Lincoln City's Antique Week: Oregon Coast Tradition with 100 Japanese Glass Floats

Published 02/10/23 at 7:39 PM
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Lincoln City, Oregon) – What's old is definitely what's new in one Oregon coast town.

Seven miles of pristine sand, 100 real Japanese floats, a week and a half of antiques and hundreds descending on the central Oregon coast to take it all in. From February 11 through the 20th comes Lincoln City's annual Antique & Collectibles Week, 10 days of sales at Lincoln City shops and used book stores, and a special “Sears Years” exhibit at North Lincoln County Historical Museum. (Courtesy photo)

The longtime central Oregon coast tradition is so chock full of old timey fun it takes more than a week.

The highlight for many is, of course, the extra flood of glass floats on the sands of Lincoln City. Through Finders Keepers, 100 special antique-style Japanese glass floats made by local artisans will be hidden along the town's soft sands, from Siletz Bay at the southern end to Roads End at the north. Floats will be dropped above the high tide line and below the beach embankment. If you find a float – it's yours.

These are the real deal, the old-school smokey kind from Japan that populated beaches of the Oregon coast and Washington coast for decades, until they gradually slowed to just a trickle on these shores.

National press once named Lincoln City one of the great undiscovered places for antique hunting in the United States, with bundles of vintage shops and unique purveyors, making the town the king of antiques in the region.

You may even see some remnants of the famed Pixie Kitchen or Pixieland (as in the table above).

“Lincoln City’s Antique & Collectibles Week is a festive celebration of all things old…and new-to-you,” said Ed Dreistadt, director of Explore Lincoln City. “As the Oregon coast’s go-to destination for antiques and collectibles, we’re thrilled to see our thriving antique and vintage community come together to entice visitors with treasures, unique collectibles and other fun finds. We’re also excited to incorporate a special drop of hidden glass floats to add to the thrill of the hunt.”

This much loved tradition was created by June Minor of the historic Rocking Horse Mall in 1991, Antique & Collectibles Week has been a celebration of elegant reminders of the past and near-forgotten pieces from childhood. Originally opening as the Oceanlake Pavilion Dance Hall in 1920, the Rocking Horse Mall is now run by June’s son Rick Minor, and features two floors of antiques including glassware, pottery, vintage furniture, dollhouse miniatures and beach treasures.

In celebration of this year’s Antique & Collectibles Week, The North Lincoln County Historical Museum will offer a new exhibit called “Sears Years,” which is a tribute to how Sears, Roebuck & Company and Montgomery Ward & Company made rural living in North Lincoln County a lot easier around the turn of the 20th century.

Having poor access to stores in the valley — and being fairly isolated from other coastal communities — residents in the region relied on catalog ordering for their goods, as well as the supply boat captains who had to brave the challenges of crossing the Siletz River bar. The exhibit will feature artifacts from the museum’s collection that closely match entries from Sears, Roebuck & Company catalogs from the late 1800s to the 1930s, as well as quotes from North Lincoln County residents via oral histories and diary accounts. In addition, the museum will offer a special trivia challenge; the winner of this challenge will receive a gift basket which will include a historic reprint of an 1897 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog, along with several issues of the museum’s Pioneer History of North Lincoln County series and more.

Some of the local businesses that are participating in Antique & Collectibles Week this year include (listed alphabetically): Carrousel By The Beach, Coastal Treasures, Granny's Attic Antiques & Collectibles, Left Coast Trading Co., Little Antique Mall, Nelscott House Antiques, North by Northwest Books & Antiques, Robert's Book Shop, Rocking Horse Mall, Sea Hag Antiques and Sue Bear's Attic.

Lincoln City was consolidated in 1965 when the five pioneer towns of Oceanlake, Taft, Cutler City, DeLake and Nelscott united. Reminders of these can still be found in the neighborhood names around the central Oregon coast town.

For more information about Antique & Collectibles Week, see the official page.

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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