In the Footsteps of Lewis and Clark (13 page)

From the summit of Lolo Pass, the trail proceeds along high mountain ridges—occasionally above the timberline—and past numerous peaks. The men ate horsemeat and powdered soup to survive, nearing starvation before emerging from the mountains onto a broad, rolling plain and practically falling into the laps of Nez Perce Indians camped near the present-day towns of Weippe and Pierce, Idaho. This is rolling prairie, bordered by timbered mountains and cut by chasms formed by the Clearwater River and its forks. Covered at that time by grass meadow broken by patches of pine trees, the Weippe Prairie and the similar Camas Prairie south and west of the Clearwater canyons are now largely planted to grain.

The Nez Perce, called “Chopunnish” by Lewis and Clark, inhabited villages along the Clearwater, Salmon, and other tributaries of the Snake River and in the Wallawa Valley of northeastern Oregon. Their
food-gathering and hunting area included the Blue Mountains to the west, the Bitterroot Range to the east, and the rolling prairie plateaus in between. They seasonally harvested a variety of berries, roots, and the bulbs of the camas flower to process and preserve, and they also fished for salmon. Similar to the Shoshone, the Nez Perce occasionally ventured eastward to the plains to hunt buffalo, although they also lacked the armaments necessary to protect them from the Blackfeet, Crows, and Hidatsas. Well-worn trails through the Bitterroots, including those taken by the expedition, attested to numerous such journeys. The depleted members of the Corps of Discovery could have done little to prevent the Nez Perce party they encountered on the Weippe Prairie from taking their weapons and ammunition. Tribal tradition maintained that an elderly woman (Watkuweis), who had been well treated by whites after they retrieved her from being a slave of the Blackfeet, begged the warriors to spare the men of the expedition. But Chief Twisted Hair and other Nez Perce leaders also likely hoped for a future steady supply of weapons from U.S. traders.
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After recovering from their ordeal, the members of the expedition dropped down into the canyon of the Clearwater River near Orofino, Idaho, and built five canoes, leaving their horses in the care of the Nez Perce and Chief Twisted Hair. On October 7 the expedition set out on water for the first time since leaving Camp Fortunate. From the mouth of the North Fork of the Clearwater, the group proceeded west to the Snake River at the sites of Lewiston, Idaho, and Clarkston, Washington. The Snake River took them through a segment of the route now flooded by slack water from the Lower Granite and Little Goose dams. Although one canoe struck rocks and was lost, the party made it to the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers, at a point just east of the Tri-Cities in Washington, without serious incident. In this vicinity the expedition encountered the villages of the Walula (Walla Walla), Yakima, and Umatilla Indians. Bands of these plateau tribes were harvesting sea-run salmon—their main food supply—and drying the fish in large stacks. The meetings were amicable, particularly with the Walulas, whose Chief Yellepit enthusiastically welcomed the explorers.
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After hooking southeast in a bend at this point, the Columbia River turns generally westward between the Horse Heaven Hills to the north and the Blue Mountains to the south. Black basalt bluffs rise above both banks of the river, and before irrigation the region was dominated by dry grasslands, juniper, and sagebrush. But just west of The Dalles, Oregon, the Columbia narrows and deepens as it cuts a spectacular gorge through the Cascade Mountains. Above the soaring cliffs the mountains are green with fir and other coniferous trees. From the crest of the Cascades to the Pacific Coast the heavy rainfall has produced thick forests replete with the huge Sitka spruce and Douglas fir trees Lewis marked with astonishment in his journal entries. Today, Interstate 84 follows the south bank of the Columbia from near Hermiston, Oregon, to Portland. Washington State Highway 14 parallels the route on the north bank. Working its way down the Columbia River in late October, the Corps of Discovery was forced to negotiate dangerous rapids at several points, particularly in approaching The Dalles. Celilo Falls near Wishram, Washington, and the Short and Long narrows, which comprised The Dalles, could only be passed by portaging and guiding the dugout canoes with ropes from the bank.

Fig 2.7
Clearwater River west of Orofino, Idaho, near the spot where the expedition built new dugout canoes for the journey to and down the Columbia River, for which it departed on October 7, 1805. Photo by Peg Owens. Courtesy, Idaho Department of Commerce.

Fig 2.8
Columbia River east of the gorge. Photo by Jeffrey Phillip Curry. Courtesy, Jeffrey Phillip Curry.

On October 23, assisted by Indians who fished for salmon from the rock islands, the expedition portaged around Celillo—long called the “Great Falls” of the Columbia—on the north side. Here the group found the great commercial marketplace of the Columbia, presided over by the Wishram Indians on the north bank and the Wasco on the south, where goods from the Pacific coastal region were traded for those from the inland plateau. Not far downstream lay the Short and Long narrows. A day after completing the Celilo portage, the party observed two stretches at which the river was suddenly confined by enormous rocks. The first, a quarter mile long, funneled the entire river through a 45-yard channel. The second, the Long Narrows, William Clark noted as 50 to 100 yards wide, swelling and boiling “with a most Tremendeous manner” over a distance of about three miles. [V, 329] The dugouts and most of the baggage had to be ridden through both of these chutes, as the portage path
along the rock faces was narrow. The narrows were not the last river obstacles the group faced. On the first two days of November the party encountered a long series of rapids and chutes, the Cascades, which required similar time-consuming handling of canoes and portaging of supplies.
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Past the present site of Hood River, Oregon, into the Columbia Gorge, the dry country gave way to timber and green undergrowth as the Corps of Discovery entered the coastal climatic zone. The explorers gazed with wonder at landmarks that today are among the main attractions of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area: Beacon Rock, Rooster Rock, Phoca (Seal) Rock, and Multnomah Falls. At Vancouver, Washington, north of Portland, Oregon, the Columbia River turns to the north and then, near Longview, Washington, west once more to the Pacific. By November 7, near Pillar Rock, the expedition was close enough to the mouth of the Columbia to hear ocean breakers. In his journal Clark wrote, “Great joy in camp we are in
View
of the
Ocian.
” [VI, 33, 34n9] But what they were actually seeing was the wide Columbia estuary; there was still some distance to travel. At Chinook Point on the Washington side the expedition beached its canoes and sent exploratory parties out along the shore of Baker's Bay (“Haley's Bay”) to the hook-like peninsula dubbed “Cape Disappointment” and through the vicinity of Ilwaco and Long Beach.

The company, whose members—including Sacagawea and York—voted on the issue, elected to spend the winter of 1805–1806 not in Baker's Bay but instead across the estuary on the banks of the Netul (now Lewis and Clark) River, south of Astoria, Oregon. There they built Fort Clatsop and made forays to the ocean's coast near Cannon Beach and Seaside to see a beached whale and to set up a salt works to produce salt from seawater. Bad weather, much of which was rain or fog, plagued them and made it difficult to preserve game. To acquire game, in fact, they had to range further and further from Fort Clatsop. Much of their food, including wappato roots and fatty “candle fish,” had to be obtained by trading with the local Clatsop Indian tribe. Other Chinookian-speaking peoples in the vicinity included the tribe Lewis and Clark called the Wahiakkums, north of the Columbia estuary, and the Tillamooks down the coast to the south of Fort Clatsop. But the members of the Corps of Discovery found trading with the Clatsops more congenial.

Fig 2.9
Columbia River estuary, seen from a hill above Astoria, Oregon. The expedition followed the Washington shoreline when it arrived in early November 1805. On the left can be seen Chinook Point, on the distant horizon Cape Disappointment, and in the middle ground the Astoria Bridge connecting Oregon and Washington. Photo by Jeffrey Phillip Curry. Courtesy, Jeffrey Phillip Curry.