SOCIAL HISTORY OF
OCEAN PARK AND SURF BEACH
by Ron Fink
Ocean Park and Surf Beach have been recreational destinations for the people in the Lompoc Valley for over 100 years. Ocean recreation was established as a recreational draw as early as 1875 when a Lompoc Record article reported; "On Sunday last, over a hundred people visited the lovely beach at the mouth of the Santa Ynez River, and all agree that it is the most pleasant place to seek enjoyment." It still is today.
In 1888 Meherins' Wharf was completed just north of the Santa Ynez River mouth. A steamer from San Francisco called each week to discharge passengers and cargo. The facility grew to include a warehouse, two-story house, corrals and a bar. A storm in 1893 damaged the wharf and it was never repaired.
Business was slacking off as the railroad approached the area serviced by the wharf in 1896. Lompoc Landing continued operations until a loading accident destroyed the end of the wharf in 1898 and shut it down.
In 1930 a local entrepreneur filed plans with the County of Santa Barbara for a town site known as "Aloha" in the general area of the Surf train station. The lot sizes varied from only 25-feet wide to large multi-acre parcels. Promotional brochures of the time described a wonderful place to visit and envisioned a thriving village for summer campers.
The use of the beach for recreation began changing in 1993. That's when the US Fish and Wildlife Service determined that approximately 13 ½ miles of beach at Vandenberg AFB was "critical habitat" for the Western Snowy Plover. A total of 20 plover breeding areas currently occur in coastal California. The USFWS believes that eight areas support 78 percent of the California coastal breeding population. They are: San Francisco Bay, Monterey Bay, Morro Bay, the Callendar-Mussel Rock Dunes area, the Point Sal to Point Conception area, the Oxnard lowland, Santa Rosa Island, and San Nicolas Island.
Following the "critical habitat" designation the plover was later declared "endangered" and severe restrictions were implemented by the USFWS on the use of the beach by humans. The restrictions began with "linear" closures and voluntary compliance by the public. Little was done to educate the public concerning the issue other than random news articles and some poorly placed signage to indicate closure limits. Biologists monitoring the progress of the plovers' recovery consistently commented on the lack of compliance by beach visitors in their annual reports. Their random observations at Vandenberg AFB and both of the public beaches at Ocean Park and Surf Beach prompted the USFWS to demand that Vandenberg officials close the entire beach habitat to public access.
In the 2000 nesting season the Commander of Vandenberg AFB implemented closure of the beach at Ocean Park and allowed only ½ mile of beach to remain open at Surf. He also ordered military Game Wardens to issue warnings and citations to any violators of the closure policy. The immediate impact of these decisions was that a tradition of over 100-years of unrestricted beach enjoyment by the public was ended at Ocean Park and Surf Beach during the plover mating season.
Beach visitors and local citizens quickly formed the Ocean Beach Commission and a docent program was developed to keep visitors informed concerning the closure areas.
The docents have discovered that beach visitors hail from Germany, Denmark, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Italy, France, Japan, Thailand, Korea, Canada, England, Australia and most of the 50 United States. They are very talkative and seem interested in the local history of Ocean Park and Surf Beach.
