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Fort Ord National Monument: From Military Mayhem to Coastal Gem
BEACH RANGE. ENGINEER CANYON. MACHINE GUN FLATS. These are not typical landscape features you’d expect to find on maps of a California “coastal gem” and “hiker’s paradise.” Their roles in decades of service under military ownership are now largely forgotten, replaced by the delights of wildflowers, bird calls, and jingling mountain-bike bells. Set between Salinas and Monterey in the heart of historic Steinbeck Country, explosions, gunfire, and the mayhem of army maneuvers no longer echo across the rugged back-country and ocean-front dunes of Fort Ord National Monument.
Established by the U. S. Army for infantry training in 1917, the base eventually encompassed 28,000 acres of rugged, maritime chaparral overlooking Monterey Bay. Here as many as a million and a half American soldiers were introduced to the rigors of military discipline. After decommissioning in 1994, the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA) designated former administrative and barracks areas east of Highway One for development, including a new California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) campus, the remainder to be opened for public access.
