Clatsop

It would be lots easier for kids if primary and elementary teachers realized NOT that kids don't know anything, but that kids know tons of stuff that's mostly wrong.




When my teacher introduced Lewis and Clark in my sixth grade, I already “knew” everything necessary about Indians. They could look like trees and be invisible. They must live with eagles so they could wear colored feathers.  They wore moccasins with beads imported from China. When I asked my teacher how Indians got birch bark for their canoes when there were hardly any trees on the prairie, she told me to sit down. 

One kid in my class kept confusing Sacajawea with Pocahantas, which made me feel better about being told to sit down. Today, I am most astonished that the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Corps of Discovery) is assigned so far down the list of amazing American achievements. 

Having driven the entire route of the Expedition from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Fort Clatsop, Oregon, it is mind boggling that 35 men who didn't know what they were getting into, how long their journey would take, or if they could even put up with each other -- and knew less about Indians than I did as a kid -- not only pulled it off, but every single member of the expedition returned in one piece.  (Special biographies today note that some members of the expedition suffered desperately afterward. But that was afterward.) 

People really should know that the Mandan Indians, who helped the Corps of Discovery, affected our history far more than did John Wayne. The expedition spent the first winter along the banks of the upper Missouri River in the territory of the Mandan Indians. When the Corps of Discovery entered their world in October 1804, the Mandans informed the men of the best routes to The Great Divide, supplied them with food throughout the winter, invited them on a buffalo hunt, warned them of the Blackfeet, and accepted the expedition’s doodads in payment.  The party knew where to go, what to avoid, and how to manage the seasons.

Fort Clatsop, at the end of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, is among historic sites too little appreciated. It should be on a par with Gettysburg and way above the Alamo. You probably won't visit it, but you should.  One doesn't pause at Clatsop en route to Mt. Rainier and St. Helens, etc.  You have to elect to go there.  It's tucked against the south shore of the Colombia River just before that great river flows into the Pacific. It is in dense woods at the south edge of the world's greatest temperate rain forest. The river is so wide there that you cannot see the far shore. 
Getting to Clatsop, you won't pass huge signs saying “Gas: Next Exit.” It's lonely. In fact, your first impression will be that you probably lost your way. 

Approaching the site, you might think "What's the big deal?"  A shabby log cabin, an axe shaped canoe, all in a quiet created by dense greenery and an occasional bird.  Also, perpetually soggy footing.   

Supply room

When you realize that, on the north (Washington) shore were hundreds of very unfriendly Indians whose only experience with white people had been being cheated and bullied by John Jacob Astor's merchant ships, it is understandable that these Lewis and Clark men, with a few muzzle loaders, barely able to feed on deer and fish, should select a camp spot well out of view from river travelers.

Dugout Canoe

The Clatsop Indians aided the Corps both in preparing for and dealing with the Northwest winter. They informed Lewis and Clark that there was a good amount of elk on the south side of the Columbia, information that influenced the Corps to build Fort Clatsop where they did. When the expedition’s food supplies were running low, the Clatsops informed the Corps that a whale had washed ashore some miles to the south.

The structure of the fort is quite typical of the thousands of prairie homes built during the next thirty years by Midwest pioneers. It isn't Versailles. However, as Dr. Leakey explained about the fossilized cranium of Zinjanthropus:  the wonder isn't that it's not pretty, but that thirty-five men, a girl, and her baby got there.
 
The number of non-Indians who knew anything about the huge region that later became more than half of this country, or even knew their ways through the Louisiana Purchase, was maybe twelve, and they were just about all Canadians. The survival of the Corps of Discovery expedition was a miracle. 

At Fort Clatsop, the “office,” constructed by axe, reveals the professional skills that the men had developed with a tool never designed for carpentry. How much can anyone do with axes and some nearby gunk? 

Live demonstrations at the Fort

In recent years during the tourist season, Fort Clatsop National Historical Park offers live demonstrations of how the men coped with the forest primeval.  The cabin that served as an office has been authentically reproduced according to Lewis' records. There are also demonstrations of how the men used their smooth bore muzzle loaders, and how logs were shaped into canoes. (Rifling did not come into use until around 1812.) This visit will probably inspire you to take a river cruise that includes the Snake River and to see how Lewis and Clark worked their way from the Clark River through the white rapids, via the Snake, to the Columbia.  My impulse on leaving Clatsop was, and continues to be, to retrace the route up the Missouri, along the Yellowstone, the Madison, across The Great Divide, and to marvel again how superbly the best in human character was carried out through two years. Also, how remarkably loyal the crew was. 

P.S.     A huge rock in the center of the Columbia River is named for Sacajawea's boy, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau.  He seems to have had 35 uncles.