Stock-raising, with King City as an important center, brings the region more than $3,500,000 every year and dairying almost as much again.
Oil was discovered near San Ardo about eight years ago and production from this field, which has 480 active wells, holds steady at 30,000 barrels a day.
Mountains Marching to the Sea, Red Tiles Amid the Green of Cypress, White Clouds, Bare Cliffs and Crashing Surf—These Spell Enchantment
Highway One crosses this graceful span, whose arch rises 260 feet above Bixby Creek, on its way southward beside the ocean.
The Monterey Peninsula’s Seventeen Mile Drive is world-known for its beauty and variety. Above, a distant glimpse of Monterey.
Also important economically are the many military installations. The vast Hunter Liggett Military Reservation has headquarters near Jolon. At Fort Ord, a few miles north of Monterey, 30,000 to 35,000 military personnel and about 2,000 civilian employees are on duty. The once-famed Del Monte Hotel at Monterey has become a postgraduate school for naval engineering officers, with a faculty and student body totalling about 2,000. The Presidio of Monterey, established so long ago by Portola, is now an army school where some 400 specialists instruct about 2,000 students in one or another of 26 languages.
Of late years the construction industry has been very important, for cities all through Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties are growing so rapidly they are fairly bursting at the seams. At Salinas, residential development has extended far north of the Rodeo Grounds, which once were out in the country. Outside the city limits to the east is another development, called Alisal, almost equal in size to the residential area of Salinas itself. And there are several smaller subdivisions. At Monterey new subdivisions and communities, some very beautiful, extend far to the north and many fine old trees are being taken from properties along the Carmel Road to make room for more homes. Carmel has overflowed into Carmel Valley. Santa Cruz is adding residential construction at a rate of about $3,000,000 annually. Watsonville has grown more than 20 per cent since 1950.
Busy as it may be, however, it is all a friendly, hospitable country. Nowhere will you find people too hurried to bid you welcome and to do what they can to make your stay enjoyable.