Monterey Bay History

The earliest known inhabitants of the Monterey Peninsula were the Essalen, a Hokan-speaking primordial people who predominated for some 2,500 years. From 500 BC to 500 AD, the Essalen was displaced by the Ohlone Indians.

OHLONE: EARLY INHABITANTS
OF MONTEREY BAY

There was no Ohlone tribe, such as the Sioux or Cherokee or Suquamish tribal civilizations. "Ohlone" describes more than 50 small communities inhabiting the west coast from San Francisco to the Monterey Peninsula. They did not share much but cultural practices and the roots of their languages, which are apparent only to linguists. And imagine, the land each community inhabited usually covered six to twelve miles with boundaries established by ecosystems such as waterways and marshes. As you putter along on your road trip, take a minute to understand your mobility.

Monterey Bay's modern history began on November 15, 1542, when Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo sighted the Bay of Pinos. Sebastian Viscaino was the first to touch the "new land" when he sailed into the bay on December 16, 1602. He claimed it for Spain and named the harbor for the Viceroy of Mexico, the Count of Monterey.

"In 1767 when the King of Spain banished the Jesuit Society from his dominions, the thirteen Jesuit missions in Baja California were suddenly left unstaffed. Junipero Serra was assigned the new Superior of Baja California, and within several years he was given orders to move into Alta California, or what today is known as the state of California. In 1769 Serra was appointed padre president of California." He was Franciscan.

Franciscan missions founded at Carmel (1771), Santa Cruz (1791), Santa Clara (1777) and San Juan Bautista (1797) brought an end to the Ohlone way of life. The padres and their entourages established regimes of brutality and slavery which caused local revolts, conflagrations and assassinations.

During the fur trade of the 18th and 19th centuries, southern sea otters were hunted to near extinction.

By 1927, Monterey Bay city life had become settled, productive and opulent. Outside town limits though, the Ohlone/Costanoan Esselen Nation lost recognition in Sacramento that year.

Tribes on the Pacific Coast:
So. Cal CHUMASH
Monterey - SF OHLONE/COSTANOAN
Puget Sound WA SUQUAMISH
Puget Sound WA TULALIP TRIBES

Santa Cruz

Mission la Exaltacion de la Santa Cruz was the 12th Mission in California.

Interested? Visit the Santa Cruz City Museum of Natural History exhibition room dedicated to the Ohlone. Archeological finds are on display to be imagined in context. A huge and lovely mural depicts the people of an Ohlone village in the midst of daily activities. Muralist: Ann Thierman. 1305 E CLIFF DRIVE 831/429-3773. OPEN 10 - 5 TUES - SUN. DONATE ADMISSION

Monterey, California

In Old Monterey, the Path of History Walking Tour promises: "Come step into the past on the "Monterey Walking Path of History" and view the site where Spanish soldiers claimed this land for the King of Spain. ... Walk on a sidewalk of whale bone or see fine antique furnishings displayed in old adobe buildings. Stroll the same streets that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson as he gathered impressions for his classic novel Treasure Island. And stand on the very spot where US troops added 600,000 square miles of land to the United States." Pick up an OMBA Path of History map in downtown Monterey on Alvarado Street.

Visit unique nineteenth century gardens and buildings in Old Monterey.

Robert Louis Stevenson is said to have occupied a room in Stevenson House in Monterey in 1879. This adobe house was dedicated as a California Historical landmark in 1949, and has been restored with period furnishings and several rooms devoted to Stevenson. 510 Houston Street, Monterey. 831/649-7118.

The Hotel Del Monte in Monterey, built in 1880 by the "Big Four", became one of the most luxurious and trendy hotel resorts on the west coast. Now, it belongs to the Navy, housing the Naval Postgraduate School.

Fuel Hasards in 1924 from Monterey to Coalinga: The First Oil Pipeline in California & The Great Monterey Oil Fire of 1924.

John Steinbeck, man about town in Salinas, Pacific Grove & Monterey, received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

The Army cleared out of Fort Ord in during the early 1990s. Today, after many dreams for a multi-cultural, multi-discipline, high tech high touch CSU, the California State University Monterey Bay is a reality.

First in the USA with a language, culture and team-training curriculum many of the great institutions are only now adopting, the Monterey Institute of International Studies continues to educate internationalist grad students.