---

Official Newsletter of the Oregon Chapter of the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation

---

President's Corner

Dear Chapter Members,

When the Ken Burns film on the Lewis & Clark Expedition first aired I was extremely excited and looking forward to seeing it. I needed to get on the road fast to catch the OPB special. My car was in a secure parking lot which required a code to let the driver in. Once inside the compound the gate would automatically allow you to leave. I could not get the entry code to work! In desperation, I climbed over the 12 foot chain-link fence to get to my car and ripped a big hole in the crotch of my new pair of Levis! I did get home in time to see the film, but I was very disappointed.

Not only did I ruin my new jeans but I thought the special was awful. The filming was beautiful but the writing was full of inaccuracies.

Among them, Dayton Duncan made a big deal about Lewis was being shocked and dismayed at Lemhi Pass when he looked to the West and saw many more mountains. I don’t believe that was Lewis’s first thought. When one reads the primary documentation, Lewis was euphoric and possibly manic at realizing he had accomplished his life-long dream of reaching the continental divide.

He wrote …the road took us to the most distant fountain of the waters of the mighty Missouri in surch of which we have spent so many toilsome days and wristless nights. Thus far I had accomplished one of those great objects on which my mind has been unalterably fixed for many years, judge then of the pleasure I felt in allying my thirst with this pure and ice cold water which issues from the base of low mountains or hill of gentle ascent…

Then Lewis wrote only one sentence about mountains to the west: I discovered immence ranges of high mountains to the West of us with their tops partially covered with snow.

There are two lessons here. First, when writing about Lewis & Clark, it is imperative to rely on primary sources. Part of the reason is that information on Lewis & Clark dribbled out over two hundred years. The Moulton Edition is a big step forward in providing accurate primary documentation. There has been so much written about the expedition, but much of it simply somebody’s fanciful imagination.

Second, next time you are really excited about a Lewis & Clark event, do not climb any 12-foot fences, especially in new jeans.

Your most humble and obedient servant,
Glen Kirkpatrick glen9774@mail.com

Holiday Dinner — December 2019

The chapter’s annual holiday celebration welcomed 42 members to the Netul Room at Fort Clatsop for an afternoon event. An informal reception and perusal of the traditional silent auction items was followed by a dinner appropriate to Corps meals at the Fort in 1805–06, catered by Fulio’s in Astoria.

Chapter president Glen Kirkpatrick reviewed 2019 accomplishments followed by a brief business session in which he and Mark Johnson were re-elected president and secretary through 2021, Thelma Haggenmiller and Zach Selley were reelected as directors through 2022, and Ted Kaye was reelected to fill a vacant seat through 2020. The program featured Bill Garvin, who has a long McGowan family connection to Station Camp (Middle Village). Superintendent Jon Burpee gave an up-date on Visitor Center improvements and “The Meriwethers” performed new and old songs from their Corps of Discovery repertoire.

Chapter Activities

Explore More!

Chapter members scramble up the railway embankment between the Columbia River and the Corps’ campsite of November 5, 1805, near Prescott Beach Park in August, 2019.

Thelma Haggenmiller and Lyn Trainer lead Explore More!, a series of chapter trips which include a Lewis & Clark connection but also help members learn about other historical and cultural events that happened since that time.

Watch your mail and e-mail, and especially the chapter website for more information and details.

L&C Included in Royal BC Museum Exhibit

The Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, B.C., Canada, honors explorers of the Pacific Northwest, starting with Alexander Mackenzie (1793) but generously including Lewis & Clark (1805).

Oregon Chapter's Name Badges
Send $10 and your name (as you want it to appear), to Ellie McClure, 17760 S.W. Cheyenne Way, Tualatin, OR 97062 (Ellie.McClure@or-lcthf.org). Make checks payable to OR-LCTHF. (click the picture above to see a larger image.)

2020 Chapter Events

See the Events page for more details if available!

• Feb. 15, 1:00: Garry Bush portrays Toussaint Charbonneau at Tualatin Heritage Ctr.
• Apr. 11: Sternwheeler repositioning cruise from Portland to Cascade Locks.

• May 16: Joint meeting with Wash. Chapter; Mike Rees, speaker, at Pillar Rock, Wash
• July: Confluence Project at Celilo Park; Colin Fogarty, speaker
• Nov. 4: Dinner in Ridgefield and a trip to hear noisy birds

Officers: 

President	Glen Kirkpatrick ’21
Vice President	Lyn Trainer ’20
Secretary	Mark Johnson '21
Treasurer	Ellie McClure '20
Directors	Alec Burpee '21 David Ellingson '20 Thelma Haggenmiller '22 Mary Johnson '21 Ted Kaye ’20 Zachariah Selley ’22 Roger Wendlick '21
Ex Officio	Jon Burpee Hannah Crummé Larry McClure

Please contact Glen Kirkpatrick with interest in Chapter service.

NeCus’ Village Interpretation

Our chapter’s efforts to bring more interpretation to the site of NeCus’ Village gained support with a grant announced by the Stewardship Fund of the national foundation. Its $7,500 will match funds from the City of Cannon Beach, the Clatsop-Nehalem Tribe, and our chapter to fund the $15,000 project.

Led by past president and current secretary Mark Johnson, the effort will install two basalt monuments in NeCus’ Park describing the village’s history and an interpretive panel in Les Shirley Park across Ecola Creek, honoring the bravery of the Chinookan woman who saved Private Hugh McNeal’s life.

Sir Francis Drake in Oregon — October 2019

Meeting in the Community Room of the West Linn Library, 22 chapter members and guests heard anthropologist Melissa Darby challenge the long-held belief that Sir Francis Drake’s party landed in California in the summer of 1579.

Darby presented her case that Drake most likely came ashore on the central coast of Oregon—far to the north of the allegedly ‘long-settled’ answer to that question, Drake’s Bay, near San Francisco.

Her forthcoming book, Thunder Go North, combines detective work and academic scholarship weaving a tale of political intrigue, fraud, and ego.

Comparing Drake’s observations of native houses, dress, foods, language, and lifeways with ethnographic material collected by early anthropologists, Melissa Darby made a compelling case that Drake and his crew landed not in California but on the Oregon coast— likely at Whale Cove.

She is a visiting research scholar in the Department of Anthropology at PSU and a private consultant in cultural resource management.

New LCTHF Executive Director

The LCTHF has named Sarah Cawley as its new executive director in Great Falls, Mont. She served as the ED of the Sawtooth Interpretive and Historical Association, Stanley, Idaho, for three years.

Cawley is a 2016 graduate of the State University of New York, majoring in environmental education and interpretation; with a minor in recreational and visitor management.

Welcome!

Sons & Daughters of Oregon Pioneers: a sister group

Descendants of pioneers who arrived in the Oregon Country before 1859 form today’s SDOP. Through its annual banquet (February) picnic (July), and museum visits (April, June, September), members celebrate and explore Oregon history. Next event: Annual Banquet, 2/15/20. SDOP invites our chapter members to join in. Not descended? You can join as a “Friend”. Learn more at oregonsdop.org.

Lewis & Clark Resources

Current information on the activities of the Foundation and its chapters appears on their websites. Visit these for the latest information:

• Foundation lewisandclark.org
• Idaho lewis-clark-idaho.org
• Oregon or-lcthf.org
• Washington wa-lcthf.org

We also commend the website “Lewis and Clark Today” by Kris Townsend lewisandclark.today