The Volcanoes of Lewis and ClarkApril 1 - 2, 1806 |
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-- The Volcanoes of Lewis and Clark Map of the Journey -- Volcanoes, Basalt Plateaus, Major Rivers, etc. CALENDAR of the Journey -- October 1805 to June 1806 Along the Journey -- Pacific Northwest Maps - Columbia River, Volcanoes, Flood Basalts, Missoula Floods, Geology, etc. The Corps of Discovery -- The Journey of Lewis and Clark About the Reference Materials -- The Journals, Biddle/Allen, DeVoto, Gass, Moulton, Topo Maps, and others USGS Lewis and Clark Links -- Links to USGS Websites highlighting the Lewis and Clark Journey Resources Publications Referenced and Websites Visited |
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March 31 On the Banks of the Columbia, Ryan Point to Cottonwood Beach Camp |
April 1-2
On the Banks of the Columbia, Cottonwood Beach Camp and the Sandy River Cottonwood Beach Camp, Mount Hood, Sandy River and the Sandy River Delta, Lewis & Clark State Recreation Area, Willamette Valley, Mount Jefferson, Willamette River |
CONTINUE
April 3 On the Banks of the Columbia, Five Volcanoes and a Side-Trip Up the Willamette |
| On October 7, 1805, Lewis and Clark and the "Corps of Discovery" began their journey down the Clearwater River and into the volcanics of the Pacific Northwest. The Corps travelled from the Clearwater to the Snake and down the "Great Columbia", finally reaching the Pacific Ocean on November 15, 1805. Along the journey they encountered the lava flows of the Columbia Plateau, river channels carved by the great "Missoula Floods", and the awesome beauty of five Cascade Range volcanoes. |
| The Volcanoes of Lewis and Clark |
| Heading Home - April 1806 |
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On the Banks of the Columbia Cottonwood Beach Camp and the Sandy River |
| Between March 31 and April 6, 1806 the Corps of Discovery camped near present day Cottonwood Beach in Washougal. From this campsite, William Clark also led a group of men back down the Columbia to discover the Willamette River, which they had missed on both their outward and return voyages. |
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Cottonwood Beach:
Cottonwood Beach: Between March 31 and April 6, 1806 the Corps of Discovery camped near present day Cottonwood Beach in Washougal. From this campsite, William Clark also led a group of men back down the Columbia to discover the Willamette River, which they had missed on both their outward and return voyages. Presently, the cities of Washougal and Camas, Port of Camas/Washougal, and the Clark County Parks Department, are collaborating on creating a regional park at this location and it has been named Capt. William Clark Park at Cottonwood Beach. -- City of Washougal, Washington, Website, 2002 |
| Three Indians had followed us yesterday and encamped near us last night. On putting to them a variety of questions relative to their country, they assured us that Quicksand river, [Sandy River - see below] which we had hitherto deemed so considerable, extends no further than the southwest side of mount Hood, which is south 85° east, forty miles distant from this place; |
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Mount Hood:
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| that it [Sandy River] is moreover navigable for a very short distance only, in consequence of falls and rapids, and that no nation inhabits its borders. Several other persons affirmed that it rose near mount Hood, and sergeant Pryor, who was sent for the purpose of examining it, convinced us of the truth of their statement. He had found the river three hundred yards wide, though the channel was not more than fifty yards, and about six feet deep. The current was rapid, the water turbid, the bed of the river is formed entirely of quicksand, and the banks low and at present overflowed. He passed several islands, and at three and a half miles distance a creek from the south, fifty yards wide; his farthest course was six miles from the mouth of the river, but there it seemed to bend to the east, and he heard the noise of waterfalls. |
| "... Sergt. Pryor & three men was Sent 5 or 6 miles up Quick Sand River to make discovries & Several hunters went up the Seal River a hunting & others went out in different directions a hunting. a number of the natives visited us as they were passing down the River late in the afternoon Sergt. Pryor returned had been about 4 miles up quick Sand River found the current rapid & only about 4 feet deep ... the hunters tells us that the country back from the River is rich land some praries and rich plains &C.; ..." [Ordway, April 1, 1806] |
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Sandy River:
Sandy River: The Sandy Basin is located in the mid-eastern section of the Lower Columbia Ecological Province, within Multnomah and Clackamas Counties in Oregon. It drains an area of about 508 square miles (330,000 acres). The Sandy River and many of its tributaries originate high on the slopes of Mount Hood. The Sandy River flows about 56 miles in a northwesterly direction and joins the Columbia River near Troutdale at Columbia River mile (RM) 120.5. The Sandy River Basin is comprised of several watersheds, many of which are uniquely distinct in terms of hydrology and geomorphology. Principal tributaries include the ZigZag River, Still Creek and Salmon River in the upper basin, and the Bull Run River, Little Sandy River, Gordon Creek, Cedar Creek and Beaver Creek in the lower basin. Many other smaller tributaries located throughout the basin contribute significantly to stream flows, and provide habitat for a wide array of fish and wildlife assemblages. -- Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority Website, 2003 The Sandy River in 1805: In 1805, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark named a river on the south side of the Columbia River gorge the "Quicksand River." Their description of a wide, shallow river with a bed "formed entirely of quicksand," bears little resemblance to the narrow, moderately deep river we call today the Sandy River. What happened? The answer lay 50 miles away at Mount Hood. An eruption in the 1790's caused a tremendous amount of volcanic rock and sand to enter the Sandy River drainage. That sediment was still being flushed downstream when Lewis and Clark saw and named the river. Since 1806, the river has removed the excess sediment from its channel. The Toutle River in southwest Washington was similarly affected by the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens. -- Gardner, et.al., 2000 Sandy River Delta: Where the Sandy and Columbia Rivers merge, sediments have deposited over the millennia to form a large delta. This is called the Sandy River Delta and covers approximately 1,400 acres. This land tract was designated a Special Management Area in the 1986 legislature, was purchased by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in 1991, and is part of the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area. The Sandy River Delta was acquired to protect and enhance the natural resource values of the site, particularly the floodplain character and associated wetlands and to provide for compatible recreation uses. The mouth of the Sandy River is typically shallow and underlain almost entirely with sand and other fine sediments. It is unknown how this shallow condition affects fish passage from the Columbia River into the Sandy, especially in summer and early fall. However, the mouth has some tidal influence and flows from the Sandy are usually adequate for fish passage, even during summer when water levels drop. -- Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority Website, 2003 
River Drainages of Mount Hood:
Lewis and Clark State Park: Located at the western gateway of the Columbia River Gorge, Lewis and Clark State Park (Lewis and Clark State Recreation Area) honors its legendary namesakes who camped and explored here in November, 1805 and March/April 1806. The park is situated near the mouth of the Sandy River where it spills into the mighty Columbia River and at one of the entrances to the Historic Columbia River Highway. One of the most popular swimming spots on the Sandy River is adjacent to the park, as well as a public boat launch. A trail climbs the cliffs to Broughton's Bluff, which serves as a geologic boundary between the foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range and the neighboring Willamette Valley to the west. The park has interpretive signs and botanical trail. -- Lewis and Clark Bicentennial in Oregon Website, 2002, and Oregon State Parks and Recreation Website, 2002 |
| If Quicksand river [Sandy River] then does not go beyond mount Hood, it must leave the valley a few miles from its entrance, and run nearly parallel with the Columbia. There must therefore be some other large river, which we have not yet seen, to water the extensive country between the mountains of the coast and Quicksand river [Willamette Valley]: but the Indians could give us no satisfactory information of any such stream. ...... |
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Puget Trough and Willamette Valley:
Puget Trough and Willamette Valley: The Puget-Willamette Lowlands extend from the United States-Canadian border south to Eugene, Oregon, between the Coast Ranges and the Cascade Mountains. The climate is subhumid to humid. The northern part is a flat glacial plain interrupted by the complex bays and inlets of Puget Sound. The southern part of the lowlands consists of alluvial valleys along the Cowlitz, Columbia, and Willamette Rivers. Most of Oregon's population, technology and agricultural centers, and important transportion, power, and communications lifelines are located in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon. The lowlands of the Willamette Valley extend about 75 miles along the Willamette River and contain the major cities of Portland, Salem, Corvallis, and Eugene. The valley is part of the Willamette River drainage basin, which covers 12,300 square miles between the crest of the Oregon Coast Range on the west and the Cascade Range to the east. The Willamette River is the largest river in the valley and is fed by several major tributaries, including the McKenzie, Calapooia, Santiam, Tualatin, Yamhill, and Clakamas Rivers. The valley is the major source of ground and surface water for the population centers. -- Radbruch-Hall, et.al., 1982, USGS Professional Paper 1183, and Givler and Wells, 2001 Geology of the Willamette Valley: The Willamette valley consists of four sub-basins: the southern and northern Willamette basins, the Tualatin basin, and the Portland basin. The Waldo Hills separate the southern Willamette basin from the northern basin, and the Chehalem Mountains separate the northern basin from the Tualatin Basin. Northeast of the Tualatin basin, the Tualatin Mountains form the divide with the Portland Basin. The Willamette Valley lies within a fore-arc basin between the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the Coast Ranges that may have originated in early Tertiary time. Some of the sub-basins have accumulated several hundred meters of sediment in late Cenozoic time. The northern basins also contain lavas of the Miocene Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG). Flows of the CRBG entered the valley approximately 16 million years ago through a low in the Cascade Range and spread into the Portland and northern Willamette basins. The Tualatin Mountains, Chehalem Mountains, Waldo Hills, and Salem Hills are largely composed of CRBG flows that dip inward toward the basin centers. Approximately 3.0 million to 260,000 years ago, the Boring Lavas were erupted from several vents throughout the northern Willamette, Portland, and Tualatin basins. Boring Lavas capped the Oregon City plateau and created many of the prominent small cone-shaped hills and mountains southeast of downtown Portland. Between 15,000 and 12,700 years ago catastrophic floods from glacial Lake Missoula inundated the majority of the Willamette Valley. These floods reached up to 120 meters above sea level covering the valley with up to 35 meters of sediment and depositing ice-rafted boulders foreign to the Willamette Valley as far south as Eugene, Oregon. -- Gannett and Caldwell 
Boring Lava Field:
Boring Lava Field: Metropolitan Portland, Oregon, and an area east of Vancouver, Washington, includes most of a Plio-Pleistocene volcanic field. Approximately 3.0 to 0.26 million years ago, the lavas were erupted from several vents throughout the northern Willamette, Portland, and Tualatin basins. The Boring Lava includes at least 32 and possibly 50 cinder cones and small shield volcanoes lying within a radius of 13 miles of Kelly Butte. Kelly Butte is 62 miles west of Mount Hood and the High Cascade axis, and 4 miles east of downtown Portland, Oregon. Boring lava vents have been inactive for at least 300,000 years. -- Allen, 1990, and Givler and Wells, 2001 |
| Decided to remain here [Cottonwood Beach Camp] till we collect meat enough to last us till we reach the Chopunnish nation, to obtain canoes from the natives as we ascend, either in exchange for our periougues, or by purchasing them with skins and merchandise. These canoes may in turn be exchanged for horses with the natives of the plains, till we obtained enough to travel altogether by land. On reaching the southeast branch of the Columbia [Snake River], four or five men shall be sent on to the Chopunnish to have our horses in readiness, and thus we shall have a stock of horses sufficient to transport our baggage and to supply us with provisions, for we now perceive that they will form our only certain resource for food. |
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The Camp - March 31 through April 5, 1806:
Between March 31 and April 6, 1806 the Corps of Discovery camped near present day Cottonwood Beach in Washougal. [See March 31, 1806 entry] |
| The hunters returned from the opposite side of the river with some deer and elk, which were abundant there, as were also the tracks of the black bear; while on the north side we could kill nothing. ...... |
| "... we discovred yesterday the top of a high white Mountain some distance to the Southward our officers name it Mount Jefferson ..." [Ordway, April 1, 1806] |
| "... we saw a high mountain laying a great distance off to the Southward of us, which appeared to be covered with snow. Our Officers named this Mountain Jefferson Mountain ..." [Whitehouse, April 1, 1806] |
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Mount Jefferson:
Mount Jefferson was discovered and named by Lewis & Clark on March 30, 1806. [See March 30, 1806 entry] Mount Jefferson (10,495 feet) is a prominent feature of the landscape seen from highways east and west of the Cascades. Mount Jefferson (one of thirteen major volcanic centers in the Cascade Range) has erupted repeatedly for hundreds of thousands of years, with its last eruptive episode during the last major glaciation which culminated about 15,000 years ago. The upper cone is composed largely of dacite lava flows and domes, many of which appear to have been emplaced when glaciers on the volcano were much larger than at present. It is likely that during growth of the domes, material was shed off to form pyroclastic flows and lahars, but if so, that record has been largely removed by glacial erosion. During the last few centuries, several small lakes were formed on the flanks of Mount Jefferson when small tributary valleys became dammed by glacial moraines (ridges of sediment left behind by glaciers). Several of these moraines have breached during the 20th century, producing local floods and small lahars. The youngest lava flows in the Mount Jefferson area are basaltic lava flows from Forked Butte and an unnamed butte south of Bear Butte. Both of these flows postdate the large eruption of Mount Mazama (Crater Lake) of about 7,600 years ago. -- Walder, et.al., 1999 |
| Being now determined to collect as much meat as possible, two parties, consisting of nine men, were sent over the river to hunt, three were ordered to range the country on this side, while all the rest were employed in cutting and scaffolding the meat which we had already. About eight o'clock several canoes arrived to visit us, and among the rest were two young men, who were pointed out as Cashooks. On inquiry, they said that their nation resided at the falls of a large river [Willamette Falls and the Willamette River], which empties itself into the south side of the Columbia, a few miles below us and they drew a map of the country, with a coal on a mat. |
| "... it appeared that this river which they called Mult-no-mah discharged itself behind the Island which we called the image canoe Island and as we had left this island to the S. both in ascending and decending the river we had never seen it. they informed us that it was a large river and run a considerable distance to the South between the mountains ..." [Lewis, April 2, 1806] |
| "... The great River is called by the Natives the Mult-no-mack River; it is 500 Yards wide at its mouth; & continues that width, as high up, as where we ascended it. The Indian guide that was with us, told us that it heads Near the head Waters of the California ..." [Whitehouse, April 2, 1806] |
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Willamette River:
Willamette River: Most of Oregon's population, technology and agricultural centers, and important transportion, power, and communications lifelines are located in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon. The lowlands of the Willamette Valley extend about 75 miles along the Willamette River and contain the major cities of Portland, Salem, Corvallis, and Eugene. The valley is part of the Willamette River drainage basin, which covers 12,300 square miles between the crest of the Oregon Coast Range on the west and the Cascade Range to the east. The Willamette River is the largest river in the valley and is fed by several major tributaries, including the McKenzie, Calapooia, Santiam, Tualatin, Yamhill, and Clakamas Rivers. The valley is the major source of ground and surface water for the population centers. -- Givler and Wells, 2001 |
| In order to verify this information, captain Clarke persuaded one of the young men, by a present of a burning glass, to accompany him to the river [Willamette River], in search of which he immediately set out with a canoe and seven of our men. ...... |
| Since the Chronology of this web presentation is following the Biddle/Allen publication, please see April 3, 1806 entry for further report of Clarke's April 2-3 journey up the Willamette River. |
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The Camp - March 31 through April 5, 1806:
Between March 31 and April 6, 1806 the Corps of Discovery camped near present day Cottonwood Beach in Washougal. [See March 31, 1806 entry] Clark's Camp of April 2, 1806: Near Cathedral Park, St. Johns Bridge, Portland, Oregon. In the Biddle/Allen publication Captain Clark's description of his trip after his return to the main camp was written up on April 3, 1806. [See April 3, 1806 entry] |
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