Neahkahnie, OR

Neahkahnie is a small Tillamook County CDP north of Manzanita, tucked between U.S. 101, the beach, and the foot of Neahkahnie Mountain. The name comes from the Nehalem-Tillamook world and is commonly glossed as "place of the creator"; the mountain remains a landmark in local Native stories and Oregon Coast geography. Highway 101 did not reach this headland until 1940, opening the route to the beach communities and state-park country around it. Today Neahkahnie is mostly a residential place - roughly 370 homes in the census definition - with the ocean on one side and a big piece of coastal history rising behind it.