Crop dusters dropped 9,000 pounds of barley grain on the sandspit from a souped-up World War II Stearman biplane. (Telegram-Tribune photos by Jack Wilson)
April 28, 1965
This is one of those stories from the past that would never happen today.
The brand new city of Morro Bay was involved in squabbles with the county over ownership of mudflats and the sandspit. The state park system we know today was in a fledgling state. Enter developers, mostly from the Bakersfield area, who had a lease from the county for a development on the sandspit.
Quoting the story:
MORRO BAY—Nine thousand pounds of barley seed was air-dropped over 96 acres of the sandspit across from Morro Rock Tuesday, a pretty odd and barren ground to plant anything.
If it sprouts and grows, it will serve to secure thousands of square yards of sand dredged up onto the sandspit this summer during the course of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Morro Bay harbor dredging operation.
Operation barley seed was carried out early Tuesday morning by Jim Delara and Jim Brickey, crop duster pilots from Warren Crop Duster Service of Santa Maria operating from a base set up at the foot of Morro Rock.
The project was sponsored by Green-West Acres Corporation, holders of a dubious lease from San Luis Obispo County on the sandspit acreage.
Six years ago the corporation first entertained its idea for a major marina development on the Morro Bay sandspit opposite the Rock, but yesterday’s barley seeding was the most evident activity of its marina dream to date.
A lawsuit by Morro Bay homeowners had halted the development but the stockholders had high hopes. They wrote a check to the Greater Morro Bay Harbor Development Association for $1,000 though membership cards only cost $6.
The California Coastal Commission would be brought into existence by California voters in about 7 years.
I am told that some of the sandspit is still in private ownership.
Today there would be warning flags on so many levels, how many reasons can you come up with for why this would not be allowed today?
Related posts:
HI David,
Hello from Dan at the Estuary Program.
This is great – I hadn’t heard this story, but I know later efforts to stabilize the dunes with more suitable vegetation have not amounted to much either.
There are still plan maps around of those ambitious marina development schemes. One of those might be worth putting up here in the ” Things that might have been ” heading.
Best,
Dan Berman
Los Osos