Shaping the Shoreline: Fisheries and Tourism on the Monterey Coast

328 Pages·2008·2.945 MB·English

by  Connie Y. Chiang

the
shoreline
Shaping
fisheries and tourism
on the monterey coast
connie y. chiang
foreword by william cronon
Chiang,Shaping 5/28/08 3:16 PM Page i
weyerhaeuser environmental books
william cronon, editor
WeyerhaeuserEnvironmentalBooksexplorehumanrelationshipswithnatural
environmentsinalltheirvarietyandcomplexity.Theyseektocastnewlighton
thewaysthatnaturalsystemsaffecthumancommunities,thewaysthatpeople
affect the environments of which they are a part, and the ways that different
culturalconceptionsofnatureprofoundlyshapeoursenseoftheworldaround
us.Acompletelistingofthebooksintheseriesappearsattheendofthisbook.
Chiang,Shaping 5/28/08 3:16 PM Page ii
Chiang,Shaping 5/28/08 3:16 PM Page iii
Shaping
the
fisheries and tourism on the monterey coast
Shoreline
foreword by william cronon
Connie Y. Chiang
university of washington press • seattle and london
Chiang,Shaping 5/28/08 3:16 PM Page iv
shaping the shoreline has been published with the assistance of
a grant from the weyerhaeuser environmental books endowment,
established by the weyerhaeuser company foundation, members
of the weyerhaeuser family, and janet and jack creighton.
©2008bytheUniversityofWashingtonPress
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
DesignedbyPamelaCanell
1211100908 54321
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproducedortransmittedin
anyformorbyanymeans,electronicormechanical,includingphotocopy,recording,
oranyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthe
publisher.
UniversityofWashingtonPress,POBox50096,Seattle,WA 98145
www.washington.edu/uwpress
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Chiang,ConnieY.
Shapingtheshoreline:fisheriesandtourismontheMontereycoast/
ConnieY.Chiang:forewordbyWilliamCronon.—1sted.
p. cm.—(Weyerhauserenvironmentalbooks)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-0-295-98831-3(hardback:alk.paper)
1. Fisheries—California—MontereyPeninsula—History. 2. Tourism—California—
MontereyPeninsula—History. 3. MontereyPeninsula(Calif.)—History.I.Title.
sh222c3c452008 338.4'79179476—dc22 2008002935
Thepaperusedinthispublicationisacid-freeand90percentrecycledfromatleast
50percentpost-consumerwaste.ItmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican
NationalStandardforInformationSciences—PermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary
Materials,ansiz39.48–1984.8A
Jacketillustration:“TheOldWitchTree.”E.AlexanderPowell,“Autobirdsof
Passage,”SunsetMagazine,February1949.
Chiang,Shaping 5/28/08 3:16 PM Page v
for Matthew and Benjamin
Chiang,Shaping 5/28/08 3:16 PM Page vi
CONTENTS
FOREWORD: ON THE SHORE BETWEEN WORK
AND P LAY BY WI L L I A M C RON 0 N IX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XV
Introduction: The Voice of the Pacific 3
1
Contested Shores 12
2
The Divided Coastline 38
J
Reduce and Prosper 60
4-
Life, Labor, and Odors on Cannery Row 79
.) Boom and Bust in Wartime Monterey 102
b
Remaking Cannery Row 132
7
The Fish Are Back! 155
Conclusion 182
NOTES 193
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 251
IN D EX 269
Chiang,Shaping 5/28/08 3:16 PM Page viii
Chiang,Shaping 5/28/08 3:16 PM Page ix
foreword
william cronoOnn the Shore betweenWork and Play
M
onterey is nowhere near the top of California’s long list of
world-classtouristdestinations.Asmeasuredbyannualvisi-
tation rates in the early twenty-first century, it doesn’t come
closetoAnaheim’sDisneyland,SanFrancisco’sFisherman’sWharf,Los
Angeles’sUniversalStudios,SanDiego’sSeaWorld,Hollywood’sGrau-
man’s ChineseTheater, orYosemite National Park.1 But the Monterey
BayAquariumisstillpopular,attractingmorethanamillionandahalf
visitorseachyeartoitsextraordinarydisplaysofthemarinelifethatlives
offshoreofthiscommunity120milessouthoftheGoldenGate.Founded
in1978withagiftfromtheDavidandLucilePackardFoundationand
shapedfromthebeginningbythevisionaryleadershipofJuliePackard,
the aquarium is regarded as among the most innovative in the world,
helpingvisitorsunderstandtheecologicalhabitatsofMontereyBaywhile
alsotakingspecialcaretoshowcasethebeautyoftheunderwaterworld.
Visitorsfromallaroundtheglobeseekoutitswonders.
TheaquariumstandsonthesiteoftheHovdenCannery,whichwas
builtin1916andoperateduntilitwentoutofbusiness—thelastMonte-
reycannerytodoso—in1973.Behindtheticketcounterwherevisitors
nowenterthebuilding,afewoftheHovdenboilersstandasareminder
ofanearlierindustrialera.Forthefirsthalfofthetwentiethcentury,this
was the heart of Cannery Row, the neighborhood of docks, packing
plants, saloons, and brothels made famous by the novelist John Stein-
beck. “Cannery Row,” wrote Steinbeck in 1945, “is a poem, a stink,
agratingnoise,aqualityoflight,atone,ahabit,anostalgia,adream.”
InCanneryRow,hedescribesanindustrialscenefardifferentfromwhat
ix