democratic Party. It was the only county in the United States where the Republican candidate in the 2016 United States presidential election, Donald Trump, finished in third by only getting one vote; 70% of Kalawao's voters chose Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and 25% of Kalawao voters cast their ballots for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, making it Stein's strongest county nationwide in terms of vote percentage. [36] In 2020 Joe Biden improved on Clinton's 2016 performance by over 25% as the Greens declined to zero votes, giving Biden 96% of the vote, which was his strongest performance in any county in the United States.
The county is within the Hawaii Department of Education school district. [37]
Hawaii is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) southwest of the U.S. mainland. It is the only state not on the North American mainland, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state in the tropics.
Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai or Saint Damien De Veuster, born Jozef De Veuster, was a Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious institute. He was recognized for his ministry, which he led from 1873 until his death in 1889, in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi to people with leprosy, who lived in government-mandated medical quarantine in a settlement on the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokaʻi.
Maui County, officially the County of Maui, is a county in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It consists of the islands of Maui, Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, and Molokini. The latter two are uninhabited. As of the 2020 census, the population was 164,754. The county seat is Wailuku.
Molokai is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles at its greatest length and width with a usable land area of 260 sq mi (673.40 km2), making it the fifth-largest in size of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies southeast of Oʻahu across the 25 mi (40 km) wide Kaʻiwi Channel and north of Lānaʻi, separated from it by the Kalohi Channel.
Kalaupapa Airport is a regional public use airport of the state of Hawaii, located on the northern peninsula of the island of Molokaʻi, two nautical miles north of Kalaupapa Settlement, in Kalawao County. Most flights to Kalaupapa originate from Molokai Airport or from airports on the other Hawaiian islands by unscheduled air taxis and general aviation. It is also used as a cargo facility carrying goods for Kalaupapa, which has no road access from the rest of Molokai.
Marianne Cope, OSF,, was a German-born American religious sister who was a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Syracuse, New York, and founding leader of its St. Joseph's Hospital in the city, among the first of 50 general hospitals in the country. Known also for her charitable works, in 1883 she relocated with six other sisters to Hawaiʻi to care for persons suffering leprosy on the island of Molokaʻi and aid in developing the medical infrastructure in Hawaiʻi. Despite direct contact with the patients over many years, Cope did not contract the disease.
Kalihi is a neighborhood of Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi, United States. Split by Likelike Highway, it is flanked by Liliha, Chinatown, and Downtown Honolulu to the east and Mapunapuna, Moanalua, and Salt Lake to the west.
Kalaupapa is a small unincorporated community and Hawaiian home land on the island of Molokaʻi, within Kalawao County in the U.S. state of Hawaii. In 1866, during the reign of Kamehameha V, the Hawaii legislature passed a law that resulted in the designation of Molokaʻi as the site for a leper colony, where patients who were seriously affected by leprosy could be quarantined, to prevent them from infecting others. At the time, the disease was little understood: it was believed to be highly contagious and was incurable until the advent of antibiotics. The communities where people with leprosy lived were under the administration of the Board of Health, which appointed superintendents on the island.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park located in Kalaupapa, Hawaiʻi, on the island of Molokaʻi. Coterminous with the boundaries of Kalawao County and primarily on Kalaupapa peninsula, it was established by Congress in 1980 to expand upon the earlier National Historic Landmark site of the Kalaupapa Leper Settlement. It is administered by the National Park Service. Its goal is to preserve the cultural and physical settings of the two leper colonies on the island of Molokaʻi, which operated from 1866 to 1969 and had a total of 8500 residents over the decades.
Kalawao is a location on the eastern side of the Kalaupapa Peninsula of the island of Molokai, in Hawaii, which was the site of Hawaii's leper colony between 1866 and the early 20th century. Thousands of people in total came to the island to live in quarantine. It was one of two such settlements on Molokai, the other being Kalaupapa. Administratively Kalawao is part of Kalawao County. The placename means "mountain-side wild woods" in Hawaiian.
Molokai Light, also known as U.S. Coast Guard Molokai Light, is a lighthouse in Kalawao County, Hawaii, on the island of Molokai. It was built in 1909 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Waikolu Valley, also called Waikola, is on the North Shore of Molokai in Hawaii. Access to this uninhabited valley is currently restricted as it is a partly within the Kalaupapa National Historical Park.
The Hawaii State Department of Health (DOH) is a state agency of Hawaiʻi, with its headquarters in Honolulu CDP, Honolulu County, on the island of Oʻahu.
William Keolaloa Kahānui Sumner, Jr. was a high chief of the Kingdom of Hawaii through his mother's family; his father was an English captain from Northampton. Sumner married a Tahitian princess. Aided by royal family connections, he became a major landowner and politician in Hawaii.
The Mayor of Kalawao County is the chief executive officer of Kalawao County in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Kalawao County, which lacks a local government, is administered by the Hawaii Department of Health. Under Hawaii state law, the Director of the Hawaii Department of Health, who is appointed by the Governor of Hawaii, simultaneously serves as the Mayor of Kalawao County while in office. The Mayor of Kalawao County holds executive powers similar to other elected Hawaiian mayors, including the responsibilities of health, public safety, and law and order. The Mayor appoints a county sheriff selected from Kalawao County residents. The Mayor visits Kalawao several times a year to meet with local residents. Kalawao County, which is located on the Kalaupapa Peninsula on the north coast of Moloka'i, consists of three villages - Kalaupapa, Kalawao, and Waikolu.
Ambrose Kanoealiʻi or Ambrose Kanewaliʻi Hutchison was a long-time Native Hawaiian resident of the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement on the island of Molokaʻi who resided there for fifty-three years from 1879 to his death in 1932. During his residence, he assumed a prominent leadership role in the patient community and served as luna or resident superintendent of Kalaupapa from 1884 to 1897.
Mary Leopoldina Burns, was an American religious sister who was a member of the Sisters of St Francis of Syracuse, New York, and a close companion and biographer of Marianne Cope during the 1883 Hansen's Disease epidemic on the island of Molokaʻi, Hawaii.
Kauhakō Crater is a volcanic crater located in Kalawao County, Hawaii, United States. The crater was formed between 230,000 and 300,000 years ago, as the result of the eruption of volcano Pu'u' 'Uao. It is located in the center of the Kalaupapa Peninsula on the island of Molokaʻi, and has a diameter of 500 metres (1,600 ft) by 650 metres (2,130 ft). Lake Kauhakō, located at the bottom of the crater, has the world's greatest depth-to-surface area ratio of a lake and is the tenth deepest lake in the United States. In 2011, the lake underwent an overturning event, causing hydrogen sulfide to float to the surface of the lake and lifeforms, including shrimp and plankton, to disappear.
Kalawao County has no county government; a sheriff is appointed by the Hawai'i Department of Health (DOH). The HRS Chapter 326, Sections 326-1-326-40 Hansen's Disease detail topics including patient treatment, care, services, expenses, and privacy; general excise, income, and real property tax exemptions; employment, compensation, and pensions; Kalaupapa store; fishing laws exemption; and Damien Memorial Chapel.