Ensen Community Park Interpretive Signage

Descendents of Louise J. Miranda Ramirez, Tribal Chairwoman of the Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation (OCEN) – some of the earliest inhabitants of the area known as Carr Lake – welcome guests to the park!

The community requested colorful signs geared towards school-aged children. In response, Big Sur Land Trust engaged Enid Baxter Ryce, a local artist, author, and professor at California State University Monterey Bay to create watercolor artwork for four of the signs.

Patricia Wakida created the block print artwork for the sign that explains the history of the Japanese farmers at Carr Lake.

We are especially excited that since our first community engagement meeting in 2018, over 7,000 residents, members of community groups, and city leaders have helped co-create Ensen Community Park. Many of the amenities in the park were requested by city residents – and the park’s name was selected through a community survey.

Louise J. Miranda Ramirez, Tribal Chairwoman of OCEN suggested the name “Ensen” for this park because blackberries were an important food source for the original people on this land.

The First Peoples living on these lands included OCEN and other tribes. Most of them were violently removed during the colonization of this area. Because their surviving ancestors persevered through countless hardships, today descendants of OCEN and other First Peoples are leaders in our region and continue to practice traditional ways.

Learn more about local tribes and Indigenous communities through this Indigenous Community Resources page.

Japanese families have been farming at Carr Lake for over 100 years. One of these families, the Ikeda family, sold their 73-acre property to Big Sur Land Trust in 2017.

During World War II, Japanese farmers and community members were unjustly incarcerated. When the war ended and they were freed, many returned to the Central Coast and Salinas Valley region.

Artist Patricia Wakida made this block print (image above) to honor the Ikedas and the local Japanese farming community. Learn more about Patricia and her artwork here.

You can learn more about the Japanese community in the Salinas Valley and Monterey County through these resources:

Agriculture is the largest industry in the Salinas Valley. The region is widely known as "America's Salad Bowl" because it produces a large portion of the nation's lettuce, spinach, and other vegetables. People from many diverse cultures have contributed their skills and expertise to the agriculture industry in Salinas. Today, they continue to help our region feed the world.

In 1875, Jesse D. Carr hired Chinese laborers to drain the swampy lands at Carr Lake. With hard manual labor, they cleared hundreds of acres and dug six miles of ditches that allowed water from Gabilan Creek, Natividad Creek, and Alisal Creek to flow to the Salinas River. These Chinese workers made farming possible at Carr Lake.

During that same time, Salinas farmers were growing dry crops like wheat and barley. Many of the Chinese laborers were farmers in Southern China before coming to the U.S. They used their expertise in irrigation, crop rotation, and fertilization to plant vegetables like potatoes and yams on the cleared land in Salinas. Their labor and new farming methods increased local land values and contributed greatly to the agricultural success of the Salinas Valley.

In the 1930s, migrants from the Dust Bowl came to California after escaping the devastating droughts and dust storms in the southern plains of the United States. Many found jobs picking crops for Salinas' expanding agricultural industry.

From 1942 to 1964, Mexican workers came here through the U.S. Bracero program. To this day, workers from Mexico and other countries around the world continue to contribute to the success of Salinas Valley's farming and agricultural businesses. More information on farming in the Salinas Valley and Monterey County is available at the Monterey County Historical Society and the Monterey County Agricultural & Rural Life Museum.