Fort Clatsop: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Lewis & Clark National Historical Park

Regions 8, 9, 10, & 12 Park Cultural Landscapes Program

Inventory Unit Description: Fort Clatsop is a unit of Lewis and Clark National Historical Park located in Clatsop County, Oregon, approximately six miles south of the county seat of Astoria. The unit was established in 1958 as Fort Clatsop National Memorial to commemorate the 1805–1806 winter encampment of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, following its successful crossing of the North American continent. President Thomas Jefferson formed the expedition, known as the Corps of Discovery, following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The goal of the expedition was to explore western North America. The Corps of Discovery reached the Pacific Ocean in November 1805, just as the rainy season set in. Lacking food and supplies for their return journey, the group established a winter camp on a bluff overlooking the Netul (now Lewis and Clark) River. To support their need for shelter and protection, the Corps of Discovery built a fortified structure, which they named Fort Clatsop after the local American Indian group that helped them locate a suitable site. The fortification included a perimeter palisade wall, gates, and quarters built from wood procured from the surrounding forest. The fortification was sited in close proximity to springs that provided fresh water, and a level area along the river that served as a landing place for the group’s canoes. The Corps of Discovery occupied Fort Clatsop between December 25, 1805, and March 23, 1806. While in residence, members of the Corps hunted game and gathered salt to preserve the meat and cure hides for clothing. Salt collection entailed boiling sea water procured at the coast, a fifteen mile journey from Fort Clatsop. Fort Clatsop encompasses the site of the fort, nearby fresh water springs, and the area along the river believed to have been used as a canoe landing by the Corps of Discovery. Historic landscape features associated with Fort Clatsop include the site of the original fort, aspects of the topography that had not been affected by late nineteenth and early twentieth century clay mining and farming, the upland landform where the fort was sited and associated forested conditions, free-flowing springs that provided fresh water to Fort Clatsop, the Lewis and Clark River, and marshland and other open terrain used by the Corps of Discovery for hunting. These features help to convey the site’s historic associations with the winter encampment of the Corps of Discovery including the manner in which they supported the needs of the residents as recorded in period journal entries. The other resource indicated as contributing to the significance of Fort Clatsop in the 1988 National Register nomination—a 1954–1955 replica of Fort Clatsop—is no longer extant. The fort replica burned in a fire in 2005. It was replaced in 2005–2006 by a new log replica of the fort. The current fort structure is not entirely consistent with the 1954–1955 replica due to changes made to the materials to increase its durability. It also reflects a better understanding of the historic fort structure based on contemporary scholarship.

Fort Clatsop: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Lewis & Clark National Historical Park

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