Astoria
We awoke to thunderous-looking clouds and dramatic skies as we approached the mouth of the Columbia River this morning. Some sunlight worked its way through the dense cover, and illuminated the skies in glowering sheens of red and gold. Many of us were on deck to admire the strange, forbidding morning and to marvel at how our deck officers reversed the Sea Bird into a narrow space alongside our dock in Astoria.
This town was established in 1811 by John Jacob Astor, just six years after Lewis and Clark over-wintered in the vicinity; indeed Fort Astoria was the first American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. When the Corps of Discovery stayed in the area, they were befriended by the many tribes that made a living off the river and its estuary, in particular the Chinooks and Clatsops. These tribes however soon died off, due to disease and rapid changes to their homelands, and they were replaced by pioneers from many areas of the world who came to make their living off the rich salmon fisheries. The rich maritime history of this unique area is wonderfully brought to life in the spectacular Columbia River Maritime Museum. The river itself was the last of the world’s great rivers to actually be charted, as its entrance had always been so well camouflaged by the treacherous shallow bar at its mouth. In 1775, a Spanish captain by the name of Bruno de Hezeta first discovered and named the river – Rio San Roque – but when John Mears, an early trader along the coast, came looking for the river, he couldn’t find the entrance and was so disillusioned he called the northern headland Cape Disappointment. It subsequently remained un-visited until 1792, when Robert Gray brought his ship, the Columbia Rediviva, across the bar and named the river accordingly.
After a spellbinding visit to the museum, we boarded buses that crossed Young’s Bay; our final destination Fort Clatsop, where the expedition sent by Thomas Jefferson to find a Northwest Passage over-wintered after their grueling adventure. The visit to this site was particularly life-like today, as park rangers had fires burning in the chimneys and were busy working tallow to make candles, and showing us how the members of the expedition would have to work their guns.
During the afternoon, we crossed the four-and-a-half-mile-long Astoria Bridge into Washington, where we drove through the picturesque fishing village of Ilwaco to the infamous Cape Disappointment. Here we were greeted by fifty-mile-an-hour winds, and the roaring Columbia River Bar itself— we could now understand why this is considered one of the most treacherous bits of ocean in the world. Just below us was one of the jetties, built to render what was once known as the “Graveyard of the Pacific” more accessible to maritime traffic. At this point, after having taken a quick look at the yet unfinished Lewis and Clark Interpretation Centre, some of us took a rainforest hike to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in use on the west coast, whilst others drove back to Astoria via the interesting Astoria Column.
We awoke to thunderous-looking clouds and dramatic skies as we approached the mouth of the Columbia River this morning. Some sunlight worked its way through the dense cover, and illuminated the skies in glowering sheens of red and gold. Many of us were on deck to admire the strange, forbidding morning and to marvel at how our deck officers reversed the Sea Bird into a narrow space alongside our dock in Astoria.
This town was established in 1811 by John Jacob Astor, just six years after Lewis and Clark over-wintered in the vicinity; indeed Fort Astoria was the first American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. When the Corps of Discovery stayed in the area, they were befriended by the many tribes that made a living off the river and its estuary, in particular the Chinooks and Clatsops. These tribes however soon died off, due to disease and rapid changes to their homelands, and they were replaced by pioneers from many areas of the world who came to make their living off the rich salmon fisheries. The rich maritime history of this unique area is wonderfully brought to life in the spectacular Columbia River Maritime Museum. The river itself was the last of the world’s great rivers to actually be charted, as its entrance had always been so well camouflaged by the treacherous shallow bar at its mouth. In 1775, a Spanish captain by the name of Bruno de Hezeta first discovered and named the river – Rio San Roque – but when John Mears, an early trader along the coast, came looking for the river, he couldn’t find the entrance and was so disillusioned he called the northern headland Cape Disappointment. It subsequently remained un-visited until 1792, when Robert Gray brought his ship, the Columbia Rediviva, across the bar and named the river accordingly.
After a spellbinding visit to the museum, we boarded buses that crossed Young’s Bay; our final destination Fort Clatsop, where the expedition sent by Thomas Jefferson to find a Northwest Passage over-wintered after their grueling adventure. The visit to this site was particularly life-like today, as park rangers had fires burning in the chimneys and were busy working tallow to make candles, and showing us how the members of the expedition would have to work their guns.
During the afternoon, we crossed the four-and-a-half-mile-long Astoria Bridge into Washington, where we drove through the picturesque fishing village of Ilwaco to the infamous Cape Disappointment. Here we were greeted by fifty-mile-an-hour winds, and the roaring Columbia River Bar itself— we could now understand why this is considered one of the most treacherous bits of ocean in the world. Just below us was one of the jetties, built to render what was once known as the “Graveyard of the Pacific” more accessible to maritime traffic. At this point, after having taken a quick look at the yet unfinished Lewis and Clark Interpretation Centre, some of us took a rainforest hike to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in use on the west coast, whilst others drove back to Astoria via the interesting Astoria Column.
