Want to fill a town in October? Yachats did by staging a mushroom festival

Quinton Smith / Lincoln Chronicle **Crowds filled a display tent Sunday to examine dozens of types of mushrooms displayed by the Lincoln County Mycological Society during the 26th Yachats Mushroom Festival.**

Yachats was filled to overflowing this weekend with people attending the 26^th Yachats Mushroom Festival, which featured displays, a mushroom-themed crafts fair and walks and talks to appeal to novice and expert mycologists.

**Anchored by these large lobster mushrooms, a long table was full of mushrooms for people to identify.**

An outdoor tent – the Yachats pavilion is closed for repairs — was filled with displays by the Lincoln County Mycological Society, the Cascade Mycological Society and the North American Truffling Society.

There was a craft fair in the Yachats Commons. Members of the Lincoln County Mycological Society were on hand with large displays of regional mushrooms, while other experts were available to help identify mushrooms. Also inside the tent Saturday and Sunday were authors of mushroom-themed books to explain and sell their works.

**Authors of books on mushrooms talked with an appreciative audience Sunday during the second day of the Yachats Mushroom Festival.**

There were talks ranging from mushroom identification, how to start a mushroom garden, and mushroom photography and expert-guided walks on trails around Yachats and the Coast Range where participants learned how to search for and gather mushrooms.

The Yachats Chamber of Commerce is also bringing back its popular mushroom treasure hunt, with glass mushrooms created by local artists hidden each Saturday morning at beaches and forests through March 7. Location clues will be offered each Saturday morning on the chamber’s website and on @visit.yachats Instagram page.

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