Summer 2026

C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 6 157 S preckels, a tiny burg just south of Salinas, was once home to the nation’s largest sugar beet refinery. The Spreckels Sugar Company built the plant in 1898, where humble beet roots were transformed into crys- talline happiness for the world’s sweet tooths. For Monterey Peninsula residents, it’s the curi- ous little town they pass through on a shortcut to U.S. Route 101 south. Converting beets into sugar isn’t particularly complicated, but less than a mile away from where that company’s plant stood, transforma- tions of an entirely different and more elabo- rate kind are taking place. The Henningsen Machine Shop turns rusted metal into the pris- tine, gleaming pieces of automotive art dis- played on the 18th fairway of the Pebble Beach Golf Links during one of the world’s most pres- (Clockwise from top left) A Pierce-Arrow “moto meter” temperature gauge; restoring an original 1910 Glide Model 45 wooden wheel; interior of a 1920 Pierce-Arrow. The team is fabricating a new speedometer that will be indistinguishable from the original. Photos: Kelli Uldall