?EUR??,,????'?????<

The street made world famous by John Steinbeck?EUR??,,????'?????<

PHOTO COURTESY OF Andrea Fick

In the late 1800s, Portuguese shore-whaling and salmon fishing were conducted off the rocky shoreline and small beaches below the road. The construction of the railroad to Monterey, and to its lavish Hotel Del Monte, brought vacationers and fashionable tourism to the former (and still sleepy) Spanish-Mexican capital of Alta California. The railroad also brought immigration to the Monterey Bay region. Among these immigrants, were the Italian (Genovese) fisherman that would pressure, challenge and eventually drive the Chinese from fishing primacy on the bay.

 

PHOTO COURTESY OF Michael Hemp

At the turn of the century, salmon was the fishing industry?EUR??,,????'?????<

The unsightliness, smell and processing waste from Booth?EUR??,,????'?????<

Parts of the Cannery Row streetscape preserve a classical aesthetic; other sections have been revitalized and updated to accommodate the tourists that flock to Monterey. Jade plants are below the Bougainvilleas that climb the buildings. PHOTO COURTESY OF Grant Huntington

Sicilians and their lampara net fishing techniques, coupled with the inventive genius of a Norwegian immigrant with fishing industry experience, Knut Hovden, began a decade of improvement in the technology of fishing and canning that positioned Monterey?EUR??,,????'?????<

Artemisia, Phlomis and gladiolas fill the Steinbeck memorial planter. PHOTO COURTESY OF Jeffery Greenberg

Monterey?EUR??,,????'?????<

Originally called Ocean View Avenue for its proximity to the beach, the Cannery Row moniker was officially adopted in 1958.

The canning boom driven by World War II saw Monterey become the ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The redeveloped sections of Cannery Row accommodate tourists while upholding the historical elements of the area?EUR??,,????'?????<

But the curious came to see the old canneries and experience the funky, ghostlike revival of the area as a tourist attraction ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Cypress trees provide shade along Cannery Row. PHOTO COURTESY OF MPA

It is estimated that of the approximately one billion sardines caught each season in Monterey Bay during its rise to world prominence as the ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The Monterey sardines (pilchards) were 11-14 inches long (smelt or mackerel size), unlike the finger-sized Atlantic sardines many are accustomed to.

Judith Deim displays her portrait of John Steinbeck, the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962. The area owes its notoriety to sardine fishing and Steinbeck?EUR??,,????'?????<

The sardines were caught primarily at night, when the turbulence of their acre-size schools ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Michael Kenneth Hemp, Cannery Row historian, is a writer and photographer. His work can be seen at www.thehistorycompany.com.

Andrea Fick?EUR??,,????'?????<

The Jeffrey Greenberg photos and Grant Huntington photo courtesy Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau.

MPA Designs can be contacted at www.mpadesign.com.

Louie Marcuzzo, senior park maintenance manager of Montery, idenified the plants and trees of Cannery Row.