Talk:Goat Rock Beach

I'm starting this discussion page in the hopes that sooner or later other folks will come by who have an inerest in working on this page. I grew up in Sonoma County and Goat Rock Beach was always one of my favorite places. I added the photo for the page, but the article itself can use a lot of help. -- Xaven 01:05, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Proposal for a Full Article about Goat Rock
Given it's only a stub now, perhaps it's dreaming to think this page could be taken all the way to Featured Article status. But Goat Rock Beach has the potential to be that; it's very tied to the history of the Russian River and has no shortage of interesting and colorful history. Among things I think the page could use:


 * The information about the beach in Rex Grady's Let Ocean Seethe and Terra Slide: A History of the Sonoma Coast and the State Park That Shares It's Name . He writes an entire history of the Sonoma Coast State Beach; I checked it out from the Santa Rosa Library when I read it.
 * The names and dates of the people who have died on the beach (Grady had all these up until its point of publication; the rest should be available from the Ranger Station at Salmon Beach.)
 * The history of Goat Rock -- how it was cut from the mainland for gravel which was shipped by a short line of rail along the beach (still visible in places) to barges on the Russian River. If I recall correctly, much of this gravel went to San Francisco where it was used for road base -- that may have been gravel from Annadel State Park, though (I can't recall.)
 * The state park once had plans to turn the parking location next to Goat Rock into a paid RV camping location.
 * Information about the outdoor rave's that used to be moderately common in the early era of the rave scene. Stories about these circulate among some Sonoma County residents but I've never dug for specific dates or events.  The park rangers would probably remember though.
 * The story behind the abandoned concrete jetty to tame the mouth of the Russian River; the ruins of it jut to sea near the north end where the seals sleep at the river mouth.
 * A list of nearby features:
 * Jenner Beach across the river mouth.
 * Arched Rock, with its own viewing turnout on the road down to the beach.
 * Half-Mile Rocks and Mile Rocks, out to sea from the beach.
 * Acatcatiu, the hill above/behind Goat Rock where natives left their dead. It's been too many years and I can't recall the details.
 * Peaked Hill, the tallest hill coastward from the highest point in the road down to the beach.
 * Sunset Rocks, on the plain into the park, which are a favorite practice location for rockclimbers.
 * Information about films with scenes shot at Goat Rock Beach, like The Goonies.
 * Information about the protected seal and sea lion area at the north end of the beach.
 * Information about whalewatching (from the Arched Rock viewpoint parking lot atop the cliffs.)
 * Its relationship with travel up the Russian River, such as it's tendency to join Jenner Beach and close the river mouth.

That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. Goat Rock is not short of interesting and varied history. I'm happy to do what I can to help this article, but I'd rather have a few folks who share my passion for the beach to work with. It'll take time. Thoughts, anyone?

-- Xaven 01:05, 1 February 2006 (UTC)


 * i ve expanded the article by a factor of six today and and used some of the ideas above; hopefully, this article now stands at B or GA level (i shall leave others to judge that). some of the concepts above would be difficult to document without original research.  some of the ideas above are very interesting, but not necessarily encyclopaedic. Anlace 16:46, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Great job Anlace! I've nominated this article for GA. —Quarl (talk) 2007-03-08 07:10Z 

GA review
Really interesting article, and I think it is very close to GA status. However, I still have to fail it for a couple of reasons. Primarily for lack of citations. While it does have some good citations, there are none in the 'vicinity features' section, and kind of spotty under 'geology', especially in the first sentence of that section where you talk about, "an average of one to three feet per year of land mass is lost." A statement like that definitely needs a citation. Reference citations should also be formatted (see WP:REF); complete author/title information should be available; URL references should included a date when it was last retrieved. Although the citation formatting is minor.


 * Citation for erosion now provided. Anlace 01:22, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

You might consider combining the 'vicinity features' and 'geology' into one section. Or maybe some stuff in 'vicinity features' should actually be in the lead section, since some of it seems like kind of an overview.

I don't really like the 'trivia' section, as these are generally discouraged in encyclopedia articles. They're fine for stub & start class articles, since it's fine to list things initially when starting an article. But I think for GA-class, this information should be incorporated into the text of the main article. To me, it seems that most of the trivia could be included in an 'in popular culture' section, since it deals with either the Goonies film, or a popular beach venue with a magazine reference.


 * It's now the Popular Culture section. Anlace 01:22, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

The 'flora and fauna' section looks alright. Again, a bit short on the references. The photo doesn't really seem to do anything for me; just looks kinda boring with nothing in it but grass. Could be better with maybe one or more of the native animals in it; seals, sea lions, mule deer, perhaps? Since it's springtime, maybe someone could get a photo of some of the wildflowers in bloom there? on a sunny day? Most of the photos on the page seem to have been taken on an overcast day (although the first photo at the top seems alright).

The 'practical matters' section seems poorly written. It starts off with the safety risks associated with rip currents and prohibited swimming, then goes into some of the facilities provided, then talks about hang gliding and goes into some boring legal mumbo jumbo about cards and waivers. This is an encyclopedia, not the park website. Drop the legal stuff and put a link to the website with all the rules under external links. Change the section to highlight the activities that you can do with maybe a short sentence at the end on prohibited activities (safety is still important, just not all that 'encyclopedic'). Maybe a photo of a hang glider or some of the facilities would be nice.

The article could also use a good copyedit; there are several stray punctuation marks throughout the article (extra periods and so forth). Looks like it's coming along; I'd definitely rate B-class. A few more things, and it'll be worthy of GA-class,... Cheers! Dr. Cash 08:19, 23 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Copy edit to cleanup stray punctuation marks and spacing completed. Attending to other points above as my time permits. Anlace 01:27, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

simple:Talk:Goat Rock Beach —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thamusemeantfan (talk • contribs) 01:45, 9 December 2007 (UTC)