Skip to main content

Cannery Row Monterey

On my way back from CA 68 and Asilomar Beach I made my way to Cannery Row for old times sake.  Cannery Row was part of what was one of biggest trips my family took in all the way back in 1993 when we were residing in Connecticut.  The 1993 trip started in San Francisco and ended in San Diego, most of it was taken along California State Route 1.  Cannery Row in Monterey was part of the 1993 vacation  due to it being a name tourist destination and location of the Monterey Bay Aquarium which had opened in 1984.  I thought it would be interesting to take some comparison pictures which honestly really didn't look much different despite the passage of time.

Cannery Row was part of the original alignment of 17 Mile Drive back in 1901.  I'm not all that familiar with the backstory of the Cannery but it appears to have been split off at least by the early 1920s since the sardine canning industry appears to have begun as early as 1902.  Cannery Row actually has a website and has some good historical references that go into much more detail than I can:

Cannery Row History

The canning industry appears to have gone defunct by 1973 and Cannery Row became more of a tourist destination.   Pretty much Cannery Row has kept the historic motif which really has been helped by the Monterey Bay Aquarium drawing tourist interest.








As for that family trip, after Monterey we made our way south on CA 1 through Big Sur.  I really wish that I had more photos from that trip of Big Sur but it was the age of having to take your film to the photo booth or using a Polaroid which didn't really lend to having anything in volume.  Really it was my first experience on the West Coast and sure was an eye opener having lived only in Michigan and Connecticut up to that point.  I pretty much knew even then as a kid that I wanted to be on the West Coast and made good on it back in the early 2000s moving across the country the week after I graduate high school.  Weird to see that Cannery Row looks exactly as how I remembered it even after a quarter century, even stranger that I never thought to go revisit despite being in Monterey as often as I am.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

US Route 62 and US Route 180 in the Guadalupe Mountains

US Route 62/US Route 180 between El Paso, Texas and Carlsbad, New Mexico passes through the Guadalupe Mountains.  The Guadalupe Mountains comprise the highest peaks of Texas which are largely protected as part Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  The automotive highway through the Guadalupe Mountains was constructed in the late 1920s as part of Texas State Road 54.  US Route 62 was extended from Carlsbad through the Guadalupe Mountains to El Paso during 1932.  US Route 62 was joined in the Guadalupe Mountains by US Route 180 in 1943.  The Guadalupe Mountains comprise a portion of the 130 mile "No Services" zone on US Route 62/US Route 180 between El Paso-Carlsbad. Part 1; the history of US Route 62 and US Route 180 in the Guadalupe Mountains The Guadalupe Mountains lie within the states of Texas and New Mexico.  The Guadalupe Mountains essentially is a southern extension of the larger Rocky Mountains.  The Guadalupe Mountains is the highest range in Texas with the peak elevati

Paper Highways; unbuilt California State Route 100 in Santa Cruz

This edition of Paper Highways examines the unbuilt California State Route 100 in Santa Cruz. The History of Unbuilt California State Route 100 The route that became CA 100 was added to the State Inventory in 1959 as part of the Freeway & Expressway System as Legislative Route 287 .  According to CAhighways.org the initial definition of LRN 287 had it begin at LRN 5 (CA 17) and was defined over the below alignment to LRN 56 (CA 1) through downtown Santa Cruz. -  Ocean Street -  2nd Street -  Chestnut Street For context the above alignment would required tearing down a large part of the densely populated Santa Cruz.  A modern Google imagine immediately reveals how crazy an alignment following Ocean Street, 2nd Street, and Chestnut Street would have been. LRN 287 first appears on the 1960 Division of Highways State Map . In 1961 the definition of LRN 287 was generalized to; from LRN 5 via the beach area in Santa Cruz to LRN 56 west of the San Lorenzo River. 

New Mexico State Road 7 (Carlsbad Caverns Highway)

New Mexico State Road 7 is approximately a seven-mile highway in the Guadalupe Mountains of Eddy County. New Mexico State Road 7 connects US Route 62/US Route 180 at Whites City to the visitor center of Carlsbad Caverns National Park via Walnut Canyon. The so-called Carlsbad Caverns Highway to the National Park visitor center complex was constructed following the designation of the namesake National Monument in 1923. The current iteration of New Mexico State Road 7 was designated by the New Mexico State Highway Commission during June 1929. A proposal once was once floated to connect New Mexico State Road 7 to a cavern drive which would have been blasted into Big Room. Part 1; the history of New Mexico State Road 7 What are now Carlsbad Caverns was explored in the Guadalupe Mountains of Eddy County by local Jim White during 1898.  White explored the caverns via a homemade ladder and named several of the more notable rooms.  The name "Carlsbad Caverns" was derived from the