Fossil Conifer Cone found at Moolack in Newport

Fossil Conifer Cone

This was a first for me to see and what a treat. Sandra shared her fossil conifer cone she had found while beach combing on the beach at Moolack.  Congratulations to Sandra on her prize find.

Upcoming Field trips at Newport for fossils, etc...

Guy DiTorrice

Greetings Fossil Fans: Here is an invitation to attend one of the Oregon Fossil Guy's beach combing field trips on the beach at Newport. Yes, there is a fee for this wonderful educational experience with your guided professional.

Oregon Fossil Guy's Upcoming beach fossil field trips in the Newport area include:

Sunday July 13 8:00 am Moolack Beach (north of Newport in paved parking lot past Moolack Shores Motel)

Tuesday July 22 5:30 pm Beverly Beach State Park (meet in the day-use parking area west of the entrance)

Look for his dark-green jeep with the FOSSIL sign in the window. Only $39 per person [payable to "Guy DiTorrice"] with all collection supplies included (canvas collecting bag, gloves, brush, magnifying glass) and your collected specimens are identified, bagged and labeled. Participants receive a printed copy of the new fossil-collecting rules and the OSU Sea Grant fact sheet "Fossils You Can Find on Oregon Beaches". You provide solid footwear for walking on slick/mossy rock, large cobbles and long stretches of sandy beach as well as layered clothes, with recent foggy conditions making it a bit cool here.

Please pass this invitation along to any other fossil fan of interest and let him know any days or dates of interest to you. Hope to see you here.

Guy DiTorrice aka "Oregon Fossil Guy"
PO Box 1643
Newport OR 97365
[720] 326-3573 cell/text

A Rare Purple Agate found on the Central Oregon Coast

Purple agate is a rare find here on the coast.

Congratulations to our new resident beach comber Darrel who  last night shared his purple agate found here on the Oregon Coast at the Oregon Coast Agate Club meeting.

Beach Combing Treasures found on the Oregon Coast

Rewards from Monday 

Monday the Oregon Fossil Guy and I had a nice afternoon checking out the beach. Conditions were clear and we pretty much had the beaches to ourselves.  We had a rather successful day.

I hadn't been out there in some time to see these conditions exposing the tide pools out beyond the normal tide line.  I came home with a nice piece of bone, some petrified wood, beautiful fancy jasper, brecciated jasper and a few agates.  Much to our disappointment the blue appearing agate on the right is NOT a blue agate but just a cloud agate with a bluish rind.  Hopefully today's storm will remove the sand necessary to expose the gravel bars further up the beach.  Please be careful out there and don't try beach combing today with this storm lasting until 6:00 tonight. Today is definitely a good day to storm watch from the safety and comfort of your warm beach front hotel room.

Fossils, a Concretion, Petrified Wood etc. 

Nice Zeolite found recently on the Oregon Coast

Zeolite

Pat our very talented beach comber and agate calendar photographer hauled in this spectacular zeolite.   To learn a little more about zeolite minerals check out Karen's blog explaining the difference between Prehnite and Thomsonite. Pat also found a 1¼ lb. partial carnelian agate along with many smaller agates two days ago. I have only seen one more complete zeolite like this and that was a few years ago by Linda Davis of Lincoln City.  Nice collecting there folks.

It's Really Storming on the Oregon Coast...

"N.O.A.A. makes it clear that this is not the day to go to the beach and gawk at Mother Nature’s fury. Do it from the safety of the bluffs above or at your favorite cliff-side resort or restaurant. Today will be as dangerous a day as you’ll ever see on the Oregon Coast. Probably some of the best ringside seats will be at the Adobe in Yachats. Lots of huge swells, breakers over rocks, huge upward fountains of white water – the works. Restaurants perched right above the waters of Depoe Bay will also provide spectacular views of the power of the wind and sea.

Again, don’t risk being blown off a rock or a hill or a cliff. Respect Mother Nature’s fury. She’s the boss right now."  Give Mother Nature a chance for a few of these good storms like this out of the S.W. and the gravel beds should be uncovered for a successful beachcombing season to start.

Editors note: N.O.A.A.shared from News Lincoln County Sun. Sept. 29, 2013.

Mystery Rock found on the South Coast

Brecciated Jasper

This is a very unique and colorful piece Tyler found which looks like a quilt with all of the broken fragments of the colorful fancy jaspers which have been re-cemented by the white agate which is natures way of gluing the Brecciated  (meaning broken) Jasper back together.

Agate as big as Mick Jagger lips

Stella, of Yachats found this agate while beachcombing at Nye Beach!

Incredible Fortification Agate Just Found...

Photo shows front and back views

This beauty, weighing over 1/3 of a pound was found by Tracy of Portland, OR while visiting here with her family on the central coast.  Check back next month as we will update this later by adding a photo of it polished up revealing whether it is a fancy blue or fancy blue/black agate. Terrific find there Tracy!

Minus Tides for Beachcombing during Winter Break

Slogan and logo by the Oregon State Parks

Lots of reports of gravel showing intermittently within the 6 hour tide cycle changing around the Newport area both north and south of town! We will be experiencing minus tides in the afternoons starting on the 26th, just be remember to be careful out there. Here is the link for our local December tides: http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/weather/tides/2012/sbdec2012.html

How to buy a Rock Tumbler for the holidays...

< - - Consider carefully a more useful size rock  tumbler for medium sized loads or larger material up to 2¼" (size of a golf ball). Lortone's single 4½lb. barrel features a 10-sided interior surface (measuring 5¾" by 3½" deep) for optimum tumbling action and a capacity for 5 cups of rocks.

Here on the Oregon Coast beach combers will find many small stones but you can also find a selection of agates, jaspers and petrified wood in larger sizes. Don't let yourself be sucked in by an attractive low price on a rock tumbler only to find you are limited to polishing stones the size of a quarter and smaller.   

Craig's unique beachcombing find...

Craig, a Yachats Beachcomber found this unique stone.

At first glance this one pound specimen looks like a  root-base of a sea weed clump.  The strange outer surface features a bubbly sard or carnelian agate area protruding through a thin skin.  There is also a small area of green agate present.

Nice find Craig!

Large Agate just found!

Cheryl's trophy agates

The discover season brought beachcomber Cheryl of Pinehurst, Idaho in yesterday to share this 4" agate with us weighing over 1 pound.  The smaller black agate is also a very nice sized find.

Thank you again Cheryl, for the heads up on the notice of the book Agates: Treasures of the Earth, By Roger Pabian.  I agree this is a great book is for agates of Lake Superior, or Brazilian agates but fails to impart the info you need for the Agates of the Oregon Coast.  I just found the misleading website tonight that is representing Brazilian agates and this book for Oregon Agates. 

Congratulations Cheryl, these are both very memorable trophy's to take home to Idaho.

Another Perfect Agatized Nautilus found while beachcombing at Newport

James found this complete Fossilized Nautilus

This piece is perfectly agatized in that you can even see the chambers of the nautilus through the nacre of the shell.  This young man James of Salem Oregon, has quit the eye for finding beautiful fossils here on the Oregon Coast.

Discovering tsunami debris on the Oregon coast...

When you are out beach combing...Please remember to Call 211 for anything questionable nature such as barrels or containers of liquids that may pose a health risk to you or anyone else on the beach.  Please don't try to remove it yourself.

"The hotline will allow the public to help keep Oregon's beaches clean and return any missing Japanese property to its rightful owners, the governor said.  He also said Brig. Gen. Mike Caldwell, deputy director of the Oregon National Guard and interim director of the state's Office of Emergency Management, will be responsible for coordinating the response and cleanup efforts among state agencies.

It's important to quickly collect and throw away tsunami debris to keep beaches clean and prevent the introduction of invasive species, Caldwell said. Officials are asking that people not take home debris to keep as souvenirs, but they say there's little chance of the debris being harmful to human health.

People should be especially mindful of items that might have sentimental value or personal significance to someone in Japan, officials said. When such items wash up, Oregon will work with the Japanese consulate to return them.

Helping with tsunami debris is a new responsibility for the 211 hotline, which was created in 2004 to help people in the Portland area get connected with health and community services. It's since expanded to cover 80 percent of Oregon's population, according to the website of the nonprofit organization that operates it.

Oregon will work with California, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii to request money from the federal government to help with their efforts. If the debris had washed up all at once, it would unquestionably qualify for federal disaster funds, Kitzhaber said. But since it's emerging in pieces, the states will have to work harder, he said."

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Jane's trophies for the week!

¼ - ¾ pound agates

Congratulations to Jane, a local resident on these outstanding beach combing finds. The amber color agate at the top is a sard agate and weighed in at ¾ of a pound. The blue/blacks are excellent sized specimens for this late in the season. 

Treasures found at Newport during a family reunion

Beachcombing treasures found by Kaiya & Anna

Congratulations to Kaiya of Utah of whom found the large agate weighing over ¼ of a pound and her cousin Anna of Ohio that found the fancy agate and the red jasper today on the beach at Newport.

Agates just found May 19, 2012

Viki of Newport just found these spectacular agates Saturday

Beautiful fancy agates the large one weighing just under ¼lb. is a fancy sard agate the smaller one is a black agate with a spectacular pattern embossed into the stone was found Saturday.

Agate Geode found on the Oregon Coast

Lucky beachcomber Vicki of Newport found this ¾ pound geode that  is 2¾" long.

Agates are rock'n the coast at Newport!

6 Treasures found in just 10 minutes!

Lucky beachcomber and local resident  Scott brought in 1 jasper and 5 agates  Friday to share with you.  Sorry I was not able to back lite these beauties for you to really enjoy their true translucency and colors.

Did you get to enjoy our beautiful weather this weekend?  Couldn't ask for anything better as it was better than summer, being in the 60 degree range and no wind!