8 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY APRIL 6-12, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com 831 Driving through Monterey County on Highway 1 and 101, you zip past field after field. Depending on the season, colors change and the number of people working between rows builds and then dwindles. It’s a timeless pattern. In San Lorenzo County Park, on the bank of the Salinas River, the Monterey County Agricultural & Rural Life Museum explores the area’s rich agricultural history, with exhibits featuring farm life from the 1800s through World War II. There is an interactive irrigation exhibit, a tractor barn and historic structures that were moved to San Lorenzo Park from various locations in Monterey County, including King City’s train depot, a blacksmith shop once operated by a man named Olson, and La Gloria School, which was once near Gonzales. At this outdoor museum, visitors can walk, enjoy the weather and travel back in time. Assembling the place was a task. “Our train depot was driven down Broadway in King City from the original place,” Executive Director Ellie Clifton says. The team then set it up like a functional train depot as a way for visitors to learn about transportation in the Salinas Valley. Since the museum has multiple buildings, Clifton recommends starting at the main museum barn, which provides a quick educational foundation for the rest of the area, no guided tour necessary. Visitors learn how agriculture changed through the influences of Indigenous and Western practices, the diversification of produce and cattle, the impact of improved transportation on the market and more. The facility started in the late 1970s with an idea. Local farmers and community members gathered old ag equipment from their properties and decided to preserve it. The effort soon turned into a museum for the public. “It very quickly grew when they realized there were all these opportunities for sharing the history,” Clifton says. Access to a large collection of ag tools and imagery isn’t surprising. Salinas and the Salinas Valley are known as the “Salad Bowl of the World.” Monterey County is the main producer of lettuce, artichokes, broccoli, and cauliflower in the country. Last year, the county’s ag industry’s gross production value was $4.1 billion. But it wasn’t always that way. Dairy farms were once central, and sugar beets helped put the Salinas Valley on the global agricultural map. Clifton, 22, has been the museum’s executive director for less than a year. She grew up on a ranch and always thought she would work in agriculture. “My whole life I just had this huge passion for the outdoors and agriculture,” she says. But she also excelled in the classroom. She was studying TK at Cuesta College when she was just 17. However, during her first semester, she was in a car crash and lost the use of her legs. “My life just completely flipped upside-down,” Clifton says. She had anticipated scientific fieldwork, but had to rethink her future. She changed her major to English. One of her friends encouraged her to apply for the executive position at the museum. Given the opportunity to return to agricultural study—from a different perspective—Clifton was ecstatic. “I’m just really driven and really passionate, and I think that’s why they hired me,” she says. “I’m really excited to grow the museum and bring more awareness to agriculture, the history of agriculture and how important it is to us today.” The museum offers tours for visitors and a hands-on program for elementary students, inviting kids to investigate the Gold Rush era. They learn about living conditions and the techniques used to find gold in the 19th century. For many, the museum is a hidden gem. Visitors often go to San Lorenzo Park to camp or spend the day at a picnic area and they stumble upon the old building that is home to the museum. Clifton enjoys their reaction: “A lot of times we have visitors just there for the park, and then they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh! There’s a museum here!’” Monterey County Agricultural & Rural Life Museum at San Lorenzo Park, 1160 Broadway, King City. Open 11am-4pm Tue-Sun. Free. 385-8020, mcarlm.org. Time Travel A South Monterey County museum gives visitors a chance to walk through the region’s agricultural past. By Celia Jiménez “We have such an opportunity to share the importance of ag in our world,” says Ellie Clifton, executive director of the Monterey County Agricultural & Rural Life Museum. “My life just completely flipped upside-down.” TALES FROM THE AREA CODE CELIA JIMÉNEZ
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==