Monterey Bay's commercial fishing industry was founded by Chinese families at a village called Point Alones, which almost nobody on Cannery Row today knows. They built redwood sampans on the beach, created an export trade from abalone locals considered worthless, and worked squid at night by burning pitch baskets. Rare in the Exclusion era, it was a settlement of intact families, until night-fishing limits, shoreline bans and a landlord's refusal to lease closed in.
Who's who
- Quock Mui+2 more episodesFirst documented Chinese American born on the Monterey Peninsula
- Quock Tuck Lee+1 more episodePoint Alones fisherman and specimen collector for visiting scientists
- Bashford DeanColumbia embryologist who obtained hagfish eggs through Quock Tuck Lee
- Jone Yow HoyFisherman who married Quock Mui in 1876
Where it happens
- Point Alones, Monterey Peninsula, California+2 more episodesChinese fishing village at today's Hopkins Marine Station
- Point Lobos, CaliforniaEarly fishing coves and birthplace of Quock Mui
- Pacific Grove, California+3 more episodesAdjoining seaside resort town
- Monterey Bay, California+1 more episodeFishing grounds and export trade base
Timeline
- c. 1851-1853First Chinese fishermen work Monterey-area coves
- 1859Quock Mui born near Point Lobos
- 1882Chinese Exclusion Act bars naturalization and land ownership
- 1893-1899Peak scientific collaboration, including Dean's hagfish work
- May 1906Fire of suspicious origin destroys nearly the whole village
- 1913-1915California bans abalone export and drying
Still debated
The tradition that the first families arrived when a junk wrecked near Point Lobos is unverified. Popular claims of 500 or more residents are not supported by the census, which put the village near 175 in 1900.