Cape Sebastian

Native people call this cape Daa-ghvsh-ne’. European explorers noted the landmark because of its elevation rising 668 feet above the Pacific Ocean; the name Cape San Sebastian was later given in 1603 by Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizciano. In the 1960s, the seventy-pound, fossilized remains of a duck-billed hadrosaur were discovered in the sandstone that forms the cape. The sandstone and fossil share a complex geologic history. During the Late Cretaceous period (84 to 72 million years ago) the creature fell into a river or was swept out to sea in what is now northwestern Mexico. Together the sandstone and fossil moved northward along major crustal faults to their present location on the Oregon Coast. In 1994, the hadrosaur became the first dinosaur fossil excavated in Oregon.