During their winter on the Pacific coast, the weather is sometimes snowy, sometimes icy, but almost always rainy. Their diet is mostly elk, which quickly spoils in the warm, wet climate. The Clatsops and Kathlamets sell them sturgeon, wapato, and eulachon as well as woven mats, bags, and waterproof conical hats. A camp near present-day Seaside, Oregon is established to make salt from boiled seawater. When Clark leaves to get blubber from a beached whale, Sacagawea—who still hasn’t seen the ocean—insists she be included in his group. In the spring, everyone is eager to leave.
Fort Clatsop Elk
Cervus canadensis roosevelti
by Greg Tollefson, Joseph A. Mussulman
Fort Clatsop’s location was chosen in part because, as some Clatsop Indians had advised the captains, there were more elk on the south side of the river than on the north. The subspecies found there was named in 1898 to honor Theodore Roosevelt.
The Beached Whale
Sacagawea's 'Monstrous fish'
by John W. Fisher
Private Whitehouse and Sergeant Gass recorded that passing Indians told of a whale washed ashore south along today’s Oregon coast. Several days later, Clark set out with twelve men in two canoes to trade for as much blubber as their small amount of merchandise would allow.
Synopsis Part 4
Lemhi Valley to Fort Clatsop
by Harry W. Fritz
After trading for horses with Sacagawea’s people, the expedition turned north and then west, on what would indisputably be the most exhausting and debilitating segment of the entire journey, the passage across the Bitterroot Mountains.
Arrival at the Pacific
Exploring Long Beach
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Clark was pleased that his men appeared “much Satisfied with their trip beholding with estonishment the high waves dashing against the rocks & this emence ocean.”
Bivouac at Tongue Point
A long and wet encampment
by Joseph A. Mussulman
As the Corps rounded Tongue Point the wind rose hard from the west, and heavy seas with torrential rain forced them back to the east shore of the narrow isthmus, where they huddled for ten miserable days.
Fort Clatsop
Looking for a winter camp
by Joseph A. Mussulman
They had sketched out a plan for their fort, but it seemed that finding a level spot at least fifty feet square would be next to impossible.
The Lewis and Clark River
Coast Range winter
by Joseph A. Mussulman
During their time at the coast, the Corps saw only six sunny days; the rest brought clouds, fog, rain, and a little snow. Fifty-three were partly clear. That’s a normal winter on the west slopes of the Coast Range.
Building Fort Clatsop
A rush job
December 10, 1805 marked the beginning of work on the Corps’ third winter garrison. They worked as fast as they could, and the daily, mostly intermittent rain showers punctuated by gale-lashed torrents, strengthened their resolve.
Clatsop Give and Take
Dubious interactions
by Joseph A. Mussulman
In mid-March the men stole a Clatsop canoe as recompense for Indians’ theft of 6 elk carcasses the men had shot, even though the tribe’s chief had already made restitution for the elk by giving the captains three free dogs.
December 20, 1805
Not enough roofing
Fort Clatsop, Astoria, OR The men install plank roofing using boards they had previously split and planks taken from an old Clatsop lodge. There is not enough roofing to cover all the cabins. Clark complains about the high price of food.
Holidays at Fort Clatsop
by Joseph A. Mussulman
At dawn the captains were roused, according to Clark, by “the discharge of the fire arm[s] of all our party & a Selute, Shoute and a Song which the whole party joined in under our windows, after which they retired to their rooms [and] were Chearfull all the morning.”
The Salt Works
Making salt from ocean water
by Joseph A. Mussulman![](/media/salt-works-rh-3545-sq.jpg")
On 28 December 1805, the officers detailed three enlisted men to proceed to the Ocean and “at Some Convenient place form a Camp and Commence makeing Salt with 5 of the largest Kittles . . . .”
Fort Clatsop Detachment Orders
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The captains issued Detachment Orders showing the degree to which Lewis and Clark consistently maintained the spirit of Baron von Steuben’s Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States.
The Empty Anchorage
No trade ships at the Columbia
by Arlen J. Large
“the Ocian is imedeately in front and gives us an extensive view of it from Cape disapointment to Point addams,” reported William Clark on 15 November 1805. But he saw no ships at anchor. Nothing.
Over Tillamook Head
Clark's point of view
by Joseph A. Mussulman
After passing the salt works and continuing along the “round Slippery Stones under a high hill,” Clark related, “my guide made a Sudin halt, pointed to the top of the mountain and uttered the word Pe Shack which means bad, and made Signs that we . . . must pass over that mountain.
NeCus’ Village
by Douglas Deur, Tricia Gates Brown
Before the resort town of Cannon Beach, Oregon, a Tillamook tribal village—NeCus’—sat along the tiny brackish bay where Ecola Creek crosses the sandy beach. The Lewis and Clark Expedition journals provide a tantalizing but fragmentary glimpse of this community.
January 20, 1806
Five new plant specimens
Fort Clatsop, OR Lewis prepares five new plant specimens and describes roots eaten by local Indians. The captains worry about the rate at which they are going through their supply of elk meat.
January 27, 1806
An elk bonanza
Fort Clatsop, OR Shannon returns to Fort Clatsop with news of ten elk ready to be brought in. Lewis compares how he and the Chinookan Indians treat gonorrhea and syphilis.
February 22, 1806
New rain hats
Fort Clatsop, OR Two Clatsop women deliver the men’s woven hats ordered previously by the captains. The eulachon run begins, and Lewis describes pronghorns and bighorn sheep.
Illnesses at Fort Clatsop
by Joseph A. Mussulman
The rainy weather, monotonous diet, and crisis over the lack of basic materials to carry out a routine tanning of hides for clothes must have eroded their mental and physical health.
February 28, 1806
Clatsop traders
Fort Clatsop, OR Clatsop traders come to sell food and a slave boy. Every offer is declined except for some sturgeon. The hunters find elk nearly ten miles from the fort.
March 12, 1806
Making new clothes
Fort Clatsop, Astoria, OR The captains tally the numerous pieces of clothing made in preparation for the trip home. Lewis describes golden eagles and how their feathers are used by the Chinookan Peoples.
March 18, 1806
Stealing a canoe
Fort Clatsop, OR After stealing a canoe, soldiers hide it near the fort. The captains write a short description of the expedition with the names of each member, and they distribute copies among the Indians.
Fort Clatsop’s Legacy
by Joseph A. Mussulman
One of the first writers to devote special attention to the question of Fort Clatsop’s post-history was Olin D. Wheeler, who visited the site with Coboway’s grandson, Silas B. Smith, in 1900, and wrote briefly of it.
Fort Clatsop Today
Reconstructing the fort
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Today’s Fort Clatsop stands at or near the site of the Corps’ winter encampment of 1805-06 was built on the same floor plan that Clark drew on the cover of the Elkskin-covered Journal. The rest of the present structure resembles the original only in a remote sense.
A Fort Clatsop Tour
Legacies
A virtual tour of the National Park Services’ modern replica of Fort Clatsop, prior to it accidentally burning down.
