Published In

Oregon Encyclopedia

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-1-2018

Abstract

Neahkahnie Mountain, about twenty miles south of Seaside, is a prominent landmark in Oregon Coast geography, history, and lore. Standing 1,680 feet high, the basalt edifice is both a peak and a headland. Formed by Miocene lava flows surging down the ancestral Columbia River channel roughly 15 million years ago, the mountain’s western face has been eroded by ocean waves, forming precipitous cliffs that drop as far as six hundred feet to the churning Pacific below. The mountain’s upper and north-facing slopes are draped in a dense and expanding forest of Sitka spruce, Western hemlock, and Western red cedar towering above an understory dominated by salal and swordfern. Salal, wild rose, and other native shrubs increasingly occupy the remnant grassy meadows.

Description

Part of the Oregon Encyclopedia

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