Since we didn’t drive along the section of the Columbia River from The Dalles to around Portland area (getting away from the smoke from fires in the northwest) and to the coast, this information is from our photographic journey book we’ve been using. But first, let’s learn a little about the Chinooks that Lewis and Clark first met at The Dalles and then again when they get to the Pacific Ocean.
lower Chinookan Indians
Nature was good to the Chinookan Indians. They lived in a temperate climate with plentiful rainfall. Nearby rivers and forests were full of game. They easily obtained life’s basic necessities.
The strategic location of the lower Chinookan villages allowed them to control the flow of trade north and south along the coast and east and west along the Columbia River.
Each head man held family rights to specific fish camps and berry patches. Anyone outside the family paid for the right to use the resources.
On October 23, 1805, Clark wrote in his journal about their canoes, “these Canoes are neeter made than any I have ever Seen and Calculated to ride the waves, and carry emence burthens”
Lewis and Clark traded their small dugout, a hatchet, and some trinkets for a canoe similar to this model.
To make a sea-worthy canoe, skilled Chinookan craftsmen shaped the flat-bottomed hull from a single log. Then they filled it with water and brought the water to near boiling with hot rocks. This steaming process allowed them to gradually spread and flare the canoe sides.
The Chinooks used this same process to make canoes in four different styles.
Lewis and Clark thought the Chinookan villages along the lower Columbia and coast represented separate tribes. The people, however, were all Chinookans and all spoke the same language, but they identified themselves by village in same way Americans might identify themselves by city or state.
October 31, 1805. “Clark scouted ahead to inspect the next rapid, and he noted that beyond it the river ‘had every appearance of being affected by the tide.’ Although this point was more than 100 miles from the sea, he was correct. He also noted an extraordinary, isolated volcanic rock just off the north bank of the river.”
He described it as “A remarkable high detached rock stands . . . about 800 feet high and 400 paces around, we call [it] the Beacon Rock.”
November 1 – 4, 1805. “Again portaging the cargo and the small canoes, the men maneuvered the four large canoes through what Clark called ‘the great chute’ by ‘slipping them over the rocks on poles placed across one rock to another.’ After another, lesser rapid, the river became wider and more placid, giving the explorers a better opportunity to view the high volcanic peak to the north.”
On November 2, 1805, Clark wrote, “Here the river widens to near a mile, and the bottoms are more extensive and thickly timbered. . . .”
On November 4, Clark wrote, “. . . covered with snow, it rises something in the form of a sugar loaf.” Our book identifies this mountain as Mount Adams in Washington.
November 5 – 19, 1805. “As is typical of the fall climate west of the Cascades, if it wasn’t raining it was cloudy, and on many days the fog was so thick that the Corps could not see the opposite shore of the river.”
“On November 7, Clark thought he had his first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean: ‘Ocean in view. O! the joy.’ Being nearly twenty miles upriver from the sea, however, he could not have seen it form there. He was looking at the broad and featureless Columbia estuary.”
We’ll learn about what the following quotes are describing in the next post.
“In addition to the rain, the explorers now had to deal with heavy winds, which caused waves so high they could not go on. They had to find campsites on the rocky, inhospitable shore that were above the high-tide line.” [Dismal Point]
“Cold and wet, the expedition pushed on when they could. At last, camping on some high ground, Clark wrote on November 15, ‘The ocean is immediately in front and gives us an extensive view of it from Cape Disappointment to Point Adams.’ They were 4133 miles from where they had started out more than a year and a half earlier.”
“Lewis, who had been traveling by land with a number of others, had already reached the ocean, and returning to Clark’s camp on November 17, he reported what he had seen. Because the Corps’ dugout canoes could not navigate the rough waters to the sea, Clark took another party overland, where they too stood on the shore and viewed the vastness of the Pacific.”
On November 19, 1805, Clark wrote, “I proceeded on the sandy coast and marked my name on a small pine, the day of the month and year. . . .”
More about what the rest of the expedition found is in the next post when they joined Clark and saw the ocean as he saw it.
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