Astoria, Oregon
Astoria and its surrounds are steeped in America's earliest claims to the Old Oregon Country, and we visited all these anchor points in the development of our young nation. At day's end Sea Lion carried us on Columbia River's ebb tide to the edge of its notorious bar. Capt. Robert Gray, trading out of Boston to this coast for sea otter pelts in 1792, was the first to cross this bar. He named the long-sought River of the West for his ship Columbia Rediviva. This gave the U.S. its first tenuous claim on the Pacific Coast.
We began our day's journey in the Columbia River Maritime Museum where Spanish, British, French, Russian and American rivalries on this far coast are also depicted. We bused from the Museum to Fort Clatsop, 1805-06 winter quarters for our Corps of Discovery on reaching the Pacific Ocean. On the return to the ship for lunch we visited the 125-foot high Astor Column erected by the Northern Pacific Railroad and the heirs of John Jacob Astor in 1926 to commemorate the 1811 founding of Astor's ill-fated Pacific Fur Company outpost. Although taken over by Canadians of the Northwest Company, Astor's endeavor added to our claims. Astoria is the oldest American city west of the Rocky Mountains. It stretches along a peninsula, Coxcomb Hill, which overlooks the mighty Columbia where it meets the Pacific.
After lunch we bused across the four-mile long Astoria-Megler Bridge to the Washington shore and west to Cape Disappointment where the lighthouse that signals mariners with its long red and white flash has protected mariners since 1856. It is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the West Coast. In the lee of this cape Capt. Gray anchored to trade with the powerful Chinook tribe. And here the U.S. Coast Guard operates its national lifeboat training station.
Captain William Clark also stood on the very spot we hiked to atop Cape Disappointment, today. It was Nov. 18, 1805, and the completion of the journey to the Pacific. He wrote: "the men appear much satisfied with their trip beholding with astonishment the high waves dashing against the rocks and this immense ocean."
Astoria and its surrounds are steeped in America's earliest claims to the Old Oregon Country, and we visited all these anchor points in the development of our young nation. At day's end Sea Lion carried us on Columbia River's ebb tide to the edge of its notorious bar. Capt. Robert Gray, trading out of Boston to this coast for sea otter pelts in 1792, was the first to cross this bar. He named the long-sought River of the West for his ship Columbia Rediviva. This gave the U.S. its first tenuous claim on the Pacific Coast.
We began our day's journey in the Columbia River Maritime Museum where Spanish, British, French, Russian and American rivalries on this far coast are also depicted. We bused from the Museum to Fort Clatsop, 1805-06 winter quarters for our Corps of Discovery on reaching the Pacific Ocean. On the return to the ship for lunch we visited the 125-foot high Astor Column erected by the Northern Pacific Railroad and the heirs of John Jacob Astor in 1926 to commemorate the 1811 founding of Astor's ill-fated Pacific Fur Company outpost. Although taken over by Canadians of the Northwest Company, Astor's endeavor added to our claims. Astoria is the oldest American city west of the Rocky Mountains. It stretches along a peninsula, Coxcomb Hill, which overlooks the mighty Columbia where it meets the Pacific.
After lunch we bused across the four-mile long Astoria-Megler Bridge to the Washington shore and west to Cape Disappointment where the lighthouse that signals mariners with its long red and white flash has protected mariners since 1856. It is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the West Coast. In the lee of this cape Capt. Gray anchored to trade with the powerful Chinook tribe. And here the U.S. Coast Guard operates its national lifeboat training station.
Captain William Clark also stood on the very spot we hiked to atop Cape Disappointment, today. It was Nov. 18, 1805, and the completion of the journey to the Pacific. He wrote: "the men appear much satisfied with their trip beholding with astonishment the high waves dashing against the rocks and this immense ocean."
