For generations people have been intrigued by the culture and colossal archeological sites of the native inhabitants, the Rapa Nui. This barren island is located in the remote southeastern Pacific. It is 2300 miles west of Chile, the nation that controls it, and 2500 miles south east of Tahiti. It is a small, triangular shaped, volcanic island with each side being between 12 and 14 miles long.

Only 66 square miles in size, this island is one tenth the size of Bucks county. The island contains almost twenty thousand individual archeological sites. The most impressive are the MOAI, colossal stone statues representing "aringa ora" or living faces of ancestors. Many were erected on "ahu," large stone platforms. More than 880 moai are scattered throughout the island. 397 of them, in various stages of completion, still lie in the quarry. They vary in height between 12 and 30 feet and weigh from 20 to more than 80 tons. Two hundred eighty-eight moi were originally erected on 250 ahu.

The original Polynesian settlers probably arrived between 300 and 600 AD. Over the centuries a flourishing culture developed leaving behind many residential and religious sites. Eventually, there was a complete cultural collapse. The prevailing opinion is that over population led to defoliation. All of the native trees on the island were cut. They were most likely used over generations for thousands of funeral cremations, canoes, residential structures, temples and as rollers to transport moi to be erected on ahu. Woodland was also clear cut to open up land for crops. The result was massive erosion of very thin soil. This in turn reduced fertility which led to disappearance of bird and marine life. Starvation set in. The struggle to survive resulted in open warfare between islanders and eventually all moi were toppled from ahu. Captain Cook witnessed the final stages of this era when he stopped in 1774. In the 1800s 1,400 Rapa Nui were kidnapped by Peruvian slave traders to die miserable deaths in Peru. Many of the few who were left on the island succumbed to diseases brought by Catholic missionaries. By the 1880s Chile had annexed the island and leased it to a British wool company as a sheep ranch. Until the lease was revoked in 1953, tens of thousands of sheep trampled over the sensitive prehistoric sites and destroyed what little was left of native vegetation.

Today only one native plant species survives in isolated pockets, a type of swamp grass. All existing trees and shrubs were planted in the 20th century and are not native. The last native tree, a toromiro, died in the 1960's. Most native birds were wiped out long ago and only one species occasionally nests.
Today, about 4,000 people live on Rapa Nui. Many have some Chilean blood. However, about 75% are Rapa Nui or Rapa Nui-related. Efforts are being made to encourage the use of the Rapa Nui language and preserve remnants of Rapa Nui music and dance. Some moi have been re-erected on ahu. Rapa Nui people can understand the Tahitian, Cook Island Maori and New Zealand Maori languages even though these island are thousands of miles apart. This obviously indicates that there was a lot of interaction over the centuries. More than 4000 horses and cattle continue to trample sensitive sites.