Sugar Cane

This is the last sugar cane mill on Maui, which closed about a year ago.  Sugar cane was once the most important crop on Maui.  Polynesian settlers introduced sugar cane to Hawaii more than one thousand years ago but at the time they just chewed the stalks.  They started making sugar in 1835 when the first successful plantation was established on the island of Kauai.  I passed this plant on two occasions - coming from the airport and going to the airport four days later.  I could have spent half the day here photographing this abandoned plant!  Instead I had to grab a few shots out the window as we drove by.  There is a sugar museum across the street from this plant and I would have loved to see that as well.   You should know that when the plant was operating, smoke poured from the stacks in the picture.  And as part of the process, the sugar cane fields are burned after the harvest, and people hated the smoke from the fires that made some homes unlivable during the burning.