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Cannery Row, Monterey:
in Fact and in Fiction
Any travelers looking for Monterey's Cannery Row when John Steinbeck first published his novel would have been disappointed as it didn't exist. Steinbeck's place was a fictionalised version of a real Monterey street named Ocean View Avenue. It was re-named Cannery Row in 1953 in honor of Steinbeck's novel, an example of life imitating art.Cannery Row is a more accurate name than the more optimistic
Ocean View Avenue, if you take into account how Steinbeck described it in his novel:
"... chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses."
The first canneries were built here in Monterey in the late 19th century, to can salmon, but they quickly switched to canning the sardines that were more commonplace in Monterey Bay. The business flourished so much that at one time there were 18 canneries along this same street, employing thousands of workers. It was the poorer transients, the co-workers and the no-workers, the bums and the good-time girls, who interested Steinbeck. His affection for them shines through the book.John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row was published in 1945, following on from his earlier great successes with Tortilla Flat (1935), Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Tortilla Flat first introduced the characters of Cannery Row, and so popular were they with both the public and their author that Steinbeck continued the adventures, and introduced some new characters, in his 1954 novel Sweet Thursday. No visit to Monterey is complete without reading at least one of Steinbeck's tales, with Cannery Row probably the best of the three. And before visiting Cannery Row or California generally, Steinbeck fans should read our review of this John Steinbeck California Guide.
ED RICKETTS
Steinbeck's great friend, the marine biologist Dr Edward F. Ricketts, appears both as himself and in disguise as other characters in Steinbeck's fiction. Ed Ricketts was also Steinbeck's companion in the sea journey they made in the Gulf of California (also known by the more evocative name of the Sea of Cortez) which Steinbeck described in his book, The Log from the Sea of Cortez.
Ed Ricketts' marine laboratory, the Pacific Biological Laboratories, can still be seen (but not visited) at 800 Cannery Row from 1928 to 1948.
CANNERY ROW TODAY
The last working cannery in Cannery Row closed in 1972, with over-fishing having wiped out the Monterey Bay sardine stocks. This was the Hovden canning plant, but within a few years the plant had been turned into the impressive Monterey Bay Aquarium. The crowds the Aquarium attracted helped develop Cannery Row, and Monterey, as a popular tourist destination. Today there are hotels where there were flophouses, real chic restaurants replace Steinbeck's Bear Flag Restaurant, and the decline in the sardine population has been replaced by an increase in the population of California sea lions, thanks to the area being made into a marine sanctuary.
WHALE WATCHING IN MONTEREY
See the Whale Watching in California page.
GETTING AROUND MONTEREY
Read the San Francisco Chronicle's advice on how to park your car cheaply and get around Monterey on the free WAVE trolley.
Go from Cannery Row to
the People of the Pacific Coast Highway
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Popular Pages
The most popular pages on Pacific Coast Highway Travel right now are:
Drive the Pacific Coast Highway
Whale Watching in California
Where to Stay on the PCH
Pacific Coast Highway Maps
PCH Hotels Guide
To help you in choosing your Pacific Coast Highway hotel, guesthouse, inn, bed-and-breakfast, resort, motel or other accommodations, we've prepared our Pacific Coast Highway Hotels Guide ebook. In it we do mini-reviews of accommodations along the Highway, from Seattle to San Diego, through Washington, Oregon, and California.
For the 2011 edition we added new hotels, including a special 50-hotel section covering California’s wine country of Napa, Sonoma, and Paso Robles - by far the most popular diversion from the PCH drive. In all there are over 200 hotels listed, complete with 8 pages of color maps showing the towns where our recommended hotels can be found. There are both alphabetical and geographical indexes, helping you plan your journey.
We also include color photos of all the hotels that are our Personal Favorites. Here's the link to
read more about our ebook guide to Pacific Coast Highway hotels
Or you can buy it here for $2.99:
KINDLE EDITION
The Hotels Guide is also available but without the maps and color photos in the US Kindle Store for $4.99 and in the UK Kindle Store at a price based on the US price.
NOOK EDITION
The guide is also available at Barnes and Noble for the Nook.
PAPERBACK EDITION
If you want a printed edition without color photos and with only black and white maps, it costs $8.99 at the Amazon US store.
We've also published our PCH Hotels Guide as an app in the Apple Store.
You can buy it here and
read about it here.
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