Lewis and Clark National Historical Park ⓘ

When Lewis and Clark reached the northwest tip of what is now Oregon in 1805 they found some 400 Clatsop living in several villages on the southern side of the Columbia River and south down the Pacific Coast to Tillamook Head. Their neighbors, the Chinook, lived on the northern banks of the Columbia and on the Pacific Coast, while the Nehalem, the northernmost band of the Tillamook, lived on the Oregon coast at Tillamook Head south to Kilchis Point. They were all wealthy and shrewd traders, masterful canoe builders, with few enemies, and they treated Lewis and Clark with "extrodeanary friendship." The captains found the tribal people talkative, inquisitive, intelligent, and possessing excellent memories of trading ships visiting the area. The tribes used a trade jargon, a mixture of several tribal languages, to communicate with other tribes in a vast trade network from Alaska in the north, down the Pacific Coast, and up the Columbia River to the east. The trade language, originating with the Nootka (Nuu-Chuh-Nuth) people in the north, included Chehalis, Nisqually, Lummi, Makah, Kathlamet, Chinook, Clatsop, Kalapuya, and other tribal languages. English words were added after contact with 18th century mariners. When supplemented with sign language, Lewis and Clark were able to communicate with all the coastal people. The trade language is known today as the Chinook Jargon.

The Corps of Discovery wintered at Fort Clatsop from December 7, 1805, until March 23, 1806. During that time, Clatsop and Chinook Indians, whom Clark described as close bargainers, came to the fort almost daily to visit and trade. The captains wrote often in their journals of these tribes’ appearances, habits, living conditions, lodges and abilities as hunters and fishermen.

Friendly relations prevailed between the Clatsop and the explorers through-out the winter. When the Corps departed on March 23, 1806, Lewis and Clark left the fort and all of its furnishings to Coboway, one of the Clatsop leaders, who “has been much more kind an[d] hospitable to us than any other Indian in this neighbourhood.”

The explorers started up the Missouri River from near St. Louis on May 14, 1804. After a tedious journey of five months, they wintered at Fort Mandan, which they built near the Mandan native american villages 1,600 miles up the Missouri. Here they acquired the interpreting services of Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trader, and his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea, accompanied by their infant son, Jean Baptiste.

In April 1805 the Corps of Discovery left Fort Mandan and followed the Missouri and its upper branches into an unknown world. Along the Lemhi River, in what is now Idaho, Sacagawea's people provided horses and a guide for the grueling trip over the Continental Divide. In November 1805, after some 600 miles of water travel down the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers, they finally sighted the Pacific.

Within 10 days of arriving on the coast, Lewis and Clark decided to leave their storm-bound camp on the north shore and cross the river, where elk were reported to be plentiful. Lewis, with a small party, scouted ahead and found a "most eligible" site for winter quarters. On December 10, 1805, the men began to build a fort about two miles up the Netul River (now Lewis and Clark River). By Christmas Day they were under shelter. They named the fort for the friendly local native american tribe, the Clatsop. It would be their home for the next three months.

The National Park Service is grouped into 32 Inventory and Monitoring networks across the country which are tasked with gathering and analyzing information on park resources. In 2018, each network created a short film to showcase some of the science that is being done in our parks. For the North Coast Cascades Network, some of the monitoring work being conducted at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park was chosen as the subject of this short film. Park staff assisted filmmaker Michael Durham and NCCN I&M Program Manager Dr. Mark Huff in the creation of this film. In it, we highlight the traditions of scientific observation and data collection that began here with the journals of Lewis and Clark and continue today through the use of modern technologies.

There is a high diversity of fungi in the park thanks to the wet and moderate climate and variety of habitats in the area.

Natural resources park rangers participate in long term monitoring of water, weather, plants and wildlife at the park.

The park's habitat diversity ranges from coastal rainforest to riparian and estuarine marsh, shrub, and swamp wetlands.

Lewis and Clark NHP has ongoing restoration projects for tidal wetlands, estuaries, dune prairie and forests.

The park has a high number of resident and migratory birds due to its diversity of habitats and its location on the Pacific flyway within the Columbia River Estuary International Bird Area. This region supports migrating birds breeding, wintering, and stopovers as well as supports diverse resident bird populations. The rich, diverse intertidal habitat is used by shorebirds year-round but is particularly important during shorebird migration. Each spring, on their migration northward, 20,000 shorebirds stop to rest and feed. Caspian terns ( Hydroprogne caspia ) are the largest terns in the world. The colony of terns on East Sand Island off of the coast of Cape Disappointment is the largest colony in North America. In the past two decades, that colony has been home to about 12,000 – 20,000 Caspian terns. Endangered brown pelicans ( Pelecanus occidentalis californicus ) may be seen flying in formation over the offshore waters of the park's coastal units in late summer. Bald eagles ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) can often be seen in flight or perching along the Lewis and Clark River. Osprey ( Pandion haliaetus ), hawks, herons, migrating shorebirds, wintering waterfowl, and numerous songbirds also frequent the park's wetlands. Band-tailed pigeons ( Patagioenas fasciata ) and olive-sided flycatchers ( Contopus borealis ), two federal species of concern, seasonally inhabit the park's coniferous forests along with resident pileated woodpeckers ( Dryocopus pileatus ), and several owl species.

The North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) Inventory & Monitoring Program has been monitoring landbird populations at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park since 2008. Learn more about this program and read about our findings on the NCCN Bird Monitoring Website . For a complete bird list, see NPSpecies .

More than 250 species of vascular plants and 68 of mosses and liverworts have been documented during recent surveys, and most are represented in the park herbarium. The various park units contain a diversity of habitats that provide niches for a wide variety of plant species.

The Sitka spruce vegetation zone forms a narrow band along the Pacific Northwest coast from southeastern Alaska to northern California. The moist, temperate maritime climate and deep, humus-rich soils create ideal growing conditions for conifer trees, resulting in climax spruce-hemlock forests of lush biodiversity and trees of massive size. Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) are the park's dominant conifer species. Western red cedar (Thuja plicata), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), red alder (Alnus rubra), cascara (Rhamnus frangula), red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) and several willows (Salix species) are also common. Salal (Gaultheria shallon), huckleberries (Vaccinium species), and many ferns, mosses, liverworts, and lichens share the forest understory.

Two rare estuarine plants, flowering quillwort (Lilaea scilloides) and smallflower water pimpernel (Samolus valerandi ssp parviflorus), grow on the tidal mudflats and slough banks of the Lewis and Clark River. The Fort Clatsop unit also contains several acres of willow scrub-shrub wetlands, a habitat type that has largely disappeared from the Columbia estuary over the last century. A resident Roosevelt elk herd frequently browses this willow swamp in winter. At Cape Disappointment, coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis) is at the northern limit of its range and is the only recorded occurrence of this species in Washington state. Two other rare plants recently noted at Cape Disappointment are floating marsh pennywort (Hydrocotyle ranunculoides) and seacliff bluegrass (Poa unilateralis). Many areas of the park have a long history of agricultural and residential land use, and, consequently, there are many invasive species. An invasive species is an introduced organism that causes ecological or economic harm to a new environment. Invasive species disrupt ecological processes by outcompeting native species, reducing biodiversity, and altering habitats. Ongoing invasive species control projects target anumber of these invasive species, including Scotch broom, purple loosestrife, English ivy, holly and yellow flag iris. Check out the NPS invasive species page for more information on invasive species.

Lewis and Clark NHP is working to protect and improve the local ecosystems and the plants, animals, lichen and fungi in them.

The park's most charismatic large mammals, Roosevelt elk ( Cervus elaphus roosevelti ), figure prominently in the site's history from the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The abundance of elk was a critical factor in the party's decision to winter in the area. In February of 1806 Meriwether Lewis wrote, " the flesh of this animal is it is our principal dependance for subsistence." Today a resident herd frequents the park's forests and willow swamps during winter, and elk are often seen loafing in nearby fields in spring and summer. The North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) Inventory & Monitoring Program has been monitoring elk populations in the Fort Clatsop unit of LEWI since 2008. Learn more about this program and read about our findings on the NCCN Elk Monitoring . Other large forest mammals in the park include cougar ( Puma concolor ), bobcat ( Lynx rufus ), black bear ( Ursus americanus ), coyote ( Canis latrans ) and black-tailed deer ( Odocoileus hemionus columbianus ). In the forest, douglas squirrel ( Tamiasciurus douglasii ) and Townsend's chipmunk ( Tamias townsendii ) eat the seeds of the conifer trees leaving midden (discarded scales of cones) piled on the base of some trees. The park’s various streams, wetlands, and the Lewis and Clark River are home to North American beavers ( Castor canadensis ), river otters ( Lontra canadensis ) and muskrats ( Ondatra zibethicus). Smaller denizens of the forest include six sensitive bat species and the white-footed vole ( Arborimus albipes ), a federal species of concern. These nocturnal mammals share the canopy with northern flying squirrels ( Glaucomys sabrinus sabrinus ), western red-backed voles ( Clethrionomys californicus ) and other mature forest inhabitants.

Elk remain abundant in the region. The best viewing times are early morning and early evening, from October through April. Here’s where you can often see elk.

Near Fort Clatsop: Elk graze in the open fields between Fort Clatsop and the Astoria Airport. As you exit Fort Clatsop Road, make a left heading back to U.S. Highway 101 and Warrenton.

South of Seaside, along U.S. 101: An elk herd frequents the open fields along U.S. 101, between the south end of Seaside and the entrance to Oregon Highway 26.

Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area: The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife maintains this excellent elk-viewing site. There is ample parking, viewing areas and an interpretive talk on 530 AM radio. To reach the refuge, enter the roundabout on the Astoria end of the new Youngs Bay Bridge and take Oregon Highway 202 turn for 22 miles. From Seaside, take Oregon 26 east to the Jewell Junction and follow Oregon 202 north.

Long-term monitoring of the Roosevelt elk is essential to preserving the historical, cultural, and natural character of Lewis and Clark NHP.

The park preserves a variety of ecosystems from coastal dunes, estuarine mudflats and tidal marshes to shrub wetlands, temperate rainforests and swamps. Situated within the Sitka spruce vegetation zone, its forests are dominated by conifer trees and carpeted with a great diversity of understory shrubs, ferns and wildflowers. Giant Sitka spruce more than 100 years old and up to 36 feet in circumference can be found here. Extensive wetlands in the park include fringing salt marshes on the lower Columbia River, the tidally-influenced lower Lewis and Clark River and many low-gradient brackish sloughs and marshes. Freshwater streams and springs are numerous in park forests, and freshwater ponds are found in various habitats. These wetlands provide valuable habitat for a diversity of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. The great variety of flora and fauna in the park reflects its diversity of habitats as well as its location on the Pacific migratory flyway and proximity to the Pacific Ocean. More than 140 species of vertebrates, including at least 46 mammals, 100 birds, 10 amphibians, 3 reptiles and 20 fish pass through or make their permanent home within the park. Over 250 species of vascular plants and 68 of bryophytes have been documented in recent surveys. The park sits on the ancestral homelands of the Clatsop and Chinook peoples who have depended on the lush natural resources for their way of life. The abundant fish and diverse plants have provided the PNW peoples with food, medicine, and textiles. The park's natural resources are significant from a historic as well as a contemporary perspective. During the winter of 1805-06, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark described, sketched or collected more than three dozen of the region's plants, including evergreen huckleberry ( Vaccinium ovatum ) and salal ( Gaultheria shallon ), both new to western science. Their journal entries also documented 23 mammals, 28 birds and several fish, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates during the expedition's winter stay.