The Famous Lahaina Banyan Tree

This immense Lahaina Banyan tree was planted in 1873 as a baby tree. It's birth home was India. Now it's grown with 12 major trunks besides the huge original core trunk to a height of about 50 feet. It stretches over a 200 foot acre, and it fills one city block.

I photographed this tree in the early hours before the artists and craftsmen set up their tables with their colorful creations for the Lahaina Art Society weekend event. Around 9 am, the people and buzzing commerce will change this peaceful scene.

There are lots of stories about what has happened under this Banyan Tree through the passing years. I've read the sailors were greeted by local prostitutes under this tree as they left their whaling boats in the nearby harbor, and the hanging vines were used by kids to swing through the branches like Tarzan.