If you were to journey to the place we now know as Glass Beach in 1949, you would have discovered an unrestricted dump on an otherwise marvelous stretch of the ocean front. For some reason, California residents of Fort Bragg thought that the scenic viewpoint was the perfect place to dump all kinds of dangerous stuff
into the ocean from chemicals to abandoned cars to tons and tons of broken glass.

After 1949, the eighteen year-old unrestricted dump was suddenly restricted as, surprise surprise, people found out that it was dangerous but instead of cleaning up the godawful mess, the trash was left to fester and roll in the crashing surf.

Fortunately, mother nature is quite a bit smarter than us when it comes to handling garbage. Over the years, the pounding waves crashed and rolled the broken glass on the beach until eventually, the sharp edges were worn into billions of glass pebbles. People began to rediscover the beach which was now sparkling with rainbow hued sands. When the state of California noticed that people were visiting the site of the dump, they annexed the beach and made it part of MacKerricher State Park. The rusting hulks of old cars and appliances were hauled away and the miraculous testament to nature taking care of mankind’s failure is now a protected area that attracts thousands of visitors a year.