Who Cares What I Think?: "Ocian in view, O! the joy..."

The Pacific

On November 15, 1805, the Corps of Discovery, led by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark, finally reached the Pacific Ocean. This, after a tremendous amount of aid and comfort afforded them by the existing residents along the way. "Ocian in view, O! the joy..." were the words Clark put in his journal on November 7. He was actually at a Columbia River Estuary. It was over a week more of travel before they reached the coast. The group went on to build a tiny fort just off the Columbia River and up a little feeder river, (now called the Lewis and Clark River). The fort was called Fort Clatsop, named after the local resident group of people already living there. Again, with the help of the locals, they made it through the winter. In the Spring of 1806, after no trading ships arrived that might have given them passage back East, they headed out again to travel by land back to Missouri.

Today, all over the Astoria area, on both sides of the Columbia River, there are National and State Historical parks, National Historical Register items, and multiple other references to Lewis and Clark and their group. We are even staying at the Lewis and Clark RV Resort, as an example.

Today was a busy day. We took in a lot of sights. We hit the replica of Fort Clatsop, visited the Astoria Column, walked the Astoria town riverfront, and drove out to Cape Disappointment and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. There we too got a good clear afternoon view of the Pacific. Then we headed back to our camper to feed Angie, and later went for more oysters. We couldn't resist.

It was a nice day. All the information about L&C became overpowering for me. The Corps of Discovery, clearly were travelers through cities and towns much like Kathy and I are doing on this trip. I am aware that for Europeans at that time, this was much like a trip to the moon. It was uncharted. Even President Jefferson expected the group to possibly find dinosaurs and mastodons. But it is clear, by what I read today, that the area was not uncharted really. It was fully inhabited, and reasonably civilized, even by European standards, as if that matters. But that is not what they taught me when I went to school. Anyway....

At a couple of the L&C interpretive centers, I tried to have some fun by quietly mentioning to interpreters that I am in fact, a very distant cousin of Meriwether Lewis (something my brother uncovered in his genealogy research). They uniformly seemed politely unimpressed. :-)

Astoria

Astoria is named for John Jacob Astor, a business man from New York, who specialized in the fur trade and moved to have "occupied" the area around the mouth of the Columbia, just several years after the L&C arrival. He was successful, and he became very wealthy doing so, as well as through other ventures. Who would have thought there would have been such demand for animal fur? I don't think that business plan would work in these times. His family continued to prosper, and still does to this day. John's grandson was the famous Astor that went down with the Titanic (supposedly the richest man on the boat). That Astor who was lost at sea was the father of the Astor that funded (with the help of the Great Northern Railroad) the building of the Astoria Column in 1926. Nice place to sail a little balsa wood glider off of.

We liked Astoria, Warrenton, and the neighboring Washington State town of Ilwaco. Here are some photos we took today.