The island's name
Lānaʻi City takes the name of the island. Lānaʻi itself is usually read as day of conquest, though the meaning is not firmly established.
The town is not old. James Dole bought the island in 1922, planted it with pineapple, and laid out a grid of plantation housing around a central park to house the workers.
Cook pines and one owner
The Cook pines that define the town were planted by the naturalist George Munro to draw moisture out of the cloud — an early and effective piece of water engineering on a dry island.
Pineapple ended in 1992. About ninety-eight per cent of the island is now owned by a single person, which makes Lānaʻi an unusual place in the United States and a complicated one to live on.