LANAI

island, Maui county, Hawaii, U.S., across the Auau channel from Maui Island. Formed by the extinct volcano Palawai (3,370 feet ), it has an area of 140 square miles (363 square km). In 1854 a group of Mormon elders formed a colony there that failed 10 years later. Lanai was used primarily for cattle grazing until 1922, when it was purchased by the Dole Corporation for use as a pineapple plantation. In 1961, Castle & Cook, Inc., after merging with Dole, took over the management of the island. It is the largest privately owned isle in the Hawaiian chain. The principal company settlements are Lanai City and the port of Kaumalapau on the west coast. At the ruined village of Kaunolu, once the resort place of King Kamehameha I, can be seen the remains of houses and a heiau (temple). Lanai (meaning conquest day) is the only one of the inhabited Hawaiian islands to have a known etymology. Most of the important place-names in the islands are so ancient that no translation is possible. Pop. (1990) 2,426.