bobanddenisewanderlust

I finished my 4^th article and emailed it off. Around 10, we drove north again to Ft. Clatsop. This is where the Lewis and Clark expedition wintered in the winter of 1805-06; they spent about 4 months there.  They arrived in November and had the fort built by Dec 31. The fort we were visiting was a replica, built in 2006, after the previous one burned to the ground, a few years before. The replica is built to the exact specification that Meriwether Lewis drew in his notes. We started at the Visitor Center. We just missed the start of the movie, so we wandered out to the fort, where ‘John’ was giving a presentation on rifles and muskets.

Here is John putting in ear protectors and putting on safety glasses.

It was interesting, with him even firing off a musket! One of the stories he told us was about Merriwether Lewis going to Harpers Ferry to order the rifles and muskets for the trip. Since the gunpowder cannot get wet, and they were going to be traveling by canoe a lot, and canoes tip over, he invented a lead, waterproof container. Here is what one looked like. It is inside a bucket, just to be carried, and it has a cork in one end with wax around it to maintain the waterproof aspect. 

They loaded the powder into the container, then when they used the gunpowder, they melted down the container, to make the musket balls.

Then we wandered through the fort. Even though they were living peaceably with the Indians, they still posted a guard and closed the gates. At the back was a short walk to the spring, but we couldn’t see anything due to the heavy foliage.

The fort itself, housed 29 people, including the soldiers and civilians. Walking into the fort, the first room on the right was the family room.

This housed Toussaint Charbonneau (the interpreter), his wife Sacagawea, and their infant son Jean Baptiste. The second room was the captain’s quarters,

and the third room was the orderly room, and the final room on that side was the ‘storer’ room,

where the supplies were kept, with only a door to the inside.  On the opposite side of the fort were 3 larger rooms which housed the enlisted men.

This was a work area, outside the fort.

It rained everyday they were there, so the weather is pretty much what we have had, except colder!

We returned to the Visitor Center to view the movie, which was fascinating. It showed how the expedition was started, the traveling, the problems, and finally them arriving at the Pacific Ocean. Captains. Lewis and Clark, were good friends who had served together in the army. Lewis was like a son to Thomas Jefferson, who had commissioned the expedition.

We returned to the motor home for lunch. The sun was shining, so we went for a bike ride on “The Prom”.  That was a fun ride, only about 1.5 miles each way. This the northern part of ‘The Prom. ‘

There were a lot of people on the beach, since the sun was shining. Of course, no one goes in the water, they just play on the sandy beach. When we returned to the Thousand Trails, we rode our bikes around the park. We ran into the couple that we met at Whalers Rest two weeks ago, who had arrived yesterday. We invited them to happy hour, but they already had a different invitation.

At 4:30, Mary Jo, Milan, and the other couple, whose names we still cannot remember, came to our motor home for happy hour. We had a nice time visiting, and the dogs really enjoyed all the snacks Milan was sneaking to them! We packed up as we are leaving in the morning. We have really enjoyed our time here!

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