With a population of , in the Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas serves as the main business, governmental, and industrial center of the region.
Salinas is known as the "Salad Bowl of the World" for its large, vibrant agriculture industry. It was the hometown of writer and Nobel laureate John Steinbeck โ68 , who set many of his stories in the Salinas Valley and Monterey.
The city once also had the 2nd biggest Chinatown in the nation behind only San Francisco. The land that Salinas sits on is thought to have been settled by Native Americans known as the Esselen prior to AD. The Rumsen-Ohlone remained as the inhabitants of the area for approximately another 1, years, and in the s, were the group of native inhabitants contacted and recorded by the first Spanish explorers of the Salinas area.
Upon the arrival of the Spanish, large Spanish land grants were initially issued for the Catholic Missions and also as bonuses to soldiers. Later on after Mexican independence, smaller land grants continued to be issued for ranchos where mostly cattle were grazed. One of the many land grants was the Rancho Las Salinas land grant, part of which included the area of modern-day Salinas. As a result of the many new cattle ranches, a thriving trade eventually developed in cattle hide shipments, shipping primarily out of the Port of Monterey.
Before the transition to American administration, Monterey had been the capital of California. For a short while after the transition, California was ruled by martial law. In the s a junction of two main stage coach routes was located 18 miles 29 km east of Monterey and along the big bend of what is locally referred to as the Alisal Slough. Soon thereafter, in , a traveler's inn called the Halfway House was opened at that junction in Salinas. Previously that river had gone by the name: "Rio de Monterey.
