Abundance
Mākena means abundance or plenty. The stretch was a canoe landing and a cattle shipping point through the nineteenth century.
The main beach, Oneloa — long sand — is usually called Big Beach. Its shore break is powerful and breaks directly onto sand, and it accounts for a steady toll of injuries every year.
Why it stayed empty
Development stopped at Mākena, so the coast beyond it runs into the ʻĀhihi-Kīnaʻu Natural Area Reserve and then the 1790 lava flow from Haleakalā — the youngest land on Maui, and the reason the road ends.