Salinas

Salinas is the seat of Monterey County in California, in the Salinas Valley inland from Monterey Bay. John Steinbeck was born in the city, and the farms of its valley gave it the nickname Salad Bowl of the World.

The name, Spanish for salt marshes, comes from the marshes near the mouth of the river. Ranchers and merchants laid out the town on a stagecoach road in the 1850s, and the Southern Pacific railroad reached it in the following decade. Incorporation followed in 1874, and the town won the county seat from Monterey soon after. From the 1920s iceberg lettuce from the valley was packed in ice and sent east in railroad cars, and in 1911 the city held its first California Rodeo, which has run every July since.

Taylor Farms, based in Salinas, packs bagged salads and cut vegetables for supermarkets and restaurants. Fresh Express began in the city and was among the first to sell lettuce washed and packed in bags. Broccoli, strawberries and grapes for wine also grow on the valley floor and on the slopes of the Santa Lucia Range.

The National Steinbeck Center holds his letters, manuscripts and the camper truck Rocinante from Travels with Charley, and East of Eden is set in the valley around the city. The Steinbeck House, the Victorian house where he was born, serves lunch in its rooms. Hartnell College, founded in the 1920s, is named after William Hartnell, who opened one of the first schools of California on his rancho nearby.