The Oregon coast is known for all kinds of natural beauty. Seashells, however, are not one of them. But that doesn’t stop crowds from coming to the coast to search the sand for that one special something. And here, that typically means a rock.
“We don’t find a lot of seashells because the ocean is rough, and also because seashells use their color to communicate,” said Laura Joki, a local rock expert based in Lincoln City. “Here, because the ocean is big and mean and ugly, not only do they have thick shells and are not trying to communicate, but they are trying to hide.”
Joki would know. A rockhound since childhood, she’s led the “Explorience” beachcombing tours for 8 years. One of five of Explore Lincoln City’s Exploriences, the beachcombing tours are available January through March, and privately by appointment as conditions permit, and are free of charge.
While seashells in the Pacific Northwest do their best to remain unseen, rocks, on the other hand, often hang out in plain sight just waiting to be pocketed – within reason. By state law, an individual can collect agates and similar “non-living items” totaling up to one gallon a day or three gallons per year.
Some of the most commonly found and also most sought-after finds on local beaches are agates, which come in numerous forms, sizes and colors.
“Essentially, agates are a regional colloquialism. ... It’s cryptocrystalline quartz, which is translucent and has other things trapped inside of it which make patterns which are pleasing to the eye,” Joki said. “Most agates are banded chunks of chalcedony. You can find agates with inclusions, specifically moss agate and large chunks of jasper. People love a good translucent white agate or reddish orange carnelian agate. Blue-black agates are a supreme treat. Everyone is different but because agates are so different, the glowing ones are where most people start their rockhound journey.”
The average agate found today will likely not make a rockhound wealthy, but once upon a time ...
“Back before we had synthetic gemstones, Tiffany and other jewelers would set fine agates in their jewelry,” Joki said. “Back in the ‘30s, I’m told, they found a sagenite (an agate patterned from “captured crystals”) on the central Oregon coast that was about three to five pounds and fetched close to $5,000. It sold for that much because they weren’t making synthetic gemstones then.” Joki also shared a quote from the book, “Quartz Family Minerals” by HC Dake, published in 1938. “One of the finest sagenite specimens ever found in western America was a water-worn boulder about four inches in diameter on the beach near Yachats, Oregon.”
Rockhounds know they’re most likely to find prime rocks during the winter. That’s when powerful ocean waves scour sand from the beach exposing the rocks that are hidden by the sand during the summer. “It’s a rule of thumb,” Joki said. “It’s not always like that but it is most of the time.”
The people who join Joki on her tours are both the seasoned rockhounds and newcomers. On an unusually balmy February Sunday, that included the 30-odd members of the Salem-based Willamette Agate and Mineral Society, who arrived at 7 a.m. to get an early start on the noon hunt, and newcomers Maria and Aaron Mattson. They moved to Hillsboro from the Chicago area three years ago.
“He likes naturally occurring things,” said Maria Mattson. “I like collecting things.”
Also in the group are Jessica and Ram Chapagain, who relocated here from Salt Lake City last summer and live just a few miles north of Nelscott Beach in Roads End. This is Jessica Chapagain’s second tour with Joki.
“I’d gone a couple of weeks before and just learned so much, but I felt like I hadn’t taken it all in,” said Chapagain. “There is so much to learn about the environment, the geology, the history just in this tiny piece of the central coast but also just on the grander scale of how everything works together.”
Others who typically join Joki are those who loved rockhounding in their youth and only now have the time to get back to it.
“A lot of retirees are coming back to their childhood love of rocks now that they don’t have a full-time job that is getting in the way of hobbies,” said Joki, who grew up in a household of scientists and owns the Rock Your World Pacific Northwest Gem and Art Gallery. “It usually runs in the family, so there was some family member who was influential. A lot of times, rockhounds will become rockhounds because they will meet someone who’s into it and ... once they’re introduced to someone who’s really passionate about it, they become passionate. It’s contagious.”
On this Sunday, the rockhounds return from the hunt, their pockets and buckets weighed with agates and other keepables. Members of the Willamette Agate and Mineral Society brought back “a lot of agates and jasper,” said society newsletter editor David Smith. “I found a piece of petrified wood and another member found an agate that was in the form of a limb cast. When a tree becomes petrified, the agate or mineral on the inside that is left over is a limb cast.”
Jessica Chapagain found a variety of rocks. “Even a couple of miles south of where we live, the agates are a little different,” she said. “I found what Laura told me was a fossil; also, a bloodstone, which had some red and green. Just some really beautiful things I wouldn’t have thought to pick up and look at more closely until I had the opportunity to spend time with her.”
Laura Joki’s tips for finding agates
Agates collected at Tseriadun State Recreation Site, also known as Agate Beach, located in Port Orford.Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
- Check tide tables and plan to hunt for agates during low tide. Free tide tables are available at many coastal shops.
- Pick a beach with plenty of rocks; the more rocks, the more likely you will find agates or interesting rocks.
- Walk into the sun, looking at the rocks ahead. Depending on light conditions, you should see small glowing orbs in the gravel. Many will be too small to collect, but will often lead to collectible agates.
- For safety’s sake, pay close attention to the time and ocean, it is easy to lose yourself in the “zen-space” of agate hunting.
Resources for rockhounds
- How do hunt for agates on the Oregon coast (Travel Oregon)
- Learn more about fossils, minerals and gems at Oregon.gov
- Join an Explorience on Feb. 20, March 8, 16, 28 or 31. Details at rockyourworldgems.com
- Watch a video with more information on rockhounding in the Pacific Northwest, youtube.com/@RockYourWorld
- Catch a gem show. The Willamette Agate and Gem Show’s River of Gems Show 2024 will be at the Polk County Fairgrounds in Rickreall April 19-21. Details at wamsi.net/2024-river-of-gems-show
— Lori Tobias, for The Oregonian/OregonLive