Haunted Places on Oahu and the History Behind Them

Nuʻuanu Pali Lookout

The history. In 1795 Kamehameha brought an army of about 10,000 warriors and a fleet of 1,200 canoes from Hawaiʻi Island, took Maui and Molokaʻi, and landed unopposed near Waiʻalae and Waikiki. The defenders of Oʻahu under Kalanikūpule fell back up Nuʻuanu Valley in a running fight to the cliffs, where, per Military History magazine, hundreds fought at the 1,000-foot drop and then went over it rather than be captured. The victory gave Kamehameha Oʻahu.

The lore. The best-known Pali belief is not about the battle at all: never carry pork over the Pali road, or your car stalls. It ties to the feud between Pele and the pig demigod Kamapuaʻa, and the USC Digital Folklore Archives records one telling of it.

Visiting. The lookout is open daily from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.; residents park free and non-residents pay $7 per vehicle, per DLNR State Parks. Expect strong wind at the rail. Come in daylight and give the place the quiet it has earned.

Morgan’s Corner

The history. Morgan’s Corner is the hairpin where Old Pali Road doglegs over Nuʻuanu Stream, named for Dr. James Morgan, who built his home inside the bend. On March 11, 1948, two escaped prisoners, James Majors and John Palakiko, broke into the home of his neighbor, Therese Wilder, 68, tied and gagged her and left her; she died. Both were sentenced to death, Governor Oren Long stayed the execution, and both were later paroled, as the Star-Bulletin recounted in 2005.

The lore. The legend that grew up around the bend is the one told at sleepovers everywhere: a dark road, a stalled car, a boyfriend who goes for help, a drip on the roof. Honolulu Magazine writer Christine Hitt went looking for it and found no record of any such death; the only documented murder there is Therese Wilder’s.

Visiting. Nuʻuanu Pali Drive is a public road, but it is a residential one. The 1948 house is gone and the property is now a gated community. Drive it in daylight and keep going; do not park, knock or climb trees.

ʻIolani Palace

The history. King Kalākaua laid the cornerstone on December 31, 1879, and the palace was completed in 1882. After the 1893 overthrow, Queen Liliʻuokalani was convicted following a failed 1895 attempt to restore her and was held in an upstairs bedroom of her own palace for nearly eight months, per the Palace’s own history. The building then served as the capitol for about 80 years before its restoration in the 1970s.

The lore. Storyteller Lopaka Kapanui told Honolulu Magazine that palace security guards have reported seeing the Queen’s figure around 5:30 a.m. and hearing the piano play in the Blue Room, and that he saw the silhouette of a Hawaiian woman in a second-floor bedroom window during a 2006 tour. The Palace’s historian, Zita Cup Choy, told the magazine every story she had heard was hearsay, several degrees removed from anyone who claimed a sighting.

Visiting. Tours run Tuesday to Saturday. Book online, since there are no walk-ups or same-day reservations, and guests must be 5 or older. The docent-led tour is $34 for adults ($19.95 kamaʻāina) and the 60-minute self-led audio tour is $28. Times are on the tours page. Go for the history: it is the part that is true.

Moana Surfrider

The history. The Moana opened in 1901 as Waikiki’s first beachfront hotel. On February 28, 1905, Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, died in her room there. A Honolulu coroner’s jury found she died of strychnine put in her bicarbonate of soda “with felonious intent by some person or persons to this jury unknown”; the university’s president announced heart failure instead. The case was never solved, as Stanford Magazine laid out in 2003.

The lore. The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s haunted historic hotels list says guests and staff have seen Stanford walking at night, trying to find her room.

Visiting. The hotel’s grounds and restaurants are open to everyone, so walk through the historic lobby or book afternoon tea on the Veranda. The historic tour, on Monday and Wednesday at 1 p.m., is included for hotel guests. Our Moana Surfrider review covers rooms, fees and afternoon tea.

Sheraton Princess Kaʻiulani and the Kaʻiulani Statue

The history. Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani was born on October 16, 1875, and named heir to the throne by Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1891. She campaigned against the overthrow, writing to American newspapers, and died on March 6, 1899, at 23. The Sheraton Princess Kaʻiulani stands on the site of her family home, ʻĀinahau. Native Hawaiian scholar Stephanie Nohelani Teves, writing for the National Endowment for the Humanities, reads her “haunting” of Waikiki as the unfinished history of the overthrow.

The lore. Lopaka Kapanui told KITV in 2023 that hotel guests have seen her apparition.

Visiting. The hotel is at 120 Kaʻiulani Avenue. Up the same avenue, Jan Gordon Fisher’s 1999 statue of the princess stands at Kaʻiulani Triangle, at Kūhiō and Kaʻiulani Avenues, per the Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation.

Haunted Plantation at Hawaiʻi’s Plantation Village

The history. Hawaiʻi’s Plantation Village is a living history museum in Waipahu, near the old sugar mill, where you walk through the camp houses of Hawaiʻi’s immigrant plantation worker communities.

The lore. The village has its own stories. Then-executive director Jeffrey Higa told Honolulu Magazine about a young girl in white at the Portuguese house, first noticed when school children on a tour asked who she was.

The haunt. Every October the village becomes the Haunted Plantation, a walk-through haunted attraction by 17A Productions. 2026 is its 21st year, and it runs October 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 30 and 31. Expect strobes, fog and near-darkness on a physically demanding course; the site asks anyone pregnant, claustrophobic, prone to seizures or with heart or breathing problems to skip it. No refunds. Times and tickets are on the official site.

Getting there. Take H-1 to exit 7 (Waikele/Waipahu), then Paiwa Street to Waipahu Street.