A trail to Lighthouse Beach south of Coos Bay opened Wednesday after a five-year dispute over public access.
For decades, beachgoers used a dirt trail across private property to reach the shoreline between Sunset Bay and Bastendorff Beach. The primitive trail descended a cliff to a relatively secluded stretch of the Charleston-area coastline with views of the Cape Arago lighthouse.
That access disappeared in 2021, when visitors found the trail blocked by barbed wire. Another access point lies farther northeast, but high tides can cut it off from much of the beach.
Oregon’s 1967 Beach Bill protects the public’s right to use the state’s ocean shore, but it does not guarantee a path across private property to reach it. Along parts of the South Coast, where cliffs and private land limit access points, that distinction can make a public beach difficult to reach.
“This particular stretch of beach is one of those beaches where there's an intersection between private property and public access,” said Carmen Matthews, a founding member of Surfrider Foundation’s Coos Bay chapter.
Surfrider filed a lawsuit on the chapter's behalf in 2022, asking a court to recognize a public prescriptive easement. The organization argued that decades of public use had established a right to continue using the path.
Surfrider and the property owners reached a preliminary agreement in 2023. The owners agreed to donate part of the property for a new public trail, though the parties were still working out the route.
The property owners completed the new trail in 2025, but additional legal work was needed to separate the trail parcel from the rest of the property.
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department took ownership of the trail parcel Wednesday, and Coos County has agreed to maintain it.
“This beach is a very special beach to me,” Matthews said. “I actually grew up on Lighthouse Beach. My family has a piece of property near the other access point, and this was basically my backyard.”
Matthews said he had hoped to raise his daughter on the same beach.
“The hardest thing was not being able to spend our family time down there,” he said. “I’m also a surfer, so having limited access to one of the waves that are within our scope of access was a hard hit as well. But the family aspect was devastating.”
The trail serves more than beachgoers. Researchers from the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology use the area, and Surfrider has organized beach cleanups, surf camps and educational programs there.
Matthews recalled a storm that washed part of a dock onto Lighthouse Beach, scattering styrofoam across the shoreline. Surfrider volunteers used the trail to reach the debris before it could break apart and spread farther along the coast.
