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Hawaii is the most remote island chain in the world, over
2,000 miles from the nearest landfall. Distance makes for splendid isolation -
these Polynesian islands are removed from all else but one another.
Hawaii consists of eight major islands plus 124 minor islands, reefs and shoals,
strung like a necklace across the Pacific for over 1,500 miles. The eight major
islands (which make up over 99% of the total land area) are Oahu, Maui, Hawaii
(known as Big Island), Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe (uninhabited) and Niihau
(privately owned).
Each of the major islands has an identity all its own. Oahu is as different from
Molokai and Maui as Kauai is from Lanai and the Big Island - each as varied and
colorful as the official state flower, the hibiscus. These islands form the
fourth smallest state in the United States.
Hawaiian Islands have a wide variety of plant, marine and
animal life. Vegetation zones include: coastal, dryland forest, mixed open
forest, rain forest, subalpine and alpine. More than 90 percent of the native
plants and animals living in Hawaii are found nowhere else in the world, and a
greater variety of fish exist in Hawaiian waters than elsewhere. The
humuhumunukunukuapuaa is the unofficial state fish. (Try saying that quickly 5
times) Hawaii is sometimes called the Endangered Species Capital of the World.
At least one third of all the endangered species in the United States are found
in Hawaii including the Nene Goose (official state bird), the Humpback Whale
(official state marine mammal), the Pacific Green Sea Turtle and the Pueo
(Hawaiian owl).
Hawaii is probably the only place in the United States, if
not the world, where every single racial group is a minority - one of the
world's most harmonious gatherings of people. At least a third of the population
is of mixed ancestry. According to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a study
conducted in 1984 estimated that there were only 8,244 pure Hawaiians - about
0.7 percent of Hawaii's total population - a vanishing race.
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Fast Facts
Population: 1,275,194
Capital City: Honolulu
Largest Cities: Honolulu, Hilo, Kailua
Area: 10932 sq.mi, 43rd
Highest Point: Mauna Kea; 13,796 ft
Admission to Statehood: August 21, 1959
Nickname: Aloha State
Time Zone: Hawaiian Standard Time
Daylight Savings Time: No
Area Code: 808
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