The Volcanoes of Lewis and ClarkOctober 17, 1805
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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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October 16 Reaching the "Great Columbia", Snake/Columbia Confluence |
October 17
Side-Trip Up the Columbia, Tri-Cities and the Yakima River Sacajawea State Park, Horse Heaven Hills, Columbia River, Snake River, Blue Mountains, Up the Columbia, Clover Island, Pasco-Kennewick Bridge, Bateman Island, Yakima River |
CONTINUE
October 18 Down the "Great Columbia", Snake/Columbia Confluence to Spring Gulch |
| 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 - October 1805 |
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Side-Trip Up the Columbia Tri-Cities and the Yakima River |
| The Corps of Discovery camped for two days (October 16 and 17, 1805) at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers at what is now known as Sacajawea State Park just outside Pasco on U.S. Route 12 heading towards Walla Walla. The original campsite is now under the waters of Lake Wallula, behind McNary Dam. |
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Sacajawea State Park:
Sacajawea State Park: The Corps of Discovery camped for two days (October 16 and 17, 1805) at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers at what is now known as Sacajawea State Park just outside Pasco on U.S. Route 12 heading towards Walla Walla. Sacajawea State Park is a 284-acre marine, day-use park at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers. It features 9,100 feet of freshwater shoreline. The area is spread out with a big sky and excellent views of the two rivers as they flow together. The park's lands are sand dunes interspersed with wetland ponds. The park is on the plain of the great Lake Missoula floods, which swept through the area 12,000 years ago. The property was deeded to Washington State Parks in 1931. The park is named for Sacajawea, a Shoshoni Indian woman who traveled with the Lewis and Clark expedition. The original campsite is now under the waters of Lake Wallula, behind McNary Dam. -- Washington State Parks and Recreation Website, 2002 |
| The day being fair we were occupied in making the necessary observations for determining our longitude, and obtained a meridian altitude, from which it appeared that we were in latitude 46o 15' 13";. We also measured the two rivers by angles, and found that at the junction the Columbia [Columbia River] is nine hundred and sixty yards wide, and Lewis's river [Snake River] five hundred and seventy-five; but soon after they unite, the former widens to the space of from one to three miles, including the islands. |
| "... We remained here all day for the purpose of taking an observation. ... The Columbia here is 860 yards wide, and the Ki-moo-ee-nem 475 yards. [According to Clark, October 18, 1805: "Distance across the 'Columbia' 960 3/4 yds water Distance across the 'Ki-moo-e nim' 575 yds water"] They are both very low at this place. Our course since we took water has been a few degrees south of west: here the Columbia turns to the east of south ..." [Gass, October 17, 1805] |
| "... a clear pleasant morning. we delay here this day for our officers to take observations &C. ... the River which we came down looses its name and is now Called Kimo e num the North fork which is the largest is Called the Calumbia River. Capt. Clark and 2 men went up it abt. three miles to the Indian lodges. ... and the place about these forks is verry pleasant-- and Smooth &C-- ..." [Ordway, October 17, 1805] |
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Junction of the Columbia River and Snake River:
The Columbia River before Lewis and Clark: On May 12, 1792, the American Captain Robert Gray, became the first explorer to enter the Columbia River by crossing over the sandbar that blocked its mouth. Gray sailed about 20 miles up the estuary of the river, traded with the Indians for a few days, and then left after drawing a chart of the mouth of the river. He named the river the Columbia after his ship, and claimed it for the United States. British Captain George Vancouver obtained a copy of Gray's chart from the Spanish governor at Nootka Sound and sailed to the mouth of the Columbia River in October 1792. He was unable to get his flagship Discovery over the sandbar, but Lt. William Robert Broughton succeeded with his smaller ship, the Chatham. Broughton advanced nearly 100 miles to a site opposite present-day Portland, Oregon, which he named Point Vancouver. To the east he saw a majestic mountain peak which he named Mount Hood. -- University of Virginia Library Special Collections Website, 2002 
Snake River:
The Snake River originates in Yellowstone National Park at 9,500 feet and winds through southern Idaho before turn0 feet and winds through southern Idaho before turning north to form the boundary between Idaho and Oregon. It finally joins the Columbia River near Pasco, Washington, at 340 feet in elevation, 1,036 miles from its source. How did it get its name? To identify themselves, Indians living along the river in southern Idaho used a hand sign that resembled the movement of a snake. Although it didn't mean "Snake", that name was given to this group of people, now known as Shoshone. The river flowing through the Snake Indian lands was given the tribal name. Lewis and Clark traveled through this area on their journey to find an inland waterway to the Pacific. Many miles upriver from Hells Gate State Park, the Snake River winds through Hells Canyon, one of the deepest gorges in North America. This wild and spectacular area is best visited by boat; there are no roads leading through the canyon. Old homesteads, long-forgotten prospector cabins, and Native American petroglyphs offer a fascinating human story in the midst of the spectacular scenery. -- U.S. National Park Service, Wild and Scenic Rivers Website, 2002, and Idaho State Parks and Recreation Website, 2002 |
| From the point of junction the country is a continued plain, which is low near the water, from which it rises gradually, and the only elevation to be seen is a range of high country [Horse Heaven Hills] running from the northeast towards the southwest, where it joins a range of mountains [Blue Mountains] from the southwest, and is on the opposite side about two miles from the Columbia. There is through this plain no tree and scarcely any shrub, except a few willow bushes; and even of smaller plants there is not much more than the prickly pear, which is in great abundance, and is even more thorny and troublesome than any we have yet seen. ...... |
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Horse Heaven Hills:
Like all the ridges that surround the Tri-Cities and lower Columbia Basin, the geology of the Horse Heaven Hills is a story of lava eruptions followed by buckling of the lava flows as they were squeezed from the north and south. The Columbia Plateau province is dominated by lavas of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG), which include the Grande Ronde, Wanapum, and Saddle Mountains Basalts. The basalt occurs as multiple flows, each ranging in thickness from 10 to over 100 feet. After the lavas hardened into rock, earth forces, which still operate today, compressed the region from the north and south. The rock responded by buckling into a series of ridges that trend mainly east-west. Rattlesnake Mountain, Badger Mountain, Red Mountain and the Horse Heaven Hills are some of the more familiar names of these ridges. Rattlesnake Mountain and the Horse Heaven Hills are higher than most of the ridges around here but when you take a close look at any of these ridges, the higher elevations typically are on the north side. The north side is highest because its the point where the rocks change from a north facing slope to a south facing slope. -- Morace, et.al., 1998, Steve Reidel, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Swanson and Wright, 1981 |
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Blue Mountains:
Blue Mountains: The Blue Mountains area is made up of separate "exotic terranes," areas that were created elsewhere and scooped up by North America as it moved west toward the Pacific. Fossils found in this province reveal their foreign origins. Placer and lode gold mines were active here in the past, and towns such as John Day and Baker City, together with the Sumpter gold dredge, are vivid reminders of the Blue Mountains gold mining heritage. The Blue Mountains are bordered on the north by the Columbia Basin, on the south by the Harney-Owyhee Broken Lands, and on the east by the Northern Rocky Mountains. The climate is subhumid to semiarid. The Blue Mountains were arched upward and faulted since Miocene time; subsequent rapid erosion has cut steep gorges that are separated by sharp ridges or tablelands. The area is underlain predominantly by Tertiary sedimentary and volcanic rocks, with lesser amounts of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. -- Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries Website, 2002, and Radbruch-Hall, et.al., 1982, USGS Professional Paper 1183 Geology of the Blue Mountains: The Blue Mountains are a complex of mountain ranges and intermontane basins and valleys which extend from the northeast corner of Oregon southwestward into Central Oregon near Prineville. The Blue Mountains are not a cohesive range but a cluster of smaller ranges of varying relief and orientation. The western portion of the province is part of a wide uplifted plateau, while the eastern section contains a striking array of ice sculped mountain peaks, deep canyons, and broad valleys. In Central Oregon the Ochoco Mountains form the western end of the province. The unique aspect of the Blue Mountains province is that it is a patchwork of massive pieces of the earth's crust. Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic rocks (300 to 200 million years old) were transported by the Pacific Plate and accreated to the late Mesozoic shoreline, which at that time (about a 100 million years ago) lay across what is today eastern Washington and Idaho. Following the accretion of the terranes there was a vast shallow seaway during covering much of the area during the remainder of the Mesozoic and then slow uplift began. From about 50 to 37 million years ago, eruptions of volcanoes in the western part of the province formed the Clarno Formation. From 37 to 17 million years ago eruptions in the Western Cascades spread ash across the province to form the John Day Formation. From 17 to 14 million years ago major basaltic eruptions covered much of the province with basalt flows to form the Columbia River Group. Continued faulting and uplift has resulted in a deeply eroded landscape. In Central Oregon, at the western end of the province, some deposits of middle Cretaceous age are exposed in the Mitchell area but predominately the area is made up of Tertiary volcanics of the Clarno and John Day Formations and the Columbia River Group. -- U.S. Forest Service Website, Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests, 2002 |
| The nation among which we now are call themselves Sokulks; and with them are united a few of another nation, who reside on a western branch [Yakima River], emptying itself into the Columbia a few miles above the mouth of the latter river, and whose name is Chimnapum. ...... |
| "... there is no timber of any sort except Small willow bushes in sight in any direction. from this Island the natives showed me the enterance of a large Westerly fork which they Call Tapetett at about 8 miles distant ... " [Clark, October 17, 1805] |
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Yakima River:
Yakima River: The Yakima River flows 215 miles from the outlet of Keechelus Lake in the central Washington Cascades southeasterly to the Columbia River, draining an area of 6,155 square miles. Altitude in the basin ranges from 340 feet at the mouth of the Yakima River to 8,184 feet near the headwaters. The Yakima River Basin comprises parts of the Columbia Plateau and the Cascade geologic provinces. About two-thirds of the basin, including the entire southern and eastern parts, is in the Columbia Plateau, a province that consists primarily of basalt flows with minor interbedded and overlying sediment. The western and northern margins of the basin are in the Cascade Range. -- USGS Water Resources of Oregon Website, 2002, and Morace, et.al., 1998 Geology of the Yakima River Basin: The Columbia Plateau province is dominated by lavas of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG), which include the Grande Ronde, Wanapum, and Saddle Mountains Basalts. The basalt occurs as multiple flows, each ranging in thickness from 10 to over 100 feet. Compressional forces in the Earth's crust during and after the emplacement of Columbia River Basalt Group lavas have warped and faulted the basalt into a series of east-northeast to east-southeast trending valleys and ridges. The ridges include the Horse Heaven Hills, the Rattlesnake Hills, and Toppenish, Ahtanum, Umtanum, Manastash, Nanaeum, and Yakima Ridges. Some of the lowlands between these basalt highlands have accumulated significant amounts of sediment. (Smith and others (1989) report that more than 1,000 feet of coarse-grained volcaniclastic sediment has accumulated over many parts of the Yakima River Basin.) A variety of unconsolidated surficial deposits of Quaternary age are present on the Columbia Plateau in the Yakima River Basin. These deposits include alluvial deposits along rivers and streams, alluvial terrace deposits, loess, and deposits resulting from catastrophic glacial outburst floods that inundated the lower part of the basin during the Pleistocene Epoch. These catastrophic flood deposits are present up to an altitude of about 1,000 feet in parts of the basin. The remaining one-third of the Yakima River Basin is located in the Cascade Range geologic province and includes parts of the western and northern margins of the basin. The Cascade Range mountains in the basin consist of a complex assemblage of volcanic, sedimentary, metamorphic, and intrusive rocks. -- Morace, et.al., 1998 |
| Side-Trip Up the Columbia River |
| In the course of the day captain Clarke, in a small canoe with two men, ascended the Columbia. |
| "... I took 2 men and Set out in a Small Canoe with a view to go as high up the Columbia river as the 1st forks which the Indians made Signs was but a Short distance, I set out at 2 o'Clock firs course was N.83oW 6 miles to the lower point of a Island on the Lard. Side, passed an Island in the middle of the river at 5 miles, at the head of which is a rapid not bad at this rapid 3 Lodges of mats on the Lard emenc quantites of dried fish, then West 4 miles to the Lower point of an Island on the Stard. Side, 2 lodges of Indians large and built of mats -- ... from those lodes on the Island an Indian Showed me the mouth of the river which falls in below a hgih hill on the Lard. N.80oW. 8 miles from the Island. The river bending Lard. -- This river is remarkably Clear and Crouded with Salmon in maney places ... The bottoms on the South Side as high as the Tarcouche tesse is from 1 to 2 miles wide, back of the bottoms rises to hilly countrey, the Plain is low on the North & Easte for a great distance no wood to be Seen in any direction. The Tarcouche tesse bears South of West, the Columbia N W above range of hills on the West Parrelel a range of mountains to the East which appears to run nearly North & South distance not more than 50 miles -- I returned to the point at Dusk ..." [Clark, October 17, 1805, first draft] |
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Up the Columbia:
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| At the distance of five miles he passed an island [Clover Island] in the middle of the river, at the head of which is a small and not a dangerous rapid. ...... |
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Clover Island:
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| In the early 1950s, the Pasco-Kennewick Bridge was built just upstream of Clover Island. |
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Pasco-Kennewick Bridge:
Pasco-Kennewick Bridge: Built with funds provided by the 1951 Legislature, the Pasco-Kennewick Bridge across the Columbia River connects Pasco, Washington (Franklin County), with Kennewick, Washington (Benton County). The bridge is located slightly upstream of Clover Island. -- Washington State Department of Transportation Website, 2003 |
| At the distance of four miles from the last island, came to the lower point of another near the left shore where he halted at two large mat houses [Bateman Island]. ...... |
| "... I took two men in a Small Canoe and assended the Columbia river 10 miles to an Island near the Stard. Shore on which two large Mat Lodges of Indians were drying Salmon ..." [Clark, October 17, 1805] |
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Bateman Island:
Bateman Island: Called "Riverview Island" in 1917 (see map), Bateman Island is located on the Columbia River between the cities of Richland and Kennewick, Washington. This remarkable island is classified as an urban wildlife viewing area, and has Department of Transportation highway signs use "binocular icons" to identify the area. The island is accessible via a small land-bridge and hard-packed, single-track trails make it easy to hike or mountain-bike the entire island. Bring your binoculars and discover a riparian habitat that is home to many species of migratory waterfowl, as well as native animal life. This island marks the furthest point up-river on the Columbia ever explored by the Lewis & Clark expedition. However, as a protected area, collecting, digging or exploring for American Indian artifacts is not allowed. -- Tri-Cities Visitor and Convention Bureau Website, 2002 |
| From this island they showed him the entrance of a western branch of the Columbia, called the 'Tapteal' [Yakima River], which as far as could be seen bears nearly west, and empties itself about eight miles above into the Columbia; the general course of which is northwest: towards the southwest a range of highland [Horse Heaven Hills] runs parallel to the river, at the distance of two miles on the left, while on the right side the country is low and covered with the prickly pear, and a weed or plant two or three feet high resembling whins. To the eastward is a range of mountains [Blue Mountains] about fifty or sixty miles distant, which bear north and south; but neither in the low grounds, nor in the highlands is any timber to be seen. |
| "... from this Island the natives showed me the enterance of a large Westerly fork which they Call Tapetett at about 8 miles distant, the evening being late I deturmined to return to the forks, at which place I reached at Dark. from the point up the Columbia river is N. 83o W. 6 miles to the lower point of an Island near the Lard. Side passed a Island in the middle of the river at 5 miles at the head of which is a rapid, not dangerous on the Lard Side opposit to this rapid is a fishing place ... The Waters of this river is Clear, and a Salmon may be Seen at the deabth of 15 or 20 feet. ..." [Clark, October 17, 1805, early on in narrative, final draft] |
| "... from those Lodges the natives Showed me the mouth of 'Tap teel' River about 8 miles above on the west Side this western fork appears to beare nearly West, The main Columbia river N W. -- a range of high land to the S W and parralal to the river and at the distance of 2 miles on the Lard. Side, the countrey low on the Stard. Side, and all Coverd. with a weed or plant about 2 & three feet high and resembles the whins. I can proceive a range of mountains to the East which appears to bare N. & South distant about 50 or 60 miles. no wood to be Seen in any derection ..." [Clark, October 17, 1805, later in narrative, final draft] |
| The evening coming on he determined not to proceed further than the island and therefore returned to camp. ...... |
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The Camp - October 16 and 17, 1805:
The Corps of Discovery camped for two days at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers at what is now known as Sacajawea State Park just outside Pasco on U.S. Route 12 heading towards Walla Walla. [See October 16, 1805 entry for more on Sacajawea State Park] |
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