Astoria, Oregon
The Graveyard of the Pacific, the second hardest river bar crossing in the world, and the winter home to Lewis and Clark are just a few of the claims made about the mouth of the Columbia River. Here the great Columbia rolls out to clash with the waves from the Pacific. It is here too that four Pacific salmon species must recognize the entrance to the river of their birth and head back upstream to spawn. Many of them travel over 500 miles to reach their spawning streams in Idaho.
Since 1792, when Robert Gray and his ship Columbia Rediviva first entered and charted the mouth of the Columbia, 2000 ships have wrecked in the area. Today for ships entering or leaving the river, the Columbia River Bar Pilot Association provides a specially trained pilot as a guide. The Columbia River Maritime Museums displays of maritime life through the years include the Lightship Columbia—a manned boat that acted as a lighthouse while anchored in place at the entrance to the river. It helped ensure safe passage for the ships that entered the channel. When it was retired 1979, it was the last lightship in operation in the US.
We, like Lewis and Clark, were content remaining inside the mouth of the river.Lewis and Clark chose the Oregon side of the river due to the shelter it provided from the storms and crashing waves. Still, it would have been a challenge to spend the winter in the small, damp, cramped, reconstructed Fort Clatsop that we visited this morning. The western red cedars and sitka spruce gave us some shelter from the rain, but the damp chill kept reminding us that we were in a temperate rain forest that had just begun the rainy season.
The Graveyard of the Pacific, the second hardest river bar crossing in the world, and the winter home to Lewis and Clark are just a few of the claims made about the mouth of the Columbia River. Here the great Columbia rolls out to clash with the waves from the Pacific. It is here too that four Pacific salmon species must recognize the entrance to the river of their birth and head back upstream to spawn. Many of them travel over 500 miles to reach their spawning streams in Idaho.
Since 1792, when Robert Gray and his ship Columbia Rediviva first entered and charted the mouth of the Columbia, 2000 ships have wrecked in the area. Today for ships entering or leaving the river, the Columbia River Bar Pilot Association provides a specially trained pilot as a guide. The Columbia River Maritime Museums displays of maritime life through the years include the Lightship Columbia—a manned boat that acted as a lighthouse while anchored in place at the entrance to the river. It helped ensure safe passage for the ships that entered the channel. When it was retired 1979, it was the last lightship in operation in the US.
We, like Lewis and Clark, were content remaining inside the mouth of the river.Lewis and Clark chose the Oregon side of the river due to the shelter it provided from the storms and crashing waves. Still, it would have been a challenge to spend the winter in the small, damp, cramped, reconstructed Fort Clatsop that we visited this morning. The western red cedars and sitka spruce gave us some shelter from the rain, but the damp chill kept reminding us that we were in a temperate rain forest that had just begun the rainy season.
