Eckhardt as a national legislative proposal in the 
91st through 94th Congresses. 
Oregon has enacted two statutes which deal with 
public use of beaches: (1) Oswald-West Act (1910) 
and (2) the “Beach Bill” in 1967 (ORS 390.600). 
The former, based on Roman law, declares all the 
State’s wet sand beaches to be public highways. The 
latter declares it to be a matter of State policy to 
maintain the sovereignty of the State “heretofore 
legally existing over the ocean shore,” so that the 
public can have the “free and uninterrupted use 
thereof.” Control of the shoreline between mean 
low and mean high tide was vested in the State to 
preserve the public’s right to use the beaches, and 
authority for the State to acquire access across pri- 
vate property for the benefit of the public was 
granted concurrently. 
The Virgin Islands enacted the “Open Shorelines” 
statute in 1971 (12 V.I.C. 13). In addition to pro- 
viding for beach use by the public, it created an 
Open Beaches Committee, which was authorized to 
make a comprehensive study of the Virgin Islands 
shoreline, including a survey of the public-private 
ownership boundaries, maps of public access routes, 
and a classification of beach uses. It defines the 
shoreline as the area between the low-tide line and 
either (1) 50 feet shoreward, or (2) the natural vege- 
tation line “which spreads continually inland,” or 
(3) a natural barrier—whichever of these distances 
was the least. Its constitutionality was upheld in the 
Bolongo Beach Case (VIDC No. 74-339, affd. 3d 
Cir., No. 75-1242 (1976)). The Virgin Islands 
statute does not provide for public access across 
private lands behind the defined shoreline. 
Access to Public Beaches 
Wherever the line of demarcation between private 
and public ownership (right to use) may be—mean 
high-tide line or mean low-tide line—the adjoining 
inland area is often private property. In many cases 
the public may have theoretical rights to beach use, 
but is often unable to gain access across the private 
dry sand beach. This is the case in California and 
Washington, for example. 
In some states, traditional usage allows the pub- 
lic a de facto right to transit and use the dry sand 
beaches; private property owners have the legal right 
to exclude the public from these areas, but do not. 
This mode of customary usage exists in Florida and 
South Carolina. 
Frequently, the general public may be excluded 
from entire reaches of municipal beaches, where pri- 
vate homeowners in a municipality resist the use of 
“their” public beaches by nonresidents. In New 
England many municipal beaches are either restricted 
to town residents or available only for a fee. Parking 
facilities are often limited or prohibited. As one 
journalist observed, “Any citizen can use the beach 
at East Hampton, Long Island, as long as he is will- 
ing to leave his car near Times Square and walk the 
rest of the way.” 1°° 
While town beaches are under the control of a 
municipality, State and Federal facilities along the 
coast are open to the general public. The access 
problem for such areas may simply be lack of avail- 
able parking. The Cape Cod National Seashore in 
Massachusetts, for instance, is plagued by this prob- 
lem. The National Park Service limits parking avail- 
ability as a means of controlling crowding, which — 
im 109 Calvin Trillin. “Some Reflections on Sand as Real Estate,” 
The New Yorker, November 1972. 
may affect the dunes, vegetation, and other natural 
features.''° 
Public Beach Resources 
According to surveys undertaken by the Outdoor 
Recreation Resources Review Commission in 1962 
and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Shoreline 
Study in 1971, about 6 percent of the Nation’s total 
shoreline is in public ownership. This figure is sub- 
ject to considerable error, however, because sound 
data are not available on city and county coastal 
holdings identified on the basis of accessibility by 
fee or general admission; nor are data available for 
Federal installations with beachfront that might be 
accessible for limited recreational purposes. 
The most thorough review of public beach re- 
sources was performed by George Washington Uni- 
versity in 1962, in conjunction with the Recreation 
Review Commission (table 4—7). These data must be 
considered approximate, however."'* 
Since these data were collected, the public coastal 
recreation estate has increased, owing in large meas- 
ure to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, 
which the Recreation Review Commission recom- 
mended in 1962. In particular, the Nation’s author- 
ized or existing National Lakeshores and Seashores 
have increased considerably since the early 1960s 
(table 4-8). 
In an attempt to update the information on shore- 
front ownership and determine the amount of wet 
or dry sand beach in public/private ownership by 
States, a questionnaire was distributed to each of 
110 U.S. Department of Transportation. Recreation Access 
Study. Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1975, 
p. 139. 
111 George Washington University. Shoreline Recreation Re- 
source of the United States. Washington, D.C., 1962, p. 12. 
IV-5S0 
