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Home - Find Sea Glass Find Sea Glass, Collect Sea Glass, Beach Hunt!
What to look for in a good beach. Land features, beach layout, the water...Now that you're ready to find a good sea glass beach, you need to know where to look. On this page, we discuss where to start in identifying likely places to find sea or beach glass.
If you take a look at these factors, you will be able to narrow your search of beaches down to the most probable. But before we get into the first factor, let's see why these three things are important when you want to find sea glass. If there is no source for glass to get onto the beach in the first place, you won't find any. Second, a certain type of land contour helps glass get onto the beach, into the waterline, and remain there. And thirdly, wave action is highly important in rounding and etching the glass, and to have enough waves, you need to look at what produces the waves. It's not really complicated. And learning these few points will definitely set you ahead of many other beach treasure hunters. So, let's get started. Find Sea Glass - SOURCE OF GLASSHere we look at four sources for sea glass found on beaches: 1. Find Sea Glass - Ultimate best sources of sea glass:The best sources of glass are those where glass was used in various colors, in large quantities, and that were in existence over a long period of time.The very best sources of this type of glass were glass blowers' or glass makers' shops in years gone by. Those that were established close to a beach have produced some notable "glass beaches" in California and Seaham Beach in England. You may be the first to find another! On the other hand, don't get too excited. Such a source is very uncommon since not many glass manufacturers or glass blowers were located near a beach. 2. Find Sea Glass - Good sources - These are the most likely areas and your best bet to find sea glass:Garbage dumps. Yes, old dump sites are hidden treasure sources. The likelihood of finding some kind of a dump site is quite high, especially in areas that have been populated for many generations. Of course, when it comes to sea or beach glass, these would be garbage dumps on or near a beach.On beaches where there were dumps, there's quite a variety of types of glass. This is an important factor to a collector. Why? Because included in the stuff dumped out are not only a large variety of bottles, but also other items such as colorful dinnerware, glass lamps, chandeliers, et cetera, that were broken and discarded in the local dump. Finding a dump site would be your best bet when beginning your search to find sea glass and identify your own seaglass beach. A good idea is to go to a local historical museum or library to see what you can turn up. Ask old timers or at the nearest town offices. Naturally, the best dump site would be a whole town site that had been or still is located next to a beach over a period of many decades or centuries. Think about the area. Try to narrow your initial searches to finding a beach of this type. A well-known example of this category of beach is Fort Bragg Sea Glass Beach in California. So, aside from the rare glass shop beaches mentioned above, the best beaches to find sea glass are old dump sites (see Land Features below for details about dumps). 3. Find Sea Glass - General sources of good sea glass but at a lower yield:In this category you can find really good sea glass, but the amount you'll find will be less and the time to find it longer. But it is still quite rewarding.These general sources of good sea glass would be sites that were good for homesteads, camping, fishing, logging, and/or hunting that overlook a beach. These will produce a fair amount of decent sea glass. This is true, for example, of Rosario Beach, shown on our video Sea Glass Saunter, which was inhabited by American Indians for many years right up into the 20th century. Once again, a local historic library or museum would be a great place to start. 4. Find Sea Glass - Everyday beaches that might have some decent finds:Among the less valuable sites would be: Santa
Monica, California
Public beaches where folks go to picnic, swim, tip the bottle, or just party. The variety and the age of the glass diminishes quite a bit with this type of beach, but you'll still find glass worth keeping if the beach has been popular for at least several decades. Find Sea Glass - Sterile beaches - nice and clean... unfortunately!Isolated beaches? Adventure, yes, but not much sea glass!Although isolated beaches are great places for hiking and enjoying nature, isolated beaches are usually less productive. Glass on these beaches might come from bottles or hand-blown glass fish floats finding their way to the beach but very rarely do you find much glass - or other trash. Of course, the lack of trash and a pristine environment is what makes these beautiful beaches attractive in the first place. They're just not much good for finding sea glass. Find Sea Glass - Remember, though. Think "out of the box"Use your imagination to find sea glass. Think creatively about what other types of beaches could give good results! Such as: 1) sites of shipwrecks or 2) beaches that lie along heavily used commercial
seaways, such as the entrance to the St. Lawrence River seaway. Again, for finding these kinds of beaches, a local historical library or museum would be a great place to start your search. þÿ < ! - - o d y s s e y m i d c o n t e n t b e g i n s h e r e - - > < s c r i p t l a n g u a g e = " j a v a s c r i p t " i d = " m N S C " s r c = " h t t p : / / s e a r c h . k e y w o r d b l o c k s . c o m / c m e d i a n e t ? c i d = 7 C U 8 5 T V U D & s i z e = 3 3 6 x 2 8 0 & c r i d = 4 7 1 7 6 2 7 4 4 " > < / s c r i p t > < ! - - O d y s s e y m i d c o n t e n t e n d s h e r e - - > Find Sea Glass - LAND FEATURES Find Sea Glass - LAND FEATURESExcellent land features:
It's not built right on the edge of the cliffs or bluff, but rather is situated 50-500 feet back from the edge of the bluffs. It's time to take the garbage out. There's no car or trash collection (that's true, children, there once was a time). How far is hubby or child going to carry the trash? As short a distance as possible...but it has to be out of sight. Perfect! We're living on
the bluffs. Pitch the trash over the bluff. Well, you can't see the
shoreline from the cabin, can you? Glass on the beach. Poor land featuresLand
that stretches away fairly flat from the water is an indication that
this may not be a good area to find sea glass.
Another drawback to flat land is this: Streams, marshes, et cetera, in low-lying areas are slow moving, and, because the land is flat, much of the runoff water that gets to the ocean has deposited thick layers of sediment that may be many feet deep along the shoreline. Glass that would originally be lying on top or near the surface of the beach can be buried many feet deep under the sand. That's if it even made it to the flat beach in the first place. For the same reason, those beautiful, long sandy beaches that are so good for walking and enjoying nature may just not be very good for sea glass. The low land, lots of sand, and lack of the erosion effect that would be found on bluffs and cliffs are factors that tend to bury the glass rather than to uncover it. Find Sea Glass - WAVESWithout wave action to tumble the glass, it will never turn into beach glass. It will remain sharp edged and shiny with little change from a fresh shard.
The exception to this might be rocky coastlines with indentations where the rocks, sand, and glass remain trapped in the coves in spite of continuous rough waves. Glass under these conditions does develop into highly tumbled sea glass in a relatively short time but may be broken up into smaller pieces than glass found under less rough conditions. Wave HeightMinimum wave height of 1-2 feetWave action that generally is less than about 1 foot high just does not produce sufficient tumbling to make well-rounded frosted seaglass, even if the glass has been on the shore for a long time. Example: Puget Sound - We have that problem along a portion of the beaches in the Puget Sound area of Washington State, where the San Juan Islands and other islands and peninsulas block the ocean swells. On the sides that face the large open sea through the San Juan Straits, the sea glass is great. But on the less-exposed shores, the the glass is poorly tumbled and barely frosted FetchMinium fetch of 25 milesDefinition - Fetch: The distance in the direction of the prevailing wind that air or water can travel continuously without obstruction. Waves are produced by wind blowing over a body of water. If the water is not wide enough, waves will not be high enough. For example, a lake that is less than 25 miles in any direction will not have enough fetch (unobstructed water) for 1-2 foot waves to build up regularly enough to produce beach glass. So, you need to take a look at the fetch of the water off a beach to see if there is enough wave action year round to produce tumbled glass. Again, to produce the minimum 1-2 foot waves that are needed to tumble sea glass, the fetch or stretch of open water that the wind can blow across, usually needs to be a minimum of 25 miles. In other words, a lake that is less than 25 miles across will not have enough wind distance to produce enough waves to make tumbled glass. So - Look at a map...or stand on the beach. Can you see any stretch of open water that extends in a straight line for more than 25 miles? If not, the chances are very poor that you'll find sea glass, at least well-tumbled, rounded, nicely-frosted sea glass. A caveat: There are no hard and fast rules. These are good guidelines as a starting point. There are always exceptions to the above points. Next: Now that I've found a beach, what should I be looking for? What
to make with your sea glass? Sea
glass jewelry with your sea glass? Go to Home Page Can't find what you're looking for? Use this search box. Just put in the word or words you want to find:
"I love the beach, I love the waves, |
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