Plenty to explore despite burned fort

All that Fort Clatsop Park ranger Sean Johnson could do was point at a large white tarp propped up in the woods with poles and tell visitors, "Yep, that's where Fort Clatsop used to be." The tarp covered the ground where only a few charred pieces of the historic fort replica remained after it burned to the ground Oct. 3.

Fifty years ago Clatsop County, Ore., volunteers built the Lewis and Clark fort replica near Astoria, using historical drawings and documents and picking a site as close to the original Corps of Discovery fort site as archaeologists and historians could determine at the time. The original fort was built by the expedition to weather the winter of 1805-1806 before heading back east.

Soon after the burned rubble of the fort was removed in October, archaeologists moved in try to determine if this was the site of the original fort. They searched for Corps of Discovery artifacts with 21st-century ground-penetrating radar and sophisticated metal detectors.

The search ended Nov. 22, still with no definitive evidence that the fort's location was correct. According to a Fort Clatsop-based official of the new Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks, plans are to build another replica of the fort this winter. The fire didn't disrupt the November bicentennial celebrations.

Also last month, the Fort-to-Sea Trail that leads from Fort Clatsop State Park to the Pacific Coast trailhead at the Sunset Beach Recreation Area was officially dedicated.

JEFF LARSEN / P-I

Tall sea grass surrounds a couple near the south jetty at Fort Stevens State Park west of Astoria.

The six-mile trail, which includes three pedestrian bridges, took more than two years to build and is meant to re-create a similar route the Corps of Discovery must have used to reach the Pacific from the encampment. The corps, of course, had to ford the rivers and streams now spanned by the footbridges. For Clatsop County, the trail is a lasting legacy of the Lewis and Clark expedition and its bicentennial this year.

In one of the two theaters at the Fort Clatsop visitor center, a tourist nudged his wife and asked her if the movie they were about to watch was the same one they watched at the interpretive center at Cape Disappointment in Washington. She just shushed him and told him to watch the movie.

Besides two theaters, the visitor center includes some classy Lewis and Clark displays, an exhibit hall, laser disc programs in the lobby and exhibits that are rotated through the center during the year. A miniature model of the Fort Clatsop replica sits forlornly next to the door that leads to the trail to the site of the burned fort.

The visitor center, by the way, is open every day, year-round, and is staffed with some very bright rangers who know a lot about the Lewis and Clark stay in Oregon.

Netul Landing, where the Corps of Discovery could launch canoes on a nearby river (the Lewis and Clark River today), is just a short hike from the fort ruins and provides some interesting interpretive kiosks about canoe travel 200 years ago.

JEFF LARSEN / P-I

The view from the bluffs of Ecola State Park provides some of the most spectacular scenery to be found on the Oregon coast.

Kiosks also interpret the lifestyles of the native populations of the Lower Columbia River during the early 19th century. The 1/2-mile trail that makes up the landing also provides access to some interesting wildlife viewing and a sculpture of Sacagawea.

For clarification's sake, what is also called the Fort Clatsop National Monument -- where the fort replica once stood and the interpretive center is today -- is also one of the newly designated Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks, a combined effort by the National Parks Service and Washington and Oregon to add continuity to the Lewis and Clark landmarks in both states.

In Oregon the landmarks include -- besides Fort Clatsop, the Fort-to-sea-Trail and Netul Landing -- the Salt Works at Seaside, Ecola State Park near Cannon Beach, and Fort Stevens State Park in Warrenton. All the sites are open year-round.

Two hundred years ago Wednesday (Dec. 28, 1805), Lewis and Clark dispatched a search party to find a suitable location for a salt camp. After 2 1/2 years, the Corps of Discovery's salt supply was exhausted. The men needed salt to augment their meager camp diet of elk, fish and dog and for provisions on the return trip.

They found an adequate location near the ocean about 15 miles south of the fort because the seawater farther down the coast had a higher salt content than the seawater near the Columbia River, where it was diluted by freshwater. For weeks, the men worked around the clock to boil enough seawater to produce salt for their daily diet and for the trek home.

JEFF LARSEN / P-I

All that is left of the Fort Clatsop replica near Astoria is a tent covering the former site that burned down last year.

The men built the salt camp near the homes of some friendly Clatsop and Tillamook Indians. The site today, which consists of some arched rock piles and cast-iron boiling buckets, sits in the middle of a neighborhood in Seaside, a short distance from the city's oceanfront promenade. I drove right past the landmark twice, then finally parked, walked out to the ocean, paced up and down the promenade for a while looking for it. I finally spotted the site tucked between a couple of summer homes.

In December 1805, Tillamook Indians told the Corps of Discovery about a giant dead whale on the beach just south of what today is called Tillamook Head, just north of Cannon Beach. By January 1806, the corps managed to reach the 105-foot-long blue whale carcass. The tribe had almost stripped the carcass by then, but the corps managed to salvage some blubber and oil from the huge animal.

Today on the south side of Tillamook head sits the magnificent Ecola State Park, one of the jewels of the entire Oregon coast. The view from the park's bluffs is some of the most spectacular scenery you'll find on the coast.

Somewhere between the park's public beach access and Cannon Beach two miles south is where the blue whale carcass was beached in 1805. It's not tough to imagine how difficult it must have been for the corps to reach the whale, considering the vertical terrain of Tillamook Head. Today visitors can access the park by a windy, narrow, paved road through a dense Sitka spruce forest near the north entrance to Cannon Beach.

Fort Stevens State Park, like Fort Columbia on the Washington side of the Columbia River, was a stalwart defensive position during the Civil War and two world wars against an invasion by sea. Ominous-looking gun emplacements and underground batteries still face the mouth of the river. The south jetty, built in the late 19th century, has completely changed the character of the geography at the mouth of river. But the state park, which covers 3,700 acres, has been earmarked by the National Park Service for exploration into the Clatsop Indian's presence there during Lewis and Clark's visit to the coast.

Besides the interesting military history of the park, which is a good reason to visit, there is little to see that ties in with the Lewis and Clark expedition. Mainly the National Parks Service wants to protect some of the riverfront areas so archaeologists and scientists can explore a possible Clatsop village, which was considered to be near Point Adams.

Before the jetty was built, Point Adams was part of the original mouth of the Columbia and accessible enough so the Native Americans in the region were able to trade with foreign sea explorers.

* Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks -- 92343 Fort Clatsop Road, Astoria; 503-861-2471; www.nps.gov/focl/102004LCNHP/index.html

* Ecola State Park -- Near Cannon Beach; www.oregonstateparks.org/park_188.php

* Fort Clatsop National Memorial -- 92343 Fort Clatsop Road, Astoria. Visitor information: 503-861-2471, Ext. 214; http://www.nps.gov/focl/

* Fort Stevens State Park -- www.oregonstateparks.org/park_179.php#renovation

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