Fossiliferous gravels on Lanai, one of the smaller Hawaiian islands, are known collectively as the Hulopoe Gravel. Since 1984 several workers have attributed these gravels to deposition from the run-ups and retreats of mega-tsunami. Other workers, before and since, have interpreted the gravels as rocky shoreline deposits exposed by island uplift. The existence of Harold Stearns' Makana paleoshoreline on Lanai, at 326–365 m elevation, is particularly controversial. In 1936 Stearns collected some marine molluscan fossils from a site at 326 m elevation on the southern slope of Lanai, now known as “Stearns swale”. Details of the site, the fossils and his installed markers were recorded in his field note-book now held by the US Geological Survey in Honolulu. The fossils were lodged in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. During WW II the 326 m site became a military installation, and Stearns' markers and any remaining fossils were destroyed. We have examined Stearns' notebook, the 326 m site and the fossils. Two types of sediment adhere to the fossils: (a) weakly cemented well-rounded biocalcarenite grainstones with minor subrounded basalt fragments; (b) calcite-cemented sub-rounded to well-rounded volcanic litharenite or lithrudite with some bioclasts. The fossil molluscs and the bioclasts in the adhering sands represent organisms typical of Hawaiian rocky shorelines and adjacent submarine slopes. These features are consistent with (1) deposition of the sediments on or closely overlying an unconformity surface cut in basalt bedrock in the vicinity of a rocky shoreline. They are also consistent with (2) derivation of the materials from rocky shorelines or shorefaces at lower elevations and their transport up-slope by waves generated by a Category 5 hurricane or by a mega-tsunami. We prefer the first scenario, as Lanai's vertical mobility is indicated by at least ten topographically distinct shoreline-related deposits located at various elevations on or adjacent to Lanai, including six submerged terraces on its western flank.