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Are Oregon ocean beaches worth detecting?

lamarkeiko

New Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2018
Messages
24
Location
Grants Pass, Oregon
I live in Southern Oregon about 1 1/2 hours from the coast. The water here is a little too cold for much swimming, so I believe there is much less chance to find valuables on the beach. I have a Nox 800, and would like to give it a try if worth while. Does anyone detect Oregon beaches, and if so, where would be a good place to start?

Lamar
 
One way to find out. Try the busiest spot you can think of and see what you get! Might want to try lakes as well, might be more popular.
 
Portland in the Mayer's office, I hear that there is a treasure trove to be had there. :)
 
Although I'm on central coast CA (an hour south of San Jose), I'll try to take a stab at your question :

If you are talking about the wet sand inter-tidal zone, then : You are closer to Alaskan spawned storms. Ie.: Your beaches are more "acclimated" to heavy surf. So as-such, there is more sand "in-&-out" action, annually, than beaches that are calmer. So your inter-tidal wet sand zones are probably more prone to be utterly sterile. And if you're waiting for erosion, then it might take an 8 ft. cut/erosion to produce results. Versus other beaches (that face southwards) might take only a 1 ft. cut to produce results.

But if you were talking about the dry sand, then it all depends on the amount of traffic, usage, and history. No different than land-site evaluation.
 
Hey Lamar I have hunted Brookings a few times and never had much luck.. I think my best find was a VERY Deep quarter in the corner of one of the caves.. thought for sure would be silver.. nope was 2007.. very sanded in .. not even a lot of trash just nothing there..

btw I am in Sam's Valley about a 1/2 south of you... EQ 800 as well
I haven't got to Gold Beach yet so maybe there.. after all it is named Gold Beach :laughing:
 
I was thinking Brookings wouldn't be that great.
I think the beaches near Florence and Newport may be a better area to try. There are probably a lot of college kids from the University of Oregon and Oregon State that may head to those beaches since there close.

Hey SoOregonMd, I just finished watching the local news, and they showed a picture of Emigrant lake. The lake almost looks dry. What do you think of the metal detecting opportunitys there?

Lamar
 
I was thinking Brookings wouldn't be that great.
I think the beaches near Florence and Newport may be a better area to try. There are probably a lot of college kids from the University of Oregon and Oregon State that may head to those beaches since there close.

Hey SoOregonMd, I just finished watching the local news, and they showed a picture of Emigrant lake. The lake almost looks dry. What do you think of the metal detecting opportunitys there?

Lamar

Lamar I have hunted Emigrant Lake when it was really dry.. not much there but did score a 1964 Rosie and a Silver ring from Napal there down near a road in the middle of the lake that is only visible if it is extra dry there.. Supposed to be a town the sunk near the dam portion I would love to find !!
 
Are Oregon's ocean beaches worth detecting? that was the question. Maybe I have a little different approach to the normal answer. Go to the coast and find the beach, once there just turn around and observe the beauty. Then go do some detecting. At the end of the day you may have an empty finds bag. The over all gain is being able to go out detecting. Being in such a great environment. On top of that you managed to get some very good extercise. So the answer to your question is He** yes. Pull the thermos out and pore off a good cup of coffee and enjoy the moment. And yes I was born and raised in Oregon till the military took me elsewhere.
 
Hey lamarkeiko, I'm a transplant from So Cal, and now in Lincoln City. I can tell you for certain the finds here are just not what I am use too. The sand here is hardpacked, also no movement. Just not the tourist numbers that get a detectorist excited. I have been skunked here, which never happened before, and that was a 2 hour hunt. A different hunt yielded 3 coins and a room key.
I have eyes on the beach and have never seen any erosion since my arrival 8 months ago.
Detecting here is more about a walk on the beach. No expectations and no beach bunnies like Huntington. Just not the right tourist numbers here.
 
Lamar I have hunted Emigrant Lake when it was really dry.. not much there but did score a 1964 Rosie and a Silver ring from Napal there down near a road in the middle of the lake that is only visible if it is extra dry there.. Supposed to be a town the sunk near the dam portion I would love to find !!

Since I posted the question about Emigrant Lake, my wife and I took Hwy 99 through Phoenix and Talent to see the fire damage, then continued on to see Emigrant lake for ourselves. It was very dry and not much water. I didn't try any detecting then, but I called Jackson county parks to ask about detecting there, and they told me that it's not allowed at Emigrant lake. I was disappointed to hear that, because it looked to be a great area to dig in the sand and gravel at dry swimming areas.

Lamar
 
Since I posted the question about Emigrant Lake, my wife and I took Hwy 99 through Phoenix and Talent to see the fire damage, then continued on to see Emigrant lake for ourselves. It was very dry and not much water. I didn't try any detecting then, but I called Jackson county parks to ask about detecting there, and they told me that it's not allowed at Emigrant lake. I was disappointed to hear that, because it looked to be a great area to dig in the sand and gravel at dry swimming areas.

Lamar
I would look up on the internet about the laws regarding what they told you. And as Tom would say , are there any no MDing signs posted anywhere ? If not , go for it.
 
I would look up on the internet about the laws regarding what they told you. And as Tom would say , are there any no MDing signs posted anywhere ? If not , go for it.

Kob, you are a great introduction ! :laughing:

So here goes :


.... I called Jackson county parks to ask about detecting there, and they told me that it's not allowed at Emigrant lake. ....

Lamarkeiko, congradulations, you are now the latest victim of "No one cared till you asked" phenomenon. Ie.: the "safe answer" to a "pressing question" , by a desk-jockey who never gave the matter a moment's thought prior to this perhaps.

I looked around, and yes, you're right, Emigrant Lake is administered by the County Park's dept. So now it's easy, I just go to the Jackson County Park's dept. website : https://jacksoncountyor.org/parks

After navigating those links, I come to this list of the County park rules of usage : https://jacksoncountyor.org/parks/D...yId=24440&language=en-US&PortalId=4&TabId=547

After looking long and hard through this entire list of rules (which, as you can see, is quite comprehensive), there is absolutely no mention of metal detectors, metal detecting, etc.... So let this be an example of the "no one cared till you asked" psychology hard at work. Perhaps your question conjured up images of geeks with shovels. So a pencil pusher gives the "easy-answer" :roll:

And then humorously, as often happens in these cases, someone else gleefully chimes in that he detects the supposedly off-limits spot, and ... no one paid them any mind :roll: :

Lamar I have hunted Emigrant Lake when it was really dry.. not much there but did score a 1964 Rosie and a Silver ring from Napal there....
 
Post script: The entire exercise of researching Emigrant Lake (since I'm not near there) took me all of 5 minutes. This is why God invented google and the internet for after all. So why oh why don't people avail themselves of it ? :shrug:
 
Hey lamarkeiko, I'm a transplant from So Cal, and now in Lincoln City. I can tell you for certain the finds here are just not what I am use too. The sand here is hardpacked, also no movement. Just not the tourist numbers that get a detectorist excited. I have been skunked here, which never happened before, and that was a 2 hour hunt. A different hunt yielded 3 coins and a room key.
I have eyes on the beach and have never seen any erosion since my arrival 8 months ago.
Detecting here is more about a walk on the beach. No expectations and no beach bunnies like Huntington. Just not the right tourist numbers here.

No gold no beach bunnies equals no Oregon in my travels!:no: haha
 
Jackson County Parks didn't tell me that they don't allow metal detecting at their parks. They told me that the Bureau of Reclamation doesn't allow metal detecting. I know that they were involved with building the dam many years ago, but I don't know if lake is owned or still under their control.
 
.... They told me that the Bureau of Reclamation.....

I doubt that the "Bureau of Reclamation" cares one bit about md'ing (until you ask). This line of theirs is nothing more than a polite way to pass-the-buck when dreaming up the "no" answer to your "pressing question". So again : You were the victim of "no one cared till you asked" psychology.

Yes it's true that federal entities built these various massive projects 50 and 100 yrs. ago, blah blah. Like Army Corps of Engineers, etc..... Or that the B.O.R. has some say-so in the water that flows out, etc... But they are now administered by counties or cities or states, as parks, lakes, etc.... Whether or not that means the fed. still has some tentacles of say-so , I don't know (I doubt it). You and I could make a big legal fuss and research and ask a bunch of lawyers, and if we stood on one foot and squinted hard, could maybe find someone to say that something federal still applies, or that someone "higher up" says no, blah blah.

The bottom line is : The county now sets the rules and administers the place. They have made their list of park rules, as you saw (which was quite comprehensive, as you saw). And it has no prohibitions on md'ing. But sure, if we md'rs ask long enough and hard enough, you can ALWAYS find someone to tell you "no". If I went in there and asked enough people if I can pick my own nose, I bet I could find someone to tell me "no".
 
Since I posted the question about Emigrant Lake, my wife and I took Hwy 99 through Phoenix and Talent to see the fire damage, then continued on to see Emigrant lake for ourselves. It was very dry and not much water. I didn't try any detecting then, but I called Jackson county parks to ask about detecting there, and they told me that it's not allowed at Emigrant lake. I was disappointed to hear that, because it looked to be a great area to dig in the sand and gravel at dry swimming areas.

Lamar

And then humorously, as often happens in these cases, someone else gleefully chimes in that he detects the supposedly off-limits spot, and ... no one paid them any mind :roll: :

Lamar.. I read that too but hunted anyways..

The Park host even came by and said, find anything? and Good luck boys

so.. what the heck better to ask forgiveness in "some" instances I guess..
 
.... The Park host even came by and said, find anything? and Good luck boys ....

And I'll bet you that if you had gone before-hand, and ASKED that same exact park host "Can I metal detect ?", that he'd have had to call hither and yonder superiors, or dug deep into his rule books (and find something about disturbing earthworms or cultural heritage) and would have told you "no".

Because think of it : The MERE FACT that anyone thinks they have to ask an authority if they can do something or not, merely presupposes that something in amiss, or wrong, or harmful, etc.... Ie.: Otherwise you would not have ASKED in the first place, if it were benign and innocuous. So the mere fact that you're asking, simply presupposes that something must be wrong with the activity. Which is subconsciously not lost on the person you are asking. And thus the wheels of his brain churn to find out how it might not be allowed.

Contrast to if you just simply GO, then that puts out the vibes that it's harmless and innocuous . Lest why else would anyone be doing an activity in broad daylight like that ? Ie.: "Act like you own the place", and you're ignored type-of-thing.

...... what the heck better to ask forgiveness in "some" instances I guess..

I wouldn't go so far as to say that. Because that implies that something is in "need of forgiveness" in the first place. :laughing: Does that mean every last person on earth will love and adore me ? Of course not. They're welcome to say "scram", and I'll give lip service . ( And then promptly come back later when said-singular-nosy-parker isn't around :roll: )
 
I hunted a very busy beach in between Seaside and Astoria back in August. In two hours I found 27 cents, a tent stake, and one bottle cap. I would think that the beach around the mouth of the Columbia would produce some very cool finds after a winter storm.
 
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