George Lycurgus

George Lycurgus (1858–1960) was a Greek American businessman who played an influential role in the early tourist industry of Hawaii. He ran afoul of the government of the Republic of Hawaii and was accused of treason. Later he was instrumental in the development of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. He was born in 1858 in Vasara (near Sparta, Greece). In 1877 he traveled in steerage class to New York, New York, and worked his way across the country. A relative convinced him to join a wholesale fruit business trading between Hawaii and California in 1881. In San Francisco, California he shipped California produce and wine to his cousin in Honolulu, who shipped Hawaiian bananas to the mainland. He became...