The Route of the Del Monte Express

Pacific Grove began as a Methodist retreat in the 1880s, on land donated by an early settler of the Monterey Peninsula. Later, the Grove and much of the surrounding Peninsula were sold to the Pacific Improvement Company, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad, with the proviso that the church would continue to use the property as a retreat.

The trains came in 1889. Weekend trips to the Peninsula from the San Francisco Bay area became so popular that by the 1890s, three passenger trains per day, including the fabled Del Monte Express, brought retreaters and tourists to Pacific Grove, and the quiet retreat became a full-time year-round city.

World War II put an end to rail passenger service, and the roadbed was used mostly for carrying high-silica sand out of a sand mine around the shoreline to the south until the mid-1970s, when the railroad stopped running for good.

Early on, it was decided that the city would own the entire shoreline as a public park, and that is so today. As is the case all over the country, the railroad right-of-way has been converted to a recreational trail, and now bikes, skates, pedal-surreys, Segways, and feet are the preferred modes of transportation around Pacific Grove's beautiful shoreline.

In 1998, the only large retaining wall along the route was converted from a graffiti-laden eyesore to the splendid historical mural seen here, painted by John Ton with the assistance of Robert Fletcher and a horde of volunteers.

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USA-Canada / USA-California

Lat: 36° 37' 21.65" N
Long: 122° 55' 47.88" W

Elevation: 10m

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Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Nikon D50, Sigma 8mm Fisheye lens, homemade pano head on Impact 10 ft light stand. Camera triggered by gentLED infrared shutter control. Four RAW images processed in Photoshop CS2, PTMac 4.0, and CubicConverter 2.1.3 on Macintosh G4.