December 13, 2003
Lewis and Clark
Today I went with my team from work to the IMAX to see the Lewis and Clark film for our holiday outing. It was a spectacular film showing some of the most beautiful scenary one can find in the United States.
As a birder, one of the things that was most striking about the Lewis and Clark expedition was the number of new species that Merriweather Lewis found on his route. The Clark's Nutcracker and the Lewis Woodpecker are two of the more interesting birds they encountered. On their journey to the coast through Oregon, they camped one November night near Sauvie Island which they found to be less than fortuitous.
"Our choice of a camp had been very unfortunate," wrote Lewis, "for on a sand island opposite us (Sauvie Island) were immense numbers of geese, swan, ducks and other wild fowl, which during the whole night serenaded us with a confusion of noises which completely prevented our sleeping. During the latter part of the night it rained and we therefore willingly left camp at an early hour."
As someone who loves the Oregon coast, one of the more remarkable factoids about their journey was how awful they thought the Oregon coast was.
Although the film showed them reaching the Pacific Ocean on a beautiful sunny day and getting to see the glory of the ocean and the dramatic ocean cliffs, I suspect that this was not true. Lewis and Clark finally reached the ocean in November of 2005 and spent the next 5 months enduring a very wet, grey and gloomy winter. They recorded that they had 12 days during the period where it did not rain. And worse yet, they had only 6 days with a sun break. They probably didn't get any spectacular views.
The unrelenting grey and the steady cold rain is not necessarily easy for people even with all the amenities of our modern day. Back then, the men wore buckskin that must have stayed soggy and cold all the time.
During this winter, they ate elk: lots and lots of elk. They had been served salmon when they finally found native Americans after two weeks without food getting over the Rockies, and many of the men got sick from the rich flesh. This experience had turned them off from eating any fish or shellfish, so they stuck to eating elk -- for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
As explorers they had been told to travel peacefully and trade with and learn from the people of the land. This they did, and they remarked about the friendly and helpful natives they encountered. Yet on the coast, the tribes had been well-visited by Europeans for several centuries by the time the expedition arrived. Lewis and Clark found these encounters much less enjoyable because the tribes were not so impressed with the trinkets and not quite so struck by the honesty and honor of the white men who were like those who prowled the coast.
Lewis and Clark's experience of the coast was that it was a wet, miserable, godforsaken place and they left as soon as they could in the middle of March. I find it somewhat amusing that they never, ever knew the beauty and magesty of one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Comments
I just surfed around and found your site, I really enjoyed the visit and hope to come back soon. Greetings,