Editing Salinas, California (section)

==History==
[[File:José_Eusebio_Boronda.jpg|thumb|left|José Eusebio Boronda, a [[Californio]] ranchero, was granted [[Rancho Rincón del Sanjón]] in 1840, covering today's northwestern Salinas and [[Boronda, California|Boronda]].]]
[[File:Salinas City, First Mayor's House, 1874.jpg|thumb|left|First Mayor's House circa 1868]]
The land that Salinas sits on is thought to have been settled by Native Americans known as the [[Esselen]] prior to 200 AD.<ref>"The Esselen Indians of the Big Sur Country" by Gary S. Breschini and Trudy Haversat</ref> Between 200 and 500 AD, they were displaced by the [[Rumsen people|Rumsen]] group of [[Ohlone people|Ohlone]] speaking people. The Rumsen-Ohlone remained as the inhabitants of the area for approximately another 1,200 years, and in the 1700s, were the group of native inhabitants contacted and recorded by the first Spanish explorers of the Salinas area.

Upon the arrival of the Spanish, large Spanish land grants were initially issued for the [[Spanish missions in California|Catholic Missions]] and also as bonuses to soldiers. Later on after Mexican independence, smaller land grants continued to be issued for [[Ranchos of California|ranchos]] where mostly cattle were grazed. One of the many land grants was the [[Rancho Las Salinas]] land grant, part of which included the area of modern-day Salinas. As a result of the many new cattle ranches, a thriving trade eventually developed in cattle hide shipments, shipping primarily out of the Port of Monterey.<ref name="early-salinas">"Early Salinas" by Gary S. Breschini, Mona Gudgel, & Trudy Haversat</ref>

Before the transition to American administration, Monterey had been the capital of California. For a short while after the transition, California was ruled by [[martial law]].<ref name="early-salinas"/>  On September 9, 1850, California was admitted to the Union and became a State, celebrated as [[California Admission Day]].

In the 1850s a junction of two main stage coach routes was located {{convert|18|miles}} east of [[Monterey]] and along the big bend of what is locally referred to as the Alisal Slough.<ref>[http://mchsmuseum.com/halfwayhouse.html The Half Way House and the American Hotel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018151712/http://mchsmuseum.com/halfwayhouse.html |date=October 18, 2016 }} Monterey County Historical Society, by G.S. Breschini, 2000, downloaded November 15, 2016.</ref> In 1854, six years after becoming a part of the United States, a group of American settlers living in the vicinity of this route-junction opened a post office at the junction, naming their town "Salinas," apparently a reference to the original "Rancho Las Salinas" name for the area,<ref name=CGN /> which in turn was named in Spanish for the salt marshes of the area around the central Salinas slough, which was drained. Soon thereafter, in 1856, a traveler's inn called the Halfway House was opened at that junction in Salinas.<ref name=CGN />  (The nearby [[Salinas River (California)|Salinas River]], was apparently only later named by an American cartographer, after the nearest town of Salinas in 1858. Previously that river had gone by the name: "Rio de Monterey."). The streets of Salinas were laid out in 1867, and the town was incorporated in 1874.<ref name=CGN />

The conversion of grazing land to crops and the coming of the rail road in 1868 to transport goods and people was a major turning point in the history and economic advancement of Salinas. Dry farming of wheat, barley, and other grains as well as potatoes and mustard seed was common in the 1800s. Chinese labor drained thousands of acres of swampland to become productive farmland, and as much early farm labor was done by Chinese immigrants, Salinas boasted the second largest [[Chinatown]] in the state, slightly smaller than [[San Francisco]].<ref>"10,000 Years on the Salinas Plain" by Gary S. Breschini, Mona Gudgel, & Trudy Haversat</ref> [[Irrigation]] changed farming in Salinas to mainly row crops of root vegetables, grapes and sugar beets. Many major vegetable producers placed their headquarters in Salinas.<ref name="McKibben 2022"/>  Driven by the profitable agricultural industry, Salinas had the highest per capita income of any city in the United States in 1924.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Salinas|url=http://www.ci.salinas.ca.us/visitors/history.cfm|website=City of Salinas: Visitors|publisher=City of Salinas|access-date=November 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018230330/http://www.ci.salinas.ca.us/visitors/history.cfm|archive-date=October 18, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=June 2019}}

[[File:Salinas Assembly Center, California. Panorama of Salinas Assembly center. Persons of Japanese ance . . . - NARA - 537442.tif|thumb|left|Barracks at Salinas Assembly Center]]

{{Commons category|Salinas Assembly Center}}
During [[World War II]], the [[Salinas Sports Complex|Salinas Rodeo Grounds]] was one of the locations used as a temporary [[Internment|detention camp]] for citizens and immigrant residents of Japanese ancestry, before they were relocated to more permanent and remote facilities. One of seventeen such sites overseen by the Wartime Civilian Control Administration, the Salinas Assembly Center was built after President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] issued [[Executive Order 9066]], authorizing the [[Internment of Japanese Americans|removal and confinement]] of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. The camp opened on April 27, 1942, and held a total of 3,608 people before closing two months later on July 4. Of the 300 Japanese-American families in Salinas before the war, only 25 returned following internment.<ref>{{cite news |last1=McKibben |first1=Carol |title=The Story of Salinas: How World War II devastated families of Japanese descent |url=https://www.montereyherald.com/2022/10/29/the-story-of-salinas-how-world-war-ii-devastated-families-of-japanese-descent/ |access-date=August 27, 2023 |work=Monterey Herald |date=October 29, 2022}}</ref>

[[File:Sargent House historic victorian home Salinas ca.jpg|thumb|Sargent House, a historic Victorian home on Central Avenue]]

Following [[World War II]] major urban and suburban development converted much farmland to city. The city experienced two particularly strong growth spurts in the 1950s and 1960s, and again in the 1990s and early 2000s.<ref name="SELECTED HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS"/> Aerial photographic interpretation indicate such major conversion of cropland to [[Urban area|urban]] uses over the time period 1956 to 1968,<ref>U.S.G.S. Map May 14, 1956, ABG-6R-5, #75 1:20,000</ref><ref>U.S.G.S. Map June 13, 1968, GS-VBZK-2-224, #214 1:30,000</ref> while the city annexed the adjacent communities of [[Alisal, Salinas, California|Alisal]] and [[Santa Rita, Monterey County, California|Santa Rita]] during this time.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://salinaspubliclibrary.org/pdf/Website-SPL-History.pdf |title=Salinas Public Library History |access-date=October 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110918071732/http://salinaspubliclibrary.org/pdf/Website-SPL-History.pdf |archive-date=September 18, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Harden Ranch, Creekbridge and Williams Ranch neighborhoods constituting much of the city's North-East were built almost exclusively between 1990 and 2004.<ref name="SELECTED HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS"/>

Salinas was also the birthplace of writer and Nobel Prize laureate [[John Steinbeck]]. The historic downtown, known as ''Oldtown Salinas'', features much fine Victorian architecture, and is home to the [[National Steinbeck Center]], the Steinbeck House and the [[John Steinbeck Library]].

Major development took place in the 1990s, with the construction of Creekbridge, Williams Ranch, and Harden Ranch.<ref>[https://www.baltimoresun.com/1992/05/21/salad-days-near-end-in-lettuce-capital-as-development-boom-encroaches/ Salad days near end in lettuce capital as development boom encroaches] . ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]''.</ref>

<ref>{{cite web|last1=DePillis|first1=Lydia|title=First Person: Salinas could've been Ferguson. Here's why it wasn't.|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/08/22/first-person-salinas-couldve-been-ferguson-heres-why-it-wasnt/|website=Washington Post: Storylines|access-date=November 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828052609/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/08/22/first-person-salinas-couldve-been-ferguson-heres-why-it-wasnt/|archive-date=August 28, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>