The curious tale of the doctor who moved to Hawaii and became a hermit

Wheatley began living in Kalalau Valley in 1957, when he was about 38 years old, living off of taro, fruit and fish. He became known locally and nationally as “the Hermit of Kalalau.”

Wheatley was born in 1919 in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, one of 10 children. He “graduated from Meharry Medical College at the top of his class” in 1945, but because of racism — Wheatley was Black — he was rejected from a top Boston hospital despite earning the highest score during the application process, a December 1959 Ebony Magazine article“This was the real blow that crushed him,” said Dr. John W. Parker, a Brooklyn surgeon and Wheatley’s college roommate, according to the article.

In the 1950s and early '60s, Dr. Bernard Wheatley found a home in a cave on Kalalau Beach at the end of the Kalalau Trail.Located on Kauai’s Napali coastline, the Kalalau Trail weaves in and out of five valleys and along the cliffs’ edges high above the sea. The trail is most widely known for its first 2 miles to Hanakapiai Beach, but backpackers with permits can continue to Kalalau Valley and its beach — including the cave where Wheatley lived — at the end of the 11-mile trail.

It’s believed Hawaiians left Kalalau Valley in the early part of the 20th century. From then through the 1950s, it was a largely uninhabited coastline.

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