A cliffside path that has connected Oceanside to Short Beach for nearly a century has a brand-new staircase, complete with 122 steps, four rest platforms, four benches, new handrails and retaining walls. The rebuilt trail was completed on October 18, 2025, closing out a project that grew out of a much older story of erosion, wartime radar stations and a decade-long road closure along the Oregon coast.
According to the Netarts-Oceanside Fire District, the newly finished path is actually the third generation of the Short Beach pathway. The first version dates back to the late 1920s, when the Rosenberg family of Oceanside built the original 150 wooden steps down to the beach — part of the same era in which the family, according to the Oregon Encyclopedia, founded Oceanside in July 1922 and later built a wooden plank road from Netarts and blasted a tunnel through Maxwell Point to open up the coastline.
Those original steps served residents and visitors for more than a decade, per the fire district's account, before they disappeared by the early 1940s, leaving only a rugged scramble down the slope. That timing wasn't a coincidence: with the outbreak of World War II, a wooden trestle bridge was built above Short Creek to serve a long-range coastal radar installation, and a cantonment of barracks, a mess hall and support buildings for roughly 49 to 50 personnel went up along what is now Radar Road, the fire district notes. That installation was formally designated Radar Station B-25 and ran an SCR-270 early warning air defense radar unit from 1942 until it was deactivated in 1944, according to FortWiki. Nearly all of the cantonment's facilities were removed after the war ended.
A Steep and Treacherous Route for Decades
Vehicle access to the area got easier long before the trail did. Tillamook County completed the Cape Meares Loop Road on October 13, 1960, bringing more travelers to the coastline, per the fire district — but the descent to Short Beach itself remained steep and treacherous for years afterward. That didn't change until 1996, when locals Roy Wilson and Joe Gluzinski, assisted by local Boy Scout troops, began an eight-year effort to rebuild a walkable trail, creating what the fire district calls a lasting gift to the community and its visitors.
Even that version of the trail eventually gave way to the elements. Severe erosion and slope degradation eventually forced local authorities to formally close public access to Short Beach and post signs declaring the route use at your own risk, according to Oregon Coast Beach Connection. Planning for a safer, more accessible and more resilient trail began in 2023, per the fire district, arriving not long after Tillamook County Public Works finished restoring full vehicle access to the trailhead area.
A $12.5 Million Bypass Road Reconnected the Coastline
That vehicle access came back in November 2023, when Tillamook County Public Works completed a $12.5 million, 1.6-mile bypass road replacing a section of Cape Meares Loop Road that had been closed for a decade after a massive 2013 landslide, according to Tillamook Coast. With the road reopened, attention turned back to the trail itself, and the current reconstruction ran from June through October 2025.
More than 100 volunteers took part across 38 work sessions, contributing over 1,700 hours, per the fire district's post. That labor was split almost evenly between local Oceanside residents and statewide volunteers from Trailkeepers of Oregon, according to the Tillamook County Pioneer. The broader partnership behind the project also included the Oceanside Action Partnership, Tillamook County Public Works, Netarts Watershed Council, Tillamook Coast Visitors Association, Oregon Parks and Recreation, and the Netarts-Oceanside Fire District, the fire district's post notes.
New Benches, Old Debates Over the Beach's Name
The finished trail now includes new benches and viewpoints offering rest along the steep descent, according to the fire district. Despite common assumptions, the beach likely wasn't named for its short length — local historical records instead trace the name of Short Beach and adjacent Short Creek to an early area settler whose surname was Short, per Oregon Discovery.
Once at the bottom, hikers reach a cove framed by two very different waterfalls: the natural, 40-foot Larson Creek Falls tumbling down a basalt cliff at the northern end, and a manmade cascade formed by a concrete stormwater spillway right next to the trail steps, the same source reports. Winter and spring storms also scour the beach's cobbles, exposing agates, jaspers, zeolites and petrified wood, making Short Beach one of the North Oregon Coast's premier rockhounding spots, according to Pines and Vines.
At the beach's southern tip lies Lost Boy Beach, a secluded cove named for a child who disappeared there in the early 20th century. Oregon Discovery warns that the cove is accessible only at extreme low tide and poses serious stranding risks as water rises. For now, though, the newly rebuilt stairway above offers something the old scramble down the slope never did: a safer, sturdier way to reach the sand.
