The Octopus Tree is a massive Sitka spruce located a few hundred feet from Cape Meares Lighthouse on the Oregon Coast, in the U.S. The tree is shaped like an inverted octopus with branches growing like giant tentacles from its 50-foot base. The tree has no central trunk. Instead, six candelabra limbs extend horizontally from the base as much as 16 feet before turning upward. The tree’s unusual shape, according to local historians and Tillamook tribal descendants, comes from the ravages of the wind, but it could also have been man-made.

The Octopus tree is believed to be two hundred to three hundred years old dating back to when the Indians lived in the area. In fact, one theory says that the Octopus Tree was shaped like an octopus by the Indians to hold their canoes with their dead in it, and other ritual objects.

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