Laguna Pier Gave Way to the Elements

In 1896, the small town of Laguna Beach decided it wanted a fishing pier.

Such a project today would require years to gain approval, gather money and select a builder. In 1896, townsfolk merely passed the hat--rancher James Irvine put in $100--and rolled up their sleeves.

The result is shown above left in the 1930s after the original pier was extended past Bird Rock. The shelter on the point above the pier is where the gazebo now sits at the east end of Heisler Park on Cliff Drive.

The old way may have been simpler, but the results didn’t last long. “It became rickety and weather-beaten,” said Jane Janz, a member of the Laguna Beach Historical Society board. “Different storms would take out different sections. After a big storm, people would go down there and collect firewood.”

Finally the city condemned the pier. “The newspapers refer to people proposing to tear it down, but the City Council postponed and postponed,” Janz said. “It was a matter of money; the bids were too high.”

Eventually, nature did it for free. The epic storm of 1939 erased the pier, and that was that. The view today, above right, shows no trace it was there, although the rocks still contain the holes Janz’s grandfather blasted to mount piles.

But even in its rundown years, the pier was “wonderful, just great,” said Francis “Doc” Blacketer, who saw it then from a boy’s point of view.

You could catch fish off it with just a ball of twine and a hook, he said. And on Armistice Day, a battleship often anchored offshore and ferried boys from the pier for a tour. “They called it ‘pre-recruiting,’ ” Blacketer said.

“It’s a shame we don’t have a pier there now, but this town will never be like that again.”

OC Then and Now calls, (714) 966-5973; e-mail, OCthenandnowlatimes.com.