Native Americans lived here for millennia from 500 BC to 500 AD, before others from different parts of the world landed on Monterey’s shores. Little is know about the First People who settled in the vicinity of what is now Monterey, but what drew them here: an abundance of fish and wildlife and other natural resources.

The native people hunted and gathered food eating salmon and steelhead, mussels and abalone, quail and geese, rabbit and bear, as well as a host of other mammals, birds, shellfish, reptiles, and plants. Several of their village sites have been identified and preserved.

Historical records indicate that Monterey was “discovered” again by other people when Spanish explorer Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo first saw La Bahia de los Pinos (Bay of Pines) on November 17, 1542. Many years later, in December, 1602, Sebastian Viscaino officially named the port “Monterey”, in honor of the Viceroy of New Spain who had ordered his expedition. His band of 200 men gave thanks to God for their safe journey in a ceremony held under a large oak tree overlooking the bay.

The founding of a Spanish mission and presidio, in 17771 makes Monterey one of the earliest European settlements in California. In 1822, after Mexico seceded from Spain, Monterey prospered as California’s sole port of entry for foreign trade.

Monterey County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood.  Parts of the county were given to San Benito County in 1874.

In the decades that followed and into the early 20th century, Monterey’s economy was heavily dependent on the fishing industry, as immortalized by John Steinbeck’s novel Cannery Row. But today, historic Fisherman’s Wharf and nearby canneries have been adaptively reused for shops and restaurants that fuel Monterey’s tourism industry.