Pacific Coast Recreation Area Survey: A Report by the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service

United State Department of the Interior; National Park Service

This report records briefly the history of the survey and attempts to classify and describe the individual areas that were identified. The specific objective of the Pacific Coast survey, as assigned to the survey team, was "to inventory and report on important remaining undeveloped areas, or areas with relatively sparse development, valuable for recreation and other public purposes, along the Pacific Coast." The term "recreation" was used in the broad sense to apply to areas of scenic, scientific and historical interest, as well as those chiefly valuable for active recreation. In essence, it was the goal of this inventory of undeveloped seashore areas to select those areas that should properly be included in a well-rounded and adequate National Park System; the designation of areas that should be preserved for the welfare of the general public because of their scenic, cultural and scientific values, regardless of what agency or level of Government might administer them; and the identification of areas necessary to provide for active public recreation use and enjoyment by an expanding population. The scope of the survey involved over 1,700 miles of general tidal shoreline, or from Mexico north to Cape Flattery and east to Tongue Point in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. There are various methods used for measuring the coastline, but the foregoing figure conforms with "general tidal shoreline" as defined by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Also in conformance with that definition, the survey included the shoreline of all bays, sounds, and other bodies of water to a point where such waters narrow to a width of three statute miles at their inlet, including the distance across the headlands. Since the littoral line of the Pacific Coast ends at Tongue Point (10 miles west of Port Angeles, Washington) the shoreline west of this point is considered as open coast and the shoreline eastward as inland waters. Also included in the scope of the survey were the Channel Islands off the southern California coast.