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Seaside, Oregon.
Gray drizzly day view of Seaside, as seen from the beach.
Image taken May 2, 2010.
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Seaside, Oregon ...
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Lewis and Clark set up a "salt works" on the shores of the Pacific Ocean at the location of today's Seaside, Oregon. From this location in January 1806, Captain Clark journeyed across Tillamook Head to Cannon Beach to view a whale.
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Pacific Ocean as seen from Seaside, Oregon.
Gray drizzly day.
Image taken May 2, 2010.
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Lewis and Clark's "Salt Works" ...
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The Corps of Discovery needed salt to preserve their meat for the journey back home. They chose Seaside as the location to make the salt.
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"... Derected Drewyer, Shannon, Labeash, Reuben Field, and Collins to hunt; Jos. Fields, Bratten, Gibson to proceed to the Ocean at Some convenient place form a Camp and Commence makeing Salt with 5 of the largest Kittles, and Willard and Wiser to assist them in Carrying the Kittles to the Sea Coast— all the other men to be employed about putting up picketes & makeing the gates of the fort. ..."
[Clark, December 28, 1805]
"... they Commenced the makeing of Salt and found that they Could make from 3 quarts to a gallon a day; they brought with them a Specimen of the Salt, of about a gallon, we found it excellent white & fine, but not So Strong as the rock Salt or that made in Kentucky or the Western parts of the U, States— this Salt was a great treat to most of the party, haveing not had any Since the 20th ulto. as to my Self I care but little whether I have any with my meat or not; ..."
[Clark, January 5, 1806]
"... Sergt. Ordway returned with the party from the Salt Camp which we have now avacuated.
they brought with them the Salt and utensels.
our Stock of Salt is now about 20 Gallons; 12 Gallons we had Secured in 2 Small iron bound Kegs and laid by for our voyage. ..."
[Clark, February 21, 1806]
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How to make Salt ...
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From the Lewis and Clark National Park website (2010):
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To make salt, the Corps had to find rocks to build a furnace, wood to burn, ocean water to boil, fresh water to drink and game animals. Nearby rivers weren’t salty enough, but a site 15 miles southwest of Fort Clatsop proved perfect. What’s more, there were homes of local Clatsop and Tillamook Indians nearby, local experts who could help the Corps members.
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Five men traveled to the beach site, built the camp and set five kettles to boiling, 24 hours a day, to produce salt. According to their records, they set out from Fort Clatsop on Dec. 28, 1805, and left the camp Feb. 20, 1806, with 3 and 1/2 bushels or about 28 gallons of 'Excellent, fine, strong & white' salt. ..."
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Gray drizzly day at Seaside ...
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Scene, Seaside, Oregon.
Image taken May 2, 2010.
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Houses along the beach, Seaside, Oregon.
Image taken May 2, 2010.
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Boardwalk, Seaside, Oregon.
The heights of Tillamook Head rise in the background.
Image taken May 2, 2010.
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To the south of Seaside is Tillamook Head, a large headland jutting into the Pacific Ocean, and further down the coast is Cannon Beach, where Captain Clark journeyed in January 1806 to view a whale. Lewis and Clark called Tillamook Head "Clark's Point of View".
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Tillamook Head from the beach at Seaside, Oregon.
Image taken May 2, 2010.
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North of Seaside is an 18-mile-long beach known as "Clatsop Beach", made up of smaller beaches such as Sunset Beach and Columbia Beach. Lewis and Clark passed by these beaches on their way to the Pacific to gather salt. Quite possibly Sunset Beach is Private Gass's "beautiful prairie".
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"... We got into low ground, passed through a marsh about ½ a mile in breadth, where the water was knee-deep; then got into a beautiful prairie, about 5 miles wide, and which runs along the sea shore about 30 miles from Point Adams on the south side of Hayley's Bay, in nearly a southwest course and ends at a high point of a mountain, called Clarke's View on the sea shore. ..."
[Gass, January 4, 1806]
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"The Golden Age of Postcards" ...
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The early 1900s was the "Golden Age of Postcards". The "Penny Postcard" became a popular way to send greetings to friends and family. Today the Penny Postcards have become a snapshot of history.
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Penny Postcard: Saddle Mountain and Seaside, Oregon, ca.1930.
Penny Postcard, ca.1930, "Air view showing Saddle Mountain and Seaside, Oregon". Copyright Brubaker Aerial Surveys, Oregon. Published by Wesley Andrews Co., Portland, Oregon. Card #483.
In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
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Penny Postcard: Aerial view, Seaside, Oregon, ca.1950.
Penny Postcard, Postmarked 1950, "Airplane View, Seaside, Oregon." Caption on bottom reads: "Oregon Coast Highway at the End of the Old Oregon Trail." Image copyright Prentiss. Published by Wesley Andrews Company, Portland, Oregon. Card is Postmarked August 3, 1950. Card #489. In the private collection of Lyn Topinka.
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Penny Postcard: Trails End, Seaside, Oregon, and Tillamook Head, ca.1940.
Penny Postcard, ca.1940, "The Trail's End and Tillamook Head, Seaside, Oregon". Published by Wesley Andrews Col., Portland, Oregon. Card #475. In the private collection of Lyn Topinka. |
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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Clark, January 8, 1806 ...
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The last night proved fair and Cold wind hard from the S. E. we Set out early and proceeded to the top of the mountain [Tillamook Head] next to the which is much the highest part and that part faceing the Sea is open, from this point I beheld the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed, in my frount a boundless Ocean; to the N. and N. E. the coast as as far as my sight Could be extended, the Seas rageing with emence wave and brakeing with great force from the rocks of Cape Disapointment [Cape Disappointment, Washington] as far as I could See to the N. W. The Clatsops Chinnooks and other villagers on each Side of the Columbia river and in the Praries below me [Clatsop Beach, also referred to as Clatsop Plains, comprised of Sunset Beach and Columbia Beach. This area today is the location of Seaside, Oregon], the meanderings of 3 handsom Streams heading in Small lakes at the foot the high Country; The Columbia River for a Some distance up, with its Bays and Small rivers and on the other Side I have a view of the Coast for an emence distance to the S. E. by S. the nitches and points of high land which forms this Corse for a long ways aded to the inoumerable rocks of emence Sise out at a great distance from the Shore [such as Haystack Rock] and against which the Seas brak with great force gives this Coast a most romantic appearance. from this point of View [Tillamook Head] my guide pointed to a village at the mouth fo a Small river [Ecola Creek] near which place he Said the whale was, he also pointed to 4 other places where the princpal Villages of the Kil la mox were Situated, I could plainly See the houses of 2 of those Villeges & the Smoke of a 3rd which was two far of for me to disern with my naked eye ...
after taking the Courses and computed the Distances in my own mind, I proceeded on down a Steep decent to a Single house the remains of an old Kil a mox Town in a nitch imediately on the Sea Coast, at which place great no. of eregular rocks are out and the waves comes in with great force.
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The Coast in the neighbourhood of this old village is slipping from the Sides of the high hills, in emence masses; fifty or a hundred acres at a time give way and a great proportion of an instant precipitated into the Ocean. those hills and mountains are principally composed of a yellow Clay; their Slipping off or Spliting assunder at this time is no doubt Caused by the incessant rains which has fallen within the last two months. the mountains Covered with a verry heavy Croth of pine & furr, also the white Cedar or arbor vita and a Small proportion of the black alder, this alder grows to the hight of Sixty or Seventy feet and from 2 to 3 feet in diamiter. Some Speies of pine on the top of the Point of View [Tillamook Head] rise to the emmence hight of 210 feet and from 8 to 12 feet in diameter, and are perfectly Sound and Solid. Wind hard from the S. E and See looked [blank] in the after part of the Day breaking with great force against the Scattering rocks at Some distance from Shore [possibly those at the base of Ecola Point, Ecola State Park], and the ruged rockey points under which we were obleged to pass and if we had unfortunately made one false Stet we Should eneviateably have fallen into the Sea and dashed against the rocks in an instant, fortunately we passed over 3 of those dismal points and arived on a butifull Sand Shore on which we Continued for 2 miles [Cannon Beach], Crossed a Creek [Ecola Creek] 80 yards near 5 Cabins, and proceeded to the place the whale had perished, found only the Skelleton of this monster on the Sand between 2 of the villages of the Kil a mox nation; the Whale [Historians believe it was the Blue Whale] was already pillaged of every valuable part by the Kil a mox Inds. in the vecinity of whose village's it lay on the Strand where the waves and tide had driven up & left it. this Skeleton measured 105 feet. I returned to the village of 5 Cabins on the Creek which I shall call E co-la or whale Creek [today known as Ecola Creek], found the nativs busily engaged boiling the blubber, which they performed in a large Squar wooden trought by means of hot Stones; ...
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