[Neskowin, OR, May 17, 2026]

The story of the Neskowin Ghost Forest was one of the most intriguing ones I’ve ever heard. Nobody even knew it existed until a strong El Nino in the winter of 1997-1998 caused permanent erosion in this stretch of coast and revealed the dead stumps. By then, scientists had been studying other ghost forests along the coast and knew their origin.

It all began in the 1980s, when geologist Brian Atwater worked with dendrochronology expert Dr. David Yamaguchi to find out the origin of a ghost forest in Washington, north of Aberdeen. Until then, scientists believed a slow and gradual rise in sea levels had killed the trees there. It was certainly because of exposure to salt water, and there was no other way the trees could have been exposed to it – or could there? Dr. Yamaguchi dated all the trees in the ghost forest and determined they had all stopped growing in 1699. Whatever that event was, it was sudden and not gradual. However, written record of anything like that happening in the PNW around that time did not exist because the event preceded white settlement in the area by about 100 years. Oral stories from native tribes mentioned a big event around that time, but those were ignored.

Brian Atwater theorized that a strong subduction earthquake along the Cascadia Fault Line could have been the cause. Subduction earthquakes occur when a oceanic plate, like the San Juan De Fuca plate along the Pacific Northwest coast, slides under a continental plate, in this case the North American plate. When the plates get stuck or locked together, massive amounts of pressure can build over decades and centuries. Because this pressure is not released through smaller earthquakes, subduction zones are capable of producing massive ones. Japan is in a subduction zone, which is why it experiences such violent earthquakes. It is also why it has been keeping excellent records of that since 599 AD.

Japanese seismologist Kenji Satake picked up Brian Atwater’s trail. He discovered records of a tsunami in Japan in 1700 without a corresponding earthquake. The Japanese had labeled it a ghost wave. But thanks to Brian Atwater’s research, scientists now knew the Cascadia Subduction zone had been active and had actually produced a large earthquake. This discovery was an earthquake of its own, as the Cascadia subduction zone was not even known until 1970.

I originally learned all this when I read Kathryn Schulz’s Pulitzer prize-winning story for the New Yorker, The Big One. I was fascinated by it all, and when I found out that I can visit a ghost forest near Portland, I got even more excited!

We set out early in the morning during negative low tide. We had a very large stretch of beach to walk on thanks to this. The retreating ocean had nevertheless left plenty of little and not-so-little streams along the beach, so we quickly realized we are better of barefoot.

Storms continue to shape the coast, and some winters take more sand away while others bring it in. It seemed that this year, more sand got deposited along the coast and so the ghost forest was not as impressive as it has been other years. It was still fascinating to walk along the dead but preserved tree stumps.

We reached a small cove at the end of the beach. There were so many sea stars and mussels along the rock!

We could tell the tide was coming in as we walked back. We even had some calf-deep water to go through! The Neskowin ghost forest was fascinating and one of those locations I’d love to come back to again and again.