Local History

Since 1933, the Monterey County Historical Society has been collecting information on local history. Over the years, we have shared this information with the people of the Central California  in a variety of ways, and now making it available to the worldwide community through the internet.

Primary navigation within this site is from several topical sections which include various pages that are readily accessed. 

This section of our website is “Under Construction.” It will never be finished as there is simply too much history and too little time. We will do our best to include topics of general interest to students writing term papers as well as individuals looking for a specific ancestor, and everything in between. However, this will take time. We are working on this as a “spare time” project, while trying to build a new museum, restore old buildings,  and attending to the day-to-day operations of the historical society.

We regret we cannot do specific research projects for students with deadlines, but we will try to provide the information and resources in an expeditious manner to facilitate the research process.

We have a substantial collection of documents and various record series. In fact, we constructed an additional archival vault in 2016 to accommodate additional incoming records and documents. Some of our holdings are indexed here. Some of our holdings are indexed here.

Appointments may be made by calling the Monterey County Historical Society at (831) 757-8085.

• Introduction
• Early Explorations
• Spanish Colonization
• Mexican Era
• American Era Settlement
• American Era Growth and Development
• Native American Groups and Cultures
• Interesting Facts and Stories
• Historic Places
• People