Page 96 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2021 DISCOVERING MENDOCINO

confronted with so much rubble, they dumped it in
the ocean, hoping it would be carried out to sea. It
wasn’t.
The seaside dumping continued for six decades
until the mid-1960s when the North Coast Water
Quality Board created a landfill well away from
the coast. Over the years, Mother Nature has been
cleansing and reclaiming the shoreline. Waves and
tidal action crushed rounded and polished tons of
glass and piled it onto the beach. Today, millions of
pieces of sea glass gleam in the sun.
We saw fellow visitors picking up pieces of glass
and admit to pocketing a few ourselves. Mother
nature still has lots of dumped glass to clean and
polish and it would take scores of sea glass glean-
ers decades to significantly diminish what’s there.
Still, we suspect that in the future, taking sea glass
as souvenirs will be frowned upon.

96 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2021