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All the United States California Monterey Monterey's Old Whaling Station

Monterey's Old Whaling Station

An old whaling station now serves to give the public a look at the commercial whaling industry, no longer a part of Monterey's economy.

Monterey, California

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Martin Schmidt
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The patio at the rear of the building is a popular place for weddings and receptions   Martin Schmidt
The patio at the rear of the building is a popular place for weddings and receptions   Martin Schmidt
The dining room   Martin Schmidt
The four-poster bed upstairs   Martin Schmidt
The parlor   Martin Schmidt
The gate to the patio and garden behind the building   Martin Schmidt
  jlord7 / Atlas Obscura User
The bedroom upstairs   Martin Schmidt
One of the big iron pots used for rendering whale blubber into oil   Martin Schmidt
The sidewalk in front is made of whalebone   Martin Schmidt
The Old Whaling Station   Martin Schmidt
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About

The building known as the Old Whaling Station was originally built in 1847 by Scottish adventurer David Wight as a home for his wife and daughter. 

The Wights lived in the home for a short time before leaving to explore the California gold fields. In 1855, the Old Monterey Whaling Company purchased the building and converted it into the headquarters for their whaling operations and an employee residence.

The whaling company ran an "on-shore" operation, in which whales were killed at sea and towed to shore for processing. The fat, or "blubber," was rendered by heating it in large iron pots to extract natural oil which could be used to lubricate machinery or burned in lamps to provide light. Baleen, the bony filter found in the mouths of filter-feeding whales such as grays and humpbacks, was used in corsets and umbrellas. The bones were ground up for fertilizer or used as paving stones (the sidewalk in front of the Old Whaling Station is made from whale vertebrae). It has been said that "nothing was wasted except the whale itself."

By the early part of the 20th century the whaling industry had begun to decline, largely because the whale populations themselves were declining. Whaling around the world had become so efficient that the whales were being killed faster than they could reproduce. The International Whaling Commission was created in 1946 in an attempt to establish quotas and bring sustainability to the industry, but even this was not enough. The IWC declared a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986 to prevent the extinction of the world's largest mammals.

Today, the Old Whaling Station is a nationally registered historic landmark owned by the State of California. It was restored starting in 1980 and it is open to the public free of charge. In addition to its status as a museum it is a popular spot for weddings, and many people are married there each year.

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The Old Whaling Station is located in a pedestrian plaza called Heritage Harbor. Parking is available in the parking structure on the opposite side of Pacific Street and a pedestrian bridge connects the parking structure to the plaza.

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Martin

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jlord7

  • jlord7

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October 12, 2013

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Sources
  • http://www.historicmonterey.org/hb/whaling_station.html
  • http://www.jlmontereycounty.org/monterey/npo.jsp?pg=about6
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling
Monterey's Old Whaling Station
391 Decatur Street
Monterey, California, 93940
United States
36.60388, -121.895066
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