Agate found January 21, 2009

Things are NOT always what they appear to be...

Our extreamly unseasonable warm January weather here on the Oregon coast has brought out the beachcombers from every where to go hunting for agates. Local resident Frank was out collecting last Friday and found this black beauty! Just looking at it in normal light you can't see the water bubble within the agate until you back light it with a strong beam of light and the black disappears to expose the trophy of the day.

Beautiful One Pound Black Agate

This is another nice find from one of our local beachcombers. What a lucky dude you are Frank. Wait till I get the photos of Frank's Black agatized, enhydro clam belly up that he found Saturday. You haven't seen anything yet!

Unsual Basalt formation...

This specimen was found about 6 weeks ago just south of Newport, by Richard of Seal Rock. Basalt is normally smooth and does not have any pattern at all to it. We believe this orbicular pattern to be an indicator as to the rapid cooling during it's formation. Nice find Richard!

Beachcombers' Alert on the Oregon Coast...

Well the beaches have finally been scrubbed clean of tons of sand to expose the gravel bars. This is what the beaches looked like Sunday (both north & south of Newport). Temperatures were amazing in the 50's and not a breeze! Don't bother to call and ask someone if the agates are showing as this condition may only last 6 hours or 6 days at a time. This is Mother Nature's way of providing for the future beach combers.

Yesterday folks came in with lots of nice agates to get their tumblers started! Congratulations to the gentleman that found a nice sized partial agatized "enhydo" (water bubble within it) clam belly. In the near future I have some interesting photos to get up from our agate collecting guest.

Later: In the Newport area I just returned from a 10 minute break from my deliveries wearing a T shirt (no need for a coat) in JANUARY and that was too warm. Temperature was 65 degrees, sunny without a breeze (better than summer at the coast) and I found a sandwich bag full of lovely agates and jaspers for our little friends. They were every where! Folks collecting there were visiting from Nevada, Washington and California as well as Oregonians. The weather is suppose to be nice throughout the holiday weekend!

Below is a great story to check out!

Central Oregon Coast Beaches Rich with Agates, Oddities:

"Keep looking down while at the beach. There's lots to see this year.

Agates abound on the central Oregon coast right now, and some of the ghost forests are starting to peek out of the sand, along with some extremely ancient bedrock." By Andre' Hagestedt, Oregon Coast Beach Connection and photo.

Happy New Year to all of you!

It has been a busy winter here at the showroom and we have not had a chance to catch up for some time now. Hope we can do a better job of keeping you posted on all of the great beachcombing treasures that you our friends are finding out there.

It has been a great time for our whale watching - guest and friends. The week between Christmas and New Years is traditionally the time for the migration to the warm waters of Mexico for the cows (female whale's) to give birth to their calves down south. The weather has been clear enough for our guest to get a pretty good view of them spouting as they make their way south. They will return again in the spring around March 19th on their way north.

Hope to see you again this year as you make your way through Newport.