Fort Clatsop (Lewis & Clark National Historical Park)

Fort Clatsop National Memorial, part of Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, preserves the site where the Corps of Discovery built their winter encampment near the mouth of the Columbia River, spending the winter of 1805–1806 before returning east to St. Louis. The site is located 5 miles south of Astoria in Clatsop County, Oregon, named for the Clatsop Nation whose homeland surrounded the camp. The Corps — comprising approximately 33 people including Sacagawea, her infant son Jean-Baptiste, and enslaved man York — constructed a small log fortification of two facing rows of rooms shortly after reaching the Pacific Coast. They remained at Fort Clatsop for 106 rainy days, hunting elk, making salt from Pacific seawater at a camp near present-day Seaside, preparing expedition journals, and trading with local Clatsop and Chinook peoples. A full-scale replica of the original fort based on Clark's own floor plan sketch was first built in 1955; after fire destroyed that structure in 2005, a new historically accurate replica was completed in 2006 using period construction methods and materials. The replica serves as the primary interpretive focus, and from June through Labor Day, National Park Service rangers in period dress demonstrate skills practiced by the Corps including rifle cleaning, hide tanning, and fire-making. The park's visitor center displays Lewis and Clark journals, expedition artifacts, and exhibits on the Clatsop and Chinook peoples whose cooperation was essential to the expedition's survival. Several hiking trails extend through coastal rainforest from the main fort site, including the 6.5-mile Heritage Trail to the Netul River landing.