Battle Rock is a basalt promontory at Port Orford on Oregon’s Pacific coast, notable both as a striking coastal landmark and as a place shaped by conflict and memory. Formed within the ancient Otter Point Formation, it stands beside the beach that bears its name. In 1851, after Captain William Tichenor landed nine men and was delayed from returning, fighting erupted between settlers and the Quatomah Tututnis. Contemporary reports were disputed, but the clash was later cast as a battle in an account by J. M. Kirkpatrick, helping fix the name Battle Rock in local memory. During the Rogue River Wars, several Native chiefs were executed and buried there.