22 Jan Plantation Farm and Ancient Village of Keka’a
Look toward the golf course green adjacent to the Royal Lahaina Resort. During the first half of the 20th century, this site flourished with mango trees and grasses. It is most remembered by local families for its pig farm, in which hogs were raised to feed the many sugar plantation workers. Mango trees were planted in abundance here for their succulent fruit which would be fodder for the hogs. There were several plantation houses near the beach, nestled around the rock, where families of Japanese sugar plantation workers lived and maintained the farm.
In ancient times, the area around Royal Lahaina Resort held the royal gardens of old Hawai’i. A stately patch of kalo (taro) and other food crops were cultivated here, aided by a freshwater spring, for the use of Maui’s early chiefs. In the ahupua’a (land division system), Keka’a was a fishing village nestled against the beach, where fishermen and farmers would gather bounty from the sea and cultivate lowland crops that would be shared with the people up in the mountains. At the beach, canoes would be housed to work on and moored to use for fishing. It was said that the long crescent of sand was used as a training ground for warriors to test their skills in competitive games.
Source: Ka’anapali Historical Trail & History and Legends Tour, Pip Holo Ka’ao (A well told tale travels far and wide)