Carmel Magazine

"We had a lot of positive response to Meg's first lecture," says Ashlee Wright, Carmel's for- mer history librarian. "Each photograph that she showed us could have been its own presenta- tion, but she shared them in such a way that the amount of information was not overwhelming. She has a very engaging manner of speaking and has great stories." In May, Clovis returned to the Sunset Center to lend new perspective on lost towns such as Natividad and Manchester, a former community in the mountains west of Jolon. Gold mining began there in 1875, and about 500 people lived in Manchester until a f ire destroyed the thriving town in the early 1900s. "Like so many others, the whole town burned down and just never recovered," Clovis says. The town of Spreckels, on the other hand, remains as a well-preserved reminder of the valley's agricultural evolution. Sugar beet mag- nate Claus Spreckels built one of California's only company towns here to house employees of his plant, one the world's largest sugar facto- ries in its day. Spreckels also created the infra- structure to move water through the Salinas Valley, which is labeled the "Salinas Desert" on maps from the 1860s. "It was very dry. Many people, from early sur- veyor William Brewer to Walter Colton, of Photos: courtesy of the San Antonio Valley Historical Assn. 230 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R / F A L L 2 0 1 5 A mule train travels through Jolon, in southern Monterey County. In the late 1800s, the community housed a post office, blacksmith, butcher, harness maker and two grocery markets, plus the two-story Dutton Hotel, says the Monterey County Historical Society. Monterey County historian Meg Clovis has assembled a collection of images and information about the area's agricultural heritage. Here, residents attend a Pinkerton Ranch roundup.

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