Book opens pages to the past
I think we all tend to think of our surroundings as pretty
immutable. We look at the hills to the east and west of us in San
Benito County comfortable in the knowledge that they probably look
much as they did 150 years ago. While Morgan Hill climbed steadily
into the Diablos, our mountains remained in productive
agriculture.
It’s the notion that things don’t change, or change slowly, that
makes a modest little book that arrived on my desk this week so
fascinating.
Book opens pages to the past
I think we all tend to think of our surroundings as pretty immutable. We look at the hills to the east and west of us in San Benito County comfortable in the knowledge that they probably look much as they did 150 years ago. While Morgan Hill climbed steadily into the Diablos, our mountains remained in productive agriculture.
It’s the notion that things don’t change, or change slowly, that makes a modest little book that arrived on my desk this week so fascinating.
“Monterey County’s North Coast and Coastal Valleys,” by Margaret Clovis, looks back over the last century or so at a region that is vastly changed. The book is one of the “Images of America” series by Arcadia Publishing that captures locations all over the United States in pictures knit together by little more than captions.
This book captures Pajaro, Castroville, Moss Landing and Aromas.
Because Aromas is closest to home, and because my Aunt Pearl grew up there, it’s the first place in the book I went. And, after looking unsuccessfully for a face that resembled my aunt’s in the dozens of pictures, I settled in to go through the images of Aromas of long ago.
Today Aromas is a modest town sheltered by a surrounding blanket of Eucalyptus. It is determinedly different, a place with a personality all its own.
Photos dating back to when Pearl was growing up show that the town had its personality then, but the changes in the landscape are startling. Some of Pearl’s relatives worked for the railroad, in a roundhouse that turned cars around on a spur track. Indeed, the book pictures the Aromas Southern Pacific Depot with station agent Floyd Hawkins posing outside, a natty bowler perched at a rakish angle on his head.
The town they occupied was still surrounded by fringing eucalyptus, much smaller and less numerous then. The feature that defined the town was the apricot and apple orchards that surrounded it. The apricots are gone, and most of the apple operations have retreated to the floor of the Pajaro Valley. Enormous oaks were everywhere.
Granite Rock Co.’s enormous Wilson Quarry was a relatively modest hole in the ground back then. Fifteen men using picks and shovels pounded up rock, taking it in wheelbarrows to mule-drawn wagons for transfer to rail cars. By 1909, a steam shovel eased the workers’ burden. Crew members worked 10-hour days in exchange for a generous wage of $1.75 per hour.
Aromas offered its share of attractions. Workers who came in to harvest apricots lived in a tent “resort” along the banks of the Pajaro River. Local men dammed the river each summer, creating a generous swimming hole complete with a diving board. The river of then was broad and free-flowing. At night, local people would gather for a bonfire and music.
When they weren’t splashing in the river, there were other diversions.
Sometimes, a sharp, acrid scent arrived on the sea breeze. The people of Aromas knew then that harpooned whales had arrived at the Moss Landing station for unloading.
Yes, there was active whaling in the Monterey Bay during the 20th Century.
The California Sea Products Co. opened its station in 1919, and continued to operate until 1926. Two steam-powered whalers kept the station supplied with whales. The smell was said to be so pervasive that Moss Landing residents always knew where they were from because they carried an odor that could not be washed off.
When people in Aromas had the time, they’d sometimes load up the Model T’s and head over to watch the giants being winched ashore and processed.
The whales were dissected and every part used for oil, meat, glue, pet food and fertilizer. It was an inglorious end for countless magnificent animals, and nothing of the plant, or of whaling, remains in the area today.
Moss Landing also was a major conduit for the abundant produce of the Pajaro Valley. Flat-bottomed boats sailed up and down Elkhorn Slough, loaded with fresh vegetables that were loaded onto ships in Moss Landing for sale in cities up and dow n the state.
“Monterey County’s North Coast and Coastal Valleys” offers eloquent proof that our landscape does change in the space of a generation or two, and sometimes for the better.
