Learn About the History of Pineapple Farming at the Dole Plantation
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Excerpt from I Need to Get L'eid from the Teresa the Traveler series of books. Our first major stop was at the Dole Plantation, the place where the Dole Food Company, which does business in over 90 countries, originated. It was there where I learned about its founder James Drummond Dole who was born in 1877, in Massachusetts and arrived in Honolulu with a horticulture degree from Harvard. He experimented with a number of different fruits and vegetables and found the only one that grew well in the mineral rich soil was pineapple so 1901 he founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company.
He canned pineapples grown on his 60 acre plantation in the cannery and packing plant which he constructed in Wahiawa. He also developed the first ever nationwide consumer advertising campaign in the US which increased the demand for his pineapples. Then he purchased the island of Lanai (later nicknamed Pineapple Island) and turned it into the largest pineapple plantation in the world where 75% of the world’s pineapples were grown. He also built another pineapple plantation on the island of Maui where he was buried in 1958 after suffering from a heart attack. I felt like a complete idiot when I caught my first glimpse of a pineapple plant. I was expecting to find pineapple trees that looked similar to coconut trees. I was shocked to learn that pineapples actually grew from plants, not trees. I was also surprised to learn that there was more than one type of pineapple. Unfortunately our stop was short and I didn’t have enough time to take a ride on the Pineapple Express around the plantation or walk through the world’s largest maze made out of native Hawaiian plants. I did however have enough time to buy some yummy pineapple ice cream. 
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