In the small coastal town of Neskowin in Tillamook County, Oregon, United States, somewhere between Lincoln City and Pacific City, are the remains of an ancient Sitka spruce forest. For nearly 300 years, the stumps of the “ghost forest” had been hiding under the sand until they were unearthed in the winter of 1997-98, when a fierce storm lashed the Oregon Coast. The storm had eroded away a part of the beach revealing about one hundred barnacle-encrusted tree stumps. Before the big uncovering that winter, the stumps were a mere local legend, with longtime Tillamook County residents saying they only emerged once every several decades, and only briefly. Since the winter of 1998, the Neskowin Ghost Forest has become a permanent fixture on the beach.

Photo credit: Rob DeGraff/Flickr