Monterey

Monterey, a city of Monterey county, California, U.S.A., on the Pacific coast, about 90 m. in a straight line S. by E. from San Francisco, at the S.E. extremity of the Gulf of Monterey, a great open bay 22 m. wide from headland to headland and facing S.W. The harbour is protected by a peninsula extending N.W. Pop. (1900), 1748, largely of Spanish descent; (1910) 4923. It is served by the Southern Pacific railroad, and for freight by the Pacific Coast Steamship Co. It is built in an amphitheatre formed by gently sloping pine-clad hills. In 1881 the Southern Pacific Company erected the Del Monte hotel, with beautiful grounds several miles in extent, and since then the city has come to be one of the favourite resorts of the Pacific coast. The difference between the mean temperatures of the coldest and warmest months of the year (rarely below 47° or above 66° F. respectively) is from io° to 20°; while the thermometer rarely registers below freezing or above 80° F. Within the city limits there is a United States Army post, the Presidio of Monterey, with a musketry school. There are sardine canneries here and good salmon and other fishing; some salmon are shipped to Germany to be smoked. In 1907 the south side of the Gulf of Monterey was made by the state legislature into a preserve for squid and other food for salmon. To San Francisco, Hawaii, Alaska, and elsewhere, Monterey ships annually about 60,000 tons of crude oil, piped here into great steel tanks from the Coalinga oil fields 112 m. away. Sand lime brick is manufactured here.

Before the coming of the Americans, Monterey was the gayest and most ambitious city of California. It was discovered by Sebastian Vizcaino in December 1602, and was named in honour of the then viceroy of New Spain. For a time all trace was lost of Monterey, but in May 1770 the bay was found again by Junipero Serra and Captain Gaspar de Portola. The San Carlos mission of the Franciscans was founded on the 3rd of June 1770, and a presidio was completed in 1778. Near Monterey, in Carmel Valley, whither the mission was almost immediately removed, Father Junipero built a church, in which his remains now rest. In 1891 a statue, representing Junipero stepping from a boat, was erected on the site of the old Mexican fort, on a hill near the landing-place of both Vizcaino and Junipero. Monterey necessarily played a prominent part in the jealousies that divided the north and south; the rivalry of Los Angeles for the dignity of capital being a powerful influence in politics from 1827-1846. In 1845 Los Angeles gained the prize, but in 1847 the American authorities again made Monterey the capital. Even in these years the treasury, custom-house and military headquarters had remained at Monterey. In 1818 it was captured and momentarily held by a Buenos Aires privateer. Here, in 1842, Commodore T. ap C. Jones raised the flag of the United States for a day, and here on the 7th of July 1846, Commodore J. D. Sloat again raised the same flag, which this time was not to come down again. The first American newspaper on the Pacific coast was published at Monterey; and the convention that framed the first constitution of the state met here in September 1849 in Colton Hall, still standing and originally built for a schoolhouse by Walter D. Colton, the first alcalde under American rule. Monterey was never the capital of the new state, and its importance declined after the discovery of gold near Sacramento, San Francisco becoming the leading city. In 1872 the county-seat was removed from Monterey to Salinas. For many years Monterey remained one of the most Spanish towns of California, and though tourists have somewhat disturbed its peace and checked its decay, it still retains much of the quaint aspect and the drowsy contentment of spirit of Mexican days. Since 1900 the population has considerably increased.