Bush administration seeks national status for Lewis, Clark site

WASHINGTON -- The site where the Lewis and Clark reached the end of their journey West and first spied the Pacific Ocean would become part of the National Park system under legislation the Bush administration proposed Monday.

The site near the mouth of the Columbia River, known as Station Camp, along with two other spots along the Columbia in Washington would become part of a new Lewis and Clark National Historic Park.

"This will be the single most compelling legacy for the Lewis and Clark bicentennial in Washington state," said Dave Nicandri, director of the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the three Washington sites, along with Fort Clatsop National Memorial in Oregon, where the Lewis and Clark spent a miserable winter, will make up the new park.

"Bicentennial visitors and future generations of Americans can visit the place at the mouth of the Columbia River where Captain William Clark was inspired to proclaim 'Ocian in view! O the joy!' in his Nov. 7, 1805 journal," Norton said. "They can imagine his elation at finally seeing the Pacific at the end of an arduous journey that had started almost three years earlier at President Jefferson's Virginia home."

For years, Fort Clatsop has been the focal point of Lewis and Clark activity on the lower Columbia. The Washington sites were virtually ignored by historians and the public.

The expedition's most harrowing experience of the entire journey came when it was stranded on a narrow stretch of river beach during a storm that raged for a week. Lewis, Clark, Sacagawea and the other members of the expedition were pummeled by rain, hail and wind, pelted with rocks falling off a steep hillside and dodged monsterous pieces of driftwood tossed up on the shore. Their clothing was so rotten, Clark wrote, it was "melting of their backs."

The site, known as "Dismal Nitch," is just upstream from a bridge that now links the two states.

After the weather calmed, the expedition traveled about 3 miles downstream, where it rested at Station Camp. It is here where the expedition's leaders believed they had reached the end of the journey. It also was here that the expedition voted on where to camp for the weather. Among those voting were Sacagawea and Clark's slave, York.

Ten volunteers set out from Station Camp with Clark on a 10-mile hike to Cape Disappointment to explore the headlands at the actual mouth of the river. This was the northwesternmost point of the expedition.

Station Camp, Dismal Nitch and part of what is now Cape Disappointment State Park would become part of the new national park. The bulk of the visitors facilities would be located at Fort Clatsop, but a half-mile stretch of Highway 101 would be relocated in Washington near Station Camp and new trails and displays built. A Jefferson memorial would be built at Cape Disappointment.

"This will really put Washington state on the map," said Democratic U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, who along with other members of the state's congressional delegation had been pushing for the expansion of Fort Clatsop.

Baird said he had not yet seen the details of the administration's legislation but said Congress would need to act quickly, as the 200th anniversary of the expedition's arrival at the Pacific was less than two years away.

Nicandri said the bulk of the work on the three sites will be done by Washington state and local communities, then turned over to the National Park Service.

"This will allow you to feel the richness of the history," Baird said. "You will be able to walk where they walked, to see the waves rolling in from the Pacific like they did and to imagine what Lewis and Clark thought when they looked out and didn't see any ships and realized they would have to winter over and trek back."

HEY, DEMOCRAT--

It already IS on the map.

Clatsop. A miserable winter, made all the more miserable by the absence of whiskey. We've all heard of Lewis and Clark, but they've never gotten the full accolades they deserve. Their journey through hostile tribes and weather rivals the exploration of any famous explorer. I just finished reading "Undaunted Courage" and would highly recommend it to others.

3 posted on 02/24/2004 5:16:31 PM PST by yooper (If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there......)

I've been to Fort Clatsop, when I was 10, or something. Not impressed. I was much more impressed by the WWI and WWII coastal artillery batteries that guarded the mouth of the Columbia.

Please, no more land lost forever to the feds.

Oak Hay... I finally got it all figured out now. Lewis and Clark were queer lovers trying to find their way to San Francisco so they could get married, right??? ;-))

I traveled the Lewis and Clark Trail last summer from St. Louis to Astoria, Oregon. Station camp was marked by a funky piece of chainsaw art that appeared originally as below.

The statue has deteriorated or has been vandalized and Clark is now missing his right arm and telescope and appears to be doing the Saturday Night Live "pinch your head" thing. Still pretty cool though. It looks like the pic below now.

Tomorrow is the 225th anniversary of a more significant event, Clark's brother's victory at Vincennes in the Revolutionary War.

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