Sparkling Glass Beach of California
Glass Beach near Fort Bragg in Northern California used to be the spot where residents brought all forms of their trash- from their old cars to their kitchen leftovers- to a dump located on the beach starting in 1949.
Only in the early 1960s did officials begin to regulate what was dumped on the beach, first putting a stop to toxins and then to everything when the North coast Water Quality Board moved the official dump to a different location in 1967.
Though that was nearly half a century ago, the remnants are still very clear. Much of the glass that was left on the beachfront during its dirty past has not gone far, and years of the thrashing waves have softened and polished the broken pieces.
Now the beach is covered with stone-sized pieces of sea glass, coloring the seascape and adding a tourist element to the natural beauty of the spot.
Glass Beach is part of the MacKerricher State Park and has another side to its history, as it is the only area of the Califonira Park System to have been at one point in time a part of the Mendocino Indian Reservation.
Because of this historic significance, the beach is maintained by the parks department which does its best to preserve the natural, and not-so-natural, beauty of Glass Beach.
