$2.4M beach house featured in cult classic ‘The Goonies’ is being swallowed by sand — and legal bills
An Oregon homeowner says her family’s $2.4 million beach house is being buried by sand because a state agency won’t let her dig out a seawall to protect it from the Pacific Ocean.
Stacy Niedermeyer told The Independent that she’s been barred from moving windblown sand toward the water since 2023, after decades of routinely hiring a contractor to push back the sand in late spring or early summer.
As a result, the seawall —which Niedemayer says is located four feet inside her property line — is now buried under what she estimates is 10 feet of sand that also covers her deck and slopes up toward the back of her house.
“We’ve done nothing wrong, and our house is getting buried,” she said. “It is like getting buried alive.”
The sprawling, five-bedroom, four-bathroom house was built in 1941 and sits along the picturesque shoreline of Cannon Beach, a coastal city in northwestern Oregon, about a 90-minute drive from Portland.
Niedermeyer’s property offers sweeping views of the ocean and basalt rock pillars, including the iconic 235-foot Haystack Rock, which is part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.
The stunning scenery has appeared in movies including the 1985 children’s adventure comedy, The Goonies, 1990’s Arnold Schwarzenegger action comedy Kindergarten Cop and the 2008 teenage vampire romance blockbuster, Twilight.
The parents of Niedermeyer’s late husband, Scott Niedermeyer, bought the home sometime in the 1960s or 70s, she said. Both the house and the seawall briefly appear during the opening credits of The Goonies, and Scott claimed to have appeared in the background of one scene and to have sold sodas and snacks to the film crew, she recalled.
Last year, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department denied Niedermeyer’s application for a so-called Ocean Shore Alteration Permit, saying in an 11-page staff report that she hadn’t shown “that sand accumulation has affected the function of the seawall.”
The report also says that Niedermeyer hadn’t shown that sand had “built up against exterior walls, doors or windows” of her house.
Niedermeyer appealed the decision to the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings, where a judge sided with the department in April.
An OPRD spokesperson told The Independent that the department’s final order, which can be appealed to the state’s Court of Appeals, was expected by the end of this month.
Niedermeyer, a 64-year-old real estate broker, said she has been forced to dip into her retirement savings to pay more than $400,000 in legal fees for her ongoing battle with Oregon Parks.
One son, Joseph Niedermeyer, spearheaded creation of the “Save Our Cannon Beach Home” website and a GoFundMe page to help pay for his mom’s lawyer. Her other son, McKinnon “Mack” Niedermeyer, has been helping her handle media inquiries about the legal battle with OPRD.
