Trail Project

Formal designation of Coast Guard Beach as a park has been a community priority since its inclusion in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough 1976 Comprehensive Plan. Borough resolution 607 (1985) stated, "The Assembly supports the establishment, expansion and maintenance of State Park facilities at Coast Guard Beach located at Point Higgins for the citizens of the Ketchikan region as one of the area's prime waterfront recreation sites."

Trail History

Teachers, members of the PTA of Point Higgins Elementary School in Ketchikan, and volunteers planned for a trail from the elementary school to Coast Guard Beach when the school was completed in 1986. The trail traverses Ketchikan Gateway Borough (the Borough) and the Alaska Mental Health Trust (the Trust) lands. Grants were obtained to update and improve the first half of the trail on the Borough property. Thousands of dollars of materials and services were donated by local construction companies, a helicopter company, building supply businesses, a local Rotary Club, and many others to complete and maintain the first half of the trail.

The Borough and community groups formed a partnership to complete the improvement of the trail section that covers the Trustland. In November 2006, the Borough Assembly unanimously passed resolution 2012 that "authorized the submittal of grant appliction" to the Alaska State Parks recreational trails grant program. The Borough also passed resolution 2013 that authorized the Borough Manager to request an update and extension of a Revocable License for Land Use between the Trust and the Borough.

Trail Update

The Alaska State Parks grant application was stalled when the Trust would not allow the pursuit of necessary permits for the grant award and placed stipulation on the Revocable License. During the process for updating the license, the Trust stated in the final grant application that the extension of the land use license authorized in Resolution 2013, would "Authorize use of the trail by the general public and will not authorize trail construction, reconstruction or maintenance until such as rezoned and sub-division of Trust land, USS 3762, also know as Coast Guard Beach, is completed and a permanent trail has been determined." This statement called into question the "readiness" of the grant application by the grant administrator and thus led to the end of the grant possibility.