Every city has a story…some cities we learn about in school given significant events that occurred through the course of history, or as a result of famous people/authors residing or writing about their homes…with the world of internet story telling, we certainly have the opportunity to hear more of the stories of the many cities around the country and world.

Monterey Park Elementary School in Salinas, CA is one of our PG&E Solar Schools projects…they have a history made popular by John Steinbeck, and a 1kW PV system that is adding new chapters for their solar story.

I read John Steinbeck (Salinas native - born in 1902) books in high school, and had a vision in mind of what Salinas would look like…and the community lives up to the charms composed… Steinbeck wrote most of his books in the 30’s through the 50’s, and the landscape has changed in so many different ways since then…what would Steinbeck have thought of solar energy? Steinbeck did write about running out of natural resources in Cannery Row, and I found an interesting post with some thoughts connecting Steinbeck’s writings to energy, and sustainable consumption. I thought some very interesting points were made in this essay…I agree that we all play a role in changing our current paradigm, but perhaps we’re just a bit more optimistic when it comes to the role solar energy can play in turning figurative and literal light bulbs on and off…

Steinbeck wrote about Cannery Row running out of fish…what an interesting parallel to energy, and the path we’re on with renewable resources. Steinbeck has quite an interesting view on his name in association with schools, which I also thought was an interesting fact to share as we’re telling stories around our solar school in Salinas, “If the city of my birth should wish to perpetuate my name clearly but harmlessly, let it name a bowling alley after me or a dog track or even a medium price, low-church brothel – but a school!” Monterey Park is a school to be proud of.

Here’s a bit more about Salinas for history buffs out there :

“Salinas” is Spanish for ’salt marsh’ because at that time there was a large slough that ran through the area. Sausal and Nacional were among some of the first ranchos granted by the Mexican government after Mexico seceded from Spain in 1822. It was on adjoining parts of these ranchos that “Salinas City” was born after California became a territory of the United States.

Early in the gold rush years James Bryant Hill bought Rancho Nacional and became a pioneer in the agricultural industry by farming wheat; the valley had primarly been used for cattle and other livestock from the time of some of it’s earliest settlers until the 1920’s. Sometime in 1854 Mr. Hill was named postmaster of Salinas, even though there was no town “officially” of that name yet. In 1852 Jacob Leese purchased Rancho Sausal for $600, later he sold 80 acres to Elias Howe. Howe built an inn called “Halfway House” at the intersection of the Monterey-San Juan Bautista and the Los Angeles-San Francisco stage lines in 1856.

In 1867 Alberto Trescony, Alan Riker and William Jackson formed a partnership with cattle rancher Eugene Sherwood and laid out a city plan of a half-square mile. Realizing the importance of the railroad to getting the agricultural products to market, Sherwood offered Southern Pacific Railroad free acreage for the right-of- way and a depot; which opened its doors for business in 1872, that was also the year that “Salinas City” became the seat of Monterey County. Two years later the name was changed to the “City of Salinas” and incorporated.

The agricultural industry began to change from hides and tallows to more of what we are know for to this date; products like grains, beans and of course sugar beets. After World War I the “green gold” of lettuce, broccoli and artichokes helped to make Salinas one of the wealthiest cities per capitia in the U.S.

We’re proud to be a part of another form of green gold flowing in Salinas. We noticed that Salinas stopped talking on our portal, and we lost a bit of their story…luckily we had the help of Principal Chris Banks and Geoff St. John to get us plugged back in. Keep those cables plugged-in, the sunshine flowing, and share your stories…

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 at 9:45 pm and is filed under California, General Info, Solar Schools . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.