Together We Saved Laguna Canyon – 111189Charles Murray2026-04-08T17:11:36+00:00
THE WALK to the sycamore grove with the mural THE TELL as a backdrop of the protest site, this protest site attracted an estimated 10,000 participants and marked the turning point in the effort to preserve Laguna Canyon from development. The excitement and exhilaration of the roaring crowd and uniting moment we heard the founder of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy (LCC), Mayor Pro-Tem Lida Lenny exclaim, “Boy, am I glad to see you!”. The event officially kicked off at the Festival of Arts grounds and made its way here the sycamore grove, rallying under the banner “Save Laguna Canyon.” At the time, the area was under the threat from the proposed “Laguna Laurel” development a sprawling plan for 3,200 homes, a golf course, and a shopping center. THE WALK event was proposed and organized by Harry Huggins, Executive Director, and concept by Charles Michael Murray, Creative Director in collaboration with organizations and artists including Jose Feliciano, who produced a 60-second radio public service announcement (PSA) aired throughout Southern California, culminating in “Together We Saved Laguna Canyon — November 11, 1989”. This peaceful demonstration united the city and community and played a pivotal role in securing the protection of the land, which today is part of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park.
THE WALK – September 11, 1989
Four key protest presentations
Interview of THE WALK originators at the NIX Nature Center – Harry Huggins and Charles Michael Murray
The story of November 11, 1989 — “Together We Saved Laguna Canyon” is the story of a town deciding that its canyon was not for sale. In Laguna Beach, one of Southern California’s last undeveloped coastal canyons was threatened by the approved Laguna Laurel project: roughly 2,150 acres slated for an initial 3,200 home commercial development and a golf course. For years, residents, environmental groups, and local leaders had challenged the plan through hearings, protests, lawsuits, and public campaigns.
Then came
Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 1989. An organized rally began at the Festival of Arts grounds and moved into the canyon toward THE TELL a 636-foot photo mural By Mark Chamberlain and Jerry Burchfield. Estimates of the c
rowd vary, but sources consistently place it at about 8,000 to 11,000 people. They walked not just to protest a housing development, but to defend the belief that open land, wildlife habitat, and the character of Laguna Beach were worth more than another subdivision.
What made that day memorable was the way it fused art, politics, and community. According to Laguna Greenbelt’s history says the event was sponsored by the City of Laguna Beach, Laguna Canyon Conservancy, Village Laguna, and the South Laguna Civic Association, and that organizers including Harry Huggins, Executive Director and concept by Charles Michael Murray, who developed the concept, helped drive promotion. CMM Studio’s retrospective also notes radio PSAs recorded by Jose Feliciano and highlights voices such as Lida Lenney and Little Crow in the program surrounding the walk. In other words, this was not the victory of a single group it was a coalition. Local histories describe the event as the focal point that transformed concern into a mass movement.
The march did not save the canyon by itself, but it shifted the balance of power. Multiple local histories say the turnout stunned everyone involved and pressured the Irvine Company back into negotiations. In 1990, Laguna Beach voters then approved a $20 million bond measure by nearly 80% to help fund the land purchase of the land, and the Laguna Canyon Foundation was established to facilitate acquisition and protection of the open space.
That is why people still say “Together We Saved Laguna Canyon.” The phrase is not just nostalgic, it is literal. The campaign preserved land that became the heart of today’s Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and part of the broader South Coast Wilderness surrounding Laguna Beach. What could have become a master-planned development instead remains canyon: sage scrub, ridgelines, wildlife corridors, and open sky.
So the story of Nov. 11, 1989, is this: a community marched, an artwork became a banner, a protest became leverage, and a threatened landscape became protected land. This is the California story inside Laguna Canyon’s story and why the day still endures as one of the defining civic victories in Laguna Beach history.
“Mitakuye Oyasin” or, in a more precise Lakota orthography, “Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ.” It is commonly understood as “all my relatives” or, more broadly in English, “we are all related.” In Lakota teaching materials, the phrase points to a worldview of kinship that extends beyond immediate family to the wider circle of people, animals, and the living world.
Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ
I say your name
to the wind before morning,
and the grass answers first.
Not only mother, brother, friend—
but hawk-shadow, creek-stone,
the leaning pine after rain.
The earth does not hurry
to explain our belonging.
It simply keeps us:
root under root,
breath within breath,
one fire passing through many hands.
I walk as if I were separate,
then hear the geese writing
their dark river across the sky,
and remember.
The world is not crowded with strangers.
It is crowded with relations
whose languages I am still learning.
So let me step more gently.
Let me praise what feeds me.
Let me leave enough light for others.
For the dust on my shoes,
for the water in my blood,
for every life brushing against mine—
The event officially kicked off at the Festival of Arts grounds and made its way here the sycamore grove, rallying under the banner “Save Laguna Canyon.” At the time, the area was under the threat from the proposed “Laguna Laurel” development a sprawling plan for 3,200 homes, a golf course, and a shopping center. THE WALK event was proposed and organized by Harry Huggins, Executive Director, and concept by Charles Michael Murray, Creative Director in collaboration with organizations and artists including Jose Feliciano, who produced a 60-second radio public service announcement (PSA) aired throughout Southern California, culminating in “Together We Saved Laguna Canyon — November 11, 1989”. This peaceful demonstration united the city and community and played a pivotal role in securing the protection of the land, which today is part of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. 
rowd vary, but sources consistently place it at about 8,000 to 11,000 people. They walked not just to protest a housing development, but to defend the belief that open land, wildlife habitat, and the character of Laguna Beach were worth more than another subdivision.
