Connie Pollack knows all about the tragic story of Kalaupapa. Over the years she’s read extensively about how the Hawaii victims of leprosy were ripped from their families starting in the late 1800s and exiled to the lonely peninsula on Molokai.

As a Catholic, she always admired the work of Father Damien, who devoted his life to the patients and eventually succumbed to the disease before being elevated to sainthood 14 years ago.

“He did something real — with real people,” Pollack said. Kalaupapa, she added, seems like “hallowed ground.”

So naturally the Glendale, Calif., woman and former newspaper editor was looking forward to visiting Kalaupapa National Historical Park during her upcoming visit to Hawaii.

But any visit by Pollack — or anyone like her — appears to be in serious jeopardy.

The National Park Service unit has been closed to the general public since COVID-19 struck in 2020. While most national parks reopened a few months into the pandemic, Kalaupapa has remained largely shut down for more than three years.

The park, in conjunction with the state Department of Health, normally allows limited access — 100 people a day — via authorized tour operators in a move to protect the lifestyle and privacy of the Hansen’s disease patients who still live in the settlement.

Asked why the park still remains closed, Superintendent Nancy Holman said no commercial tour operators are allowed.

“However we are working towards having limited visitor access once again now that DOH has lifted most of the Covid mitigations put in place to protect the health of patient residents,” Holman said in an email.

Holman said there is no estimate for when tours will resume: “As soon as possible though,” she added.

Baron Chan, chief of the DOH’s Hansen’s Disease Branch, said the state in March 2022 began allowing patients and employees to sponsor four family and/or friends for visits.

That number is now up to six with a limit of 25 visitors at one time, he said, although the state will soon consider raising the number after consulting with the patients and community. The branch only recently lifted the COVID-19 masking requirement for visitors.

Chan said officials are cautious in lifting restrictions because the remaining patients are elderly and vulnerable to maladies such as COVID-19.

Following the recent death of an 86-year-old patient, there are only eight left, ranging in age from 82 to 98, Chan said. The average age is 88.

In the late 1800s, the population of Kalaupapa was more than 1,100. Fifteen years ago there were fewer than 30 patients still living on the isolated peninsula surrounded on three sides by ocean and 2,000-foot cliffs on the fourth.

John McBride, who was running tours of the former colony for leprosy patients when the pandemic shut things down, said it’s time to restart tours.

McBride put his Saints Damien and Marianne Cope Molokai Tours on hold and switched to running day tours of the topside of Molokai three years ago.

But demand for Kalaupapa is much greater. He used to conduct four or five tours a week, each with nine to 12 tourists.

“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “I get at least 10 calls a day from people who want to go there. A lot of people from Europe want to go there. It’s on their bucket list.”

McBride said he’s made several requests with the park to restart business over the past year and a half but has been rebuffed.

McBride said he’s especially frustrated because he has two tour vans, worth a combined $100,000, parked in the settlement that he can’t even access. He’s been making payments on the vehicles all this time.

The former mechanic and welder from Hilo got into the tour business about 10 years ago, after his back was injured. Over the years, his tour business moved from the Big Island to Maui and then to Molokai.

In 2018, he took over for the retiring Gloria Marks, a patient who ran Damien Tours, and teamed up with patient Mele Watanuki to operate Saints Damien and Marianne Cope Molokai Tours.

Damien and Cope were both Roman Catholics who lived and cared for the outcast patients when few others did. They both have now achieved sainthood.

Today, patient ownership is a requirement for tours operating within the Kalaupapa park, and McBride insists the 89-year-old Watanuki is still interested in running the business with him.

“I’ve been pushing to open up and start the tours, but they’ve been pumping the brakes on us,” he said.

Demand for park visitation could have risen lately after the travel site Family Destinations Guide published a list of 100 best secret beaches in America. No. 1 was Awahua Beach, located on the Kalaupapa Peninsula.

According to the travel site, it surveyed 3,000 families in the United States to determine the hidden beaches they most want to visit in summer 2023.

“The beach is surrounded by towering cliffs and lush greenery, providing a stunning backdrop for relaxation and exploration,” according to the site. “Visitors can enjoy swimming, snorkeling, or simply lounging on the beach, taking in the serene atmosphere and the natural beauty of this hidden gem.”

Bob Dewitz isn’t interested in going to the beach. He and his “Bad Dogs” running buddies want to run the Kalaupapa Trail, which descends 26 switchbacks in a nearly 2,000-foot elevation change over 3.5 miles. They also want to return the way they came.

“I’m frustrated,” said Dewitz, a retired electrical contractor from Honolulu. “I’ve been trying to get permission to do this for six months.”

The COVID-19 crisis is over, Dewitz said, and extraordinary measures are no longer justified.

“Millions of dollars of taxpayer money subsidizes Kalaupapa,” he said.

“I would think NPS would be advocating strongly for reopening as its mission is to operate the park … for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration … of the public. Moreover, the economic impact of the park being in full operation is important to Molokai,” Dewitz wrote in an email to the park’s superintendent.

But Holman said Kalaupapa has different rules because it is an active patient resident community. When it was created in 1980, Congress outlined a mission to protect the patient residents, while allowing for limited visitor access and interpretation.

For Molokai visitors wanting to learn more about Kalaupapa and Kalaupapa National Historical Park, there are educational panels about Kalaupapa and an opportunity to view Kalaupapa from the top of the Pali at Pala‘au State Park, she said.

Pollack, the California woman who has aspired to visit Kalaupapa for years, spent time investigating opportunities to tour the park in anticipation of her upcoming Hawaii vacation in November.

After learning that avenues are closed, she went as far as to send emails and letters to the secretary of interior and the Hawaii Tourism Authority urging them to reopen the park. She got no response.

Pollack, 74, said it’s ironic that a mysterious and scary disease forced the patients into isolation and now lingering measures meant to stem another mysterious and scary disease appear to be keeping them further isolated.

“It’s frustrating,” she said.