When is an ocean not an ocean? When is a river, a bay? A bay the sea? William Clark on 7 November 1805 looked downstream from the camp of their expedition near Pillar Rock writing famously in his journal, “Ocian in view. Oh what joy!”

This is one of the most famous quotes from the annals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.  Clark wrote the note describing the party’s view from their camp on the north bank of the Columbia River opposite Pillar Rock.  Historically, the quote was not the first note Clark wrote down.  This note actually written some months later in a third edit by the explorer.  His first two journal entries were a little less emotional, though still maintaining the ocean they had sought finally found.

PILLAR ROCK

If you visit Pillar Rock today, there is little evidence of an ocean beyond the ship traffic going up and down the river channel.  Everything here points more to the late 19^th – early 20^th century salmon fishing industry formerly existing along the shores of the mouth of the Columbia.

My wife and I recently visited the former cannery – the last still existing along the north bank of the river – staying at a Air BnB cabin owned by the family which bought the former cannery.  The area is truly magnificent and way off the beaten path of tourists in the lower Columbia.  I knew of the quote written down by Clark previous to our visit, though I mistakenly placed the quote to the Dismal Nitch site of the Lewis & Clark National Historical Park further downriver near the Astoria-Megler bridge.  Reading two books by David L. Nicandri, former president of the Washington Historical Society – River of Promise:  Lewis and Clark on the Columbia 2009 and Lewis & Clark Reframed:  Examining ties to Cook, Vancouver and Mackenzie 2020 – I became aware Clark wrote the notation at Pillar Rock and not Dismal Nitch.

In both of those books, Nicandri includes a chapter titled The Illusion of Cape Disappointment.  Both chapters are similar in content and though the latter has been rewritten, his main point is what Clark wrote may certainly have been true for the time.

CAMPSITE BY THE ROCK

Today, at Pillar Rock, you should not expect to see or hear the ocean as William Clark did.  The Columbia River is still all river here today – though the tides come into play in a big way.  Clark noted the party camped at a site opposite Pillar Rock next to a spring-fed creek emptying into the river on its north bank.  This description fits the site of the fishing cannery at Pillar Rock.  The expedition would camp here again 25 November after exploring further along the north bank of the mouth of the river as far as Cape Disappointment.

The men had spent several days at Middle Camp – Chinook Point, just west of today’s bridge.  It is also the site of a fairly new addition to the Lewis & Clark NHP.  From here, Clark found “a village of 36 houses uninhabited by anything except flees …”.   It was also uninhabited because it was a Chinook summer camp.  While Clark set up Middle Camp, Lewis and four other men explored further to Cape Disappointment hoping to possibly find sea traders.  This trip was repeated by Clark with 11 men repeated exploring as far up the coast as Long Beach from 17-20 November.

BACK TO PILLAR ROCK

With game scarce on the north bank of the river-bay and advice from local Natives, the party decided to seek winter accommodations on the south side – Oregon – of the river.  They moved back to Pillar Rock where they could safely cross over to the other side before moving further to establish winter quarters at Fort Clatsop.  They camped at their former camp next to Pillar Rock 25 November “…we…encamp a little after night near our Encampment of the 7^th instant near a rock at Some distance in the river …”  They transferred to the south side of the river the next day camping near where the Twilight Eagle Sanctuary is located just off US 30.

EARLIER EXPLORERS

European explorers first noted Pillar Rock in the journals of Lieutenant William Robert Broughton. He was second-in-command of George Vancouver’s 1792 expedition along the northwestern coast of North America.  Vancouver brought two ships along his surveying expedition, the HMS Discovery and HMS Chatham.   Drawing more water, Vancouver elected to stand off the mouth of the Columbia in the Discovery. They then proceeded south to California. Meanwhile, Broughton took the Chatham over the Columbia River bar to explore the river further.  They had a chart drawn up by American captain Robert Gray who preceded them across the bar. The chart given to them in Nootka Sound by Spanish Commandante Bodega y Quadra.  Vancouver had earlier met with Captain Gray just after Vancouver himself sailed past the river’s mouth without further exploration.

Gray’s chart dated to spring.  By October, when Broughton crossed the bar, more shoals appeared.  In light of this, Broughton decided to leave the Chatham about a mile beyond Cape Disappointment in Baker Bay. He then he set out with a couple of boats to chart the channel and southern shore.  Taking soundings of the river’s mouth, Broughton also stopped by the Native village on the north bank. This camp, Lewis & Clark noted as Middle Camp.  Just like Clark noted, Broughton exclaimed, while the men were taking soundings they were “surrounded by Swarms of Fleas” forcing the men to plunge into the river “to rid themselves of their unpleasant companions.”

BROUGHTON LEAVES BEHIND A LEGACY

Broughton left a bevy of names along the way of his ten-day journey up the Columbia River.  Many of the names did not survive the test of time. But some – Mt Hood, Youngs Bay, Youngs River, Broughton’s Bluff, Puget’s Island (named after the same Lt. Peter Puget of the Discovery for whom Puget Sound is named), Coffin Rock, Pillar Rock, Tongue Point – have.  Broughton’s charting of his 100-mile upriver jaunt became included in Captain Vancouver’s later report.  That report was known to Thomas Jefferson who passed it on to Lewis and Clark.

In the years after Broughton, Lewis and Clark, the geography of the mouth of the Columbia River has changed greatly.  On the south side lies a jetty extending outwards into the ocean for six miles.  On the north side, a jetty of some two miles extends southwest off Cape Disappointment.  The two jetties have extended the meeting of river and ocean considerably farther to the west.  The south point of the mouth – Point Adams – extends significantly to the north of where it was.  Plenty of sands have amassed on both sides of the earlier mouth.  Extensive dredging along the Columbia have produce large sand islands just downstream of Pillar Rock, as well.  Miller Sands and Rice Island block the view downstream from the rock.

DISMAL NITCH

Dismal Nitch was formerly the north landing for the Megler-Astoria ferry.  The bridgehead is at Point Ellice. The ferry landing itself setfurther east by a mile to get out of the stormy weather across the Columbia Bay.  Before the dredging and the jetties, it is easy to see Pillar Rock as the end of the river. Here, the waters changed into the beginning of the ocean or at least a bay or sound of the ocean.

A NEW NATIONAL PARK

In commemoration of two hundred years after Clark and Meriwether Lewis’ expedition from St. Louis up to the headwaters of the Missouri River, over the Rocky Mountains and down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, the Lewis & Clark National Historical Park became established 12 November 2004.  The park consists of several places near the mouth of the Columbia River. These units, formerly protected at State levels – parks in Washington include Cape Disappointment State Park and Dismal Nitch (formerly a highway roadside rest area) while on the Oregon side, Ecola State Park, Fort Stevens State Park and the Fort Clatsop National Historic Monument, all gained a level of federal protection.  The State Parks remained parts of their respective State Park systems. Federal dollars developed a few new sites deemed important to the story of the expedition.

lEWIS & CLARK NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL

The ”Park” is further complicated by the development of the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail.  The trail covers about 3,700 miles over 11 States from Illinois and Missouri all the way to Oregon and Washington.  Some thought would include other States all the way back to Pennsylvania where Lewis began planning his expedition at the University of Pennsylvania – a mansion formerly constructed as the house of the President – to Virginia where Lewis went to consult with President Thomas Jefferson and take on supplies at the Federal Armory at Harpers Ferry.  The trail consists of a network of roadside signs spread over an auto route covering over 6,000 miles. 

A visitor center is located in Omaha, Nebraska, the approximate halfway point if you conclude the expedition trail extends from coast to coast. The National Park Service does not recognize this, beginning their trail at Hartford, Illinois.  Included in the network making up the national trail are six different water trails covering 1,373 miles of waterways.

lOWER COLUMBIA WATER TRAIL

Here, in the lower Columbia, a water trail extends the last 146 river miles from Bonneville Dam to the Pacific Ocean.  Like other water trails of the Historic Trail, this water trail is overseen by a private group, the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership.  Included in the group are a collection of launch points, camping and lodging options, food and points of interest to those moving along the river in non-motorized boats.

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