When the Corps got to this point in their trip, they had to navigate rough waters just to get to a small piece of land that was hard to live on. If it weren’t for the Cathlamet (who lived on the north side of the Columbia River) being able to easily navigate the waters and bring them some food to trade for, the expedition wouldn’t have been able to finish their trip. Eventually they were able to get to Cape Disappointment, the edge of the continent.
This drawing shows where the Corps tried to get to the edge of the continent and then find a place to stay over the winter.
In this post we’ll cover these places:
- #1 Dismal Nitch where they hung onto logs for dear life
- #2 Station Camp where they camped for a while and decided where to winter
- #3 where they could go no farther on their search to the Pacific Ocean
- #4 where they crossed the river to get to their winter camp.
November 8 – 19, 1805. “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.”
“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, here 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. . . .”
Could you paddle a heavily laden canoe through giant waves in a raging storm? For the exhausted members of the Lewis and Clark expedition in November 1805, this last stretch of the Columbia River almost brought disaster. Caught in a torrential downpour, the Corps of Discovery paddled through howling winds and rolling waters, dodging logs and other debris that threatened to smash their canoes.
surviving a fierce storm
After several attempts to go forward, the explorers finally turned back to the north shore, with a strong wind driving them dangerously toward the rocky shore.
Dismal Nitch
As the storm continued, the men struggled to protect themselves, their belongings, and the canoes from the wind, waves, and relentless rain. Their goal—the Pacific Ocean—was around the next bend of the river.
On November 10 Clark described the predicament: “The wind rose from the N.W. and the waves became so high that we were compelled to return about 2 miles to a place we Could unload our Canoes, which we did in a Small nitch at the mouth of a Small run on a pile of drift logs. . . .”
On November 11, 1805, Clark wrote, “the wind was verry high and waves tremendous. . . .”
Corps of Discovery members spent six miserable days beached by a storm in this “dismal nitch” along the Columbia River. Wet, cold, and hungry, they were astonished when five Cathlamet Indians arrived in a canoe filled with fish to sell. The Corps then watched in wonder as the Cathlamet departed, skillfully paddling their canoe through the high waves and whitecaps of the vast Columbia River.
On November 11, 1805, Clark again wrote, “. . . This dismal nitch where we have been confined for 6 days passed, without the possibility of proceeding on, returning to a better Situation, or get out to hunt. Scerce of Provisions, and torrents of rain poreing on us all the time.”
Finally, they get some help.
They wore waterproof woven robes, skirts, capes, and hats made from plants, cedar bark and spruce root to keep warm and dry.
For centuries, crossing the Columbia River was a major challenge. At the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Corps watched in amazement as Cathlamet People in their high-prow canoes crossed this wide estuary with fish to sell, despite a raging storm. The storm had nearly capsized the Corps’ own canoes and forced them to shore.
Per Wikipedia, “Astoria is the oldest city in the state and was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains.” It was named after John Jacob Aster
Cape Disappointment – they (we) made it!
At Cape Disappointment the West Coast’s largest river meets the world’s largest ocean. (No wonder the winter storms can be so fierce.) From the vantage of this rocky headland, you can see the confluence of these two massive water systems.
This is a place where life flourishes. The mixing of waters has long supported a great diversity of life; salmon, crab, sea lions, whales, migrating birds, and people. Chinook Indians are the area’s largest residents.
British trader John Meares named this area Cape Disappointment in 1788, reflecting his mistaken impression that there was no river here. In 1792, Captain Robert Grey piloted the first sailing ship, the Columbia Rediviva, up the river. He changed the name to “Cape Hancock,” but the name didn’t stick, but the name for the river, in honor of his successful ship, did.
Where we are in the previous picture is looking over the mouth of the Columbia River, out to the Pacific Ocean. In the next picture, we’re on the north side of the entrance just inside the entrance, which is one of the most hazardous river entrances in the world.
The Columbia River “bar” is located at the mouth of the river, between the tips of the jetties. “The Bar” is a shifting sandbar where strong currents and wind-born waves meet the shallow water.
Back to the expedition:
The “dismal nitch” is on the far right northern side of the previous picture. Clark went on to explore the northern side around Baker Bay to Cape Disappointment, and the rest of the Corps joined him at Station Camp close to Baker Bay.
From Undaunted Courage, Lewis had started to get to know the Clatsops who lived on the south side of the river because they wanted to trade, but their prices were too high. “The captains found they liked the Clatsops much better than their relatives the Chinooks, mainly because the Clatsops were not thieves.”
“That became a factor to the decision that now had to be made; where to spend the winter. The obvious requirements were good water, plenty of game, and some shelter. They had three choices: to stay where they were, to cross to the south bank to see if there was a better site there, or to go back upstream to the falls.”
“The Clatsops informed them that elk were plentiful on the south side. The captains were certain that their supply of beads and trinkets was so inadequate, and the Chinooks’ prices were so high, that they could not get through the winter buying their food. They needed a continuing source of meat.”
“Lewis said that upriver the winter would be more severe, and this location would not really help them get started on the homeward voyage. They would have to wait for the snow to melt in the Bitterroots anyway, so there was plenty of time to go back up the Columbia-Snake in the spring. He wanted to go closer to the ocean, which was easier done on the south side so that he could put men to making salt from the seawater. He and all the men craved salt.”
“Not Clark. He heartily disapproved, writing that he was indifferent to whether or not he had salt; anyway, ‘Salt water I view as an evil in as much as it is not helthy.”
“Lewis had a better reason than his taste buds for wanting to stay near the coast. There was at least a good chance that a trading vessel would arrive during the winter; if one did, it would solve major supply problems. Clark agreed. He also pointed out that, with elk more abundant on the south shore and deer on the north, the choice was easy: elk were bigger and easier to kill—and their skins were better for clothing.”
“So the captains made up their own minds, but on this occasion they decided to let everyone participate in the decision. They put it to a vote. They never explained why. Perhaps they felt that, since they were all going to be in this together, they should all have a say; maybe they just wanted to involved everyone so that none would have a right to complain.”
Realizing that the north shore of the Columbia provided little shelter or food for the winter, the Corps of Discovery tried to leave Station Camp. For three days storms intervened and pinned down the party. The Chinooks came to the camp to barter berries, furs, and fish, but the prices were high. Hoping to find an ample source of food and leather, the men asked the natives where elk and deer were most plentiful.
To help decide where to spend the winter, the Captains sought the opinion of everyone in the party. Each person was asked a two-part question: Where should we first look for winter quarters? If that location doesn’t work out, where should we look next?
This is the first time that I remember the captains asking the Corps what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go. Every other time a decision was made, the captains made it together.
Almost everyone wanted to cross the river and examine the south shore. Sacagawea said “a place where there is plenty of Potas.” (by “Potas” she meant wapato roots.) The only opinion not recorded was Charbonneau’s.
Patrick Gass wrote at Station Camp on November 24, “At night, the party were consulted by Commanding Officers, as to the place most proper for winter quarters; and the most of them were of opinion that it would be best, in the first place, to go over to the south side of the river, and ascertain whether good hunting ground could be found there. Should that be the case, it would be a more eligible place than higher up the river, on account of getting salt, as that is a very scarce article with us.”
Lewis and Clark asked everyone to express their opinion about where to spend the winter. Significantly, they asked Sacagawea—a young Indian woman—and they asked York—a black slave—to participate in this vote or poll. This is the only time on the expedition that the responses of every expedition member were recorded in such detail.
Here is the record of the “vote,” as recorded by Clark:
On November 24, the storm broke. This was their chance to make necessary celestial observations and leave for winter camp.
From Undaunted Courage, “On November 26, after going upriver for two days to find a shorter crossing, the party crossed to the south shore. They camped on the east bank of the John Day River, and were again pinned down by bad weather. By the 29th, Lewis had had enough.” He took some of the men and their Indian canoe. “They set out early in the morning, got around the point, and made camp that night near the site of present-day Astoria, Oregon. Lewis sent out the hunters. They returned with four deer and some geese and ducks, a haul as encouraging as it was welcome.” The men kept hunting.
“Over the next couple of days, he explored, this time going farther up the Lewis and Clark River, where he found his spot. He told Clark it was on a small bluff rising some thirty feet higher than the high-tide mark, some two hundred feet back from the river, and about three miles up from its mouth. It was near a spring, and there were plenty of big trees that could be used to make shelter and a fort. It was but a few miles to the open ocean, where salt could be made. Best of all, it promised good hunting: Drouillard and another hunter had killed six elk and five deer.”
“Clark reported that ‘this was verry Satisfactory information to all the party.’ The expedition made ready to move to its winter quarters as soon as the wind would allow it to round the point to get into the bay and then up the river. On December 6 the wind was too high, but the following morning Lewis guided the expedition to the site of what the captains would call Fort Clatsop. Clark took one look and pronounced it a ‘most eligable Situation.”
Where the Corps eventually camped for the winter is on the southern side around today’s Astoria that we’ll cover in the next post.
back to where the Columbia meets the Pacific
The combination of currents, waves, and shallow water challenges ships of all sizes. Navigation is still treacherous. A licensed Columbia River Bar Pilot is required to guide all large ships across the bar.
If you ever wondered how bad these storms could be during the winter months, the Coast Guard has a museum in Astoria that highlights how the Coast Guard has to help ships in and out of the mouth of the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific Ocean. We visited this museum when we came to Astoria a number of years ago to see Barney’s sister, Catherine, who lives here. Special ship pilots who are familiar with the river in this area have to be helicoptered out to the ships trying to navigate the rocky bar in the opening; we’ll talk about this bar later in the post and show it to you.
When we looked out at this view and realized we made it to where the Corps of Discovery was headed for so long, we almost cried. After we finished looking at Fort Clatsop in the next post, we started to get depressed. But then we realized that they (and we) needed to get home, and we had a number of stop on our way home to bring joy to our hearts.
At this point of the land is the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center at Cape Disappointment.
This center gave us a wonderful overview of the expedition, especially their trip home. We’ll walk through this interpretive center after looking at Fort Clatsop where the Corps stayed for the winter and their salt making operation on the coast in Seaside, Oregon, for those of you who knew this area.
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