Point Lobos is an area in Monterey County, California, which encompasses Point Lobos Natural Reserve, Point Lobos State Marine Reserve, and Point Lobos State Marine Conservation Area (). It is currently used as a marine protected area, a recreational scuba diving destination, and for hiking by tourists, but the area has a long cultural history. The coastal area was inhabited by tribes of indigenous people that are known collectively as the Ohlone, who lived in the area until the first European explorers arrived in 1602 (). Since then, Point Lobos has been inhabited by a number of different people until it was turned into a wildlife protection area in the 20th century. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the history of the Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese settlers in Point Lobos and to describe their movements after they left Point Lobos.
As a coastal region, Point Lobos was inevitably attractive to fishermen. Over the last 200 years, the area has “been home to American Indians, Chinese fisherman, Japanese abalone harvesters, and Portuguese whalers” (Heid 57). Chronologically, the first non-Native group to settle in this area for the fishing alone were the Chinese, who used the sheltered cover prior to the shore-whaling operations of the Portuguese settlers (Hemp 26). The first documented arrival of Japanese people in the Monterey Bay area was a “group of twelve Japanese males, which includes two students, four laborers, and six fishermen” (Lydon 32). The Japanese used the area for abalone harvesting and canning operations. Evidently, whilst each of the settling groups used the marine location of Point Lobos to their own advantage, there were elements of tradition and culture in defining exactly what purpose the area would be used for.
Chinese Settlers
There is no photographic evidence of the Chinese families in Point Lobos, but there is evidence of their arrival in both the written and archaeological records. The first families arrived in 1851 to start fishing operations in the area. This small group of people and their families arrived in the Monterey Bay area by sailing “across the Pacific in three small thirty- to fifty-foot junks” (Thomas 10). The boats landed in the area because of a phenomenon known as the black tide, a series of currents that pushed the boats towards Point Lobos. The first child of Chinese origin “to be born at Point Lobos was Quock Mui in 1859, she was later known as Spanish Mary because of her fluency in Spanish” (Hudson & Wood, 38). The Chinese fisherman built in the area of the Whalers Cabin which can be found at the right of the cove.
Whilst it is the Japanese settlers who are perhaps most well-known for abalone gathering, the Chinese settlers were also involved in collecting abalone because it is a special food item in Chinese cuisine. These small sea snails were illegal for peasants to gather in China, but there was no similar law prohibiting gathering in Monterey Bay, which meant that after some time Chinese communities all over California were heading to Point Lobos and other local areas to begin collecting abalone, to the extent that one newspaper called it the “Abalone Rush” (Thomas 10). By 1898, however, there was a large reduction in the numbers of intertidal and shallow water abalone in the area and there were state regulations that prevented gathering in these areas, restricting collection to divers who could collect abalone from the deeper waters. The Chinese settlers did not dive, which essentially heralded the end of the abalone collecting era in California (Thomas 11).
Japanese Settlers
The Chinese settlers in Point Lobos were no longer permitted to collect abalone through their traditional methods. There was also an increase in anti-Chinese feelings across the United States, and 1970 saw a California referendum on the continuation of Chinese immigration into the area, of which only 7 out of 5835 votes cast were in favor of continuing immigration (Thomas 11). 1882 saw the United States sign the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prevented Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States, a ban which lasted until 1943. The result of this combination of factors is that the number of Japanese immigrants to the West Coast increased dramatically, including a man named Otasaburo Noda, who started a lumber cutting and gathering company as part of the Southern Pacific Railroad effort (Thomas 11). When cutting wood in Monterey, Noda “noticed the incredible variety of fish and red abalone in the Monterey Bay” and was surprised that “nobody was utilizing this vast marine resource” (Thomas 11).
The effect of this is that Noda stopped working for the lumber company and moved to Monterey Bay to start a fishing colony that was primarily composed of fishermen from Wakayama Prefecture, Japan (Thomas 11). He then opened the first sardine cannery in 1902, which then expanded into the Monterey Fishing and Canning Company, which then went on to become the dominant force in both the abalone industry and fishing in general in the Point Lobos area (Thomas 11). The Japanese fishing colonies were some of the largest such settlements in the United States.
Portuguese Settlers
The Portuguese settlers in the Point Lobos area lived there concurrently with the Chinese and Japanese fishermen and abalone gatherers. The Portuguese were primarily concerned with hunting whales, and began operations in 1861. They harpooned the whales by rowing into the sea in long boats, from which their whaled and brought the spoils back to Point Lobos (Hudson & Wood 4). The majority of the Portuguese settlers in the area came from the Azores. These whalers were young boys and men that left the Azores in order to escape both poverty and the Portuguese draft, escaping by stowing away on American whaling ships are being hired as sailors to make their way to the Americas (Hudson & Wood 6). Whaling was a profitable industry for a number of reasons, but mainly because whale oil was used for lighting. This oil was extracted at Point Lobos itself, through extraction in cast iron whale blubber pots which were heated until the oil floated to the top (Hudson & Wood 9). .
The Portuguese settlers either left the area or continued on as dairy farmers in Monterey Bay. The reason for this is that kerosene replaced whale oil for lighting, which meant that the dangerous career of whaling become less profitable (Hudson & Wood 8). As with the Chinese settlers, Point Lobos was no longer a place in which the Portuguese needed to live and work, and thus the area was given over to the Japanese canneries and fishing industry. When Point Lobos became a protected area, the Japanese settlers too left for other careers across California, although many stayed on the West Coast (Lydon 47).
Works Cited
Heid, Analise Elliot. Hiking and Backpacking Big Sur: A Complete Guide to the Trails of Big Sur, Ventana Wilderness, and Silver Peak Wilderness. Wilderness Press, 2014. Print.
Hemp, Michael Kenneth. Cannery Row: The History of John Steinbeck’s Old Ocean View Avenue. History Company, 2002. Print.
Hudson, Monica, and Suzanne Wood. Point Lobos. Arcadia Publishing, 2004. Print.
Lydon, Sandy. Chinese Gold: The Chinese in the Monterey Bay Region. Capitola Book Company, 1985. Print.
---. The Japanese in the Monterey Bay Region: A Brief History. Capitola Book Company, 1997. Print.
Thomas, Tim. The Abalone King of Monterey: “Pop” Ernest Doelter, Pioneering Japanese Fishermen and the Culinary Classic That Saved an Industry. The History Press, 2014. Print.
