Cannery Row - History

History

Cannery Row was the setting of John Steinbeck's novels Cannery Row (1945) and Sweet Thursday (1954). Both were the basis for the 1982 movie Cannery Row, starring Nick Nolte and Debra Winger. It is also mentioned in Bob Dylan's song "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands". Pacific Biological Laboratories, a biological supply house, was located at 800 Ocean View Avenue (now 800 Cannery Row) from 1928 to 1948, and operated by Edward F. Ricketts, who was the inspiration for several characters in Steinbeck novels. The laboratory is still preserved. Across from the laboratory still exists a Chinese-America-owned store mentioned in both Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday, as well as a vacant lot that was the "home" of some of the homeless characters in the novel.

The canneries failed after the collapse of the fishing industry in Monterey Bay in the mid-1950s, which resulted from overfishing. In his investigation of where the sardines had gone, Ed Ricketts finally concluded "They're in cans." Before the collapse, the fishery was one of the most productive in the world due to the upwelling of cold, yet nutrient-rich water from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that is funneled to the surface via the vast underwater Monterey Canyon.