Lahaina is the largest town and census-designated place (CDP) in West Maui, Maui County, Hawaii, United States, and the gateway to the famous Kaanapali and Kapalua beach resorts north of town. As of the 2000 Census, the CDP had a resident population of 9,118. Lahaina encompasses the coast along Hawaii Route 30 from a tunnel at the south end, through Olawalu up the CDP of Napili-Honokowai is to the north. During the heavy tourist seasons, the population can swell to nearly 40,000 people. Before Hawaii's annexation by the United States, Lahaina was the "Royal Capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom" as city signs proclaim. The name means "merciless sun" in the Hawaiian language, describing the long hot days;Fact: date=July 2008 Lahaina averages only of rain per year, much of which occurs from December through February. In the 1800s, Lahaina was the center of the global whaling industry with many sailing ships anchored in front of town; today a score of pleasure craft make their home there.

Etymology

The Star-Bulletin of July 13, 1920, gave two versions of "How Lahaina Got Its Name," which merited more attention than it received. The first version differs from the well-established tradition in assigning the point of departure for Kahiki, as from Lahaina, instead of from the west point of Kahoolawe. It also introduces us to the pioneer Ad Club of the islands, boosting the charms of Maui, in the eleventh century. But their slogan, "laha aina" (proclaiming land), though dropping a superfluous a to form the new name they had adopted, would not give us the accent on the last syllable as Hawaiians pronounce it.

The second version sounds more reasonable, and aids somewhat in our search for the time when the name Lahaina was substituted for its former one, Lele. The newer name clearly shows it to be commemorative of a notable day in the history of the place. In the time of Kakae and his brother, Kakaalaneo, about 1630, it was still known as Lele. When after this period the change occurred is not clear, but analysis of the name, as properly pronounced Lā-hai-nā, would be "a day of calamity, or cruelty," and such an experience is known to have befallen Lahaina in the battles of warring chiefs waged for supremacy, more particularly following the death of Kekaulike, in the invasions of Alapainui of Hawaii, about 1735. But the change of name must have taken place earlier than this date.

History

Prior to unification of the islands, in 1795, the town was sacked by Kamehameha the Great. Lahaina was the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1820 to 1845. In 1824, at the request of the chiefs, Betsey Stockton started the first mission school open to the common people. It was once an important destination for the 19th century whaling fleet, whose presence at Lahaina frequently led to conflicts with the Christian missionaries living there. On more than one occasion the conflict was so severe that it led to the shelling of Lahaina by whaleboats.