This national park in paradise was once an isolated quarantine zone

Unlike other historical parks that curate stories from the past, interpretive park ranger Miki`ala Pescaia says that Kalaupapa is still writing its own history.Kalaupapa is home to a population of fewer than a dozen former Hansen’s disease patients, the only remaining residents among the thousands of afflicted who were exiled here under the quarantine law, the “Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy.”There are no roads connecting the peninsula to “top side” Molokai; access is by aircraft, boat, or mule (the last option is currently unavailable due to trail damage caused by a landslide). The patients themselves were left to care for one another, and it was the kama'aina—the native Hawaiians who were living on the peninsula for hundreds of years before patients arrived—that stepped up to help.“When the government continued to send more and more people and failed to keep up with provisions, that's when the hardships started,” says Valerie Monson, executive director of Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa, a nonprofit established at the request of Kalaupapa residents to advocate for the community, establish a memorial, and connect descendants with their Kalaupapa ancestors.A cure for Hansen’s disease arrived in Hawaii in 1949, yet it wasn’t until 1969 that the quarantine law was finally lifted—more than 100 years after it was enacted—and former patients were legally permitted to leave. The former patients “evaluated a number of organizations,” Pescaia says, “and chose the Park Service to come in and curate the story.”In 1980, the National Park Service (NPS) declared Kalaupapa a National Historical Park. “So even during this shutdown [when many other parks and businesses are closed due to COVID-19], we know we have a duty to provide essential services for our patient community and those that live here, given our isolated location.”(Related: Learn about the history of national parks.)Pescaia, the NPS, and the community must also consider the mental health of the former patients here who were deeply traumatized by the extensive physical distancing, discrimination, and stigma associated with the disease.“In the past, you couldn’t touch patients,” Pescaia explains.