BY THE 1880S, EXPERIMENTS WITH IRRIGATION, WHEAT and sugar beets began to transform the agricultural future of the Salinas Valley. Claus Spreckels built a five-story sugar beet processing factory in 1899, employing 500 people (including 200 Japanese immigrants) and processing 3,500 tons of beets daily. At the time, it was the largest sugar beet refinery in the world. Above: Workers thinning sugar beets with the Spreckels sugar refinery in the background. Left: A lithograph of the Salinas Mill from Harrison's Series of Pacific Coast Pamphlets No. 3: Monterey County, circa 1889 or 1890. Courtesy of the Monterey County Free Libraries, Marina, CA Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, [LC-DIG-fsa-8b33415] 1900s 1906 San Francisco earthquake levels Salinas’ Main Street, later rebuilt with steel-reinforced buildings, resembling today’s downtown 1908 February 14: Pacific Fish Company, the first major cannery on Cannery Row, opens
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