Historic Research * Heritage Marketing * Consulting * Lectures * Special Events
Updated on July 4, 2021
A 4th of July, 1970, memoir...
I was Aerial Intel back-seat in an NKP OV-10 twin-turboprop
recon aircraft detached to U Tapao, Thailand, on the Gulf of Siam
to open up aerial reconnaissance operations of Western and Central Cambodia
to determine enemy and friendly held territory.
Some not-so high altitude...
Other than drawing small-arms fire from Angkor Wat that day
the mission was pretty uneventful, with the exception of when
we passed over a remote fortified jungle outpost...
A Cambodian voice came up on a ragged radio frequency and said,
"Happy birt-day Amereecans for your country..."
More detail on our sister site: www.bombardierslounge.com
* * *
 Cannery Row and Its Pacific Northwest Click to purchase from The History Company through PayPal |
 The book for Now Click to purchase from The History Company through PayPal Click to purchase from The History Company through Amazon.com |
 Last of the Big Sur Otter Hunters (eBook) Click to purchase from Amazon Kindle |
Available at Amazon.com
Monterey's Beloved Photo Archivist-Historian
Pat Hathaway
(March 28, 1948 - January 4, 2021)
of the renowned Pat Hathaway Collection of California Views
(www.caviews.com)
suddenly passed away from mysethenia gravis (related to Agent Orange)
at home in Pacific Grove, California, on Monday, January 4, 2021.
This GIANT of Monterey and California history and culture
will be terribly missed for the contributions of his 80,000 archival images
to the visual historical record of the development and preservation
of the history of the Pacific Coast.
His Cannery Row archival legacy lives on:
From The History Company From Amazon.com
[Archival post, 1970]
Take time out to thank a Vet on Veterans Day...
and fellow Vets: celebrate each other!
Capt. Monkey Hotel, NKP 1969-1970 last mission day.
More on Bombardier's Lounge WWII Big Band Jazz
| WESTERN
FLYER NEWS on YouTube & Chapter 29 |
 |
[dated post]
The History Company invites you to
https://bit.ly/3jcbPR9
also see STEINBECK NOW for detail.
The National Steinbeck Center "Inspired Talks" Webinar Series Premier
October 8, 2020
can be seen on YouTube (1:51)
Hope you enjoyed
the Virtual
STEINBECK COUNTRY UNITED
Global Festival
Saturday, August 1, and Sunday, August 2, 2020.
For Tickets, click here!
For a full agenda of the Festival, Click here.
Cannery Row historian Michael Kenneth Hemp
is featured in a 12:00 PM Steinbeck Roundtable
with moderator Dr. David Wrobel, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences
of the University of Oklahoma and National Visiting Steinbeck Scholar
Author, journalist and Pulitzer Prize nominee William Souder
with his new Steinbeck book "Mad at the World,"
and distinguished historian and lecturer Dr. Carol McKibben,
author and professor of Urban Studies at Stanford University
12:00 PM Steinbeck Roundtable
For more information be sure go to www.steinbeck.org:
The Answer:
New research by The History Company unveils a major
new history for Washington State's Hood Canal, already famous
historically for its timber, oysters, striking natural beauty, and tourism.
A history with many shared connections with Cannery Row, Monterey.
Hood Canal photography by George Stenberg
The "Go To" photographer for all things Hood Canal
www.georgestenbergphotography.com
 |
 |
 |
| Hood
Canal sunrise |
Mt.Washington
& Mt. Elinor |
Hood
Canal Perfect |
The History Company now adds original research, discovery, and confirmation of
Hood Canal's major West Coast connections to its new historical cousin,
"John Steinbeck's Cannery" Row at Monterey, California.
ANNOUNCING:
 |
 |
 |
| By
Cannery Historian,
Michael Hemp |
By
Hood Canal
Historian, Michael
Fredson |
By Hood Canal Historian, Michael Fredson |
Three special books about the importance of the Hood Canal
and its crucial role in the nearly annual 1930s marine biological
research expeditions to the maritime Pacific Northwest by pioneering
marine biologist Edward F. Ricketts (John Steinbeck's closest friend
and mentor) in his development and presentation of Ecology in
"Between Pacific Tides" published by Stanford University Press
in 1939. It still remains one of the most popular books ever published
by Stanford University Press and is studied by students becoming
marine biologist even today. Hoodsport on the Hood Canal was the base
of operations from which Ricketts researched all over the maritime
Pacific Northwest.
The Hoodsport rental cabin-site location at the Gateway Inn,
now a salmon hatchery, has been located that Ricketts and his young
family occupied almost every spring-summer of the 1930s, with
the exception of one spring-summer at Tahuya across the Canal.
Collaboration of The History Company historian Michael Hemp
and Hood Canal historian Michael Fredson now make it possible to
discover and enjoy the until now an unknown and unappreciated
history of Hoodsport and the Hood Canal that now connects it to
the world-wide fame of Monterey, Cannery Row, John Steinbeck,
the Tacoma-built "Western Flyer" and the Sea of Cortez.
THE HISTORY COMPANY
BOOK SHOP
has a Special Offer for Ed Ricketts, John Steinbeck
Cannery Row, and "Western Flyer" fans:
To begin this adventure or for more information
and to purchase any or all of these essential books.
Click here
Restoration of the Western Flyer Update:
Restoration progress on the Western Flyer at the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op at
Port Townsend, Washington, has been temporarily interrupted due to the COVID-19 Stay-At-Home
requirements, but work will resume when a safe pandemic re-opening is announced.
Chris Chase of the Western Flyer Foundation has released another in the YouTube series of
Western Flyer restoration videos — Number 19! — that recaps some of the highlights of the
restoration progress videos to date. Treat yourself to a viewing of it on YouTube.
Or, better yet, subscribe to the videos to be kept up to date automatically.
Western Flyer Foundation photo
This image is from Episode 17 on YouTube.
The restoration process is a magnificent sight and a tribute to rare wooden boat shipwright
skills still alive in the Pacific Northwest. Be part of this major historic achievement; make a
donation at www.WesternFlyer.org. And if you can, make another donation to the restoration
of a historic vessel under restoration wherever you live.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
The History Company and
Cannery Row Foundation
connections to the Western
Flyer began with the
creation of the Cannery
Row Foundation in Ed
Ricketts' Lab in 1983. By
1984 the Cannery Row
Foundation board
announced efforts to
acquire and return the
Western Flyer to Monterey
as a working non-profit
historical and educational
icon of Monterey and
Cannery Row's sardine
fishing and canning
heyday.
(May 1983)
at the creation of
The Cannery Row Foundation
"Coastings..." May 11, 1983
John Steinbeck's Birthday
(February 27, 1902 - December 20, 1968)
Monterey Herald, February 27, 1978
The Queen of Cannery Row kept the Steinbeck & Ricketts
movement alive for decades before help arrived with her
annual "Cannery Row Steinbeck's Birthday Party" at Kalisa's
La Ida Cafe. Formation of the Cannery Row Foundation
was still 5 years away. More on this amazing woman
throughout this website.
Hope you had a wonderful Steinbeck's Birthday...
and sorry Kalisa's not there on the old Row to throw another
annual Steinbeck Birthday celebration upstairs in the
old La Ida Ida Cafe.
Some of you now know you were blessed to have been there
for one...or more.
A brand new history of
Cannery Row and the Pacific Northwest...
Cover actual size is 8.5" x 11"
• The new silver foil stamped cover and trim of the expanded "CR 4.0"
• Cover design by Bridges Design Group, Los Angeles.
The Perfect New Years Gift for the Steinbeck, Ricketts, Cannery Row
and maritime Pacific Northwest history fans in your life.
$29.95 by PayPal (below) with free USPS Media Mail shipping.
Includes a free authentic 1940s sardine label as a bookmark.
Click Here for PayPal Payment Page * More purchase options below.
Speaking Engagements, News, and Events
|
AUGUST
1 - 2
2020
 |
Virtual
75th Anniversary
Celebration of
John
Steinbeck''s
1945 "Cannery
Row"...
Cannery
Row historian;
Steinbeck, and
Ricketts
authority;
Featured Speaker
and Program
Consultant: Steinbeck
Festival 2020 at
the National
Steinbeck Center,
Salinas,
California. |
| Feb.
3 2020  |
Cascade
Club of Tacoma
luncheon at the
Tacoma Country
Club, Lakeview. "New Horizon for Pacific Northwest History" and Tacoma's role. |
| Feb.
20 2020 |
Tacoma
Yacht Club: Open
to the
Public—Admission
Free. Cannery
Row's Connection
to the Hidden
History of the
Maritime Pacific
Northwest, Ed
Ricketts'
development of
Ecology in the
PNW, John
Steinbeck &
the Western Flyer,
"The Sea of
Cortez," and
historic Tacoma
Waterfront as the
"Birthplace of the
Western Flyer." |
| Jan.
30 2020 |
Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce Public Affairs Forum, at the Cottesmore, 2909 14th Avenue NW, Gig Harbor. |
| Jan.
26 2020 Review: |
HOOD
CANAL'S NEW
HISTORY at the
Alderbrook Golf
& Yacht Club,
Union, WA. Open to
the Public. Mason
County Historical
Society Lecture. 
MCHS
Newsletter event
review.
|
| Jan.
8 2020 |
"THE NEW HORIZONS FOR PACIFIC NORTHWEST HISTORY" at Gig Harbor Kiwanis International Chapter 34 at Harbor Place at Cottesmore, 1016 29th Street NW, Gig Harbor. |
| Dec.
10 |
"The
New History of the
Pacific Northwest"
at the Weatherly
Inn, Highlands
Parkway, Tacoma.
1:30 – 3:00 PM.
Tacoma Historical
Society Lecture
Series. |
|
|
Mason
County Historical
Society
presentation
aboard the cruise
of the Hood Canal
from the
Alderbrook Lodge
at Union to
Hoodsport, WA, and
return aboard the
"Lady Alderbrook." |
|
Sep.
17
|
Fiero
Marine Life Center
and NOAA Olympic
Coast National
Marine Sanctuary Speakers Series:
John Wayne Marina,
Sequim, WA. 6:00
to 7:30 PM
followed by a
"Meet the
Author"and
booksigning. |
Sep. 9 |
Tacoma
Historical Society
Lecture
Series:
University of
Puget Sound,
Tacoma. Murray
Boardroom,
Wheelock Center. 7
to 9 PM, with book
signing. Free
Admission. |
Aug. 13 |
SEA
Discovery Center
(Poulsbo,
Washington) of
Western Washington
University •
speaking
engagement 6-7 PM.
Free. Archival
PowerPoint premier
of "Cannery Row
4.0" |
 |
•
Announcing the
publication of the
expanded "CANNERY
ROW, The History
of Old Ocean View
Avenue and Its
Connections to the
Pacific Northwest"
"Cannery Row 4.0" enters distribution; Special Offer direct orders; Click Here for CR 4.0 features and prices and for archival photo Power Point speaking engagements, |
 |
• The Spanish fish-packing history of what became Ed Ricketts' Lab, Pacific Biological Laboratories (by Robin Aeschliman) |
|
• The newest Western Flyer Foundation (WesternFlyer.org) YouTube video of restoration of the Western Flyer by the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op, Port Townsend, Washington. |
E-mail or call (831) 236-2990 to book an Archival PowerPoint Speaking Engagement.
Cannery Row and Pacific Northwest History just got a lot bigger!
ANNOUNCING THE JULY 2019 PUBLICATION OF THE
Expanded Fourth Edition of Cannery Row's history book ("CR 4.0")
Incorporating current Pacific Northwest research on
Ed Ricketts and his 1930s and 1940s expeditions
to Puget Sound, northern shores of Washington,
the Strait of Jaun de Fuca, Vancouver Island, and
the 1932 voyage of the "Grampus" from Tacoma
to Sitka and Juneau, Alaska—in Ricketts' pursuit
of the research, observation, and collection of
marine biological specimens in his development
of his pioneering vision and introduction of
today's ECOLOGY.
"But There's More!"
Included is original research on the Western Flyer,
built in 1937 by Western Boat Building on
Tacoma Washington's waterfront and the rise of
this vessel to world-fame for her role in the 1940 voyage
to Mexico's Gulf of California, and the co-authored
"Sea of Cortez
A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research"
(Published in 1941; Steinbeck's only co-authored work)
"As well as..."
The little known inter-relationship of the largely Croatian
Pacific Northwest fishing boat industry's production of
customized purse-seine fishing boats for Monterey's
predominantly Sicilian sardine fishing fleet, in a new
appreciation of yet another inter-cultural dimension
connecting Monterey-Cannery Row with the historic
Pacific Northwest.
Look for Cannery Row's familiar red history book
full of outstanding archival photographs from the
Pat Hathaway Collection in the expanded Fourth Edition
— easily identified by its new silver accented red cover.
A look at some pages in CR 4.0
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
With restored and enhanced archival photography from the Pat Hathaway Collection
"There is no other book like this"
Nowhere else is this on-going research and that of colleagues available
and integrated with the shared history, literature, maritime, and
ecological legacies of Monterey-Cannery Row and the
historic Pacific Northwest: a whole new tide pool!
Available direct from The History Company
(Tax, Media Mail, shipping & handling included!)
$29.95
By check to The History Company
P.O. Box 31, Wauna, WA 98395
Priority Mail shipping & handling included!)
or
secure PayPal credit card payment
click here for the PayPal Payment Page
or
In stock at Amazon.com
Or get yours—and for gifts—on the Monterey Peninsula at:
Cannery Row: the Wing Chong Market and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Bookstore
Pacific Grove: Bookworks
Salinas: The Best Cellar at the Steinbeck House — and the National Steinbeck Center
or ask for it a your local bookstore!
And proud to be in-room for Cannery Row guests at
The Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa
The Spindrift Inn
The Monterey Bay Inn
The Victorian Inn
Announcing one of the new special features of the
new, expanded Cannery Row 4.0
"The La Esperanza Packing Company"
Robin Aeschliman's brilliant research on how her grandparent's
partnership in an ill-fated Spanish fish packing venture at
740 Ocean View Avenue resulted in the location of Ed Ricketts'
historic Pacific Biological Laboratories.
Click Here
If you haven't already seen this, you should.
From our compatriots at the Western Flyer Foundation:
Click here for an introduction to the Ed Ricketts connection to:
John Steinbeck
Cannery Row
The Western Flyer
The Sea of Cortez
The Log from the Sea of Cortez
And for the collection of YouTube progress videos of
the restoration in progress on the Western Flyer
at the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op
in Port Townsend, Washington.
A Note from the back-logged in-box...
Once in a while research involves discoveries of amazing treats for the eye.
Taking a research break and getting to sort, file, staple, fold and mutilate
all the assorted missives in the in-box I can't help but show you this:
To say Robbie Beherens is incredibly artistic is to so understate so.
Let your eyes speak: this is not only art, it is art with Ed Ricketts in every blink.
I needed to share this with all of the "Ed Heads" out there who know about Ed.
Newcomers may find it reason enough to look into why Ed is such a big deal
with his fans from Steinbeck, fans of very his own, marine biologists, and
his collegial researchers whether on Cannery Row, the Sea of Cortez...
or the Pacific Northwest.
"For Robbie who knows why or should"
"And now back to our previous presentation in progress..."
Thanks to everyone for the great turnouts at both
Center For Wooden boats in Seattle
who graciously provided overnight accommodations
on the historic 1909 MV Lotus
MK Hemp photo
and the Tacoma Yacht Club
which had a surprising number of Californians and Steinbeck fans,
even some that knew a bit about Ed Ricketts and the Western Flyer.
They all know a lot more now.
February 15th, 2019
UPCOMING PACIFIC NORTHWEST SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
by Michael Kenneth Hemp:
"Winter at the Western Flyer, Port Townsend" photo by Peter Hemp
"Ed Ricketts in the Pacific Northwest and
the Saga of the Western Flyer"
at the
Wagner Educational Forum
at the Center For Wooden Boats, Seattle
Free Admission • Donations Appreciated
Friday, February 15th, 7:00 to 9:00 PM
Click Here for information.
AND
February
21st, 2019
The Tacoma Yacht
Club
5401
Yacht Club Road,
Tacoma, WAOpen free for the pubic to attend
Thursday, February 21st, 7:00 to 9:00 PM
Click Here for information.
Tacoma Yacht Club photo
News from the Waterfront!
HISTORIC TACOMA WATERFRONT
Working Group is being formed.
An ad hoc group of historians, archivists, heritage organizations,
community groups, and historically invested businesses are joining
together to assure the identification, and where possible, preservation
of the histroic character and critical remaining Tacoma maritime and
industrial waterfront sites as a vibrant heritage destination for South Sound
locals and the regional, national, and international travel industry.
On February 30th, 2019, this effort took its first step at the Foss Waterway
Seaport at an inaugural meeting in the Foss Waterway Seaport's Boat Shop
of a notable collection of Tacoma's dedicated historical and cultural