Oregon, Part 6

Finally made it to the Lewis and Clark Fort Clatsop National Historic Park. This was where the expedition camped for the winter of 1805 before turning and heading back to "civilization". It was named after a group of local Native Americans.

The Visitors' Center included a museum that chronicled the two-and-a-half-year journey of Lewis, Clark, and the Corp of Discovery. Only one member died on the journey (of appendicitis), a remarkable statistic given the area and time period in which they traveled.

One thing we noticed immediately is that the layout of this fort was almost exactly the same as that of Fort Mandan, in North Dakota. At right is the main "courtyard", with the rooms lining two of the four sides. The standing structure at left is a chimney.





At left is the interior of one of the rooms, with bed, storage shelf and other furniture. All built locally, of course. Most of the rooms have basically the same furnishings. One had bunk beds (three tall); another had a large tree trunk that served as a table.




At right is the cooking area, which is outside the fort itself. There is also a wood storage rack. The Corps of Discovery spent 106 days wintering at this fort.

There is also a trail that leads to the area where the expeditions' canoes landed, but we didn't follow that. The weather was chilly and it drizzled a lot. Besides, we were ready to head off to see the place where the expedition finally reached the Pacific Ocean.

The ocean site is several miles down the road. There is a trail you can walk that says it's 1/3 of mile, but it had to have been the longest 1/3 of a mile on the face of the Earth. The above video shows the view of the Pacific from a wooden platform. If you follow the trail that shows up in the middle of the picture, it will take you right down to the beach. I did walk all the way down so I could dip a hand in the Pacific. Unfortunately, I misjudged the distance, and a wave soaked me up to the calves. So I ended up bringing home some Pacific beach sand in my sneakers.



On the way to and from the Fort Clatsop site, we passed the Camp 18 Logging Museum and Memorial. At right is the Camp 18 Logging Restaurant's carved front doors. (The door handles are small hand axes.) The entire interior is rustic; the large back porch has a variety of bird feeders, with large windows that showcase the forest and wildlife. (The management thoughtfully provides cards with pictures of the various birds you're likely to see feeding on the porch.)



The website at the above link has a nice selection of photos of the equipment on display around the outdoor museum. I wish things had been labelled, since I've never done logging and have no idea what some of the equipment does. I do know, however, that the object in the left-hand picture is a large saw.

Dad in particular had a good time wandering around looking at the equipment, and I took a brief walk in the woods near the stream out behind the restaurant.