Raw sugar production in Hawaii can only be found on Maui

October 30, 9:06 PMHonolulu Affordable Travel ExaminerSandi Yara

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Honolulu Affordable Travel Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Today was the final day of harvesting sugar at the Gay & Robinson farm on Kauai, ending nearly 200 years of sugar production on the island.

With their departure, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company on Maui, becomes Hawaii’s last remaining sugar plantation.  This may not be for long either as the company has struggled with drought, sugar prices, energy costs and Maui's watershed issues.

Sadly, finding evidence of a once thriving industry that led Hawaii’s growth for over 100 years is difficult to find.  That was one of the reasons why a group of individuals got together to create Hawaii’s Plantation Village back in 1992.  Here is where visitors will find a living history museum about life on the sugar plantation.  Hawaii’s Plantation Village offers a snapshot of what life was like during the sugar’s formative years, circa 1900.  

Visitors explore the collection of 32 original and authentically replicated plantation buildings, furnished with over 3,000 personal artifacts and set on 50 acres at Waipahu Cultural Garden Park.  Docents explain how plantation workers used their favorite trees and plants for food, medicine and household materials.

Did you know ... sugar is the reason for Hawaii’s multi-ethnic population.  Between 1852 and the end of World War II, nearly 395,000 workers came from different countries (China, Portugal, Japan, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Okinawa, Korea) to work on Hawaii’s many sugar plantations.  Hawaii’s Plantation Village’s volunteer docents lead tours on the hour, taking visitors back to a time when life was centered on the plantation community. Visitors find out how each immigrant group lived, struggled, sacrificed and also learn the unique lifestyle differences between each culture.

Hawaii’s Plantation Village also has an extensive library of historical photographs, documentary materials and artifacts from the plantation period are also available on site at the Okada Education Center.  There quaint gift shop offers homemade plantation-style handicrafts (the likes of which you won’t find in larger stores), local cookbooks, ethnic music and more.

Hawaii’s Plantation Village is a non-profit educational organization.  It is located 18 miles / 35 minutes from Waikiki on Oahu’s leeward coast.  For more information about the Village and the significant period in Hawaii’s history that it represents, visit hawaiisplantationvillage-info.com.

If you would like to read more about Hawaii’s Plantation Village, click on the following:

Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3