Feb, 2024 – 98569 Coastal Erosion Attitudes

Image above: Taken on July 6th, 2024 from the public access trail adjacent to the Ocean Shores Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Priorities are in place (as they should be) and so is this armor-plated bulkhead.

Was any priority established for maintaining the Damon Point/Ocean Shores Marina end of the jetty?

When I started blogging about Damon Point beach access two years ago, I thought improvements would happen at some point.

I was surprised to see (two years ago) many cheerful web pages describing good times for beach walkers out at Damon Point. It seemed tricky to find posts describing deteriorated conditions.

Various web pages would refer to the area as a state park.

With Sadness

It looks like the area is gone for good now. Love to see real newspeople take a hard look at what happened out here. When and why was a decision made to turn away from maintaining the 1916 jetty?

Significant History

At Damon Point, Ocean Shores once had an active marina with a restaurant, cocktail lounge and salmon charter boat outings. The Silver King Motel was there too.

Damon Point was once a state park. When and why did Washington State Parks let it go?

Ocean Shores Marina History – A Time Gone By

1916 – Jetty adjacent to the public parking area at Damon Point is installed. Apparently, no maintenance has been done on this part of the jetty since 1916. If the jetty was a priority in 1916, why was it let go as the years went by?

At Damon Point, the Ocean Shores side once had a ferry to Westport. People liked it. It was shut down because:

“…too much sand and silt built up around the Ocean Shores marina, the El Matador was forced to cancel trips across the harbor.”

Different story over at Westport

“…less than two miles as the crow flies…”

Imagine telling the fishing boat captains over at Westport that their access to a 100 year old armor-plated harbor was going to be let go because too much sand and silt built up around the marina.

In the news:

Nov 2, 2023 The Daily World

A 100-year old jetty used to protect Ocean Shores. Can new technologies save its south end?

“In 1916, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed the construction of Grays Harbor’s North Jetty, a three mile-long berm of boulders jutting into the Pacific, hugging and holding the entire southern shoreline of Ocean Shores. The body of water now known as Oyhut Bay did not exist.”

Grays Harbor did not encroach inland of the 1916 jetty at the time it was built?

Any federal money for ports and coastal improvement?

Plenty of cash for Ukraine/undeclared/unwon wars and here is what you get back home:

$6.3 million in federal cash for a used Ocean Shores hotel.

Any questions from newspeople?

December 8, 2022 The Daily World

Dept. of Ag invests $6.3M to purchase Ocean Shores hotel

$6.3 million “to fund the acquisition of an existing hotel. Marathon Enterprises Inc. is located in Ocean Shores, Grays Harbor County, Washington. The project is expected to result in saving eight jobs and creating one full time job.”

Zero questions from small or large newspapers. Zero questions from TV newspeople.

Information suppression protocols: Here is a broken link that once announced Congressman Derek Kilmer’s success in pulling together $6.3 million in federal cash for the used Ocean Shores hotel. Why is this public information no longer available?

Other sources:

$6.3 million will be used to purchase an Ocean Shores hotel; saves jobs

KXRO News December 7, 2022

Love to see newspeople out asking questions.

What we get now is sort of a press release style of news reporting where a statement is prepared by whatever agency was involved in the latest policy update, drug bust/federal grant money award, etc.

Newspeople post this statement as is. A 5th grade book report would require more in the way of asking questions.

Something tells me the newspeople below have never walked the Ocean Shores beaches from State Route 115/Lighthouse Suites Inn south to North Jetty, Damon Point loop and all of the beach between the Ocean Shores Wastewater Treatment Plant and the old marina.

“…less than two miles as the crow flies…”

Did they head over to Westport and take a look at a community that faces the same concerns Re: tsunami zone, global warming, sea level rise, climate crisis, king tides, coastal erosion, El Niño/La Niña, winter storms and did not let any of that get in the way of keeping things maintained on their working waterfront?

There is a story to be told here.