Looking down on the remains of Jump-Off Joe, Nye Beach, with Yaquina Head behind (bobcat)

• Hikes to this destination:
  • Newport Beach Hike   (TH | <—   —> | LOG)

• Weather forecast: NWS/NOAA
• Maps: Oregon Hikers Maps Google Maps
• Latitude, Longitude: 44.6450, -124.0621
• Elevation: 0 feet

Description

Jump-Off Joe was a 100-foot high sandstone headland, and once considered one of the most remarkable features of the Oregon Coast, that once separated Agate Beach from Nye Beach in Newport. Those walking between the two beaches had to climb up it and jump off the other side: this activity is what gave the headland its name.

At the end of the 19th century, the jetties at the mouth of Yaquina Bay were constructed, drastically altering the action of the tides and causing increased collapse of the bluffs on Nye Beach. Soon, wave action separated the Jump-Off Joe headland from the bluff and it became a sea stack with a photogenic arch. In 1916 however, the arch collapsed and, over the decades of the 20th century, the stack was whittled by human-induced oceanic forces until now only a mere stub remains.

More Links

• Erosion of a Sea Stack Over 100 Years (USGS)
• Jump-off Joe (Wikipedia)
• "Strange Tale of Jump-Off Joe, Newport's Nye Beach" (Beach Connection)

Contributors

• bobcat (creator)