[12][13] As visible via satellite imagery, many of the island's landmarks are accessible only by dirt roads that require a four-wheel drive vehicle.

This epithet refers to a legend about a Mauian prince who was banished to Lanai because of his wild pranks at his father's court in Lāhainā.

The first people to migrate here, most likely from Maui and Molokaʻi, probably established fishing villages along the coast at first, and then spread into the interior, where they raised taro in the fertile volcanic soil.

The population must have been mostly eradicated by 1792, because in that year Captain George Vancouver reported that he had ignored the island during his voyage because of its apparent lack of inhabitants or villages.

[18] The history of sugar cultivation in Hawaii begins in Lanai, when in 1802 a farmer from China, Wong Tse Chun, produced a small amount there.

[19] In 1854 a group of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were granted a lease in the ahupuaʻa of Pālāwai.

In 1985, Lanai passed into the control of David H. Murdock as a result of his purchase of Castle & Cooke, which was then the owner of Dole.

[25] In June 2012, Larry Ellison, then CEO of Oracle Corporation, purchased Castle & Cooke's 98 percent share of the island for $300 million.

The state and individual homeowners own the remaining 2 percent, which includes the harbor and the private homes where the 3,000 inhabitants live.

[26] Ellison stated his intention to invest as much as $500 million to improve the island's infrastructure and create an environmentally friendly agricultural industry.

Differing legends say that either the prophet Lanikāula drove the spirits from the island or the unruly Maui prince Kauluāʻau accomplished that heroic feat.

The chief looked across the channel from Maui and saw that his son's fire continued to burn nightly on the shore, and he sent a canoe to Lanai to bring the prince back, redeemed by his courage and cleverness.

[34] Lanai was traditionally administered in 13 political subdivisions (Ahupuaʻa), grouped into two districts (mokuoloko): kona (Leeward) and koʻolau (Windward).

The ahupuaʻa are listed below, in clockwise sequence, and with original area figures in acres, starting in the northwest of the island.

A volcanic collapse in Lanai 100,000 years ago generated a megatsunami that inundated land at elevations higher than 300 metres (980 ft).

Shipwreck Beach on the north shore of the island is so named because of the remains of a wrecked vessel aground a short distance offshore.

Most attractions outside of the hotels and town can be visited only via dirt roads that require an off-road vehicle, bicycle or walking.