Astoria
“Ocian in view! O! the joy”.
“Great joy in camp. We are in View of the Ocian, this great Pacific Octean, which we [have] been So long anxious to See, and the roreing or noise made by the waves brakeing on the rockey Shores…may be heard distinctly.”
These might be amongst the most famous words written in the journals of Lewis and Clark, after a year and a half of highs and lows, unforgettable adventures and almost unendurable hardships, up and down two great rivers, over an interminable mountain chain and through rapids the natives of the area themselves would not run.
They were written by William Clark on November 7th, 1805. They had reached the mouth of the great Columbia, and although it was not Pacific Ocean they were seeing as yet (they were to discover that it would take several grueling days fighting currents and waves to reach a point they could actually see the ocean), one can but imagine the feeling of exhilaration felt by the party at this moment.
This particular leg of their journey was among the hardest and most adventurous of the whole trip, and it was wonderfully brought to life for us this morning by a special guest speaker, Rex Ziak. He is probably the country’s greatest authority on the Corps of Discovery’s time in the Columbia River estuary, between November and December 1805, and author of the recent book “In Full View.”
We learned how, after much debate and a famous vote, they picked the area they would name Fort Clatsop after one of the local Native American tribes as their over-wintering site, and their harsh winter was brought vividly alive by our historians as we wandered through the replica of their fort.
It truly is hard to imagine how a group of 31 men and a woman and baby survived and endured such a trip; they truly deserve to go down in the annals of history as amongst the greatest explorers of all time.
This fascinating day was ended by a trip to see the Columbia River Bar, sometimes termed the “Graveyard of the Pacific,” as it is considered possibly the most dangerous river bar in the world—proving an insurmountable barrier to the Captains in their canoes. As we learnt during a visit earlier this day to the Columbia River Maritime Museum, the conditions here are so extreme that the Coast Guard operates a school for rough water training our of Baker Bay, at the mouth of the Columbia.
A wonderful end to an unforgettable trip, in the wake of Lewis and Clark.
“Ocian in view! O! the joy”.
“Great joy in camp. We are in View of the Ocian, this great Pacific Octean, which we [have] been So long anxious to See, and the roreing or noise made by the waves brakeing on the rockey Shores…may be heard distinctly.”
These might be amongst the most famous words written in the journals of Lewis and Clark, after a year and a half of highs and lows, unforgettable adventures and almost unendurable hardships, up and down two great rivers, over an interminable mountain chain and through rapids the natives of the area themselves would not run.
They were written by William Clark on November 7th, 1805. They had reached the mouth of the great Columbia, and although it was not Pacific Ocean they were seeing as yet (they were to discover that it would take several grueling days fighting currents and waves to reach a point they could actually see the ocean), one can but imagine the feeling of exhilaration felt by the party at this moment.
This particular leg of their journey was among the hardest and most adventurous of the whole trip, and it was wonderfully brought to life for us this morning by a special guest speaker, Rex Ziak. He is probably the country’s greatest authority on the Corps of Discovery’s time in the Columbia River estuary, between November and December 1805, and author of the recent book “In Full View.”
We learned how, after much debate and a famous vote, they picked the area they would name Fort Clatsop after one of the local Native American tribes as their over-wintering site, and their harsh winter was brought vividly alive by our historians as we wandered through the replica of their fort.
It truly is hard to imagine how a group of 31 men and a woman and baby survived and endured such a trip; they truly deserve to go down in the annals of history as amongst the greatest explorers of all time.
This fascinating day was ended by a trip to see the Columbia River Bar, sometimes termed the “Graveyard of the Pacific,” as it is considered possibly the most dangerous river bar in the world—proving an insurmountable barrier to the Captains in their canoes. As we learnt during a visit earlier this day to the Columbia River Maritime Museum, the conditions here are so extreme that the Coast Guard operates a school for rough water training our of Baker Bay, at the mouth of the Columbia.
A wonderful end to an unforgettable trip, in the wake of Lewis and Clark.
