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.   

2013 Agate Calendars are now available!

It's calendar season again, and this year we have  not just one but two wall calendar designs by Patrick a local beach comber and excellent photographer  whose camera has captured the beauty of these agates well in these presented images. "Agates and Jasper of the Oregon Coast", and "The Agate Hunter Blues". 

Available from FACETS Gem & Mineral Gallery in Newport, OR.  Just $14.95 each.

Fancy Jaspers and Agate

It is getting rather late in the season but these beauties were just found in the last week or so. All of these are nice and sizable, the amber colored one on the lower left is a sard agate (that has been back lit to see the translucency of the stone) the others are all fancy jaspers. Congratulations to our Toledo resident beachcomber Scott on these beautiful finds.

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...

Trophies abound at Newport!

It has come to our attention that there is rock showing for good beach combing on many of the Lincoln county beaches. This is just a sample of a 43 pound multicolor jasper recently found by Brent, one of our local beachcombers. Boy that's a back breaker for you!

Please do not use private property to access the beach. We have just been notified that the land owners south of Newport known as the 'airport beach' are no longer tolerating trespassing and are starting to site folks. Previously these owners allowed/ignored access through their 'for sale' property, and now police are watching and siting. We don't want to loose our rights as rockhounds to hunt on the beach so please use common sense and respect others peoples property. It just takes a few to mess it up for the rest of us.

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.

Jasper Arrowhead Found!

Another great find.,,3" Jasper Indian Arrowhead, artifact found on the Oregon Coast!

Beachcombers Paul and his wife found this Indian arrowhead over a year ago during a very windy day at the beach as Susan was trying to drag him home. He thought he saw an arrowhead and went back to retrieve it. The arrowhead features such an interesting pattern to the jasper color wise too. The photo shows the knapped detail on this piece as seen front and back in the photo very nicely.

Tomorrow we are anticipating quite a windy and rainy day for the coast, maybe that will remove some of that sand to expose the gravel beds. We are getting reports of agate being found to a limited extent daily now. No certain areas to report as it changes by the tide.

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.