The Volcanoes of Lewis and ClarkNovember 6, 1805
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November 5 Ridgefield NWR to Prescott Beach, Oregon |
November 6
Heading to the Pacific, Prescott Beach to Wallace Island Prescott Beach, Cottonwood Island, Cowlitz River, Longview (Washington) and the Lewis and Clark Bridge, Rainier (Oregon), Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens, Mount Coffin, Clatskanie River, Crim's Island, Eagle Cliff and Cape Horn |
CONTINUE
November 7 Nearing the Pacific, Wallace Island to Pillar Rock |
| 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 |
| To the Pacific - November 1805 |
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Heading to the Pacific Prescott Beach to Wallace Island |
| The Corps of Discovery spent the night of November 5, 1805, camped "under a point of high ground, with thick pine trees". Today this location is Prescott Beach County Park, Oregon. Prescott Beach is located off Oregon Highway 30, south of Rainier, Oregon. |
| The morning was cool, wet, and rainy. We proceeded at an early hour between the high hills on both sides of the river, till at the distance of four miles we came to two tents of Indians in a small plain on the left, where the hills on the right recede a few miles from the river, and a long narrow island [Cottonwood Island] stretches along the right shore. |
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Cottonwood Island:
Today, Carrolls Channel, between Cottonwood Island and the Washington shore of the Columbia River, is used for log storage and fishing boats. About 13 feet can be carried through the channel. -- NOAA Office of Coast Survey Website, 2003 |
| Behind this island [Cottonwood Island] is the mouth of a large river a hundred and fifty yards wide, and called by the Indians, Coweliske [Cowlitz River]. |
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Cowlitz River:
Cowlitz River: The Cowlitz River flows into the Columbia River at Mile 59, just east of Longview, Washington. The mouth of the river is heavily silted as a result of the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens (May 1980). Large amounts of mud, logs, and other debris entered the Columbia River from the Cowlitz River. "Cow-e-lis-kee River" was noted on Lewis and Clark's westbound exploration but actually named on the homeward journey. Descending the river, Clark marked the drainage on his route map "not known." Returning upstream, the captains tried to use a native term to identify the river, spelling the word phonetically. The Cowlitz River rises on the slopes of Mount Rainier, flows westerly, and then turns abruptly south to join the Columbia at the city of Longview, about 20 miles below the mouth of the Lewis River. The Cowlitz River drains approximately 2,480 square miles over a distance of 151 miles. Principle tributaries include the Coweman, Toutle, Tilton, Cispus, Ohanapecosh and the Clear Fork. The Toutle River is the largest, draining 512 square miles and enters the Cowlitz River at RM 20.0. The Cispus River (RM 89.8) is the most significant tributary in the upper Basin and drains 433 square miles. The mainstem above the confluence of the Cispus-Cowlitz River drains 609 square acres. The eastern part of the Cowlitz River valley is characterized by a deeply cut trough and flat bottomlands, terraces, and broad plains. To the north and south of the valley, the uplands have rugged mountainous topography, modified by glacial activity and drained by rivers that trend generally westward. Landscape characteristics include, long steep slopes and relatively straight, parallel drainage-ways. The western portion of the Cowlitz River valley lies within the northern end of the Puget-Willamette Lowlands, and has moderate relief with a broad floodplain where elevations seldom exceed 500 feet. -- NOAA Office of Coast Survey Website, 2003, Washington State Historical Society Website, 2002, Dinehart, et.al., 1981, and Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority Website, 2002 Geology of the Cowlitz River Basin: The Cowlitz River originates in the volcanic peaks of the Southern Cascade Mountains. The river flows west through a valley heavily influenced by alpine glaciers, then turns south and flows between the Cascades and the Willapa Hills to the Columbia River. The upper Cowlitz Basin (located in Washington's southern Cascades) are made up primarily of andesite and basalt flows and associated breccias and tuffs. Areas adjacent to volcanic peaks are generally mantled with pumice deposits. The runoff from portions of Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens drains into the Cowlitz River. These normally inactive volcanoes have helped shape the geography of the area. The eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980 sent a tidal wave of melted ice and pulverized rock down the Toutle Valley into the Cowlitz River, and carried so much of this coarse sandy material and debris all the way to the Columbia River that dredging was required to clear the channel before river shipping could be resumed. Large scale removal of this volcanic material in the Cowlitz River began at the lower end of the Toutle River by July, 1980 and continued on down the Cowlitz River until engineers were reasonably confident that the cleared channel could handle expected winter flows without topping dikes and flooding Castle Rock, Longview and Kelso. A dam to control sediment was then constructed further up the Toutle River by the Corp of Engineers to prevent the re-silting of the dredged sections. The lower half of the basin is generally comprised of Eocene basalt flows and flow breccia. During the Pleistocene (3 million years to 8,000 years ago) several alpine glaciers moved down the Cowlitz River valley depositing till and outwash (glacial river sand and gravel deposits). These glaciers, 1000 feet thick or more, cut down into the former river channel and underlying bedrock. At least six alpine glacial advances have been documented. Glacial outwash sands and gravels form terraces in the vicinity of the Cowlitz River and were deposited by streams from the melting alpine glaciers located up the valley. Silt-loam loess, representing windblown glacial silt, blankets large areas of the basin. The thickness of the loess varies from a few feet to 20 feet. Following deposition of the youngest glacial deposits, approximately 13,000 to 25,000 years ago, the Cowlitz River eroded and reworked the glacial deposits. The resulting alluvial deposits range from coarse boulders to cobbly gravel to fine sand and silty sand. Thick alluvium is generally confined to the area of the immediate Cowlitz River flood plain. -- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 1947, Dinehart, et.al., 1981, and Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority Website, 2002 
River Drainages of Mount Rainier:
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| We halted for dinner on the island [Cottonwood Island], but the red wood and green briars are so interwoven with the pine, alder, ash, a species of beech, and other trees, that the woods form a thicket, which our hunters could not penetrate. |
| Lewis and Clark are passing areas where today are located the cities of Longview, Washington (on the right bank) and Rainier, Oregon (on the left bank). |
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Columbia River, Cowlitz County, Washington:
Longview, Washington: Located at the confluence of the Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers (River Mile 57), Longview is a relatively new city with a short but remarkable history. Less than seventy-five years ago, the area where Longview now stands was sparsely populated wilderness and rural homesteads. The first written account of the area can be found in the journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition which camped beside the "Cow-elis-kee" or Cowlitz River in 1805. In 1849, pioneeers began to arrive in this area to settle along the river. Harry Huntington named the settlement "Monticello" in honor of Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia. In 1852, people from all over what was to become Washington state gathered in Monticello to draft a memorial to Congress. The memorial expressed their desire to be granted statehood under the name of Columbia. This meeting came to be known as the Monticello Convention. The desires of the Convention were met favorably in Congress, but it was decided that a state named Columbia might be confused with the preexisting District of Columbia. The state was instead named Washington in honor of our first president. Today, a monument to the Monticello Convention stands not far from the Longview Civic Center. Longview city was the dream of Robert Alexander Long, a midwestern businessman whose holdings included the Long-Bell Lumber Company. This firm in 1918 claimed to be the largest lumber retailer and manufacturer in the United States. With southern timber stands vanishing quickly, Long redirected his effort to tapping the Pacific Northwest's abundant old-growth forest. Part of Long's vision was the planned city of Longview. -- NOAA Office of Coast Survey Website, 2003, City of Longview Website, 2003, and U.S. Library of Congress, American Memories Website, 2003
Rainier, Oregon:
Rainier, Oregon: Rainier, named for Mount Rainier, which is often visible to the northeast [see below], was an important stop in the days of river commerce. The town was founded by Charles E. Fox in 1851. First called Eminence, its name was later changed to Fox's Landing and finally to Rainier. In 1854 F.M. Warren erected a large steam sawmill and began producing lumber for the homes and other buildings of the settlers. Rainier was incorporated in 1885. -- Oregon State Archives Website, 2002 |
| Connecting Longview, Washington, and Rainier, Oregon, is the Lewis and Clark Bridge. |
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Lewis and Clark Bridge:
Lewis and Clark Bridge: Completed in 1930, the Lewis and Clark Bridge (Longview-Rainier Bridge) spans the Columbia River between Longview, Washington and Rainier, Oregon. At the time of construction this bridge was the longest cantilever span in North America with its 1,200-feet central section. -- U.S. Library of Congress, American Memories Website, 2003 |
| Had the day been clear, Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens would have been visible from the Oregon side of the Columbia River. |
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Mount Rainier:
Mount St. Helens:
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| Below the mouth of the Coweliske [Cowlitz River] a very remarkable knob [Mount Coffin] rises from the water's edge to the height of eighty feet, being two hundred paces round the base; and as it is in a low part of the island, and some distance from the high grounds, the appearance of it is very singular. |
| "... pasd. a remarkable Knob of high land on the Stard. Side at 3 miles ..." [Clark, November 6, 1805, first draft] |
| "... I had like to have forgotten a verry remarkable Knob riseing from the edge of the water to about 80 feet high, and about 200 paces around at its Base and Situated on the long narrow Island above and nearly opposit to the 2 Lodges we passed to day, it is some distance from the high land & in a low part of the Island ..." [Clark, November 6, 1805] |
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Mount Coffin:
Marked as "Knob," a descriptive notation, on the route map, the large rock was observed by the corps as they hurried toward the Pacific Ocean. The "remarkable knob" was used by the natives for interment of their dead and was noted by other earlier travelers on the river. The 240-foot basalt landmark was leveled for its gravel during port construction at Longview, Washington. Mount Coffin was the name given by Broughton in 1792 because of several Indians being buried in canoes in the vicinity. Captain Clark's wording gives the impression that the rock was on an island, but its historic location is on the mainland in the area of Longview, just downstream from the mouth of the Cowlitz River. Clark's estimate of 80 feet was considerably short of it's height when it existed. Beginning in the early 1900's Mount Coffin was extensively quarried and leveled. It was composed of the volcanic unit of the Eocene-age Cowlitz Formation. -- Washington State Historical Society Website, 2002, and Moulton, 1990, v.6 Coffin Rock (Columbia County, Oregon): Coffin Rock is in the Columbia River a little more than a mile north of Goble. It is so called because it was an Indian burial place. Broughton mentions it in his report on October 28, 1792. "Mr. Broughton continued to proceed against the stream, and soon passed a small rocky islet, about 20 feet above the surface of the water. Several canoes covered the top of the islet, in which dead bodies were deposited." Possibly the first use of the name "Coffin Rock" came from Coue's Henry-Thompson Journals, volume II, page 796, under date of January 11, 1814. This islet should not be confused with Mount Coffin, a point on the Washington shore west of Longview. -- MacArthur, 1982, Oregon Geographic Names |
| On setting out after dinner ...... Nine miles below that river [Cowlitz River] is a creek on the same [Coal Creek, Note: this Biddle/Allen quotation says 9 miles apart, Thwaites and Moulton editions say 6 miles, and Clark's Journey Log says nothing]; and between them three smaller islands; one on the left shore, the other about the middle of the river; and a third near the lower end of the long narrow island [Cottonwood Island], and opposite a high cliff of black rocks on the left, sixteen miles from our camp. ...... |
| "... A cool wet raney morning we Set out early at 4 miles passed 2 Lodges of Indians in a Small bottom on the Lard Side I believe those Indians to be travelers. opposit is the head of a long narrow Island close under the Starboard Side, back of this Island two Creeks fall in about 6 miles apart, and appear to head in the high hilley countrey to the N. E. opposit this long Island is 2 others one Small and about the middle of the river the other larger and nearly opposit its lower point, and opposit a high clift of Black rocks on the Lard. Side at 14 miles ..." [Clark, November 6, 1805] |
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| High Cliffs of Black Rocks: |
| At these cliffs the mountains, which had continued high and rugged on the left, retired from the river, and as the hills on the other side had left the water at the Coweliske, [Cowlitz River], a beautiful extensive plain now presented itself before us: [beginning of the flood plain of the Clatskanie River. On their map, Lewis and Clark call this "Fannys Valley"] |
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Clatskanie River:
Clatskanie River: The Clatskanie River is a tributary of the Beaver Slough, which enters Wallace Slough near the southeast end of Wallace Island. Wallace Slough is at Columbia River Mile 41, south of Wallace Island. Beaver and Wallace Sloughs are used by fishing boats and house floats. The town of Clatskanie was named after the Tlatskanai tribe of American Indian, who lived in the hills south of the Clatskanie River in the upper Nehalem Valley. The Tlatskanai, linguistically an Athapascan tribe, originally lived in the flat lands bordering the Chehalis River in Washington State. As game became scarce and their food supply diminished, they left the area, heading south, and crossed the Columbia River to occupy the hills traditionally occupied by the Chinook Indians, who were a large Indian tribe living along the Oregon Coast. After driving away the more peaceful Chinook Indians, the Tlatskanai established themselves within the Clatskanie-Westport area, and extended their numbers into the head of the Nehalem. The word "Tlatskanai" was used by these Indians to denote the route they took to get to a particular meeting place, applying to particular steams and not to others. White men carelessly applied this work to the name of the stream. One source lists "Tlatskanai" as meaning "swift running water." The Clatskanie is indeed a swift beautiful stream. Other names that existed for the Tlatskanai were the Clackstar, Klatskanai and Klaatshan, among others. -- NOAA Office of Coast Survey Website, 2003, and Clatskanie Chamber of Commerce Website, 2003 |
| for a few miles we passed along side of an island a mile in width and three miles long [Crims Island. Lewis and Clark later name this island "Fannys Island"], below which is a smaller island, where the high rugged hills, thickly covered with timber, border the right bank of the river, and terminate the low grounds: these were supplied with common rushes, grass, and nettles; in the moister parts with bullrushes and flags, and along the water's edge some willows. ...... |
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Crims Island:
Crims Island: Broughton discovered Crims Island and nearby islets in the Columbia River on October 26, 1792, and named them Bakers Islands for second lieutenant of Vancouver's ship 'Discovery'. Lewis and Clark named this island Fannys Island, in honor of Frances, William Clark's youngest sister. Wilkes gives the name Gull Island. James F. Crim took up a homestead on the island and received his patent February 10, 1871. The U.S. Board of Geographic Names adopted the name Crims Island on October 5, 1927. With the lapse of time Wilkes' name Gull Island has become transferred to a small isle north of the west end of Crims Island. -- McArthur, 1982, Oregon Geographic Names |
| After crossing the plain and making five miles, we proceeded through the hills for eight miles. The river is about a mile in width, and the hills so steep [vicinity of Eagle Cliff, Washington side] that we could not for several miles find a place sufficiently level to sufer us to sleep in a level position: at length, by removing the large stones, we cleared a place fit for our purpose above the reach of the tide, and after a journey of twenty-nine miles slept among the smaller stones under a mountain to the right [Washington side between Eagle Cliff and Cape Horn]. |
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Eagle Cliff:
In 1866, the first cannery on the Columbia River was built at Eagle Cliff, Washington Territory by the Hume Brothers. -- Clatsop County Historical Society Website, 2003 Cape Horn: Not to be confused with the large basalt cliffs near Washougal, Washington. |
| The weather was rainy during the whole day; we therefore made large fires to dry our bedding and to kill the fleas, who have accumulated upon us at every old village we have passed. |
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The Camp - November 6, 1805:
On the Washington side of the Columbia River, between Eagle Cliff and Cape Horn, across from Wallace Island. |
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