August 18, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 5A
AN UNSUNG HERO OF
OREGON’S BEACH BILL
MEETINGS
Monday, Aug. 28
Seaside City Council, 7
p.m. City Hall, 989 Broad-
way.
Monday, Oct. 9
Seaside City Council, 7
p.m., City Hall, 989 Broad-
way.
Tuesday, Sept. 5
Seaside Planning Com-
mission, 6 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Monday, Oct. 23
Seaside City Council, 7
p.m., City Hall, 989 Broad-
way.
Seaside Signal
Wednesday, Sept. 6
Gearhart City Council,
7 p.m., City Hall, 698 Pacifi c
Way.
Wednesday, Nov. 1
Gearhart City Council,
7 p.m., City Hall, 698 Pacifi c
Way.
J
Monday, Sept. 11
Seaside City Council, 7
p.m., City Hall, 989 Broad-
way.
Monday, Nov. 13
Seaside City Council, 7
p.m., City Hall, 989 Broad-
way.
Monday, Sept. 25
Seaside City Council, 7
p.m., City Hall, 989 Broad-
way.
Monday, Nov. 27
Seaside City Council, 7
p.m., City Hall, 989 Broad-
way.
Wednesday, Oct. 4
Gearhart City Council,
7 p.m., City Hall, 698 Pacifi c
Way.
Wednesday, Dec. 6
Gearhart City Council,
7 p.m., City Hall, 698 Pacifi c
Way.
Many had a
hand in historic
coastal law
By Rebecca Herren
uly 6 marked the 50th an-
niversary of the 1967 date
when then Oregon Gov.
Tom McCall signed HB 1601
into law, establishing Ore-
gon’s coastline and its beach-
es as public land for all people
to enjoy.
Though accolades most-
ly benefi ted McCall, State
Treasurer Bob Straub is also
known within the ranks of
HB 1601 supporters. But, lit-
tle recognition is given to the
lesser -known men and wom-
en who were part of Oregon’s
Legislature, committees and
organizations to save Ore-
gon’s beaches from land sales
and privatization.
There was Associated
Press reporter Matt Kramer,
whose articles, which ap-
peared in almost every news-
paper in Oregon, kept the
public abreast with the ongo-
ing, and often heated, battle
over Oregon’s beaches. It was
Kramer, who coined HB 1601
the “beach bill” through his
reporting. And, Gov. Oswald
West set the stage for being
the fi rst governor to start the
process of keeping Oregon’s
beaches public by getting his
1913 bill passed.
Yet, when Oregon became
a state in 1859, its belief was
that what the state owned,
the state could sell. In 1872,
the Legislature authorized
the selling of dry-sand land
to private citizens. Howev-
er, controversy and concern
grew within the state since the
beaches were an important
form of coastal transportation
from north to south along the
coastline. Therefore, in 1899,
the Legislature declared the
beach land from the Colum-
bia River to the south border
of Clatsop County a public
highway.
Not to downplay Govs.
West’s and McCall’s defi ning
moments to have the foresight
to protect Oregon’s beaches
for future generations — the
beaches had already set a
precedent for being a recre-
ational playground and there
was, of course, the doctrine of
customary rights — and both
governors were known to be
proactive environmentalists of
Oregon’s natural landscape.
Driving force
Still, there was one oth-
er. A man who was a driving
force and key to starting the
legislative process in saving
Oregon’s beaches against bur-
geoning abuse and misuse by
developers and property own-
ers. His name was Dr. Robert
Bacon.
Bacon, a professor of anat-
omy at the University of Or-
egon Medical School since
1955, was an environmental-
ist. During his fi rst trip to Or-
egon for an interview with the
school, he was in awe of Or-
egon’s beauty, remarking that
a slope of Douglas fi rs where
the biggest trees he’d ever
seen and the campus gardens
were the “most beautiful in
the United States, except pos-
sibly for Duke.” He described
the snow on Mount Hood as
dazzling white and the sky as
a National Geographic blue.
I met Bacon during an
event at the Seaside Aquar-
ium in 2005. His wife, Sue
Daniel, accompanied him. I
knew Daniel through her time
as a board member of Friends
of Haystack Rock, and it was
by Daniel’s prompting I vol-
unteered with the Haystack
Rock Awareness Program for
a couple of seasons. It was
about this time that Bacon’s
name became synonymous
with the Beach Bill among us
locals.
Bacon was a low-keyed,
nonpolitical kind of man,
whose introduction into pol-
itics began when a young
biochemistry student named
Lawrence Bitte approached
him about an incident that
happened with his aunt and
uncle at a family gathering in
Cannon Beach. His aunt, Bet-
SIGNAL ARCHIVES
Prior to the state passing the Oregon Beach Bill in 1967, the state’s prime recreational area
was in danger of exploitation by private interests. Here, beach goers enjoying a parachuting
exhibit on the beach at Seaside in 1963.
BUSINESS
DIRECTORY
F LOORING
Laurelwood Compost • Mulch • Planting MacMix
Soil Amendments
YARD DEBRIS DROP-OFF
(no Scotch Broom)
503-717-1454
34154 HIGHWAY 26
SEASIDE, OR
Laurelwood Farm
OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
Robert L. Bacon, Ph.D., pro-
fessor emeritus of anatomy
at the University of Oregon
Medical School from 1955 to
1988.
ty Wilson, complained to Bitte
of being told they could not
use the area where they were
picnicking and were ushered
out of the “private” section in
front of the Surfsand Motel.
The owner of the newly
built motel had outlined the
dry-sand area in front of the
property with drift logs and
signs to provide a private
beach for its guests. This
commercial exploitation en-
raged Cannon Beach residents
and visitors alike. A Portland
mathematics professor, J.
Richard Byrne, wrote a let-
ter to the Highway Commis-
sion demanding clarifi cation
of public rights to the beach.
The interpretation given at
that time was the public rights
access only included the wet
sands area below high tide,
and an inquiry would be
launched. Bitte, on the other
hand, was preparing a letter to
McCall.
In the meantime, the con-
troversy in Cannon Beach
continued, inciting inquiries
into other instances of com-
mercial development along
the coast. Not hearing back
from McCall, an irritated
Bitte made contact with Ba-
con, who had the reputation
of caring about his students.
Since Bitte had not re-
ceived a reply to his letter,
Bacon suggested they travel
to Salem to express their feel-
ings and try to get clarifi cation
regarding public rights to the
beach. Bitte was unable to at-
tend a hearing on the privat-
ization of Oregon’s beaches
because of schedule confl icts
and sent his wife, Diane, with
Bacon instead.
Bacon and Bitte’s wife
missed the hearing, but were
not deterred in their efforts
to be heard. They walked to
the hearing room where they
met Rep. Sydney Bazett and
explained to him why they
wanted Oregon’s beaches to
remain public lands. Bazett
encouraged the two to return
after lunch and state their case
before the committee of about
20 . Bacon and Bitte were the
only two who came forward
to weigh in on the issue.
Bitte’s wife described it as
intimidating — a room of all
older men in pinstripe suits
and smoking cigars. They
both felt the hostility in the
room that seemed to be di-
rected at them, said Bacon in
a 2005 Seaside Signal inter-
view.
Word spread that the hear-
L ANDSCAPING
CANNON BEACH HISTORY CENTER AND MUSEUM
Lawrence Bitte (left) and Bob Bacon (right) take a stroll on
Gearhart Beach between 2007 and 2008 for the documenta-
ry fi lm “Politics of Sand.”
ings on the Beach Bill would
continue. Bacon who had no
interest in politics, traveled
across the state on behalf of
keeping Oregon’s beaches
public. Together, Lawrence
Bitte and Bacon formed the
Citizens to Save Oregon’s
Beaches (CSOB). He joking-
ly recalled how the group was
referred to as the SOB s in the
2009 documentary “Politics
of Sand.”
Bacon remembered many
of the people who helped
make the Beach Bill a reality.
Among them were journalists
Matt Kramer, Ken Fitzgerald,
Jim Long and media mogul
Ancil Payne of King Broad-
casting Co . who kept the bill
in the forefront of news cov-
erage.
In the documentary, Ba-
con showed concern over
the Beach Bill’s continuing
battle of being modifi ed and
weakened. CSOB, he said,
never supported the 16-foot
vegetation line of the Beach
Bill. “We wanted it to state a
“natural beach line” since the
landscape is ever-changing. In
a lecture last December at the
Cannon Beach Library, con-
servationist Neal Maine noted
that the public should keep in
mind the shoreline and beach
are transitory, and the Beach
Bill was a political event with
no mention of ecological pro-
cesses.
Crucial trip
If Bacon had not taken that
crucial trip to Salem, what
would have been the fate of
Oregon’s beaches? Or, if the
confrontation with Bitte’s aunt
and uncle never happened
and Surfsand owner William
Hay’s plans to bring a bit of
Hawaii and Florida to Oregon
was allowed, what would have
become of Oregon’s beaches?
Would there be miles of beach
littered by masses of brightly
colored umbrellas and cabana
tents? Would there be fenc-
es erected, extending to the
low-tide line blocking off sec-
tions of private beaches?
If legislative initiatives and
natural resource preservation
activities had not been passed
during the 108 years since the
state’s admission to the Union
and the passage of the Beach
Bill, could the Beach Bill pass
legislation today?
The Beach Bill was ap-
pealed several times. Judge
Alfred Goodwin, the Ore-
gon Supreme Court judge
wrote the 1969 decision up-
holding the constitutionality
of the Beach Bill, declaring
Oregon’s beaches to remain
public property. A Cannon
Beach motel owner sought to
have the Beach Bill declared
unconstitutional in an U.S.
Supreme Court 1994 appeal,
and again, the court upheld
the lower court’s decision fa-
voring a doctrine of custom.
However, Justice Antonin
Scalia noted, “To say that
this case raises a serious Fifth
Amendment issue is an under-
statement. And it is serious in
the sense that the land grab
may run the entire length of
the Oregon coast.”
Oregon is the only state to
have open public access to its
entire coastline, with Texas
and Hawaii following in suit.
And, though it is the birthright
of all Oregonians to have open
access to all the beaches edg-
ing its shores, we shouldn’t
become complacent in this
right or take it for granted.
Developers, politicians and
private citizens will continue
to threaten and challenge Or-
egon’s Beach Bill.
In 1997, Bacon gave an in-
terview for the 30th anniver-
sary of the Beach Bill. About
his part, he said it best, “I
taught 4,300 physicians about
the structure of the human
body, but I felt this (the Beach
Bill) was the most important
thing I ever did.”
Bacon retired to the coast
in 1982 after teaching anato-
my for 45 years. He lived in
Gearhart until his death in
January 2009.
NORTH COAST DOOR CO.
Serving the North Oregon Coast for Over 28 Years
Pre-Hung Doors • Garage Door Sales
Installation • Complete Trim Packages
Stair Parts • Door Hardware
R.J. & Bonnie Wynia CCB #214816 • 1303 Front Street • Tillamook, OR
503-842-5300
northcoastdoorco@hotmail.com • www.northcoastdoorco.com
B oB M c E wan c onstruction , inc .
E xcavation • u ndErground u tiitiEs
r oad w ork • F ill M atErial
s itE P rEParation • r ock
owned and operated by
M ike and C eline M C e wan
503-738-3569
34154 Hwy 26, Seaside, OR
P.O. Box 2845, Gearhart, OR
S erving the p aCifiC n orthweSt S inCe 1956 • CC48302
C ONSTRUCTION
Randall Lee’s 0% FINANCING
AVAILABLE
Window Treatments, Fabric, Designer Wallpaper, Visit Our
Counter Tops, All Flooring and Miele Vacuums
Outlet!
2311 N. Roosevelt Dr., Seaside, OR 97138 • 503-738-5729
rlflooring @ yahoo.com • www.RandallLeesFlooring.com
Randall Lee’s Flooring Outlet • 3579 Hwy 101 Gearhart • 503-738-6756
Warehouse pricing • Open to the Public • Hundreds of instock rolls & remnants • In House Binding
L AWN C ARE
Timberland Lawn Care
& Home Maintenance LLC.
Ask About Our Handyman Services!
Excavating • Fences • Yard Maintenance
and More!
CCB#212982
503-440-2480
TimberlandLawnCare@yahoo.com
F LOORING
CCB# 205283
y
ou ou
r r w
ep alk
ut o
at n
io
n
Flooring
Installation
Carpet Cleaning
3470 Hwy 101 Suite 102 • Gearhart, Oregon
503.739.7577 • carpetcornergearhart.com
S ECURITY
503-738-9003
LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED
Residential & Commercial: Burglary & Fire Protection, Video
Surveillance, Central Station Monitoring, Remote Arm/Disarm
LICENSED • BONDED • INSURED
Seaside, Oregon • www.CoastalAlarm.net • info@CoastalAlarm.net
CCB# 201010 • Reg.# 977689-99
BUSINESS
DIRECTORY