This sculpture is also a fountain. It depicts John Steinbeck at the top, his friend Ed Ricketts and four other local businessmen as well as other fictional characters that depict the colorful life of this neighborhood.
This website (
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"NEW STATUE: CANNERY ROW MONUMENT
Posted on: Thursday, February 27, 2014 12:57 PM by Allyson Ryan
There's a brand new photo opportunity down at Steinbeck Plaza! Some of Monterey's most historical and notable figures have been laden in bronze on Cannery Row with gorgeous views of the Monterey Bay as its backdrop.
The Cannery Row Monument was unveiled yesterday, February 26th, which pays homage to nine important characters that played pivotal roles in Cannery Row's history.
Author John Steinbeck anchors the monument at the top of the rock with friend and marine biologist Ed Ricketts towards the bottom. Several other characters represent those who once worked in the bustling canning industry on the row including Chinese fishermen.
The statue also depicts four local entrepreneurs who are praised for their revival of Cannery Row and its tourism industry including Ted Balestreri, George Zarounian, Hary Davidian, and Bert Cutino.
The Cannery Row Monument was sculpted by local Carmel artist Steven Whyte and the $1 million price tag was covered entirely by private donations."
Wikipedia (
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""Edward Flanders Robb Ricketts (May 14, 1897 – May 11, 1948) commonly known as Ed Ricketts, was an American marine biologist, ecologist, and philosopher. He is best known for Between Pacific Tides (1939), a pioneering study of intertidal ecology, and for his influence on writer John Steinbeck, which resulted in their collaboration on the Sea of Cortez, later republished as The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)....
Ricketts was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Abbott Ricketts and Alice Beverly Flanders Ricketts. He had a younger sister, Frances, and a younger brother, Thayer. His sister Frances said of him that he had a mind like a dictionary and was often in trouble for correcting teachers and other adults. Ricketts spent most of his childhood in Chicago, except for a year in South Dakota when he was ten years old.
After a year of college, Ricketts traveled to Texas and New Mexico. In 1917 he was drafted into the Army Medical Corps. He hated the military bureaucracy but, according to John Steinbeck, "was a successful soldier."
After discharge from the army, Ricketts studied zoology at the University of Chicago. He was influenced by his professor, W.C. Allee, but dropped out without taking a degree. He then spent several months walking through the American south, from Indiana to Florida. He used material from this trip to publish an article in Travel magazine titled "Vagabonding." He returned to Chicago and studied some more at the university."