A cemetery in Kalaupapa, Molokai, HI
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- Unknown
- Location
- Kalaupapa, Hawaii
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2009. All Rights Reserved
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- Search LEARN NC for cemeteries, Hawaii, HI, islands, Kalaupapa, Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Kalaupapa Peninsula, leper colony, leprosy, Makanalua, Molokai, National Historical Park, national parks, Pacific Ocean, and peninsulas.
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A cemetery in Kalaupapa, Molokai, Hawaii. These graves are topped by a stone cap and a grave marker. Many of the other graves on the peninsula remain unmarked.
The five-square mile Kalaupapa Peninsula is located on the larger Makanalua Peninsula. A rich and beautiful landscape, it was home for almost 1,000 years to native Hawaiians, who farmed from the land and fished from the sea. The area was cleared by desperate officials in 1865, its residents turned away to provide a place to isolate victims of Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy, during the Hawaiian epidemic of the late 1800s. The area, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on three sides and 2,000 foot cliffs on the fourth, is inaccessible except by water and air. This made it the perfect location to prevent the spread of the disease, which at that time had no cure or treatment, but the decision uprooted a generation of Hawaiians from their native land and tore many loved ones from their families. Hawaii’s isolation laws were finally abolished in 1969, and remaining patients were allowed to relocate if they chose to.
