Monterey Bay has been home to many diverse cultures throughout history. First inhabited by Native Americans, then settled by the Spanish, it later became home to many Chinese, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese immigrants. Each culture left a unique mark on the history and legacy of Cannery Row, including the early success of the area’s squid, […]

Chinese fishing families crossed the Pacific in junks and settled at Point Ohlones (“China Point”) and established Monterey’s fishing industry. In 1927, the American Tin Cannery was constructed on this site and survives today as a retail and entertainment center.

The arrival of the Southern Pacific Rail Road and the construction of the Hotel Del Monte, the most lavish seaside resort in the world, opened the entire Monterey Peninsula to tourism.

The Tevis Estate, constructed in the elegant style of the era, on the shoreline outside Monterey intended for grand residential development, on a coastal road (part of the original 17 Mile Drive) which would become Cannery Row. Today, the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa offers visitors a chance to return to a more graceful era […]

Start of the Monterey canning industry: Booth Cannery in the Monterey harbor and the Japanese canning venture, Monterey Fishing & Canning Co., on the coastline near McAbee Beach.

The Chinese settlement at China Point burned for the third and final time, ending the Chinese as a major force in the Monterey fishing and canning industry. A smaller settlement was established on McAbee Beach in 1907.

World War I cannery expansion driven by wartime demand: Hovden Food Products, Monterey Canning Company, Pacific Fish Company, Bayside Fish & Flour, San Xavier Canning Company, California Fisheries Co., and Pacific Packers/Great Western Sardine Co.

Lightning struck large petroleum oil tanks above Cannery Row near the harbor. When they exploded, a river of flaming oil destroyed two canneries on the way to the sea, and burned on the bay, nearly reaching Fisherman’s Wharf before wind and tide changed to save it.

The Wu family built the stylish Ocean View Hotel and its annex in 1929 as part of the Roaring Twenties expansion of Monterey – but on a street with a growing canning and fish meal industry becoming famous for its horrendous odors. Today, the Spindrift Inn is located on the site and reflects the charm […]

Purse-Seiners, large and modern boats with nets a quarter mile long and two hundred feet deep, become the new “Wolves of the Sea” in the plunder of a seemingly inexhaustible supply of sardines. The technology to deplete the “Silver Tide” had arrived.