Agate Beach, the sea beach about three miles north of Newport, just below Yaquina Head, has long been noted for the very fine agates found there, and was named to call attention to one of the principal attractions of beachcombing in the area. Beachcombing is at its best during the winter, when winter waves, high seas and runoff carry sand off the beaches, uncovering treasures. Also, storms carry in objects lost at sea. Among the possibilities are trash from ships, packing crates, floats, driftwood, shells, fossilsó and agates. The Central Oregon Coast is prime agate-hunting territory. Agates are beautiful, translucent rocks. Before the Ice Ages, silicates, oxides and metals were squeezed into existing earth forms to create these quartzes, also known as chalcedony. More oxides and minerals create the red, amber and blue tones, sometimes forming a banded or mottled pattern. Some agates contain fossilized clams, snails and sharkís teeth. Agate Beach lives up to its name as the area with the greatest concentration of these rocks. Dealers in Newport make a specialty of cutting and polishing these stones. The beach north of Seal Rock and mouths of freshwater streams and rivers are also good places. Some of the best are Cummins Creek, Bob Creek, Nye Beach, Ona Beach, Smelt Sands and Squaw Creek. In 1983, John Fitzpatrick, an Ireland-born man who, by all accounts, was an easy-going gentleman with a flair for investing in profitable pieces of land, purchased an 18-acre woodland lot near Agate Beach. During the beginning of what would become the 19th centuryís worst economic depression, Fitzpatrick built the Monterey Hotel on his 18-acre parcel of land, which was surrounded by more than 100 acres of forest. Popular with bathers and tourists from Salem, the hotel enjoyed extreme prosperity during its first year in business. Then, for reasons ìfar more intriguing than simple economics,î the hotelís business dropped and the tragedies began. Less than two years after the Montereyís construction, Fitzpatrick was dead from pneumonia and, shortly thereafter, his 25-year-old daughter, Sarah Fitzpatrick, was found shot to death in one of the hotelís grand rooms. Today, the 18 acres is owned by the state and acts as a picnic and beach-access park for Agate Beachís visitors. In 1912, Colonel Hofer built Madinore, the first house at Agate Beach. Other people from Salem followed and built homes, the Pattons, the Livesleys, Thielsens, the Bushes, and Florence Bynonís brother Mac built a house to the south of Madinore. Agate Beach post office was established Apr. 18, 1912 with John G. Mackey serving as first postmaster. The office closed to Newport on Aug. 20, 1971. Swiss-born composer Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) spent the last years of his life in the Newport area. Bloch had a long and illustrious career, both in Europe and the US. From 1911 to 1915, Bloch taught at the Geneva Conservatory. He migrated to the US in 1916, and founded the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1920. Bloch was naturalized in 1924, and served as the director of the Cleveland Institute until 1925. He was director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1925 to 1930. Blochís compositions included works on Jewish themes, such as Trois Poémes Juifs (1913); Israel (1916); Schelomo (1916); Baal Shem (1923); and Avodath Hakodesh (1933). He built a beautiful home on the shore at Agate Beach, a picturesque spot on the Oregon Coast which helped to inspire some of his last works including his Symphony In E Flat, Proclamation For Trumpet and Orchestra and his fifth (and final) String Quartet. Blochís other works included Hiver-Printemps (1905); Macbeth (1910); Suite for Viola and Piano (1919); Quintet for Piano and Strings (1923); America (1926); Suite Symphonique (1944); and Scherzo Fantasque (1948). Today his memory is carried on through the Ernest Bloch Music Festival which is held annually in July.