Moku’ula: the Sacred Island Buried Beneath Lāhainā
The sacred island
buried beneath Lāhainā.
The heart of the Hawaiian Kingdom lies just a few feet underground. And it's finally coming back.
There is a place in Lāhainā — or rather, beneath Lāhainā — that most people have walked right past without knowing it existed. A 1-acre island, surrounded by a 17-acre freshwater fishpond, that was once the seat of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Where Maui's highest chiefs lived for centuries. Where King Kamehameha III ruled a unified nation. Where a sacred mo'o goddess named Kihawahine kept watch over the royal family and mediated between the human world and the spiritual one.
It is still there. Just a few feet underground, buried beneath what was once a county ballpark — a baseball diamond that sat, for generations, on top of one of the most significant sacred sites in all of Hawaiʻi.
That park was burned in the August 2023 wildfires. And from the ashes, something extraordinary is beginning to emerge.
"We have one chance to get this right. If we fail, we fail for the next five generations and beyond."
— Archie Kalepa, waterman, navigator, and ninth-generation Lāhainā resident
What Mokuʻula Was
The axis of the
Hawaiian world.
To understand what was lost, you have to understand what was there. Moku'ula was not just a royal residence. It was an axis of the Hawaiian world — a place where, in the words of historian P. Christiaan Klieger, "the realms of spirit, land, and human politics intersected." The island sat in the middle of Loko o Mokuhinia, a freshwater fishpond that was home to Kihawahine, a powerful mo'o goddess whose presence made the entire site sacred. Hawaiian royalty didn't just live here — they drew power from this place.
From the 16th through the 18th centuries, Moku'ula was home to the High Chiefs of Maui. In the 19th century, when Lāhainā became the capital of the unified Hawaiian Kingdom, it became the royal compound of the Kamehameha dynasty. King Kamehameha III — Kauikeaouli, son of Kamehameha the Great and the sacred chiefess Keopuolani — ruled the kingdom from this island from 1837 to 1845. Historic documents that reshaped the islands were drafted during this era. This was the beating heart of a sovereign nation.
The island was also the burial site of Princess Nahi'ena'ena, Kamehameha III's beloved sister, whose tomb stood on the eastern bank of Moku'ula. The grief of her death — and the weight of watching the Hawaiian world transform around him — is said to have shaped the king's entire reign.
How It Was Lost
Filled in. Built over.
Buried for a century.
After Kamehameha III moved the capital to Honolulu in 1845, Moku'ula gradually fell into disrepair. Whaling ships brought mosquitoes to the islands. The water in Mokuhinia grew stagnant. Sugar companies diverted Maui's water in the early 1900s, accelerating the pond's decline. What had been a living, sacred, abundant place became — in the eyes of the businessmen who now dominated the town — a problem to be solved.
Between 1914 and 1918, the pond was filled in and the land given to Maui County. A county park was built on top of it. Baseball diamonds. Tennis courts. For generations, people played ball on top of the buried heart of the Hawaiian Kingdom, most of them with no idea what lay beneath their feet.
In 1993, archaeologists excavated and confirmed what Hawaiian oral tradition had always known — Moku'ula was real, it was intact beneath the surface, and it was extraordinary. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nonprofit, Friends of Moku'ula, formed and advocated for restoration. Archaeological digs followed in 1999 and 2010. Progress was slow. The Friends organization dissolved in 2017. The baseball field stayed where it was.
The Fire and the Turning Point
From the ashes,
a path forward.
On August 8, 2023, the wildfires that devastated Lāhainā burned through Malu'ulu o Lele Park. What remained was a derelict, charred field sitting on top of one of the most sacred sites in Hawaiian history. And something shifted.
In the grief and reckoning that followed, the question of what Lāhainā would become — and what it owed to its own history — became impossible to ignore. Community members, cultural practitioners, and leaders began calling loudly for restoration. Legendary Maui waterman and navigator Archie Kalepa, who traces his family back nine generations in Lāhainā, put it plainly at a community gathering in September 2023: "We have one chance to get this right. If we fail, we fail for the next five generations and beyond."
In August 2024, the state transferred control of the property to Maui County for cultural and ecological restoration. In July 2025, a formal master planning process officially launched — led by Maui's Department of ʻŌiwi Resources, working alongside Native Hawaiian community leaders, cultural practitioners, and technical experts. The final plan is expected in 2027. Full restoration of the island and fishpond will take years beyond that — but it is happening. It is finally, actually happening.
"When the ʻāina thrives, so do the people," said Kaponoʻai Molitau, director of the Department of ʻŌiwi Resources. "It's heartwarming to see that we are going for the big prize and full restoration of Mokuʻula."
The History
A timeline of
what happened here.
Home of the High Chiefs of Maui
Moku'ula becomes the seat of Maui's ruling ali'i. The sacred mo'o goddess Kihawahine lives in the surrounding fishpond Loko o Mokuhinia, making the island a spiritual and political power center.
Capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom
King Kamehameha III rules the unified Hawaiian Kingdom from Moku'ula. Lāhainā is the capital of a sovereign nation. The royal complex is at the height of its significance.
The Capital Moves to Honolulu
Kamehameha III relocates the capital to O'ahu. Moku'ula gradually falls into disrepair as whaling ships bring mosquitoes and the island's waters grow stagnant.
Buried
Sugar companies have diverted Maui's water, leaving Mokuhinia stagnant. Businessmen advocate to fill the pond. The land is given to Maui County, and a county park — Malu'ulu o Lele — is built on top of the buried island.
Rediscovered
Archaeological digs confirm Moku'ula is intact beneath the surface. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Friends of Moku'ula forms and begins advocating for restoration.
The Fires Change Everything
The August 8 wildfires burn through Malu'ulu o Lele Park. In the grief and reckoning that follows, the community rallies around restoring Moku'ula as a centerpiece of Lāhainā's healing and future.
State Transfers Land to Maui County
In August 2024, the state officially transfers control of the property to Maui County for cultural and ecological restoration — a landmark moment in the island's recovery.
Master Planning Underway
The formal master planning process launches in July 2025, led by Maui's Department of ʻŌiwi Resources in partnership with Native Hawaiian community leaders. The final plan is expected in 2027. Full restoration will follow over the coming years.
Connect with this story right now.
The Lāhainā Restoration Foundation has created something remarkable — E Hoʻi Ka Nani I Mokuʻula ("Let the Glory Return to Moku'ula") — a groundbreaking 360-degree animated film bringing the island, the fishpond, Kihawahine, and the royal history to vivid, immersive life.
🎬 Screening free throughout 2026 at The Sphere at Maui Ocean Center, Maʻalaea. Reservations required.
🌐 Follow the restoration at mauirecovers.org
📖 Read: Moku'ula: Maui's Sacred Island by P. Christiaan Klieger (Bishop Museum Press, 1998)
Reserve Film Tickets Follow the RestorationThe Bottom Line
Moku'ula is not a ruin. It is not a loss. It is a place that endured. It survived whaling ships and sugar companies and county governments and a century of being buried under a baseball field. It survived the fires of 2023 — which, in a painful and meaningful irony, may have been what finally cleared the way for its return.
The Hawaiian Kingdom had its heart here. The mo'o Kihawahine lived in these waters. Kamehameha III ruled a sovereign nation from this island. And in 2026, just a few feet beneath a burned-out ballpark on Front Street in Lāhainā, all of that is still there. Waiting.
Mālama ʻāina. Take care of the land. The land, it turns out, has been waiting too.
"If we can rebuild Lāhainā,
we can help rebuild Hawaiʻi."
— Archie Kalepa
