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Clatsop County was established on June 22, 1844 from the
original Tuality district. The county has 1,085 square miles. 873 square
miles of land; 212 square miles of water. Bordered on the north by the
Columbia River, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and with the verdant
Oregon Coast range. More information
about demographics is available from the
Population Research Center at
Portland State University
or the
U.S. Census.
Astoria is Oregon's oldest
city and the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies is the Clatsop
County seat . Astoria was
established as a fur trading post in 1811 by a party commissioned by John
Jacob Astor. The first U.S. Post Office west of the Rockies was
established here in 1847.
Oregon's provisional government created Clatsop County out of the northern
and western portions of Tuality District on June 22, 1844. Five days later
all of Clatsop County north of the Columbia River was used to create
Vancouver County, in what is now Washington. The Provisional and
Territorial Legislatures further defined Clatsop County's boundaries in
1845 and 1853. The county currently occupies an area of 873 square miles
and is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by the
Columbia River, on the east by Columbia County, and on the south by
Tillamook County. Clatsop County was named for the Clatsop Indians, one of
many Chinook tribes living in Oregon.
Before 1850 most of Clatsop County's government activity occurred in
Lexington. Astoria, Oregon's oldest city, was founded in 1811 and as
Astoria grew, activities gradually shifted to that city. Astoria was
chosen by electors to be the county seat in 1854 and the first county
government sat in Astoria in 1856.
The early sessions of the county court prior to 1855 were held in the
homes of county officials and private citizens, first in Lexington and
later in Astoria. In 1855 a two-story frame courthouse was completed. The
second courthouse was completed in 1908 and is still in use. With state
court offices using most of the courthouse, the majority of county offices
are now located in administration buildings near the courthouse.
The first county government was organized in the mid-1840s with the
election of justices of the peace, clerk, sheriff, assessor, treasurer,
and the formation of district courts and the county board of
commissioners. In 1964 the county court was replaced by a board of
commissioners. The voters of Clatsop County approved a home rule charter
in 1988, which called for a board of county commissioners as the policy
determining body of the county, and a county administrative officer.
Clatsop Indians lived in this area for thousands of years. In May, 1792, American
Captain Robert Gray sailed his 230-ton Columbia Rediviva between Point
Adams in what is now Oregon and Cape Disappointment in what is now
Washington to first enter the Columbia River. Ten years later, President
Thomas Jefferson asked his personal secretary, Army Captain Meriwether
Lewis, to lead an expedition to the Pacific to find " ...whether the
Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other river may offer the most direct
and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes
of commerce".
The Lewis and Clark Expedition left Pittsburgh August 31, 1803. The Corps
of Discovery entered the Lower Columbia River in November of 1805 and
stayed through March 1806. They "wintered over" at Fort Clatsop, where it
rained all but 12 days, hunting, making moccasins and other clothing,
trading with the Clatsop, Tillamook, and Chinook Indians, and working on
their journals.
 Fort
Clatsop - “At this place we had wintered”
Within 10 days of arriving on the coast, the Corps of Discovery decided to
leave their storm–bound camp on the north shore of the Columbia River and
explore the area to the south 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 Indian tribe, the Clatsop. It would be their home for the
next three months.
The Corps of Discovery remained 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.
Throughout the winter Lewis and Clark maintained a strict military
routine. A sentinel was constantly posted, and at sundown each day the
fort was cleared of visitors and the gates locked for the night. Of the
106 days the explorers spent at the fort, it rained every day but 12, and
the men suffered from colds, influenza, rheumatism, and other ailments
that the captains treated. Clothing rotted, and fleas infested the
blankets and hides of the bedding to such a degree that a full night’s
sleep was often impossible.
With little food in reserve, hunting for meat was all important. The men
killed more than 130 elk, 20 deer, and many small animals, including fowl,
during the winter. Whale was later added to their diet. For vegetables the
men had to be content with various roots, including the wapato, which
resembled a small potato. These root foods were brought by the Clatsop to
the fort for trade.
Due to the rain the men often stayed indoors engaged in a variety of
tasks, from servicing their weapons and preparing elk-hide clothing for
the homeward journey to making elk fat candles as light for journal
writing. The captains brought their journals up to date, making copious
notes on the trees, plants, fish, and wildlife around Fort Clatsop, and
drew excellent sketches. Many such descriptions were the first
identification of important flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest.
Clark, the cartographer of the party, spent most of his time refining and
updating maps of the country through which they had traveled.
Treated with “extrodeanary friendship”
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.
Lewis and Clark 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.
“At this place we had wintered”
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 and hospitable to us than
any other Indian in this neighborhood.”
Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, dating from
the fur trading post set up by John Jacob Astor’s men in 1811, five years
after the departure of Lewis & Clark. John Jacob Astor, a New York
financier, sent fur traders aboard the ship Tonquin to establish a trading
post. They built Fort Astoria on a site now preserved as a monument. A
small park and a partial replica, at the site of the original post, is
located at 15th and Franklin. John Jacob Astor never visited Astoria. A
hundred years ago, Astoria was the second largest city in Oregon with a
population of 8,975. The population now is just over 10,000.
The United States and England went to war in 1812. In 1813 a British
warship sailed into the Columbia River to capture the post and take
control of the fur trade. Astor’s fur traders beat them to the punch by
selling the post to the British North West Company. From 1813 to 1818, the
British owned Astoria and it was known as Fort George. In 1818, a treaty
with England established joint occupation of the Oregon Country, as it was
called then. The boundary was set at the 49th Parallel. The British did
not completely abandon Astoria until 1846.
Well over 200 major shipwrecks have occurred near the mouth of the
Columbia River - known for a century as "The Graveyard of the Pacific."
One, the Peter Iredale of 1906, is still visible on the beach at Fort
Stevens State Park. Native Americans lived in the area for an estimated
10,000 years before Captain Gray’s arrival.
Lewis and Clark National Historical
Park
Fort Clatsop near Astoria, Oregon
It was on a wet Christmas Eve day in 1805 that Lewis & Clark and their
Corps of Discovery moved into a stockade fort surrounded by lush
old-growth forest, wetlands and wildlife and rested from their arduous
2,000 mile westward journey. Fort Clatsop, the winter encampment site of
the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was named in honor of the local Clatsop
Indians. The 33-member party spent the winter of 1805-06 learning from the
Clatsop people, making moccasins and buckskin clothing, storing food and
reworking their maps and journals in preparation for their long journey
back to St. Louis.
The original fort deteriorated in the wet climate of the northwest, but in
1955, using Clark's sketches, area citizens and service clubs constructed
a replica on the same site. Three years later it became a unit of the
National Park Service, commemorating the national significance of this
epic journey.
Today, park rangers dress in buckskins, make candles, smoke meat, carve
dugout canoes and fire flintlock rifles and muskets to reenact what life
was like for the explorers. The authentic fort is furnished with hand-hewn
wooden bunks, tables, benches and chairs, and serves as an "outdoor
museum" that makes history fun for over 200,000 visitors a year, providing
real life, hands-on experiences.
The visitor center includes exhibits and audiovisual programs and the Fort
Clatsop historical Association sells books, maps and postcards. A picnic
area and hiking trails are also located nearby. The Salt Works site in
Seaside, Oregon, a part of the park, commemorates the site where the
Expedition boiled sea water to make salt.
Fort Stevens State Park
Historic Area & Military Museum near Warrenton, Oregon
Fort Stevens State Park is Oregon's largest campground and one of its
loveliest parks. Visitors can enjoy miles and miles of clean ocean
beaches, the wreck of the "Peter Iredale", Coffenbury lake, picnic
facilities, nature trails, boating, camping, biking, horseback riding, and
swimming. The campground is open year-around with 530 campsites.
Over 100 years ago, young soldiers dressed in Union blue stood watch over
Fort Stevens at the mouth of the Columbia River. Originally commissioned
as a Civil War fortification in 1863, Fort Stevens was deactivated as a
military fort shortly after World War II. It is now an Oregon State Park.
Its museum features military artifacts, guided tours, interpretive
displays, movies, and living history demonstrations.
Fort Stevens enjoys the distinction of being the only military
installation in the continental United States to be fired on since the War
of 1812. On the night of June 21, 1942, the Fort was the target of a
Japanese submarine which fired 17 shells in the vicinity of the Fort. The
shelling caused no damage and Fort Stevens did not return fire.
Visitors can explore the abandoned gun batteries and climb to the nearby
commander's station for a scenic view of the Columbia River and South
Jetty. During the summer, there are guided walking tours of the
underground Battery Mishler and tours of the entire complex aboard a 2-1/2
ton U.S. Army truck. |
