In the early 1970s, Jug Handle's future hung in the balance. Plans were underway to build an 80-room hotel overlooking Jug Handle Beach, while neighboring forests faced industrial logging and private development. At the last possible moment, and thanks to a freak snowstorm that halted the bulldozers, a handful of visionary folks, led by naturalist John Olmsted, leaped in. Overnight, they secured an injunction that saved the threatened land.

After years of determination, community support, and relentless fundraising, they ultimately transferred the protected parcels to the State, creating what is now Jug Handle State Natural Reserve, and kept separate an old farm parcel for a non-profit nature education center. 

More than fifty-five years later, that education vision continues. What began as a grassroots effort to save a remarkable stretch of California's coast has grown into Jug Handle Creek Nature Center, welcoming thousands of students and visitors each year to explore, learn, and help care for one of the North Coast's most extraordinary landscapes.

Read the full story Here, or watch the PBS video below to learn more: