Neahkahnie Mountain, rising 1,661 feet on Oregon’s coast, is one of the highest points along the shore and is said to bear a Native American name meaning “home of the supreme being.” This basalt, sandstone, and shale monolith has stood over Oregon’s North Coast for thousands of years. During the late 1800s, when the beach served as the road along the coast, horses and wagons could travel for miles on the firm, wet sand until they reached Neahkahnie Mountain, where travelers had to brave dangerously steep slopes and loose rock on an Indian trail because there was no room to pass around its base. The obstacle remained well into the 20th century until construction of the Pacific Coast Highway, which became U.S. Highway 101, and the mountain still creates significant maintenance and repair problems for Oregon’s Department of Transportation. It has also been hazardous to seafarers, with many ships wrecking along this stretch of coastline, including the British vessel Glenesslin, which crashed into the base of the mountain on September 30, 1913, in a wreck that remains unexplained despite its full crew of skilled old salts.