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If you enjoy the Oregon Coast, and stop to think how much easy access modern Oregonians have to so very much beach, think of Oswald West.
Oswald West, born in Canada, was Oregon's 14th governor; he served one term from 1911 through 1915 (he declined to run for a second term). His legacy is a decidedly mixed bag. Not only was he a ardent prohibitionist, he promoted Oregon's Eugenics law of 1913 (Google "Portland Vice Scandal", where gay men were victimized. Not a pretty picture.)
However, in another important way he was visionary. It's because of him we have all this beach access, access to a degree that leaves visitors to Oregon typically stunned.
At the Neahkahnie Mountain viewpoint, looking south on US 101 in northwestern Tillamook County, there is the following monumental plate:
The monument reads thus:
IF SIGHT OF SAND AND SKY AND SEA
HAS GIVEN RESPITE FROM YOUR DAILY ARES
---
THEN PAUSE TO THANK
OSWALD WEST
FORMER GOVERNOR OF OREGON (1911-1915)
--- - ---
BY HIS FORESIGHT
NEARLY 400 MILES OF THE OCEAN SHORE
WAS SET ASIDE FOR PUBLIC USE
FROM THE COLUMBIA RIVER ON THE NORTH
TO THE CALIFORNIA BORDER ON THE SOUTH
---
THIS MARKER IS ERECTED AND DEDICATED
BY THE GRATEFUL CITIZENS OF OREGON
TO COMMEMORATE
THIS OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT
IN THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES
This much is truth, too. Under Oswald West, the Oregon Highway Commission - the forerunner of today's ODOT - was created in 1913, and proclaimed the Oregon Beach Highway Law, which declared Oregon's beach coastline as a public highway to the high water line. This was the seed which finally bore fruit as the Beach Bill, HB 1601 of 1967, during the Tom McCall administration.
This is why Oregonians have all that beach to play on.
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