Astoria: Fort Clatsop, Columbia River Maritime Museum and Cape Disappointment
The weather in Astoria this morning was dry, although rain was predicted. We awoke to rolling swells as the National Geographic Sea Bird approached the Columbia River Bar, where ocean tides greet river pressure across shallow sea beds, creating a “graveyard of ships” at this treacherous crossing. We could glimpse the jetties and capes that mark the spot. But by breakfast we were calm and warm at a dock in Astoria.
Our first adventure was a visit to Fort Clatsop, the reconstructed dwelling where the Lewis and Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1805-1806. The Corps of Discovery arrived at the Columbia River estuary on November 7, and spent a miserably wet and cold month before finding a winter campsite. The men moved in on Christmas Day and enjoyed a holiday meal of rotten “pore” elk, dried roots, and pounded salmon. Why didn’t they create a fabulous bouillabaisse out of one of the world’s finest fisheries? It’s a mystery. The next 88 days were spent complaining about the weather, the diet, and the monotony. But we thoroughly enjoyed the tour of their quarters. For us, it was the capstone of a week “In the Wake of Lewis and Clark.”
Next on the docket was a visit to the Columbia River Maritime Museum, on the docks in Astoria. This world-class facility traces the history of the river from 1792, when Boston sea captain Robert Gray first sailed his ship, the Columbia Rediviva, across the bar and named the river, to the present. We learned about bar pilots, tattooing, salmon fishing, and the U.S.S. Astoria, a heavy cruiser lost during the Battle of Savo Island (off Guadacanal) in 1942, and the U.S.S. Gambier Bay, an escort carrier sunk in Leyte Gulf in 1944. Plus many other nautical and commercial exhibits. This museum is worth a trip across the country to visit.
In the afternoon, we were treated to Lewis and Clark weather—liquid sunshine. Some guests stayed aboard, others shopped in Astoria. But an intrepid group of 18 headed across the Astoria-Megler Bridge to visit Cape Disappointment on the Washington side. The wind was 40 knots, but the Lewis and Clark exhibit inside was wonderful. It features authentic artifacts and hands-on experiences. We had time to stop at three Maya Lin (she designed the Vietnam Wall in Washington) creations in the Confluence Project—a Lewis and Clark Bicentennial memory. The first was a boardwalk to the Pacific Ocean, the second a tree older than the Expedition, and the third a basalt-column fish cleaner celebrating the Chinook creation story. At this last, within the estuary, four river otters frolicked for our enjoyment.
No one will forget this day, or this past week.
