Lahaina Attractions

This Banyan tree, which originates from India, measured only 8ft/2.5m in height when planted in 1873 by Maui's then sheriff to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the building of the island's first mission house. Since then, the majestic tree has grown into Maui's biggest banyan tree - it now has a dozen trunks, is 60ft/20m high, spans more than 200ft/60m and throws shadows over a third of Court Square, in which it stands.

This two-masted museum ship, Brig Carthaginian II, graces the main waterfront park of Lahaina and hints at the atmosphere at the end of the 19th C when whaling ships docked here to provide rest for crews during the winter.

This film, portraying Hawaii's development, history and present-day life, is shown on a 59ft/18m domed screen and can now be seen in Lahiana. The audience can catch a glimpse of tropical gardens and lava-spewing volcanoes, watch whales, see (and hear) roaring waterfalls and experience a bird's-eye view of the mighty cliffs along the coast. The title of the film is "Hawaii, Islands of the Gods".

This Buddhist mission is built on the site of an old village in front of a majestic coconut grove. It is one of Lahaina's best-known and visited attractions because of the enormous statue of Buddha - one of the largest outside Japan - which sits in the mission's small garden. The statue was erected in 1968 in memory of the first Japanese sugar plantation workers, who came to Hawaii in 1868. The pagoda which accompanies it is Lahaina's largest Buddhist temple.

This attraction has ceased to exist. There is another whaling museum in the Whalers Village shopping center north of Lahaina.

Lahaina-Kaanapali and Pacific Railroad, the commonly-named "Sugar Cane Train" is an authentic replica of the old train which carried sugar cane along the approximately 4 miles/6km stretch between Kanaapali and Lahaina at the turn of the century. Today, tourists are transported along this route by steam locomotive on a return journey of about 50 minutes, which takes them through sugar cane fields while the driver entertains them with old songs and stories about the history of sugar plantations.

The current home of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation was originally built as a reading room for ships' captains, who often spent a long time in Lahaina's port. Most captains and officers had their families on board ship with them and they could withdraw to the shady house and rest. The ground floor was used by the mission and contained a small chapel. The reading room was on the first floor.

A bad storm in 1858 destroyed more than 20 houses in Lahaina, including Hale Piula (the courthouse) which King Kamehameha III had built and also used as a palace. A year later a new courthouse was built using stones from the old one and for a year it served as the center of justice for Maui County. Today it accommodates the Lahaina Art Society Gallery and the police station.
It was here in 1898 that the Hawaiian flag was lowered and the American flag raised to mark the annexation of Hawaii by the United States.

The Old Lahaina Lighthouse, built in 1840 and rebuilt in 1905, is the oldest lighthouse in the Hawaiian islands and the entire United States Pacific Coast.

Lahaina's prison, Hale Pa'ahao, has the quaint Hawaiian name which translates "stuck-in-irons-house". Thick coral walls and a cell block are open to visitors. The walls were built by convicts in the 1850s. Inmates served time for drunkenness, desertion, dangerous horse riding and working on the Sabbath.