Billionaire Eyeing Kahoolawe for Real-Life Jurassic Park Attraction

A billionaire is thinking of making Kahoolawe ~ the only uninhabited of Hawaii's major islands ~ into a Jurassic Park-like setting complete with lush greenery and waterfalls.

Just without the dinosaurs.

Thurston Howell IV, from Beverly Hills, has vowed to invest millions of dollars if necessary to get enough water to the troubled island to make it among the greenest of all the Hawaiian islands.

"We keep staring at that island from our vacation property in Wailea, and wonder why it looks so ... dry," Howell said. "We wondered, What's up with that?"

So Howell and his wife, Eunike, did some research and learned the island gets little rainfall because it lies in the shadow of an enormous mountain-volcano, Haleakala.

"We just didn't think that was fair for poor Kahoolawe," Eunike Howell said. "Why can't it have fun just like all the other islands?"

Kahoolawe is uninhabited, as it was used as target practice by the U.S. Navy from the 1940s all the way to 1990. In 1994, the island was finally transferred from the U.S. government to the jurisdiction of the state of Hawaii.

The Howells are in talks with the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission about the logistics.

"It sounds ridiculous, but if someone wants to pay for that much water to be shipped to or dropped on the island, good luck with that," said Joe Kimono, the commission's chairman. "We're just super busy trying to make sure no more unexploded ordnance is on-island."

The hope, say the Howells, is for the island to look like one in those Jurassic Park movies, except with no dinosaurs or people.

"Dinosaurs and people don't mix well," Mr. Howell said. "Plus they stomp all over everything, and who knows how much methane gas they emit. We just want to be able to see a lot of greenery from our balcony in  Wailea."