Forts to Port

The trip up the Coast Continued ...

At Fort Stevens you first climb the stairs ...


...and at the top you see the fort.

... with reinforced ports...

and concrete walls - very barren these days.

While it isn't the Ritz-Carlton it is very interesting and picturesque.

Next we went to Fort Clatsop and a look at a river canoe like the ones Lewis & Clark used when they explored the northwest.

"On December 8, 1805, the expedition members began to build a fort. By Christmas Eve they were under shelter. They named the fort for the friendly local Indian tribe, the Clatsops. The members of the Lewis and Clark expedition remained at Fort Clatsop until March 23, 1806.

Life at the fort was far from pleasant. It rained every day but 12 of the 106 days at the Fort. Perhaps the most important activity undertaken during their winter here was the reworking of the journals by the leaders, and the preparation of organized accounts of the scientific data gathered during the journey.

Here also, Clark prepared many of the maps which were among the most significant contributions of the expedition. "

There was a nice plaque for Stephen Tyng Mather.

"Stephen Tyng Mather (1867 - 1930) was a pioneering American industrialist and conservationist. He was the president and owner of the Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company, which made him a millionaire. He championed the creation of a federal agency to oversee National Parks, and became the first director of the new agency, the National Park Service under the United States Department of the Interior. He felt that the scenery should be the first criterion in establishing a park."

I really liked the Lewis & Clark statue.

"Inside the Visitor Center is a life-size bronze statue, "Arrival," by Stanley Wanlass, features Lewis with arms spread, a Clatsop Indian showing Clark a flounder, Clark with quill pen sketching the fish, and Seaman looking on. This statue was commissioned for the 175th Lewis & Clark anniversary. "

One of my favorite displays was the tools used to build the fort. I thought it was funny that the ADZ was also spelled ADZE in another display (both are correct)


This diorama of the first Pacific sighting was pretty cool.


Outside on the trail to the replicated fort I saw these trees I called the Hugging trees.


Then there was the fort - smaller than I expected but very cool.

"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."

Then I found this mushroom.


... and this giant tree..

Then there was the old west trash can...


... and more mushrooms

I even found some Coral Mushrooms called Remaria Strica.


I like this one but haven't identified it yet.

This was a cute little colony.

Finally we went to Astoria and the Columbia River Maritime Museum. (to be Continued)

Scrabble Score ~ Scrabble Queen 324 - The contender 336


Quote of the Day ~

"The primary duty of the National Park Service is to protect the national parks and national monuments under its jurisdiction and keep them as nearly in their natural state as this can be done in view of the fact that access to them must be provided in order that they may be used and enjoyed. All other activities of the bureau must be secondary (but not incidental) to this fundamental function relating to care and protection of all areas subject to its control." ~ Stephen Mather, internal document, February 1925.