Hawaii looks like paradise, and that's why millions of people come to the islands here every single year. But every year, they return home to find themselves cursed. What they don't know is that they've actually been duped...by a group of park rangers.

Pele’s Curse Pele is the beautiful but vengeful goddess who guards the Hawaiian islands, and guard them she does. Local lore says that Pele's Curse will fall upon you if you take any of her natural treasures away from the islands. Rocks, shells, sticks, sand -- don't take it unless you want to feel her wrath.

Breaking the Curse At least once a week, the Hawaiian post office receives mail from tourists who returned home with treasures -- treasures they are now returning to Hawaii. Many include letters or short notes to Pele, begging her forgiveness and asking her to lift the curse.

Tracing the Legend The park services gets mail with returned items in it every single day, and they hate it. This is ironic only because it was the Hawaiian park rangers who originally invented Pele's curse. No matter what anyone tells you, this is not an ancient Hawaiian legend. In fact, it only dates to about 1946.

Finding the Truth You'll find no mention of Pele's curse in Polynesian mythology, and nothing about cursed rocks in their lore. In fact, park officials say, stories about the curse are offensive to Hawaiian mythology. However, they are quick to point out that removing natural items like rocks from the island is definitely bad luck. That's the story they've been sticking with since about 1946, when officials found that simply outlawing natural souvenirs wasn't enough to deter tourists from taking them.

Inventing a Legend It's illegal to take rocks, plant matter and minerals of all kinds from Hawaiian parks, including the volcano parks that draw visitors every single year. But people didn't start really taking these warnings seriously until 1946, when one very disgruntled park ranger made up the story about Pele's Curse, and the legend began to spread. There were several stories about victims of the curse in the 1970s, and since then it's made its way into Hawaiian tourism websites and brochures.