There’s nothing quite as magical as searching for beach glass along the shores of the Great Lakes with my children. It’s the perfect hobby for all ages and gives us a common goal — hunting for colorful pieces of glass worn smooth by years of tumbling under the water.
Doing it bundled up in the brisk spring winds isn’t something we’ve done, but according to avid beach glass hunters John Mellein, Sarah Kimar, and Corrin Hummel, spring is the perfect time to strike.
Beach glass comes from freshwater sources like our Great Lakes, while sea glass comes from saltwater sources. Nevertheless, they’re both created the same way: they’ve been tumbled by the water over the course of many years. With the help of waves, rocks, and sand, pieces of glass are worn and smoothed until they re-emerge as treasures on the shore.
The most common colors in our lakes are white, brown, blue, and green — likely coming from old bottles and jars. Look for the signature C-shaped pattern, rounded edges, and frosted texture. These are signs that your find has been tumbled long enough to be considered genuine beach glass.
John Mellein of South Haven, one of six moderators of the Lake Michigan Sea Glass Collectors Facebook page, has been an avid beach glass hunter for 26 years and has hundreds of pounds of colorful glass to prove it.
Unfortunately for today’s hunters, he claims the finds are nothing like they used to be. “Many years, I would pick up 15,000 to 18,000 pieces in a season,” Mellein says. “Now, whether it’s the water level, less glass in our lakes, or more hobbyists, there isn’t as much to be found. That’s why spring is so important.”
Spring may, in fact, be the best time of year to find beach glass. The wave action of winter weather and the accompanying ice buildup will churn the lakes and produce beach glass along the shore. “Once the ice melts, there’s no telling what you might find on the beaches if you get there quick enough,” Hummel says.
The experts advise that it’s best to be prepared. Mellein has several tips for making a beach glass hunt the most successful trip possible: Try to be the first one on the beach — the early bird gets the worm; kick around groups of rocks, because you never know what could be hiding underneath; and look beyond the water’s edge because waves can push beach glass as far as 50 feet back from the water, depending on the size of the swell.
Kimar, a fourth-generation business owner at her family’s Kimar’s Resort and Kimar’s Charters on Lake Superior, has also found great success hunting in the spring. The bay between Munising and Marquette where she hunts is sandy when the ice melts, but it turns rocky when the water comes up later in the year.
Kimar says she can hunt a quarter of the bay year-round, but in the spring she can hunt the entire bay. The increased surface area leads to a lot more treasures.
Some of those treasures are impossible to forget. “This has always been an old fishing village, so the glass we hunt comes from my great-grandparents and their neighbors. Back in the early 1900s when there was no trash removal, they would throw their glass on the beach and it would wash away in the storms. They still did this when my dad was a little boy. We lost him in 2023, but I like to think that if I someday find a piece of an Orange Crush (his favorite) bottle, then it could’ve been one my dad drank out of. Although the people are gone, they leave traces behind,” Kimar reflects.
This has always been an old fishing village, so the glass we hunt comes from my great-grandparents and their neighbors.”
— Sarah Kimar
Mellein says he’s made connections through his glass-hunting hobby. In April of 2021, he stumbled across a message in a bottle along the shoreline. Although it had only traveled about a mile before washing ashore, it was still a dream come true for Mellein. The message revealed a touching letter from a daughter to her mother who had passed away two years earlier, prompting a follow-up connection that eventually led to forging a new friendship.
Hummel, of Chesterton, Ind., also connects with others through beach glass. After finding an abundance of glass along the shores of Lake Michigan last spring, she decided to repurpose her glass and turned her hobby into a business. Glass by Rin features jewelry, suncatchers, ornaments, accessories, and even lake-inspired drink menus. She also offers customization, and will tailor her pieces to a customer’s preferences.
She says it’s a way to share her love of beach glass and her creative side with others in a unique way. “I’ve always loved designing, creating, and being crafty,” Hummel says. “This was another way to stay involved in that side of my personality while being in the great outdoors that I have so much passion for.”
Once you start searching for beach glass, enthusiasts say it’s hard to stop. And there’s no reason to wait until summer. In a world that leaves little room for surprise in our lives, beach glass-hunting sparks those small moments of delight we all need. Why not put on your windbreaker and give it a whirl?
Plan It!
Lake Michigan Sea Glass Collectors
facebook.com/groups/lakemichiganseaglass
