Through the Lens of Orville Magoon
Every picture tells a story, we just need to know how to listen.
Orville Magoon
Orville Magoon
Orville Magoon was a strong and vocal advocate for the coast throughout most of his life and was considered to be one of the pioneers for coastal management and engineering.
Growing up in Hawaii, the coast was always part of his life. He went to the beach to watch the 1946 tsunami and had to climb a palm tree to avoid being swept away by the waves. That experience typified his approach to the coast - wanting to see what was happening, to observe it, and to apply his education as a coastal engineer to deduce the important aspects of coastal change and develop engineering options for ongoing coastal problems.
Orville recognized that engineering solutions were just one part of the coast and he was a strong supporter for sand rights, coastal management, and bringing multiple disciplines to coastal situations.
Orville was the president of the American Shore and Beach Association (ASBPA) from 1983 to 1994, started the Coastal Zone Foundation , and helped organize numerous Coastal Zone Management Conferences and conferences on many other coastal topics.
Every picture tells a story
Orville Magoon's slide collection
In 2018, the California Shore and Beach Preservation Association (CSBPA) had the opportunity to acquire over 4,000 slides taken by Orville Magoon during his coastal career. The slides depict areas of the California coast from a time prior to the proliferation of digital content.
These slides can now be accessed through this interactive story map. For several of the locations, people who are familiar with the location or with Orville's attachments to coastal areas provided short stories about why these images are important.
Orville's collection reminds us that every picture tells a story. This project gives you an opportunity to see Through the Lens of Orville Magoon and to contribute your own stories about coastal areas.
Digitized photographs from Orville Magoon's slide collection. (Left: Bolinas June 1982; Middle: Capitola, January 1966; El Granada, 2007)
Explore this collection in the interactive story map below. More of Orville's photos will be added over time. The project is designed to be interactive and a living digital record of photos, stories, and media. We encourage you to submit your own photos and stories (see the form below).
The California Coast
Orville Magoon's slide collection included photos from around the world. Explore this map and Orville's photos by clicking different location pins. Scroll down to hear stories about different coastal communities.
The Jetties at Bodega Harbor (California)
Click the map pin to view more photographs.
Jetty at Bodega Bay, January 12th, 1981
Bodega Harbor is a small harbor on the Pacific coast of northern California. Commercial and recreational fishing is an important industry for this coastal community. The natural lagoon entrance made it difficult for fishing vessels to navigate safely.
To create and maintain a navigable entrance into Bodega Harbor, the construction of two rubble-mound jetties and the associated dredging of channels were authorized by the United States Congress in the late 1930s. The jetties were built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in the early 1940s.
Crescent City Tetrapods
Crescent City in Northern California has a long history of coastal engineering. Orville Magoon was very involved in the coastal design of the breakwater jetties protecting Crescent Harbor. Watch this video to learn more about this coastal engineering story.
CA - Magoon Photos
Capitola Beach, Santa Cruz, California
Orville Magoon in Santa Cruz (January 1966)
"The California coast in the Santa Cruz area is subject to very high waves, with maximum deep water waves often exceeding 50 feet in height." (Orville et al. 1988)
Orville was actively involved in designing projects to address beach erosion in Santa Cruz. In the 1960s, rubble mound seawalls were constructed at Sea Cliff Drive and Opal Cliffs-Capitola areas. Check out this historical newspaper article about wave-battered beaches in Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz Sentinel, Volume 109, Number 219, 16 September 1965
Click the map pin to see more photographs from Orville Magoon took in Santa Cruz.
Explore more photographs on your own. Have a story to tell about locations Orville Magoon took photographs? Want to contribute a new story about a coastal issue or project? Use the form below.
Browse some of Orville Magoon's California Collection
These are just some of the thousands of slides from Orville Magoon's collection.
To browse the entire collection use the photo viewer below. To open this viewer in a new window click the icon (square with arrow, top left in map viewer).
Magoon California Complete Collection
Orville Magoon's collection of slides extended beyond California, and there are 1000s of photos throughout the world. The project team will be updating this page as more photos are geotagged into the database. We want this project to extend beyond Orville's lens, to include photographs and stories from you. Do you have a story to tell?
