Keeping the Beach Glass Hunt Alive on Lake Erie

You stroll along the beach hoping to catch a glimmer of glass lit by the sun. But it’s not as easy as it used to be, thanks to a combination of social media, the better handling of trash and the pandemic, which made so many other things off limit. So is there treasure still to be found? We ask three of Lake Erie’s best beach glass hunters. 

Shea Alltmont: The Amateur Archaeologist

Shea Alltmont loves a good mystery. Her latest discovery? An intact piece of brown beach glass embossed with flowers and leaves. 

“With my research, I found the exact picture of the pre-Prohibition bourbon that was made in a bottle. It was from a company called Four Roses,” says Alltmont, who works as a library communications manager in Avon Lake, Ohio. “Doing research is what drives me — what the piece is connected to, where it was made, and what it might have contained.”  

While her impressive collection encompasses decades of beach glass, she has noticed a change. “Plastic became the next big thing to manufacture,” she says, adding that recycling and dumping laws have reduced the amount of glass in the water. Still, plenty of history washes ashore.

“It’s just fun,” she says. “There’s magic in it.” 

Melany Hall: The Nature Lover

Melany Hall, a paramedic, finds relaxation in beachcombing in Vermilion, Ohio. “I like to go by myself. I find the zen in the waves; they drown out everything, all your thoughts, and you’re just looking for glass,” she says.  

Hall’s children love beach glass hunts, too. They learn about native plants and fossils and return with jars of glass sorted by color. 

Over seven years of collecting has taught Hall that treasures come in waves. “There have been some dry spells,” she says. “Then, some days, the waves bring in lots of glass. I say, ‘it must be the glass fairy.’”

Beverly Vinch: The Artist

Beverly Vinch’s collection is the real deal — a few thousand pounds containing rare colors like orange, along with shipwreck pottery and marbles. Her husband, Bud, and his siblings collected Lake Erie beach glass in the 1960s, and the couple came across tubs of it while cleaning the basement of his childhood home.  

As a professional jewelry maker, she saw potential, and now exclusively crafts colorful beach glass necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings from her studio in Avon Lake, Ohio. “I love the fact that it’s organic, recycled and repurposed.”

Vinch has plenty of loot for her Washed Ashore Jewelry line (washedashorejewelrey.com), so she saves beach glass outings for the grandkids. She, too, has noticed a surge. “Go to Huntington Beach in the morning during the summer,” she says. “You’re going to see 20 people out there all bent over, looking for glass.”