WORLD FAMOUS GLASS BEACH

Glass Beach is located on the northwest corner of Fort Bragg. There is a large parking lot and pet friendly hiking trails leading down to the shoreline. Be sure to lock your car, use leashes and good dog etiquete and never turn your back on the ocean; as large sleeper waves can come in at any time and take you or your loved ones out to sea where deep ice cold waters and sharks await. This area of the coastline was a dumping ground for trash and glass bottles. Over the years the ocean waves and tides have moved pieces of broken glass over the rocky shoreline, breaking and polishing them into pieces of broken glass of various colors and sizes; some very rare and valuable.

THE WORLD FAMOUS GLASS BEACH is at the end of Elm Street in Fort Bragg. There is no admission and folks travel here from all over the world looking for treasure. For years it was a dump or “trash beach”. First horse and buggy; then residents would back their pick-up trucks to the edge of the cliff and unload their trash. Fire would burn away anything that wasn’t enduring. The ocean would flush, rush and crush the contents; each tide and storm would reduce the rubble. What remains today are little pieces of broken glass of various colors and sizes; some very rare and valuable. This is Glass Beach.

The Sea Glass Museum, in the historic Union Lumber Company Store, is a great place to explore the history of Glass Beach and purchase a souvenir of rare treasure collected by sea glass and Glass Beach expert Captain Cass Forrington. His museum is a must see in Fort Bragg. The symbology of Glass Beach is expressed by local minister Greg Esher of Grace Church, a place of worship and “hubs and routes” emergency shelter for the less fortunate. Greg states “God can take the trash of your life and His refining turbulent love can wash the filth away, deposit it in the deepest part of the ocean never to be seen again. He can carry away the pain as far as the “east is from the west” and your life will be changed from trash to treasure, your mess into a message, your test into testimony, your stumbling block into a stepping stone, and your brokenness into blessings.”