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

It's that time of the year again....

Hope to see you at the show!

Do you live in Oregon or are you visiting the beautiful Oregon Coast next weekend and want something to do? Join us for the Oregon Coast AGATE Clubs Gem & Mineral Show on June 14th & 15th! This show will also help give you an idea of what one can find on the Central Oregon coast.

Rock tumblers to polish your agates

FACETS in Newport, Oregon offers something everyone from the rock hound to the jewelry maker, collector and craftsman alike. Jewelry and lapidary supplies, equipment plus rock tumblers from 3 pounds to 65 pounds on their web  site.

James Black Agate found at Newport

Just polished to highlight its natural beauty

Beautiful 3" black agate found here in Newport weighing in at ½ lb. 

Moolack Beach at Newport

A Steve Power's photo

Summer vacation time has arrived in Newport as seen in this picturesque  photo of Moolack Beach.

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.

Spring break is well under way...

Quit a nice collection of fossil Mollusks!

Had a number of guest in the showroom yesterday, the North American Research group dropped by, a few club members from the Portland gem clubs and all. These wonderful fossils were all found here in the Newport area.  Nice collection there John.

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Georgie's with a wonderful view of the beach. Great to see so many folks out having a great evening as the tide was going out, strolling with their dogs, flying kites... It almost looked like a summer evening in southern California on the beach!

The SOLV Spring Oregon Beach Cleanup is on Saturday, March 26th! Find out more about this Oregon tradition and sign up to volunteer here. Is the great Oregon Beach Cleanup at any one of over 40 beach sites from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. to clear the entire Oregon coast of debris.

Everyone be safe and have a great time here on the central Oregon Coast.

Agate Hunting on the Oregon Coast, Agates are being found daily...

Right now, agates are becoming more plentiful daily at numerous beaches around Newport here on  the Oregon coast, just remember to look for the rocky gravel beds, during winter and the early spring months.  I will add photos as time permits later.  Happy hunting and stay safe out there!  Just take a look at some of the previous photos below.

Fossil Field trips in the Newport Area

Garrett's World of Geology 5 featuring: Fossils of the Central Oregon Coast at Newport. Astoria formation at Beverly Beach, Moolack, Jump Off Joe, Otter Rock... Fossils, Geology, Rock Hounding for agates, jasper, etc...

Complete Agatized Clam

The translucent clam (clam belly) to the left has to be one of the largest completely agatized specimens we have seen in quite awhile. It just had a small area of the outer shell remaining plus the agate was amazingly clear and pretty well defined. This just goes to show you how the agates were formed here on the Oregon Coast some 15 - 20 million years ago. Agate filled anything hollow and took on the shape of that mold.

This beauty was found yesterday here in Newport by Bruce a rockhound from Reedsport, OR sharing a couple of days at the beach with his lovely and talented wife Kathy. Nice find Bruce, another great beachcombing find on the Oregon Coast!

Editors Note: Sorry the photo came out so fuzzy, the clam to the right is a fossil used for comparison.

Japanese Glass Fishing Floats are Found

Congratulations to all three groups of guest this weekend reporting finding old Japanese glass floats from 3"-10" in the Newport area! Here is a picture of Lauri and her glass float that she found on Moolack Beach during the Oregon coast discovery season. The float is 3" in diameter and blue with a hint of green. Craig and Lauri of Albany decided to look in the rocks at the top of the beach like they were told to do by FACETS Gem & Mineral Gallery. Just as they were ready to head to the car from their fun activity, BAM, Lauri finds the glass float sitting right up on top of the rocks. Nice find there girlfriend!!!

Bloodstone still found on the Oregon Coast

< - - Green stones shown are two nice specimens of bloodstone a.k.a. heliotrope, jasper found lately in the Newport area by the father & son team of Frank & Jeremiah. Good timing fellows bloodstone is also one of the March birthstones.

Photo: Great collecting done as a family activity shows their collection of two red Carnelian Sagenite Agates, two blue agates and a large blue-black agate.

Editors note: Photos were taken of the specimens wet to better show the exquisite colors.

Beachcombing On The Oregon Coast

The agate beds have been shifting here in Lincoln County so much this year. We have been trying to explain this phenomena to our guest but they can't seem to understand it. We had a gentleman in earlier this month and he said "The first day I was here the beach outside my window was littered with gravel and I had a great time finding agates, jasper, fossils, etc. The next morning I looked out my window and it was all gone, nothing but sand!" This is what we mean by the change of the tide (every six hours) and the agate bed may disappear.

Obviously all of those cars parked at the beach during the winter can't be wrong. It does not mean the people are out there sun bathing, it just means the folks are having a great time finding treasures out there on the beach. You too will have to actually get out of the car, stand out there on the beach and look north and south maybe a 100 yards and possibly you will find a new gravel bed littered with agates, jaspers, and fossils.

Remember to - Seek, and Ye Shall Find.

Video of Agate Hunting in Newport

Storms have started!

Have you read the latest Rock & Gem (October issue) magazine yet? They have a wonderful article on the Origin of Agate, written by Steve Voynick a mineral collector and former hardrock miner. For all of you that want to know more on the formation of agate this is an article you won't want to miss.

Here on the Oregon coast the rockhounds are all anxiously awaiting the scouring of the beaches for the agates and the fossils to reappear for all of our beachcombers to experience treasure hunting during the discovery season now through May.

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 ... "

Memories of Christmas at the beach

Agreeably the best Christmas ever! We met this family from Calgary, Alberta, Canada on the beach the young boy in the photo is now 27. All of us had a wonderful time collecting the treasures that nature had left us beachcombers for Christmas on the Beach 1987.

Agates, colorful jaspers, petrified wood and more...

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.

Bloodstone still found on the Oregon Coast

Example here was photographed wet to better see the colors. Here are two recent finds of the bloodstone jasper still found on the Oregon Coast. These are excelent examples found by Frank of Newport. Showing the red blotches on the field of green jasper.