The Corps of Discovery's arrival to the Pacific coast in November 1805 was an astonishing feat. Even so, the thirty-three members of the Corps were not finished with their journey. They still needed to get back home and winter was coming. On November 24, 1805, after polling the expedition members, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark decided the group would look for a place to spend the winter south of the Columbia River.

On Christmas Day, after three and one-half weeks of building, they moved into the almost-finished winter quarters near present day Astoria, Oregon. The Corps named it Fort Clatsop for the local American Indian tribe nearby. Clark noted in his journal that they celebrated “by the discharge of the fire arm[s] of all our party & a Selute, Shouts and a Song." Since it was Christmas, they also exchanged gifts.

They spent the next three rainy months trading with the local tribes, hunting elk, crafting elk skin clothing, and making salt at a second camp near present Seaside, Oregon. The crew members also spent much time updating their journals, exploring, and preparing supplies for their return home. In March 1806, after enduring the wet winter, they finally began their “homeward bound journey.”

Visitors can experience the Corps’ life on the Pacific coast at the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. A visitor center and reconstruction of Fort Clatsop serves as the National Park Service’s primary hub. At the Fort Clatsop replica, visitors can experience what it was like for the Corps to live and work within its walls. The park includes several other nearby sites associated with the expedition.

Call (503) 861-2471 or visit http://www.nps.gov/lewi/index.htm, for more information concerning operating hours, fees, directions, etc.

Credits and Sources:

Content for this Next Exit History site sponsored by the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. For more information visit http://lewisandclark.org/.

Lewis, Meriwether, William Clark, Bernard DeVoto, Stephen E. Ambrose, and Erwin Raisz. The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

Moulton, Gary E. The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery, An Abridgement of the Definitive Nebraska Edition.Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 2003.

National Park Service. “Lewis and Clark National Historical Park.”  Accessed June 25, 2014. http://www.nps.gov/lewi/index.htm.

National Park Service. “Process of Discovery: Archeological Excavations at Fort Clatsop,” last updated May 28, 2014. Accessed June 25, 2014. http://www.nps.gov/lewi/historyculture/arch5758-overview.htm.