Hometown History - Visiting Monterey
Saturday, July 05 2008 | Comments (0)
Oops, wrong side of the fence.
Monterey County, is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in central California. The city is noted for its rich history of resident artists, its historic fishery, the origination of Monterey Jack cheese and its the birthplace of Tory Belleci. It's a perfect origination for the cheesy, yet intelligent, MythBusters crew member.
Tory got his start in 1994, after graduating from San Francisco State University's film school. He started working with Jamie at a small production company. He worked as a stage manager, but before too long he started work at Industrial Light and Magic as a model builder, sculptor and painter.
Tory also has written and directed his own short films including the 1999 short Sand Trooper, which played at the Slamdance Film Festival and also aired on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Tory began work on MythBusters in 2003. But, enough about him . . .
Monterey was formed around fishing and marine life, since prehistoric times.It was once inhabited by the Rumsen Ohlone tribe, one of seven linguistically distinct Ohlone groups in California.They lived a life of hunting, fishing and gathering. The most prominent archaeological resources here are the garbage dumps they left behind. The principal archaeological sites that have been mapped are located between the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Naval Postgraduate School.
Now days, the area is near Cannery Row, a tourist attraction honoring the historic fisheries in Monterey Bay. These fisheries died out in the 1950s due to overfishing. A few of the old fishermen's cabins from the late 1900s have been preserved and still stand in the historic district. There are also several museums and more than thirty carefully preserved historic buildings.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the largest in North America. It hosts several important marine science laboratories. The city's geographic location gives scientists access to the deep sea within hours.It provides visitors and scuba divers, of all abilities, with an abundance and diversity of marine life, including: sea lions, sea otters, harbor seals, bat rays, kelp (seaweed) forests, pelicans and dolphins.
A few miles offshore is Monterey Canyon, the largest and deepest underwater canyon off the Pacific coast of North America.
Monterey skyline.
Monterey was established in 1770 by Father Junípero Serra and Gaspar de Portolà and it served as the capital of California from 1777 to 1849, under Spain and Mexico.It was also the site of the July 7, 1846, Battle of Monterey during the Mexican-American War. On that date, John D. Sloat, Commodore in the United States Navy, raised the U.S. flag over the Monterey Customs House and claimed California for the U.S.
Many other California "firsts" occurred in Monterey - California's first theater, brick house, publicly funded school, public building, public library, and printing press. California's first constitution was drafted there in October 1849.
Monterey was a history center for California painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Painters such as Arthur Frank Mathews, Armin Hansen, Xavier Martinez, Rowena Meeks Abdy and Percy Gray lived or visited the city for inspiration.
Many noted authors have also lived in and around the Monterey area such as John Steinbeck, Robinson Jeffers, Robert A. Heinlein, Henry Miller, Ed Ricketts, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Among the great patrons of the arts is Virginia Stanton who is immortalized for her contributions with her name on the Museum of Maritime History near Old Fisherman's Wharf. Monterey is also the home of the Thomas Kinkade National Archive. Many of Kinkade's original works can be viewed there.
In modern times, Monterey has been recognized for its involvement in post-secondary learning of languages other than English and its major role in delivering translation and interpretation services around the world.
The town of 30-ish thousand was a great way to end off the Hometown series. A quaint town, steeped in history that brought us the fun and charismatic Tory. . .so, thanks for being born there, big guy.
Printable version Email this articles Comments (0) Post Comment
