ON THE SHORE NEAR LA PUNTA DE LOS CIPRESES.
“The home of those wonderful trees, twisted into a thousand fantastic shapes by their age long struggle with the ocean winds.”
SALINAS
When the Portolá expedition of 1769 arrived at the Salinas River, they made the first of the series of errors which caused them to pass by the bay of Monterey without recognizing it, for they mistook this stream for the Carmel. The Salinas (salt marshes), so-called for the chain of salt-water ponds lying along its course, was known by various names before a permanent one became attached to it, appearing at different times as El Río Elzeario, Santa Delfina, and El Río de Monterey.
The town of Salinas is the county-seat of Monterey County and is situated about eighteen miles east of Monterey, in the heart of an important agricultural, dairying, and sugar-beet district.
SOLEDAD
Soledad (solitude), in Monterey County, 143 miles southeast of San Francisco, is described as “a very dry plain, with few trees, swept by fierce winds and dust storms in summer.” No wonder they called it Soledad,—Lonesometown!
Yet those same dry plains proved to be of sufficient fertility to warrant the establishment, in 1791, of the mission of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, freely translated as “Our Lady of Sorrows,” which became the center of a large and prosperous Indian community. The buildings of the mission have now fallen into almost complete decay.