The Whalebone Sidewalk of Monterey: Local Lore Beneath Your Feet

Thousands of people walk through historic Monterey every year without realizing that one of the strangest sidewalks in California is almost hiding in plain sight.

Tucked into Old Monterey near the waterfront is the Old Whaling Station, a two-story adobe whose quiet appearance gives almost no hint of the industry that once operated around it.

Then you look down.

Set into the walkway are large pale shapes that look a little like unusual paving stones.

They aren't stones.

They are whale vertebrae.

California State Parks describes the walkway at Monterey's Old Whaling Station as one of the nation's last remaining whalebone sidewalks.

It is one of those Monterey details that raises an obvious question:

How did parts of whales end up being used as a sidewalk?

The Local Lore: Monterey Has a Sidewalk Made From Whale Bones

This one isn't an exaggeration.

The sidewalk really is made from whale vertebrae.

The Old Whaling Station stands along Decatur Street just off Olivier Street in the historic heart of Monterey, only a short distance from the Custom House, Fisherman's Wharf and other surviving landmarks of early California.

According to California State Parks, the adobe itself was originally built in 1847 by David Wight as a home for his wife and daughter. The design was reportedly based on Wight's ancestral home in Ayton, Scotland.

A few years later, the building entered a very different chapter of Monterey history.

In 1855, the Old Monterey Whaling Company began using the adobe as its headquarters and as living quarters for whalers.

The unusual walkway in front of the building survives as a physical reminder of that era.

Monterey Was a Whaling Town Before It Was a Cannery Town

When most people think about Monterey's historic relationship with the ocean, they think about sardines, fishing boats, Cannery Row and John Steinbeck.

But Monterey's commercial waterfront history began much earlier.

City of Monterey historical research dates the beginning of organized shore whaling in Monterey to 1854, when Captain John Pope Davenport organized an early whaling company.

The industry grew quickly.

By 1861, historical records indicate that four different companies were hunting humpback and California gray whales in Monterey Bay.

This was shore whaling, meaning crews did not embark on years-long voyages across the oceans like the great New England whaling fleets.

Instead, lookouts watched the nearby waters for whales. Crews launched relatively small boats, pursued whales offshore and then towed the carcasses back toward land for processing.

It was dangerous, physically demanding work conducted remarkably close to the shoreline we now associate with beaches, recreation and marine conservation.

The Portuguese Whalers of Monterey Bay

Portuguese whalers became an important part of Monterey's nineteenth-century maritime economy.

The Old Monterey Whaling Company associated with the Whaling Station included a group of 17 Portuguese whalers, according to City historical research.

Portuguese and particularly Azorean maritime traditions would become deeply connected with fishing and whaling communities along the California coast.

Their Monterey lives would have looked very different from the visitor-oriented waterfront we know today.

These men lived near their work. The bay was both workplace and source of livelihood, and the products obtained from whales had considerable economic value in an era before petroleum-based products and modern synthetic materials became commonplace.

What Happened to the Rest of the Whale?

The sidewalk is particularly interesting because it represents only one use for an animal that nineteenth-century whalers treated as an industrial resource.

Once a whale was brought ashore, the blubber could be removed and heated in large pots to render whale oil.

That oil had numerous uses, including illumination and machinery lubrication.

Baleen was also commercially valuable. Historically it was often called “whalebone,” although baleen is not actually bone. Its flexible qualities made it useful for products such as corset stays and umbrella ribs.

Actual bones could also be reused. Monterey historical records describe whale bones being ground into fertilizer or incorporated into building foundations.

And at the Old Whaling Station, vertebrae became paving material.

What the Historical Record Tells Us — and What It Doesn't

This is where our Local Lore series gets especially interesting.

Some stories become embellished over time. Others begin with something that sounds unbelievable and turn out to be substantially true.

The Monterey whalebone sidewalk falls into the second category.

There is strong historical documentation that Monterey supported a shore-whaling industry, that Portuguese whalers used the Old Whaling Station, and that the walkway contains whale vertebrae.

What is less clear from the principal official historical accounts is precisely who first decided to turn the vertebrae into paving blocks, exactly when the sidewalk was laid, and whether every surviving piece dates from one specific whaling operation.

That distinction matters.

The remarkable part of responsible local history isn't making the story bigger than it is. It is recognizing that the documented story is already extraordinary.

A Different Monterey Bay

It can be difficult to reconcile this history with the Monterey Bay people know today.

Modern Monterey is internationally associated with marine research, wildlife viewing, ocean conservation and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Gray whales and humpback whales are now animals people travel to the Peninsula hoping to see alive from the shoreline or aboard whale-watching boats.

In the nineteenth century, they represented something very different: a source of oil, raw material and income.

The whalebone sidewalk therefore records more than an unusual construction technique.

It captures a major change in our relationship with Monterey Bay.

In one era, whales were pursued as an economic resource.

Today, much of Monterey's identity is tied to understanding, observing and protecting the marine environment.

Very few historic sites illustrate that transformation as quietly — or as strangely — as a sidewalk made from whale vertebrae.

The Old Whaling Station Is Part of an Even Larger Story

The Whaling Station is not an isolated historic curiosity.

It sits within one of the most historically significant parts of California.

Monterey served as the capital of Alta California under Spanish and Mexican rule. Its harbor was central to trade and government, and the surrounding streets contain surviving buildings connected with California's transition through Spanish, Mexican and American periods.

That history remains physically embedded in Old Monterey.

The Custom House, early adobes, gardens, historic residences and other landmarks are connected today through Monterey State Historic Park's Path of History.

California State Parks describes the Path of History as a roughly two-mile route connecting dozens of Monterey historic sites.

The whalebone sidewalk is one very unusual stop on that much larger journey.

For the earlier political and commercial story behind the city, read our history of Monterey as the capital of Alta California.

From Whaling to Sardines: Monterey's Waterfront Keeps Reinventing Itself

One reason this particular story matters is that Monterey's waterfront economy did not stop changing when the whaling industry declined.

Fishing expanded.

Different immigrant communities brought new maritime traditions and technology.

Then the twentieth-century sardine industry transformed the shoreline farther west into the industrial district that became Cannery Row.

Whaling, commercial fishing, sardine canning, marine science and eventually tourism and conservation form different chapters in the same larger story:

Monterey's history has always been closely tied to the bay in front of it.

To continue that story, explore The Sardine Boom and Cannery Row: How Monterey Built a Global Identity.

What Can You See Today?

The Old Whaling Station survives as part of Monterey State Historic Park in the historic district near the waterfront.

The exterior and famous walkway can be encountered along Monterey's Path of History, although access to historic building interiors and organized tours can change, so visitors should check current California State Parks information before planning a visit.

The building itself is worth noticing.

But when you get there, remember to look down.

Those pale shapes beneath your feet aren't decorative tiles or pieces of limestone.

They are a surviving remnant of an industry that once sent small boats into Monterey Bay in pursuit of whales.

Why Stories Like This Matter

One of the things we enjoy most about living and working on the Monterey Peninsula is discovering how often the present sits directly on top of the past.

A street that looks ordinary may follow a route generations old.

A cottage may tell the story of a community's first residents.

A familiar neighborhood name may come from a ranch, family or vanished landmark.

And occasionally, something as simple as a sidewalk can tell the story of an entire industry.

That's the idea behind Stories, Legends & Local Lore of the Monterey Peninsula.

Each week we'll explore another story that helps explain why Monterey, Carmel, Pebble Beach, Pacific Grove, Carmel Valley and the surrounding communities became the places they are today.