Earlier this week, as I read account executive colleague Carrie Cox’s wonderful blog, The Passing of Time and the Tide, I recalled my own excursions to the beach and the pleasure I also derive from searching for treasures along the shore.

Born and raised here in Oregon, I’ve been blessed to have ready access to the ocean all my life. With my brothers and sisters, then my own daughters and now my grandchildren, I’ve walked for miles along the waterline, hunting for shiny agates,

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colorful and interesting shells (of which there aren’t many of the exotic variety one finds in warmer seas), and those elusive whole sand dollars. My best find is a fossilized shell I found while wading in shallow water when I was about 10. Seeking out brilliantly hued starfish, hermit crabs and sea anemones in crystal-clear tide pools also held great appeal, but the ultimate booty on our coast — at least during my childhood and, unfortunately, personally never encountered — was a Japanese glass fishing float.

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The green or blue floats, ranging anywhere from a few inches to more than a foot in diameter, helped buoy fishermen’s nets. They could drift thousands of miles from the western Pacific to our West Coast shores, often still enmeshed in their knotted twine webs.

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Replaced decades ago with plastic and styrofoam floats, the glass relics would make for an extremely rare find these days. Late in the 1990s, though, artists in the Central Oregon Coast town of Lincoln City decided to place their own glass floats along the beach, an event to welcome the new millennium that proved popular with locals and tourists alike. For several years the floats were created and placed only occasionally during the year, but in 2018 it became a year-round event, with floats set out daily, along with special “drops” marking some holidays and special celebrations, such as the city’s annual Kite Festivals.

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What has become known as the Finders Keepers program (“random acts of findness”), supported by the local tourism organization Explore Lincoln City, was suspended (as so much was) in 2020 but returned in 2021. This year 15 special drop events have been scheduled, with the next one set over the next two weeks to mark spring break, with 200 floats to be placed between the high tide line and the beach embankment. Other events, such as ones marking Earth Day (April 22–24, 50 Earth-themed floats) and Memorial Day (May 28–30, 50 red, white and blue floats), are of a briefer duration.

The floats, created by more than 20 glass artists and glass shops up and down the Oregon coast and beyond, are placed daily (except when dangerous conditions such as king tides threaten) by volunteer “float fairies.” Floats can be found anywhere along the seven miles of Lincoln City beaches

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and are randomly placed only during daylight hours and in plain sight — not hidden away. Each comes with an identifying number and instructions on how to register it online or by phone so that Explore Lincoln City can confirm all floats have been found. Finders then are sent a certificate of authenticity and information about the artist who made the float, and they’re asked to keep only one float per person per year.

Those with physical disabilities who can’t stroll the beaches can enter a monthly drawing at the city’s Welcome Center, while those who document collecting a bag of beach trash can also enter the monthly drawing in the Trash for Treasures program. If you visit Lincoln City and come away from your search empty-handed, don’t despair. You can visit one of several glass art galleries to watch artists create the floats and other artwork and buy one, pre-made,

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or even blow your own at Lincoln City Glass Center!

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Consider a visit to a seaside location as you plan your travels, and here’s wishing you beachcombing bliss.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor