Finders Keepers wants you to know that there will still be plenty of hidden treasure to find on Oregon coast beaches this year.
The hidden glass float program in Lincoln City announced that it will be paring back its “special drops” for 2026, but clarified that, like in previous years, it will still be hiding more than 3,000 floats on beaches throughout the year.
Finders Keepers’ special drop events will be significantly reduced next year, with only six on the calendar for 2026. In recent years, including last year’s 25th anniversary season, the program has done 16 special drops, celebrating holidays, sports teams and local events.
According to organizers, the scaled-back schedule is an effort to return to the event’s roots.
“When looking back at the history of Finders Keepers we thought, why not harken back to that original message of every day could be joyous?” said Stephanie Hull, event and outreach coordinator for Explore Lincoln City, which organizes Finders Keepers.
“It was more of wanting to bring back that joy and that magic,” Hull said. “Every day can be a special drop”
The six special float drop events, which will account for only 341 of the 3,000 floats hidden in 2026, will be:
- Jan. 9-11 – Opening Weekend: 100 floats
- Feb. 6-16 – Retro Expo: 100 Japanese antique-style floats
- April 22-25 – Earth Day: 50 floats
- June 19-20 – Casino Anniversary: 31 floats
- September TBD – Fall Kite: 10 floats
- Oct. 30-Nov. 1 – Halloween: 50 floats
Several of the drops coincide with local events, like Lincoln City Retro Expo in February, the 31st anniversary of the Chinook Winds Casino Resort in June and the Fall Kite Festival in September. Earth Day and Halloween will be the only holiday-themed drops for 2026 (previous years included Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Indigenous Peoples Day). Last year, organizers introduced a special drop to coincide with the annual Restoration Powwow held by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.
The reduction in special events means local glass artists, who create the floats for Finders Keepers, will have more freedom, Hull said.
“From an artist’s perspective this will give them an opportunity to be more creative,” she said. “You don’t just have to think about, ‘Oh, Valentine’s Day, I’ll do pink, white, red.’”
Hull also said that by decreasing the number of special events but keeping the total number of floats the same, Finders Keepers will be increasing the number of daily floats hidden around Lincoln City. The math works out to an average of seven or eight per day, though she said more or fewer could be hidden due to factors like weather – even the special drops are liable to be canceled due to king tides, Finders Keepers warns.
Ultimately, hiding the floats is up to the secretive “float fairies” who hide the treasures on Lincoln City beaches in visible locations between the high tide line and the beach embankment. The floats are meant to be found easily by whoever is lucky enough to stumble upon them first.
Each float comes with instructions on how to register it online or by phone, a process that helps Explore Lincoln City know that each float is successfully found. Once the finder registers their float, the organization will send them a certificate of authenticity and information about the artist who made it.
The best advice on finding a float is to not actually go looking, but to simply enjoy the scenery and allow a float to come to you, Explore Lincoln City says. That’s not unlike finding anything else on the beach, be it a whole sand dollar or a big agate.
Glass floats were traditionally used by fishermen, particularly in Japan, to keep their nets floating in the water. Air inside the glass orbs would keep them buoyant, a feature that also allowed them to drift thousands of miles across the ocean, where many wound up on beaches along the Pacific Coast.
Since glass floats are no longer used in fishing, finding them on Oregon beaches is a rarity today. In the late 1990s, a group of Lincoln City artists decided to make their own glass floats to place on the beaches, an idea that would become Finders Keepers. The first event was held in 1999 as a way to ring in the new millennium, and soon it became a hit with tourists and locals alike.