If you ever find yourself near the northern California coast line, you really should make it a point to visit Fort Bragg. The rugged coastline here is breath taking. The breeze blowing in off the surf is pristine, and the beaches are a spiritual experience. Especially Glass Beach. Because, you see, it literally sparkles in the sun light.
Here’s the way that happened. A hundred years ago, Fort Bragg, California, was a working man’s town. It was anchored mainly by the lumber and fishing industries, with the Union Lumber Company providing a significant percentage of the jobs for local bread winners. The natural, protected harbor and railway lines completed the recipe for economic success, back then. The Union Lumber Company was located at the north end of town and owned the section of beach that is known today as Glass Beach. Although the beach provides spectacular ocean views, it consists mostly of cliffs with only a few steep and treacherous paths down to water level. Since there is no shortage of more accessible beaches around the area, the locals decided this would be a handy spot to toss their garbage over the cliffs. This they did regularly and enthusiastically. It was a company town and the Union Lumber Company wanted to keep the people happy, so they willingly lent the seaward side of their facility to the adopted use. Everything went over the cliff, including household scraps, appliances, odd pieces of metal and even the occasional automobile. All that household garbage included tons and tons of glass containers of every size, shape and color. In those days, it was known simply as “the dump”. From time to time, someone would light a fire to reduce the volume of the garbage heaps, so they could pile more on.
In 1967, the North Coast Water Quality Board decided this was a bad idea and they closed the dump. Several years of clean up followed and in 2002, it was purchased by the California State Park Department and included in McKerricher State Park. The larger hunks of garbage are gone, but occasionally you can still see evidence of those times. The day I was there, I found what looked like part of an old auto radiator, sticking out of the sand at the water’s edge.
As I said earlier, though, the beach actually sparkles in the sun light. That is because during those ten or eleven decades, the ocean pounded all those glass containers with unrelenting surf and continually shifting and grinding sands, which beat containers into tiny, rounded, polished bits of glass, that reflect the sun in all different colors, as Mother Nature moves them around, with the sands of the beach.
As I walked the beach, I had to smile at the thoughts that were floating through my head. You have to admit it. Sometimes, it’s a hoot, just to be a member of the human race. I wasn’t exactly alone on the beach. There were dozens of other people with me, but nobody was looking at the rocks or the surf. Every one of them was looking down, trying to spot “treasure” that they could pick up and take home. Several were sitting cross-legged on a promising spot, carefully picking miniscule bits of glass from the sand and depositing them into little bags, brought along for the purpose. Fort Bragg is a picturesque, proud, provincial, little town. It’s the kind of community where people are born, grow up, grow old, die and leave the house to the kids and a lot of the kids stay there to cobble out their own lives. I couldn’t help wondering if any of these people were preparing to haul glass back to the same houses, where their grandfathers or great grandfathers had gathered up glass, so they could haul it to “the dump”. If so, the glass was garbage on the trip from the house to the beach and it was treasure on the trip from the beach to the house. And so it goes with us humans. Yeah, we can definitely be a hoot, sometimes.
It also made me think about recycling and the overwhelming restorative power of nature. I believe it is important to be good residents of the world we live in. It seems logical to me that we should use resources as responsibly as possible. If a container can be recycled to another use, we should take steps to make sure that happens. If we go camping or picnicking in a beautiful spot, we should clean up after ourselves. We should make sure our automobiles are properly maintained and functioning properly. And so forth. Our world is precious and we should treat it with respect and act responsibly. On the other hand, I do not believe that our world is particularly weak or delicate. I have never been able to get behind those who would claim that human beings are destroying the planet. Honestly, folks, I doubt that we could do that, if we wanted to. That premise actually seems arrogant to me. The power of nature to restore itself is constantly evident and the evidence of mankind seems kind of puny and fleeting, when you compare the two. Viewed from an airliner, it seems to me that the human family has barely scratched the surface of Earth.
Many years ago, there was a lightening strike in Yellowstone National Park, starting a huge forest fire. Because it was not man caused, authorities decided to follow a natural course, which meant let it burn and burn, it did. It burned and smoldered for days. I grew up fairly close to the area and knew it well. When I visited it several weeks later, I was totally depressed. The beautiful valleys and green hillsides were completely charred and blackened, as far as the eye could see. It was destroyed. But we were told by park rangers not to worry. It was nature’s way of cleansing the area and preparing it for new growth. You should see it today. It is verdant and youthful and new life has sprung up everywhere. It’s amazing.
Mother Nature is a very talented gal, whether she is working in the mountains or on the beach. She always figures out how to get the job done, even in spite of all those pesky humans.
So relax, folks. Always recycle and be responsible with your stuff, but relax and enjoy the world you live in. Tell the politically correct crowd they can relax, too. It will be OK. Go ahead and experience the mountains or take a stroll on the beach, but if you’re visiting Glass Beach, do not pick up any of the glass. That’s illegal. You see, it has been officially deemed by California to be a “state treasure”. We need to leave it there so we don’t “destroy the character of the beach”. Thanks, Mother Nature.
