Recent Beachcombing On The Oregon Coast

< - - Lucky resident beachcomber Chelsea of Lincoln County found this 5 inch sard agate weighing at just under 2 pounds a couple of weeks ago. Her dad Tim also likes strolling along the beach finding agates.

Tim found these beautiful agates Monday. - - >
These are just a few of what Tim found. The largest one a fancy agate has a very thick skin covering what appears to be a light blue agate, the white agate to the right of the quarter is a clam bellie agate, the center red one is a very nice carnelian agate. Good hunting by these two agate collectors.

Beautiful weekend beach combing for agates in Newport!

Boy what a great weekend here on the coast, sunny, no wind or rain! Saturday a local couple had already found a couple of great fossil shells, one was a Musasha indurata (pictures to follow later after Christmas, due to no time for photos).

Parking for all the agate beds was scarce yesterday when we took our drive south. The beaches were still covered with sand yesterday but the beachcombers were getting their fill of collecting agates of the Oregon Coast. Today Cheryl a local beachcomber, brought in her beautiful black banded trophy agate weighing in at 1¼ pounds and just under 4 inches in length.

Trophy Sized Petrified Wood Found on the Oregon Coast

Just in yesterday: this trophy sized petrified wood was found by Dane, a north county resident earlier this year, here on the Central Oregon Coast. This is the biggest piece we have seen so far weighing in at just under 72¼ pounds, looks to be part of a very large limb or a part of the tree trunk. The color is actually blue grey measureing 11" x 12" and wet as you see it (as seen for scale over a large full size 22 ounce geologist pick for scale) it takes on a black with beige wood grain pattern running through it. It looks like it might be Spalted Myrtle an Oregon Myrtlewood.

This was found by lucky beachcomber Dane, a north county resident. It took him three hours to carry it home from the beach. What a determined guy he is.

Oregon Fall Beach Cleanup a Success!

Facing the threat of cloudy skies and rainy conditions on much of the coast, more than 3,700 beachcombers volunteered for the 25th anniversary of the SOLV Great Oregon Fall Beach Cleanup on Saturday. The entire Oregon coast, over 362 miles, was cleaned of debris that had accumulated since last spring. Volunteers removed an estimated 54,460 pounds of trash from Oregon’s beaches.

The SOLV Great Oregon Beach Cleanups occur twice a year when thousands of volunteers head to their favorite spots on the coast. Every beach is cleaned up of litter and marine debris, from the California border to the Columbia River.

Founded in 1969 by Oregon Governor Tom McCall to address litter and vandalism problems, SOLV’s mission has expanded to reach every county in the state and brings together government agencies, businesses and individuals in projects to enhance the livability of Oregon. Governor McCall also signed the 1967 Beach Bill into law, creating the Ocean Shore Recreation Area, managed by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department for the benefit of all Oregonians.

Naturally the weather was picture perfect for sunday, monday & tuesday with a high of 90 degrees Monday here in Newport. September and October kicks off the lower rates at the coast and generally offers our guest to the coast better weather than June - Labor Day. Now we are all waiting for the great storm watching weather to start the beachcombing season for the agates to be exposed (removal of the sand by the storms to expose the gravel beds).

Oregon Shores Vacation

Thank you to local beachcombers Linda and Mike for sharing your photo with all of us that others too may see what our Oregon shores looked like a few weeks ago. This was not the norm for the summer time but an exception!

Today and for the weekend we are having more minus tides again. Maybe some of us will be lucky and find some treasure in the tide pools again. However we are all anxiously awaiting to see what the winter storms will uncover.

Not a Turtle Fossil found on the Oregon Coast

Updated from: Lori Tobias of The Oregonian Latest info on this is that it is NOT a turtle after all as it was thought to be in the story below!

William Orr, state paleontologist; Bill Hanshumaker, marine education specialist at the Hatfield Marine Science Center; and Guy DiTorrice, an avocational paleontologist, visited the site Tuesday the 15th together at low tide. They wanted to more closely study what local beach walker Carol Ritzert reported finding about a month ago. Ritzert had watched erosion reveal the rounded formation for about one year.

Scientists think this fossilized tortoise found along the beach in Lincoln County may be 20 million years old. The domed back of the stone, which measures roughly 30 inches long by 24 inches wide, suggests it was a land turtle.

"Oregon's Fossil Guy" Guy DiTorrice says the last time a discovery of this significance was made was in the 1970s, when Guy Pierson, also an avocational paleontologist, found a seal or sea lion of similar age near Newport. Parts of that fossil are at the University of Oregon museum and the Smithsonian.

"This is big," says Bill Hanshumaker, marine education specialist at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. "I've never seen anything like it before."

Time is of the essence to preserve this fossil in order to save it before it is lost by nature and erosion or destroyed by humans, DiTorrice and Hanshumaker hope to see it displayed at the Hatfield Marine Science Center at Newport.

Editors Note: by Lori Tobias, The Oregonian Saturday September 05, 8:05 PM and Tuesday September 15, 2009, 8:35 PM.

Third Blue Agate Found on the Oregon Coast!

Not bad, this makes the third blue agate that has been brought in this summer! Notice the concentric banding of white around the blue bubbly orbs (this is a botryoidal form of agate). Lucky beach comber Eileen from California found this agate beauty north of Newport.

Ernest Block, Also An Early Agate Hunter!

A couple of weeks ago an entire week here in Newport, Oregon was a celebration of Ernest Block, the composer who also was a photographer, an agate and a mushroom hunter. He lived here in Agate Beach from 1941 until his death from cancer in 1959.

According to his grandson Ernie, "He would go down to the beach hunting for agates, then he would polish the agates that he found on the beach, one at a time. Bloch apparently believed in a theory that keeping the hands busy allowed musical ideas to germinate and mature."

It must have worked. He wrote about one-quarter of his works at Agate Beach, including by some accounts some of his best pieces, such as the Jewish-themed Suite Hébraïque in 1950 and the second Concerto Grosso in 1952.

Bloch relished the beach. He used to read Walt Whitman there. Which is why, on the Ernest Bloch Memorial at the Newport Performing Arts Center are lines from Whitman saying, "Give me solitude, give me Nature ... "

Oregon Coast Minus Tides Reward Agate Hunters

This multi-color agate beauty of over 1 pound was found today during the morning minus tides here in the Newport area by beachcomber and agate collector, Don of Snohomish WA. Don found others as well but this is really one to write home about. He left here waiting for the tide to go out again this after noon.

Nice find Don, keep up the good work.

With temperatures predicted to be 90+ to 100 degrees over the weekend in the I-5 corridor, we are seeing a rush of folks here to beat the heat on the coastline, where it will be measurably cooler than the inland part of the state.

Just a walk on the beach!

Last night I made a delivery of the pocket guides AGATES of the Oregon Coast about 8:00 and noticed how beautiful the weather was. I grabbed my gem scoop from the car and off we went venturing out onto the beach.

This was the first trip to the beach for our new rescued pup exploring the rocks and combing the beach. Quiet and peaceful, the tide was going out so it was safe for the pup to explore the shoreline too. The beach was mostly deserted with no other people to speak of. A guy eventually parked his rig for a run on the beach. I discovered a new gravel bed that the surf had just revealed, and proceeded to fill my pockets with beautiful colorful jaspers, small agates and a few pieces of sea glass within about 20 minutes. We found some beauties, several nice agates. We left the beach with the sun still on the horizon and were home before dusk!

Life on the Oregon coast is spectacular at all times of the year for the beachcomber. May not all ways find a trophy agate but they are there just not always in volumes.

I will get a photo of my finds up as time permits. Enjoy your summer!!

Minus tides beckon tidepoolers again this week...

Sorry we haven't had a chance to get back to the blog, pretty busy these days. Wish we could be out there on the beach with you to enjoy the great tide pooling during these minus tides and beachcombing that so many of our guest are experiencing here on Oregon's central coast!

I come across this site earlier and wanted to share these excelent photos of tide pools to get a close up and personal look of what you may experience here during these minus tides. Yes folks are finding a few small agates too but keep in mind this is NOT agate hunting season.

The Oregon Coast Exposed

As reported by Joe Rojas Burke in today's Oregonian: "Super-low tides at the Oregon coast will again provide ideal conditions to view a range of sea life not usually exposed to human visitors to the tidal zone. On Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, the tides will drop as low as minus 3 feet, which is about as low as the tide will get on the oregon coast. Extream minus tides reveal sea scapes and marine life that's hidden under pounding surf most of the year."

Editors Note: This photo originally appeared in the Wednesday May 27, 2009 issue of The Oregonian.

Unusual agate found on Oregon's Central Coast

I must apologize to you that I haven't had a chance to keep up on this report but work comes first! However it is nice to be able to say we all are still keeping busy in this economy.

It seems that the agate beds south of Newport have all sanded in but Newport to Lincoln City are still seeing small pockets of gravel that are still rewarding the collectors with nice treasures!

This is truly an unusual agate that was found yesterday by lucky resident Jeff of Lincoln County while he was beach combing north of Newport. This was actually 3½" across showing several interesting cavities of quartz crystals within the agate and mottled with ribbons of red jasper. Nice find Jeff!

Wow what a week on Oregon's Central Coast!

Summer is definitely on it's way the weather has been beautiful. Sunny with a cool breeze for flying kites, great minus tides for the beachcombing of coastal treasures and tide pooling, what more could we ask for? In twenty plus years we have never seen this kind of a response for a Memorial Day Weekend. It is really impressive, looks more like the beaches of southern California with people frolicking on the coastline of Oregon. Some people were surfing while others were wading along the surf line some even swimming, seems a little cool for a dip in the ocean to us.

Be careful on those roads out there and we hope you ALL have a safe Memorial Day!

Fossil Tooth found on the Oregon Coast

Locke and his wife Debra, our guest visiting from Calgary, Alberta found this great tooth specimen nearly 3 inches long while beach combing recently while here in the Newport area. Locke also found a couple of other treasures, nice agates and a wonderful specimen of petrified wood etc.

We met these wonderful folks one Christmas over 20 years ago while we were beachcombing with our Collie dog, Candy. She fell in love with their son as you will see in a few days when I get the photo scanned in for the blog.

I hope Dr. William, or Elizabeth Orr or some other paleontologist can help identify this specimen and the other one that was found earlier this month.

Congratulations Locke on your prize fossil and other treasures found on the Oregon coast, it was wonderful to see you folks again.

Another LARGE agate found!

This beauty of an agate is almost 6 inches across weighing in at two and a quarter pounds. Thursday, Lauren of Otter Rock just found it here in the Newport area. The photo appears blury due to the grape like form known as botryoidal agate.

Danny's trophies for Easter

These two agates were just found by Newport resident Danny. The top is a fancy agate with a lot of interesting color and patterns.

This black agate is actually the size of a quarter and the black shadows the back that almost takes on a blue hue.

Editors notes: Both agates were back lit for the beauty to shine thru.

Skip the eggs and head for the beach.

Better instead to participate in the natural hunt that nature puts on and find a bunch of shells, driftwood, agates and other neat things at the beach.

In Newport, head to Beverly Beach State Park or South Beach State Park. "This is one of the best times of year to go beachcombing on the Oregon Coast," said Sunny Golden, a spokeswoman for the Newport Chamber of Commerce. "The winter storms bring all sorts of exciting things to the shore, including unique shells, agates, colorful jaspers, driftwood. When the tide goes out, it uncovers a blanket of treasures and gemlike stones for the taking."

Along with the agates and shells, lucky visitors also may find a fossil.

Editors Note: Be sure and read the entire story by K. Williams Brown, of hidden treasures await at coast.

Fossilized tooth found on the beach

< - - This fossilized tooth was found on the beach is yet to be identified. Possibly a petiped tooth as the ones in the jaw (shown in photo below) with the little boy. Found by lucky beachcomber Kevin of Lincoln County.

BEAUTIFUL Select Fancy Sagenite Agate Found!

This Fancy Sagenite Agate shown as front and back is actually the size of a quarter, found by Susan and Paul of Florence. This has to be one of the finest pieces of agate found on the Oregon Coast. Good job Susan!