A Brief History is a compilation of the 12 episodes previously published on CwHD.
The Ancient River
Episode 1
Stella is a Leonberger, a hybrid breed that includes Newfoundland, Great Pyrennees, and St Bernard. She loves the water, and her home in Cascadia, a more romantic name than
Pacific Northwest, suits her to a T.
The Columbia River defines the region, and the
delta that forms the confluence of the Sandy River and the Columbia
is one of her favorite places to play. Stella came to Oregon just a
year and half ago. She learned of the big
Newfoundland named Seaman who explored with Lewis and Clark on their
expedition from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Needless
to say, she quickly became enamored with Seaman.
Seaman
Though the dog is rarely mentioned in their journals, Seaman did accompany the explorers to the Pacific Coast and back again. Meriwether Lewis thought the dog would provide security for the explorers, and purchased Seaman in Pittsburgh for $20 as a companion while he waited for their keel boats to be built.
Seaman had many adventures. He was stolen by Indians, bitten by a beaver, and so tortured by the "musquetos" that he howled in despair. His collar is still housed in a museum in Alexandria, Virginia with an inscription that reads: The greatest traveller of my species. My name is Seaman, the dog of Meriwether Lewis whom I accompanied to the Pacific Ocean through the interior of the continent of North America."
This history is brief on several counts, not the least of
which is the fact that I am only considering the sections of the
river that form the Oregon-Washington border. As Lewis and Clark's
voyage down the river dovetails neatly with my account, I will
include snippets from their journals as well. These journals are best read in their original format even though the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are all problematic. Initially, some annotation is added for abbreviated phrases. The river, historically,
had changed very little for thousands of years before Lewis and Clark
recorded what they saw.
Volcanos
created the Columbia River. A geologist would quibble. Technically,
the lava flowed from linear fissures, or vents, and reached as far as the
northern Willamette Valley, breaching the Coast Range and pushed on to the
continental shelf. Flood lava kept flowing and filling the river's
ancient channels, but the river kept finding an easier path to the
north. So rather than debouching into Yaquina Bay at Newport, the
mighty River of the West ends its long journey at Astoria.
We
struggle with numbers we cannot imagine. 100,000 people fill a
football stadium, and gives us a notion; but a million
years leaves a blank. Geology seems rife with such numbers. 4 billion
years ago the planet came to be. 62 million years ago came the
extinction of the dinosaurs. Several million years ago, the Oregon
territory looked much as it does today with the exception of the
Columbia River Gorge and the river that runs through that gorge.
20,000
years ago, the Columbia had already carved a fairly deep V-shaped channel through
the massive basalt flows. Its banks rose gradually up to higher peaks. No
evidence of a native people exists for this period; but some
anthropologists and other scientists think a date of 20,000 years ago
is not impossible. The climate was 6 - 8 degrees colder then for the last
ice age still held most of North America in its grip.
A
gradual warming of the planet that ended that age began to erode an
ice dam in Montana. That dam held back a body of water nearly the
size of Lake Erie. The collapse of the dam and the sudden
release of such a large body of water created the greatest floods the
planet has ever known. Named the Bretz Foods for Harlan Bretz, the
geologist who first proposed the idea of flooding, this giant flow
created the present configuration of the Columbia River. The V-shaped river
valley was scooped and dredged by the rush of water and the U-shaped
gorge we see today resulted.
USGS
photo / Westby, Liz (2014-4-26)
Flood
basalt lava flow in stacked layers viewed eastward across the
Columbia River
The
Early Days
Episode 2
Watershed,
Columbia River
(By
Kmusser - self-made,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3844725)
Early
travelers may have populated the river 20,000 years ago. The Clovis
culture, dated about 13,500 years ago, is more certain. The native
Americans the Corps of Discovery found along the Columbia were linked
to these early groups. By the 1700s, this heavily populated area was
already in decline. Smallpox and other diseases, brought by adventurers through the mountains and traders to the mouth of the
river, had spread quickly and taken a heavy toll on the tribes.
The
expedition to the Pacific Northwest led by Lewis and Clark, came down
the Snake River and entered the Columbia at the confluence just
opposite of where Pasco, Washington now sprawls. They camped on a
point of land that has become Sacajawea State Park. 32 miles
downstream from this spot is the imposing edifice of McNary Dam.
To
the north, the river extended into Canada, made a 180°
turn to the south running 200 odd miles to its origin in a lake
nestled between the Rocky Mountains and the Selkirks. The river
drains 260,000 square miles, is about 1250 miles long, and its
highest measured flow is over 500 million gallons per minute.
Wallula
Gap
http://columbiariverimages.com, Lyn Topinka
16
miles south of Pasco is Wallula Gap. Created by the many Bretz floods
(1000 feet high walls of water moving at 65 miles an hour), the Gap
will be the eastern terminal of our narrative as we voyage downstream
with the Corps.
From
the journal of William Clark, October 18, 1805 :
...
the river passes into the range of high Country at which place the
rocks project into the river from the high clifts which is on the
Lard. [larboard or left] Side about 2/3 of the way across and those
of the Stard. [starboard or right] Side about the Same distance, the
Countrey rises here about 200 feet above The water and is bordered
with black rugid rocks ...
According
to Robert Hitchman1
Wallula is a Nez Perce name and apparently just a different rendering
of Walla Walla, meaning "place of many waters." The river
behind McNary Dam is over 300 feet deep, and a good deal of
imagination is needed to recreate the early river.
In
ascending the river fifteen miles from this place, the land on either
side rises to some fifteen hundred feet above the level of the river
which occupies the entire bottom from rocks to rocks on either side;
when the land suddenly drops from this high plain which extends from
the Blue Mountains on the east to the Cascade range on the west,
forming, as it were, a great inland dam across the Columbia River,
fifteen hundred feet high at the place where the river has broken
through the dam. As you pass out of this gap, in looking to the north
and east, the eye rests upon another vast, high, rolling plain, in
the southeastern part of which lies the beautiful valley of the
Wallawalla ...2
1Robert
Hitchman, Place Names of Washington, (Washington
State Historical Society, 1985)
2William
Henry Gray, A History of Oregon. 1792 - 1849 (1870)
White
Water
Episode 3
Before
the dams, fourteen named rapids made navigation difficult between
Beacon Rock (RM 142---River
Miles
are charted from the mouth of the river just beyond Cape
Disappointmment to the north and Clatsop Spit to the south) and
Wallula Gap (RM 312). Some were mere riffles; others, like Celilo
Falls, were big drops with hazards at every hand.
Celilo Falls
These
days, four major dams harness the Columbia below the confluence with
the Snake River. The first, built in 1936, was Bonneville (RM 146).
Then followed McNary Dam (RM 292) in 1954 ; the Dalles Dam (RM 192)
in 1957 ; and the John Day Dam (RM 216) in 1971. Each of these dams
was built at the sight of a rapids, and the reservoirs they created
filled the gorge with hundreds of feet of water and eliminated the
river and shoreline as known by Lewis and Clark.
The
first rapids the explorers encountered they named Mussel Shell[s]
Rapid. As was often the case, their name did not last, and those same
rapids in modern times were called Umatilla Rapids. They were flooded
out of existence by the construction of McNary Dam.
From
Clark's notes of October 18, 1805:
we
came too on the Lard [larboard] Side to view the rapid before we
would venter to run it, as the Chanel appeared to be close under the
oppd. Shore, and it would be necessary to liten our canoe, I
deturmined to walk down on the Lard Side, with the 2 Chiefs the
interpreter & his woman, and derected the Small canoe to prcede
down on the Lard Side to the foot of the rapid which was about 2
miles in length ... This rapid I observed as I passed opposit to it
to be verry bad interseped with high rock and Small rockey Islands,
here I observed banks of Muscle Shells banked up in the river in
Several places, I Delayed at the foot of the rapid about 2 hours for
the Canoes which I could See met with much dificuelty in passing down
the rapid on the oposit Side maney places the men were obliged to get
into the water and haul the canoes over Sholes ...
While
Lewis and his best watermen were attempting to negotiate the rapids,
Captain Clark hiked up a butte on the south side of the river and saw
two mountains in the distant west. He misidentified Mt Adams as Mt St
Helens, but correctly spotted the 'conical' Mt Hood. Both St Helens
and Hood had been charted by Lt Broughton, under George Vancouver's
command, on his exploration up the river in 1792.
Between
the Mussel Shell Rapids and the John Day Rapids, the Corps of
Discovery had 85 miles of fairly easy water, and covered that
distance in six days. They camped on the Washington side of the river
near an Indian village. An oddity in what otherwise is a fairly
meticulous account is their failure to mention the John Day River.
They
camped in the same location on their return journey in April of 1806.
They note the high bluffs and rocky arid landscape. They comment on
the more hostile attitudes of the Indians they encountered. Condors
and geese and ducks are mentioned. The John Day goes unnoticed.
mouth
of John Day River from Washington side
An
obvious explanation for the oversight is that Lewis and Clark were on
the Washington side, the Columbia's river level was several hundred
feet lower than it is today, and the John Day might well have been
taken for an insignificant creek.
The
Great Falls of the Columbia
Episode 4
The
Columbia is a curious river. As Lewis and Clark discovered, long wide
reaches, shallow and calm, are followed by short treacherous drops of
"great impetuosity"1.
Just above Miller Island (RM 207), for example, the river is nearly a
mile wide. At Celilo, just fifteen miles downstream, the river,
before the Dalles Damn, narrowed to as little as 75 feet and churned
itself into a series of rapids and falls (Threemile, Fivemile, The
Dalles, Tenmile, and Celilo). Over a 10 mile stretch, the river
dropped some eighty feet culminating in the horseshoe falls that
effectively blocked travel on the river.
Lewis
and Clark had left the Umatilla Rapids (and the mouth of a small
river on the "larboard side" --- most likely the John
Day?), and paddled another twenty miles or so before arriving at the
Great Falls. They landed and took council. Clark notes on October 22, 1805:
...
6 miles below the upper mouth of Towarnehiooks River (Deschutes) the
commencement of the pitch of the Great falls, opposite on the Stard.
Side is 17 Lodges of the nativs ... we landed and walked down
accompanied by an old man to view the falls, and the best rout for to
make a portage which we Soon discovered was much nearest on the
Stard. Side, and the distance 1200 yards one third of the way on a
rock, about 200 yards over a loose Sand collected in a hollar blown
by the winds from the bottoms below which was disagreeable to pass,
as it was Steep and loose. ...
Celilo
Falls was the great meeting place of the Pacific Northwest.
Archaeologists can date human occupation of the site for as long as
12000 years (just after the last of the Bretz Floods). The place and
the falls went by many names (Horseshoe Falls, The Chutes, Wy-am),
but Celilo was not one of them. According to the Oregon Historical
Quarterly (April 1915) " ... the
name does not appear in print before 1859, as far as yet discovered.
The earlier journals and letters of fur traders and travelers do not
mention it ..."
Lewis
and Clark at Celilo Falls, Mural at Oregon State Capitol
The
journals of Lewis and Clark provide the first glimpse of Celilo. 7000
- 10000 people lived between what today is Cascade Locks and The
Dalles. In the Pacific Northwest, ethnographers estimate that there
were 125 different tribes that spoke 56 different languages.
Klickitat, Wishram, and Wasco would come from the inland plateaus to
trade with the river tribes, the Clackamas, the Wahkiakums, and
Chinook. It was Captain George Vancouver, noting that these natives
had developed a common language, who labeled it Chinook jargon. It
was Lewis and Clark who noted that disease from early contact with
American an European traders at the mouth of the river had already
begun to scythe its way through the tribes.
It
was fish that made the relatively large population possible. Annual
runs of 11 million to 16 million salmon and steelhead made the river
a magnet for native Americans. Though rife with hazards, the fishing
provided a lifestyle for many and a means of trade for many more.
With the coming of the horse around 1730, this Columbia River
crossroads became the hub of the Pacific Northwest.
1Alexander
Ross (1783-1856), fur trader, as quoted in The Oregon Encyclopedia.
Memaloose
Episode 5
'Native
people' is a clumsy phrase. Those who use it mean well, and there is
no better term. 'Indian' carries a slightly (and in some cases, not
so slight) pejorative tint. And, of course, the word is based on a
serious error of navigation on the part of one Cristofor Columbo.
Indigenous people, the original inhabitants of a region, have no
nifty moniker. They might be known as first people, aboriginal
people, or even autochthonous people. Native will do for this
account.
From
the Dalles to Hood River is about 22 river miles. The terrain and
flora begin to change as the river cuts its cleft through the
Cascades. The transition is obvious. Lewis and Clark make several
observations on the change.
Near
the end of October, 1805, they pass a village near the Klickitat
River and stop to smoke a pipe. Clark writes:
after
brackfast we proceeded on, the mountains are high on each Side,
containing Scattering pine white oake & under groth, hill Sides
Steep and rockey; at 4 miles lower we observed a Small river falling
in with great rapidity on the Stard. Side below which is a village of
11 houses here we landed to Smoke a pipe with the nativs and examine
the mouth of the river, which I found to be 60 yards wide rapid and
deep ...
As
they drifted and paddled downriver, they came upon 13 graves on an
island. This is Memaloose, today only 1/3rd remains above the
flooding waters of Bonneville Dam. Repeatedly looted and, in native
people's view, desecrated by the grave and obelisk of one Victor
Trevitt, the native remains were relocated in 1937 (either by the
various tribes or the Corps of Engineers), and the count then was
given at 650 burials.
Clark
described the above ground graves as 'squar vaults.' These burials,
odd to Clark, were common among native people world wide. In Tibet,
for example, a similar practice is called 'sky burials.' The body is
placed in the open, usually a high rocky place, and allowed to
decompose and be scattered by winds and birds and other carrion
eaters.
passed
three large rocks in The river the middle rock is large long and has
Several Squar vaults on it. we call this rockey Island the Sepulchar.
The last river we passed we Shall Call the Cataract
River
from the number of falls which the Indians say is on it- passed 2
Lodges of Indians a Short distance below the Sepulchar Island on the
Stard. Side river wide, at 4 mile passed 2 houses on the Stard. Side,
Six miles lower passed 4 houses above the mouth of a Small river 40
yards wide on the Lard. Side
Clark's 'Seplucher Island' is, of course, Memaloose. The name seems to be derived from the Chinook word "memalust,
which means "to die".
Beacon
Rock
Episode 6
I
began this exploration of the Columbia River in part through the eyes
of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Lewis brought with him a
Newfoundland dog named Seaman. The dog is mentioned several times in
the journals, but from August 1805 through July 1806 he receives not
a line. Seaman's Creek in Montana was named by Lewis for the dog
apparently on their return journey; but little mention after that.
The creek today is called Monture Creek.
As
the Columbia winds through what is now the Columbia River Gorge (with
Clark and Lewis paddling along, Seaman standing in the bows), a major
rapid and several large landslides mark its course before it reaches
tide water at what is now called Beacon Rock. The Columbia derives
its power as it drops on average two feet for every mile. Through the
100 mile section from above the Dalles to tide water, the drop is
nearer five feet per mile. From the reach of tide to the mouth, the
Columbia flattens to just a 1/2 foot drop per mile.
the
'cascades' and lock at Cascade Locks
The
aerial view looks westward,downstream, and was taken September 8,
1929. Clearly shown is the main drop of Cascade Rapids where the
Columbia River has been diverted southward around the toe of the
Bonneville landslide. At the left is Cascade Locks, completed in
1896, which facilitated steamship travel upriver of the rapids. The
Bridge of the Gods, completed in 1926, took advantage of the natural
constriction of the Columbia between the eroded toe of the Bonneville
landslide and the southern valley margin. The bridge still stands at
its present location but was raised about forty feet during
construction of Bonneville Dam to accommodate ship traffic on the
pool that now drowns Cascade Rapids. Lewis and Clark's map has this
has this note: ... the Great Shoot or Rapid. 150 Yards wide and 400
Yards long crowded with Stones and Islands ...
U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers photograph (from Wikimedia Commons)
The
other major geographical feature, alluded to in the photograph
description above, is the Bonneville landslide. Clark remarks
(October 30, 1805):
a
remarkable circumstance in this part of the river is, Stumps of pine
trees are in maney places at Some distance in the river, and gives
every appearance of the rivers being damned up from below from Some
cause which I am not at this time acquainted with ...
These
landslides from the steep cliffs to the north dammed the river until
it was eventually able to breach the tongue of the slide and carve a
new path through the vast slide debris. In legend, native Americans
recall this as the Bridge of the Gods. No consensus exists on the
dating of the various slides. The probability is that all of the
dating is correct in some way. From 1200 to 1700, the cliffs tumbled
and diverted the river.
Southern
face of Table Mountain, slide scar, photograph by Eric Prado
Below
'the Great Shoot', the river began to level and the currents eased.
Near what Clark first named 'Beaten Rock', they got there first taste
of salt. The huge rock, known in geology as a monolith like
Gibraltar, marks the eastern extent of the Pacific Ocean's tidal
reach. Despite Clark's entry, the explorer's intent no doubt was to
affix 'Beacon' as the name. This was a milestone in their journey.
They all felt then that the end was near.
Beacon
Rock, U.S. Geological Survey photograph
WIND
AND WEATHER
Episode 7
The
prominent thrust of Beacon Rock found the explorers through the
mountains and now at tide water. On October 31, 1805, Clark wrote:
...
a remarkable high detached rock Stands in a bottom on the Stard Side
near the lower point of this Island on the Stard. Side about 800 feet
high and 400 paces around, we call Beaten rock ...
And
from his journal of April 6, 1806, on their return trip, he noted:
...
the river is here about 1 1/2 miles wide; it's general width from the
beacon rock which may be esteemed the head of tide water ... it is
only in the fall of the year when the river is low that the tides are
perceptible as high as beacon rock ...
As
the river widened, the current slowed and became shallow with sandy
beaches at what the explorers called 'bottoms.' The weather, too,
changed. Once through the heart of the Cascade range, the arid
eastern reaches gave way to a " ... countary a high mountain
on each side thickly covered with timber, such as Spruce, Pine,
Cedar, oake Cotton & & ... " And more often than not
they woke to " ... cloudy rainey disagreeable morning[s] ..."
Drawing
by Roger Cooke, Washington State Historical Society
Lewis
& Clark Today
The
journals of Lewis and Clark noted 128 "rain days" from
November 1805 (Beacon Rock) to March 1806 (Fort Clatsop). An average
winter for northwest Oregon. Astoria, for example, recorded 127 days
of rain during the winter of 2003-2004. "Rained all the after
part of last night," wrote Clark on November 5. "I slept
very little ... " And on the 6th, " ... A cool wet raney
morning ... "
As
wet and disagreeable as the conditions were, when the wind began to
blow their troubles multiplied. The Gorge, as is well documented, is
a wind funnel. When high pressure sits to the east and low pressure
flows in from the coast, the resulting pressure gradient creates strong winds that increase in velocity as they wend their way through
the constrictions of the Gorge. Folks in Corbett, a small town
perched on a bluff above the western end of the gorge, like to tell
visitors that they use anchor chain for a wind gauge. If the chain
hasn't lifted off the ground, it's not really windy.
From
Lewis (January 31, 1806, Fort Clatsop):
The
winds from the Land brings us could and clear weather while those
obliquely along either coast or off the Oceans bring us warm damp
cloudy weather. The hardest winds are always from the S.W.
This
is a typical weather pattern for the winter months on the Oregon
coast. Had he spent a summer in the Northwest, he would have noted a
shift in the pattern. The wind, he would find, would come primarily
from the northwest. With this shift, the rain relents. Winter months
in the Coast Range bring 140 inches of rain; summer months receive
less the ten inches.
November 14th Thursday 1805:
November 14th Thursday 1805:
rained
all the last night without intermition, and this morning. wind blows
verry hard ... one of our canoes is much broken by the waves dashing
it against the rocks ...
In
the summer of 2004, I paddled a sea kayak from Beacon Rock to
Cathlamet (RM 40) and then, off the river, through the sloughs to
Skamakawa and on to the Lewis and Clark Wildlife Refuge. My journey
was done in stages over the course of the summer. No broken canoes or
lashing rain and wind.
Not
far down river from Beacon Rock, paddling the Washington side to stay
out of the main channel, I picked up a bit of breeze and some chop.
When the wind is from the west, against the river's current, it can
kick up waves and white caps in short order. Running your hand
against the lay of your hair gives you the idea. The river was
getting the least bit tousled.
Into
this head wind, I sat up and put a little more muscle into each
stroke. Ahead on the river were two aluminum fishing boats bobbing up
and down in the mouth of Skamania Island's north channel. "Can't
be too bad," I thought. "Just the wind getting funneled
past Skamania. No problem."
I
put my head down and paddled harder. Chop became two foot waves with
their tops blown off. I began taking water over the bow as I slapped
into the face of the waves. I knew the boat was up for the conditions
(it was a sea kayak after all); but the paddling was beginning
to get too much like work.
I
peered down river looking for my fishermen. They, more prudent than
I, were gone. One more faceful of water made up my mind. I steered
for the east end of the island, into the relief of shallow water and
respite from the wind. Laughed at myself.
Turned
tail and skedaddled, ya did, I thought. But then, as the old climbing
adage goes: there are bold climbers and there are old climbers; but
there aren't any old, bold climbers. I eased over to the lee of a
bend on the Oregon shore and paddled down river.
ROCKS
Episode 8
My
daughter sat on the foredeck and my wife and I filled the small
cockpit of our West Wight Potter, a jaunty little sailboat just 15
feet in length. Leaving the glassy calm backwater behind Rooster Rock
State Park, we eased down a short channel, gave the rocky submerged
point some clearance and turned the bow upriver.
The
quiet water of the narrow channel from the park mooring posed no
problem for the Potter. Once on the Columbia, the current became a
different kettle of fish. A crown like that of a roadway marked the
deepest water of the main channel as it flowed along at three or four
knots. Our little 2 HP outboard could push the boat at two or three
knots. I shaded the main flow and pointed her bow upriver. We were on
our way, sailing to Cape Horn.
Cape
Horn Columbia River, Carleton Watkins, 1867
Intrepid
though this first voyage on a new boat was, the notorious Cabos
de Hornos at the tip of Tierra del Fuego was not our destination.
That Cape Horn and this Cape Horn are similar in size, but both the
weather and sea state are vastly different. The Columbia is not the
Southern Ocean.
Historically,
several shoreline outcrops on the river were daubed 'Cape Horn.' Two
remain. Our goal was the basalt cliff outcrop brooding over the
Columbia at RM 132. On November 2, 1805, William Clark located the
prominent feature at "... S. 47°
W. 12 miles to a Stard. point of rocks of a high clift of black rocks
... " Strong local winds characterize the area, and the winds
along with the general appearance apparently gave rise to the name.
Our
Cape Horn is an exposed section of Columbia River basalt. The rock
was a product of several hundred fissure lava flows which covered
most of Washington and Oregon and parts of Idaho. These flows were
events of the Early Miocene, 17 to 5.5 million years old. The
estimated volume of these eruptions was at least 700 million cubic
miles, the largest such flows in the earth's history.
A
reporter for the Utah Desert News, Andrew Jensen, filed this report
as he traveled the river in 1895:
...
As we proceed to the lower end of the gorge through which the
Columbia passes through the Cascade Mountains, we notice across the
river, in the state Washington, the so-called Cape Horn, also called
Gibraltar ... [It] is composed of solid rock of apparent bark
formation, rising abruptly from the water's edge ... These
rocks are at the upper portion surrounded by cone-shaped pillars
known as the Needles ...
Jensen's
'bark formation' is columnar basalt. From Wallula Gap to Astoria this
type of rock provides a clear picture of the regions geologic past.
After the massive lava flows of the Miocene, it was the relatively
recent Bretz Floods of just 10,000 years ago which eroded the earthen
layers and exposed the basalt. A good source for more information on
the geology of the river is here:

CLICK
to link to video
Passing
the beach at Rooster Rock park, we were tempted to join the folks
swimming in the warm shallows. The boat has a flat bottom with a
lifting center board, and it would be a simple matter to beach her
and have a swim. Noise from the bow seemed to be insisting on a
change of course; but the Captain was having none of it. The mate
suggested lunch. We pressed on. Phoca Rock, that curious phallic lump
near the center of the river, became the Captain's goal. We would
double Phoca mutiny or no.
From
Clark's journal, November 2, 1805: "... at 17 miles passed a
rock near the middle of the river about 100 feet high and 80 feet
Diamuter ..." Though they make no mention in their daily
journals of seeing seals in the area , the rock was named for them.
Phoca
in Greek means 'seal.' In his notes from the winter camp at Fort
Clatsop, Clark writes: "...
11 miles to the Pho
ca
rock
in midl. Rivr. 100 foot high, Saw Seal's; ..." These were
probably harbor seals, frequent visitors on the river from the mouth
to, historically, the Dalles.
Phoca
Rock , Penny Post Card ca.1910
The
rock sits just 30 feet above the river today. As we motored on, the
afternoon warmed and the wind came up from the northwest. Up went the
mainsail, out rolled the jib. We sailed past Sand Island and came
abeam of Cape Horn. Appropriately, strong gusts now saw the Captain
taking in sail. It had also occurred to him that the return trip
would be into the wind, always a more difficult occupation. Wind
against current also created chop. The mate feared sea sickness. We
gybed away from Phoca Rock and began to beat down river.
Putting
into the lee of Sand Island, some lunch, and a general lull in the
afternoon breeze, restored our confidence. We returned without
incident to the shelter of the moorage behind Rooster Rock.
THE
CHINOOK
Episode 9
From
Broughton Bluff on past the town of St Helens where it bends sharply
north, the Columbia runs fairly straight and wide. The prominent
bluff, named for a British lieutenant who explored the river in 1792,
overlooks the Sandy River. Named the Quicksand River for the
consistency of its banks and bottom, the Sandy was just one of many
rivers that debouched into the Columbia. The silt brought by these
rivers and the shallow, slow water created many islands large and
small along this reach.
While
the larger tributaries brought silt, the smaller streams and creeks
created waterfalls. The Cascades are relatively young mountains, and
water erosion has left a few deep, narrow side canyons, but also many
canyons in the making. Downriver, preoccupied with their destination,
Lewis and Clark noticed and noted fewer details of the landscape than
they did when they were homeward bound. From April 9, 1806, bound
upriver, comes this journal entry from Meriwether Lewis:
...
we passed several beautiful cascades which fell from a great height
over the stupendous rocks which closes the river on both sides, the
most remarkable of these cascades falls about 300 feet
perpendicularly over a solid rock into a narrow bottom of the river
on the south side ...
After
camping at the mouth of the Sandy, they paddled on. Encouraged by
tidewater and the imminent success of their journey, they focused on
the end goal and missed the Willamette River and the fertile valley
it drains. They corrected this oversight on their return, but did
have to backtrack to locate the river the native Americans had
described. Clark traveled some distance up the Willamette, but not
far enough to see Willamette Falls though native guides had described
the area to the south and the fertile valley it drained.
From
the journals as edited by Nicholas Biddle, this entry from April 3 -
4, 1806:
13
miles below the last village, he entered the mouth of a large river,
which is concealed by three small islands ... The current of this
river is as gentle as that of the Columbia; its surface is smooth and
even, and it appears to possess water enough for the largest ship.
Its length from north to south we are unable to determine, but we
believe that the valley must extend a great distance ... being
naturally fertile, would, If properly cultivated, afford subsitance
for 40,000 or 50,000 souls.
Lewis
and Clark meet the Chinooks
As
the cultural changes of the native communities became as dramatic as
the geographical changes of the landscape, the expedition of Lewis
and Clark encountered a wide welcoming river, but taciturn, contrary
natives. The cooperation they had come to expect was replaced by hard
bargains and what they saw as petty theft by the natives known as the
Skilloots.
This
Chinookan speaking tribe occupied both sides of the river between the
Washougal and Cowlitz Rivers. They had a fair sized village where the
airport is located and a large village near the mouth of the
Willamette; and they effectively controlled traffic and trade on the
Columbia acting as middlemen for all tribes between the coast and the
Dalles. Lewis and Clark commented on the many European articles, from
guns to buttons, that the Skilloots had stockpiled.
The
bounty of the sea, the river, and the surrounding woods made for
large populations and the leisure to develop diverse local customs.
Trading had become a major part of this way of life. Early 18th
century population estimates place as many as 80,000 natives along
the river. With the coming of European traders, the lives of the
Chinookan people changed, and the change was not for the better.
Disease
swept the tribes. By the time of Lewis and Clark, 1805-06, the native
population was reduced by half. Initially smallpox emptied the
villages, but successive waves of malaria, measles, and influenza
also took a heavy toll. Population estimates tell the tale. By 1780
there were 20,000 natives. By 1805, the number was reduced to 12,000.
By 1850, only 4,000 remained. By 1910, 1,000 clung to desperate
lives.
Couple
a skilled trader with a deep suspicion of Europeans and the attitude
the expedition encountered is easy to understand. Lewis and Clark met
the hostility with some aggression; but, in general, managed to avoid
any major confrontation. As they paddled on through the Coast Range
and the cold rains fell, they had a bigger issue to deal with: the
Columbia itself.
From
Clark's journal, November 4, 1805:
...
N. 28º W. 3 miles to a Stard bend & campd. near a village on the
Std. Side passed one on each Side, proceded on untill after dark to
get Clere of Indians we Could not 2 Canoes pursued us and 2 others
Came to us, and were about us all night we bought a fiew roots &c
...
Post
Office Lake, Washington RM 95 near Lewis & Clark campsite
ISLANDS
AND STREAMS
Episode 10
Just
down stream from the city of St Helens (RM 86), the river narrows
from more than a mile to less than a half mile as it runs just west
of north. I had forgotten that the ship channel shifts to the
Washington side leaving Columbia City astern as it wends its way
through the wide flood plain marked by Burke and Martin Islands on
the Washington side, and Goat and Deer Islands on the Oregon shore.
There
I sat midriver in my sea kayak contemplating the six mile breadth of
the Columbia and its lowlands, and how geography was so much a
function of hydrology. Water was the sculptor of the land. The place
had not changed much in hundreds of years. Lewis and Clark saw what I
saw.
Looking north to south with Deer Island in background
I
had the river to myself. No Chinook canoes; no container ships.
Thought I would take a lunch break. Looked again. Nothing coming up
the river, nothing coming down. I pulled up my spray skirt and fished
below decks for my ditty bag.
The
thing is, while canoes and kayaks do well to travel at 3 - 5 knots,
cargo ships usually do 15 - 20 knots. A rule of thumb: if you can see
the white mustache of a ship's bow wave, trouble is only minutes
away. The numbers tell the story: At 16 knots, a ship will cover 8
miles in thirty minutes. In fifteen minutes, that same vessel puts 4
miles under its keel. In 7.5 minutes, 2 miles. In something less than
4 minutes, 60,000 tons of relentless steel will cover a mile.
Unwrapping
my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I glanced upriver. A ship plain
as day pushing a big bow wave. Salty language ensued. I stuffed my
PBJ into my ditty bag and headed for the Washington shore. Not an
ideal choice. Heavy riprap bolstered the bank. How close would the
ship pass? How big their wake? Just where was the channel anyways? I
dug a paddle into the river and spun the bow to face the thudding
menace.
From
William Clark's journal, November 5, 1805:
Separated
from the Lard side by a narrow Chanel, on this Island we Stoped to
Dine I walked out found it open & covered with Sm. grass
interspersed with Small ponds, in which was great numbr. of foul, the
remains of an old village on the lower part of this Island, I saw
Several deer ...
I
guessed wrong about the channel. This container ship would pass close
by, too close. They had not given me the 5 blasts on the horn that
indicate a potential for danger. That would be Rule 34d of the
Navigation Rules worded as follows:
When
vessels in sight of one another are approaching each other and from
any cause either vessel fails to understand the intentions or actions
of the other, or is in doubt whether sufficient action is being taken
by the other to avoid collision, the vessel in doubt shall
immediately indicate such doubt by giving at least five short and
rapid blasts on the whistle.
I
wasn't even a blip on their radar screen. If anyone was looking at
their radar screen. As it thudded by, no one came on deck to give me
a wave. Saw no one at all. I steadied my little boat with blades flat
on the water, watching for logs and other debris that ship backwash
often kicks up. I waited for the wake.
Surprised
and more than a little relieved, the ship passed by with just a bit
of gentle swell and no debris. I took a breath. All things
considered, would rather have paddled with Lewis and Clark. Canoes
are far more agreeable than cargo ships.
Clark,
November 5, 1805:
We
met 4 Canoes of Indians from below, in which there is 26 Indians, one
of those Canoes is large, and ornimented with Images on the
bow & Stern. That in the Bow the likeness of a Bear, and in Stern
the picture of a man- we
landed on the Lard. Side & camped a little below
the mouth of a creek on the Stard. Side a little below the mouth of
which is an Old Village which is now abandaned-; here the river is
about one and a half miles wide. and deep, The high Hills which run
in a N W. & S E. derection form both banks of the river the Shore
boald and rockey, the hills rise gradually & are Covered with a
thick groth of pine &c. The valley which is from above the mouth
of Quick Sand River to this place may be computed at 60 miles wide on
a Derect line, & extends a great Distanc to the right & left
rich thickly Covered with tall timber, with a fiew Small Praries
bordering on the river and on the Islands; Some fiew Standing Ponds &
Several Small Streams of running water on either Side of the river;
This is certainly a fertill and a handsom valley, at this time
Crouded with Indians. The day proved Cloudy with rain the greater
part of it, we are all wet cold and disagreeable- I saw but little
appearance of frost in this valley which we call Wap-pa-too
Columbia from the root or plants growing Spontaniously in this
valley only ... We
made
32 miles today by estimation -
Chinook
canoe, historic photo from Lewis & Clark Today website
SKAMOKAWA
(Ska-
mock-a-way)
Episode 11
"
... a cool wet raney morning we Set out early ... " Lewis and
Clark had camped at Prescott Beach, just below Rainier on the Oregon
side and Kelso-Longview on the Washington side. This area of the
river, other than where the dams were located, is the most changed.
The mill at Longview and the bridge spanning the river speak to the
commerce that has developed along the Columbia's shoreline.
When
Robert Gray sailed across the bar at the mouth of the river, only
native villages dotted the shoreline. From Fort Vancouver, built in
1829, to Astoria, settled first in 1811, a number of small
communities with their attendant commerce had begun to supplant the
native villages. The industrial age had caught up with the Columbia.
And with the discovery of gold in the interior Columbia basin and the
development of canneries on the lower river, the die was cast.
Two
brothers, George and William Hume, were major players in the
development. In 1866, with declining salmon runs on the Sacramento
River in California, they packed up and moved their operation north
to the Columbia. With their partner, Andrew S. Hapgood, they built a
cannery located at a place they called Eagle Cliff on the Washington
side some 50 miles upriver opposite the mouth of the Clatskanie
River. That year they packed 4,000 cases of salmon, 48 one-pound cans
to the case, all done by hand. By the 1880s, more than thirty
canneries lined the river from Astoria to the Dalles, and 600,000
cases of packed salmon were shipped yearly. By 1911, just 100 odd
years since Lewis and Clark, the salmon catch peaked at 47 million
pounds.
from
The Oregon Encyclopedia
Increased
boat traffic, from steamboats to double ended gill netters, created a
need for a safe channel and aids to navigation. The river's seasonal
rise and fall and its many shoals posed a challenge for the larger
ships that began to sail up river. In 1877, Congress approved the
creation of a channel from Portland to the mouth of the river. In
1891, dredging deepened the channel from 17 feet to 25 feet.
Skamokawa
and the shoals at the west end of Tenasillahe Island mark the end of
the river proper and the beginning of the Columbia's estuary. From
Bradford (RM 41), once a booming logging town, across to the
Elochoman Slough is just a mile and a quarter. Beyond Tenasillahe's
western point, the Columbia widens to over six miles from Svenson
Island in Cathlamet Bay to the mouth of Gray's River.
Tenasillahe
Island from near Bradford; called the Marshy Islands by Lewis and
Clark, the island's name is composed of two Chinook jargon words,
"tenas," meaning small, and "illahe," meaning
land
As
with the character of the activities along its shoreline, the
character of the river itself between St Helens and Skamokawa begins
to change. Beyond the Cascades, across a wide plain, and through the
less formidable Coast Range, the river slows and its course becomes
dotted with islands, large and small. Their names speak to the nature
of each island: Goat Island, Deer Island, Martin Island, Sandy
Island, Cottonwood Island, Walker, Fisher, Hump, Crims, Wallace,
Puget, and back to Tenasillahe.
All
these landforms are products of the vast amounts of sediment that the
Columbia transports. A good deal of that sediment is deposited at
the mouth creating the hazards of the bar. Much is washed out to sea.
Known as the Astoria Fan, this asymmetric wedge of sediment is 6000
feet thick and extends over 60 miles out to sea. The most obvious
product of deposition though are the islands.
As
a river meanders down its course, the flow on the outside of a bend
will accelerate, and erode the corresponding bank. The flow slows on
the inside of the bend, and this allows deposition of the silt, sand,
and gravels carried by the river. One aspect of this corresponding
erosion and deposition is the maintenance of a river's width. Often,
an anabranch, or side channel, will cut a path through the easily
eroded sediment and an island is formed.
From
Clark's journal, November 7, 1805:
...
A cloudy foggey morning Some rain. we Set out early ...fog So thick
we could not See across the river, two Canos of Indians met and
returned with us to their village which is Situated on the Starb.
Side behind a cluster of Marshey Islands, on a narrow chanl. of the
river ... Those people call themselves War-ci-a-cum
... we See great numbers of water fowls
about those marshey Islands; here the high mountainious Country
approaches the river on the Lard Side, a high mountn. to the S.W.
about 20 miles ... and 18 miles of this day we landed at a village
... at the foot of the high hills on the Strb Side back of 2 Small
Islands it contains 7 indifferent houses ... opposit to this Village
the high mountaneous Country leave the river on the Lard Side below
which the river widens into a kind of Bay & is Crouded with low
Islands Subject to be Covered by the tides ...
OCEAN
IN VIEW
Episode 12
Mouth
of the Columbia River, 1929
Photo
by Brubaker Aerial Survey, Courtesy National Archives,
Pacific
Alaska Region (Neg. RG77, Portland District L-224)
From
Wallula Gap to the mouth of the Columbia is some 310 miles. While the
rock of the gap is, for all intents and purposes, a solid and
enduring landmark, the mouth of the river is not. River mouths are
fluid constructs and defy fixed positions. As an aid to navigation,
River Miles are begun at a somewhat arbitrary mile 0 point. In the
Columbia's case, RM 0 begins just beyond the North Jetty and extends
perpendicular to the dredged channel. Shifting sand and fast water
makes for change. So the position of the mouth is determined to be
somewhere between Cape Disappointment in the north and Point Adams on
Clatsop Spit in the south.
As
the Corps of Discovery came ever closer to the river's end, all the
men were filled with anticipation. The weather was horrid. Incessant
rain and strong winds from the southwest kept them wet through. No
matter, William Clark sat stolidly in his canoe keeping a notebook
wrapped in oil skin perched on his knee. This served as his log of
the voyage and in it he recorded courses, bearings, prominent
landmarks, and, on occasion, exclamations. On November 7, 1805, he
made this entry in the log: "Ocian in view! O! the joy."
Though the emotion was no doubt genuine, his observation was to prove
false.
He
made that observation from an exposed campsite of rock and rolled
logs near Pillar Rock, "... a rock Situated half a mile from
shore, about 50 feet high and 20 Deamieter ..." The "ocian"
is still around the bend and some 15 miles away. No doubt the rough
water of the lower river looked very like ocean.
Pillar
Rock from downstream, Lyn Topinka photo (the top of the rock was
removed and flattened
to
put a light and navigation aid. Now stands 25' above river
The
view downriver rarely allows much of a distinction between fresh
river water and the salt of the Pacific. The low lying sandy spit
extending out to Point Adams confuses the most discerning eye. And
the width of the estuary as it tends seaward is enough to add to that
confusion. Waves and swell blend and merge. It would take an
experienced eye to say that there the river ends and there the ocean
begins. A distant horizon would be suggestive on those days when wind
and rain and fog allows a distant horizon.
The
view of the river from the ocean is equally obscure, so much so that
English explorer John Meares, in 1788, looking for the entrance to a
river that Spaniard Bruno Heceta had charted, had this to say: We can
now with safety assert, that no such river as that of St. Roc (Heceta
had named the headland he charted as Cabo San Roque) exists. He
rechristened that headland 'Disappointment.'
George
Vancouver, charting the coast in 1791, missed the river as well. He
did conclude that a small bay or river might exist. He was contending
with fog, rough weather, and an unruly crew of young gentlemen at the
time so might be forgiven his lapse.
It
was left to Robert Gray to first cross the bar and enter the estuary.
He sailed up river as far as Tongue Point (RM 19), traded with the
natives (his primary concern), and named the river after his ship,
Columbia Rediviva. His report (and subsequent profit) led the
parade of trading vessels that were to follow. Since Gray's crossing
more than 2000 large ships of been wrecked on the bar earning it the
sobriquet of The Graveyard of the Pacific.
Published
April 28th 1814 by Longman & Co. Paternoster Row
I
mentioned earlier there are places on the river that afford a view
much like that of Lewis and Clark, and one can take from such views a
taste of 1805. But the Columbia of today, controlled by dams,
bridged, overfished, and polluted is certainly not their river.
Estimates of 19th century fish runs count 12 to 16 million fish. This
number has been reduced to a million or so. Take a stadium filled
with 72,000 people and, using the lowest estimate of past runs,
reduce that crowd by the same ratio. 6000 people would remain. One
might say that the stadium was empty with such a sparse crowd. And so
the river. Modern homo sapiens seem driven to dominate the natural
world, and our overbearing presence has created today's Columbia
River.
French
bark Colonel
de Villebois Mareuil
passing
over the bar of the Columbia River, ca. 1900
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