Carmel Overview

Though a Mecca for tourists, Carmel retains the charm and unhurried pace of its roots as an artist's colony. Stroll the quaint streets brimming with art galleries and dine on world-class cuisine in casually elegant surroundings.

Districts

Pebble Beach--Famed as the site of the Pebble Beach Country Club and Resort and Spyglass Hill golf courses, and home to the yearly AT&T Celebrity Golf Tournament (where huge crowds await Bill Murray's schtick), Pebble Beach has what may be one of the finest stretches of coast on the Monterey Peninsula. Craggy shoreline, crashing surf and cypress groves mark the spot where Portola landed in 1769 on his first, fruitless expedition to find Monterey. Pebble Beach has long been the enclave of the very top tier of country club society.

Carmel--Carmel takes quality-of-life matters very seriously, which is why you will see no neon signs, telephone poles or street numbers on houses, and may be scolded by a perfect stranger if you are seen eating in the street. Affluent Carmel preserves its idyllic gracefulness with a stern propriety one might associate with Martha's Vineyard. In spite, or perhaps because of this, the town, known far and wide for exclusive gift shops, award-winning restaurants and secluded resort hotels, has been a popular tourist destination for more than a century. That the city fathers remain so adamantly opposed to the intrusions of the late 20th century (to say nothing of the 21st) has inevitably brought them into conflict with development-minded area businessmen. It was just this that swept Mayor Clint Eastwood into office (his intent on loosening the stricture over business permits of the sort needed for his now-closed Hog's Breath Inn restaurant). Mr. Eastwood has served his term and stepped away from Carmel politics, although he remains a Carmel resident.

The 1771 Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo, or more succinctly, Carmel Mission, is Carmel's biggest single attraction. A handsomely preserved piece of Spanish colonial history, the mission's bell tower was not the one that starred in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. That was a bit of movie magic Hitch added when he found that the actual tower was not up to his cinematic standards.

Carmel Valley--If possible, Carmel Valley is even more laid-back than Carmel. Perhaps it is the rustic isolation. Carved from the original rancheros in the area, it still looks very much as it did when Spanish dons owned the rolling green hills. Driving along Carmel Valley Road, though, one will find more than cattle and horses grazing picturesquely if precariously on the hillsides. Golf courses such as the Rancho Canada Golf Club offer a somewhat more affordable alternative to courses along the Pacific while John Gardner's Tennis Ranch provides an alternative to golf with a posh resort and gourmet dining.

Shoppers will find much to delight them in Carmel Valley with the upscale Barnyard on the border between Carmel and Carmel Valley, as well as the tiny but chic shops that dot the area. Elegant vineyards, such as Durney Vineyards at the Heller Estate also appear throughout the Valley.

The ranchero tradition has not died out entirely here. If you want to explore the area in a more up-close-and-personal way, the expert guides of Holman Ranch can arrange tours on horseback to suit your expertise level, horse-sense and your schedule.

Historical Background

Human habitation of the Monterey Peninsula dates back some 3,500 years. The Ohlones to the north and the Chumash to the south led a peaceful, subsistence-based existence, enjoying the area's temperate climate and abundant resources. Spain laid claim to the entire California coast in 1542; it was explorer Sebastian Vizcaino who discovered Monterey Bay 60 years later. Having had the area named after him, the Viceroy of Mexico Gaspar de Zuniga y Acevedo, was enthusiastic about its further exploration. He was replaced, however, in 1603. Vizcaino was subsequently fired, and the King's orders for him to return to Monterey with colonists were quietly shelved. It was not for another 168 years that Gaspar de Portola, the Spanish governor of Baja California, established the first mission (under the direction of Father Junipero Serra) and presidio in Monterey. (So rosily inaccurate were Vizcaino's descriptions of the Bay's features, that it took Portola two expeditions to finally locate it.)

Portola established the Carmel Mission (under the direction of Father Junipero Serra) and presidio (still standing) in Monterey. In 1775, Monterey was made the Capital of Alta California and it remained so through Spanish, Mexican and independent California rule until American statehood took effect in 1850. Spanish settlement and mission life doomed Ohlone and Chumas culture.

Huge land grants, or ranchos, were sold to Spanish settlers, or Californios. When Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the vast holdings of the Catholic Church were broken up and sold off at generous rates as further ranchos. Many of the ranchos, particularly those along the Central Coast, survive today as ranches, farms, state and federal parkland, and the occasional golf course. The period of Mexican rule of California was short-lived, however. The steady stream of American immigration from the east became an unruly torrent once the Mexican Revolution broke the Spanish monopoly on California trade. John C. Fremont's Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 ushered in the 21-day history of the Bear Republic.

When Nevada's Comstock silver boom of the mid-19th century fuelled ever-greater expansion in the San Francisco economy, the peninsula’s seemingly inexhaustible resources stood ready. The area's attractions remained largely agricultural, however, but for coastal resorts and retreats that sprung up here and there along the Central Coast. The most extreme example of Central Coast resort building is, of course, Fred Swanton's Brighton-style casino up the road in Santa Cruz, where the famous roller coaster continues to do its thing.

It was the Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s that brought a new wave of immigration to the Monterey Peninsula. "Okies" from the drought-stricken South and Midwest came by the tens of thousands to pick lettuce and other crops and to work in the sardine canneries. Their travails are part of the pre-war picture glimpsed in Cannery Row, Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Tortilla Flat, and other John Steinbeck classics.

Steinbeck was hardly the only cultural figure attracted by the beauty, silence and seclusion of the Central Coast. A century before, Richard Henry Dana and Robert Lewis Stevenson (who patterned the coastline of Treasure Island after those of Carmel Bay and Point Lobos) had settled there. Jack London, Isadora Duncan, Henry Miller, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Jack Kerouac all lived in the area at various times. Something in the fog air of the coast has had an attraction for spiritualists and self-development movements, as well. Theosophical Society founder Madame Blavatsky was followed, in later years, by the Esalen Institute, the Tassajara Zen Center, hippies, New Ageists, and many others centered in Big Sur to the south of Carmel.

The city of Carmel proper was established in 1904 as an artist’s colony. At the time, the area was well off the beaten path and the seclusion, as well as the scenic land- and seascapes were deemed ideal by the early colonists. Through the years and the onslaught of tourists, Carmel has maintained its rustic quality, successfully keeping both street addresses and chain stores from within its city limits. It has also proven a refuge, not only for artists who work in oils and bronze, but also for the celluloid variety. The former Hollywood denizens who now call Carmel home include Kim Novak, Doris Day and Clint Eastwood, who served as the town’s mayor in the 1980s and ‘90s.

Today, tourists sometimes outnumber locals on the quaint streets lined with galleries and upscale shops. Some are looking for a restful break from their workaday lives in an idyllic setting; some are looking for the world-class golf and dining to be found here. Few leave less than enchanted with what they have found.

Carmel by the Numbers

Population: 4,081
Elevation: 430 feet
Average Annual Precipitation: 17.3 inches
Average January Temperature: 51 degrees F
Average July Temperature: 62 degrees F
Ethnic Mix: 94.58% Caucasian, 0.44% African American, 2.94% Hispanic, 2.25% Asian
Time Zone: GMT-8
Country Dialing Code: 1
Area Code: 831

Did You Know?

Scenically beautiful Carmel is a magnet for tourists and especially newlyweds. Carmel's honeymoon industry, notably in the Romantic months of February (Valentine's Day) and June, always experiences a boom as brides and grooms make their way to this idyllic spot on California's Central Coast. You have not lived until you have stayed in a bed & breakfast in Carmel.

Orientation

Located on the Pacific Coast of central California, Carmel is south of Monterey Bay. Carmel is 120 miles south of San Francisco, 70 miles south of San Jose, 350 miles north of Los Angeles and 26 miles north of Big Sur.