Lewis and Clark National Historic Park

Visited: Mar 2015

Nearby city: Astoria, OR

"Ocean in view! O! The joy."

-journal entry of William Clark, November 7, 1805

The Lewis and Clark Expedition is one of the most seminal events in American history. For the first time, Americans had forged an overland path from the former colonies all the way to the Pacific coast. Once the Corps of Discovery (the name given to the expedition, it consisted of 7 officers, 30 enlisted men, and 15 civilians) reached the Pacific Ocean, they settled for the winter at a place they called Fort Clatsop.

The expedition first arrived at the Pacific Ocean in present-day Washington (now called Cape Disappointment) and stayed their for a few days. On recommendation of the Clatsop Indians, the Corps of Discovery decided to camp alongside the Columbia River, so they could have a freshwater source. It took almost a month to construct the fort, there was a lot of delay due to harsh winds and unrelenting rain. It was a simple fort and served as the Corps home until they departed back for St. Louis on March 22, 1806.

The National Park service constructed a replica of the Fort in the 1950s. Unfortunately, it burnt down in 2005, but was rebuilt in 2007. It is a meticulously reconstructed fort, construction was based on sketches done by William Clark himself. Today, the NPS includes this area and preserves a number of other historical sites in the area, in conjunction with a number of state parks in Oregon and Washington.

The centerpiece of the Historical Park is Fort Clatsop. Start your visit here, explore the museum and see the reconstructed fort.

statue of Sacagawea and Pompy

Make sure to visit the other sites of the National Historic Park. They are all close by. We went to Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington, at the mouth of the Columbia River. We enjoyed the ocean views and the lighthouse. There is also a very nice museum about the Corps of Discovery.

 BONUS: Another great aspect to visiting this NPS unit is you get to spend time in the city of Astoria. This beautiful port city of about 10,000 people, known as "Little San Francisco", is the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains.

Head up to Coxcomb Hill and climb the 125 ft. Astoria Column for great views of the surrounding countryside and the 4-mile long Astoria-Megler Bridge.

  Stop at the beach (the ocean will likely be too cold to swim, but the sea air is nice and you can see the rotting hull of the ship the Peter Iredale, which ran ashore in 1906.

Another interesting site is Ft. Stevens, a military installation that was active from Civil War to 1947. This was the only site in the lower 48 that saw enemy fire during World War II. On the night of June 21, 1942 a Japanese submarine surfaced off the coast of Astoria and fired a few volleys, trying to strike the fort. The commanders ordered not to fire back, lest they give away their position to the enemy.

Astoria was the location for a number of movies, most famously and memorably the 80's smash hit Goonies. The old county jail has turned itself into the Oregon Film Museum and contains some props used in the film. The town has kind of become a mecca of sorts for fans to visit sites from the movie. Stop by the "Goonies" house, but it is privately owned so please respect that. There is also the Flavel House Museum, the home of former bar pilot George Flavel. Built in 1885, it's a wonderful example of Quuen Anne architectural style, it also serves as the museum used in the Goonies movie.

Astoria is a fantastic visit. For more info on the Historic Site, go to https://www.nps.gov/lewi/index.htm

Golden Spike National Historic Site

Visited: Dec 2015
Nearby city: Brigham City, UT

By the mid-19th century, railroads had fundamentally changed everything about American life. Transport of people and goods that had taken weeks to a month could now be done in a couple of days. The location of a railroad could single-handedly make or break a town. It brought fortunes for many. By the end of the Civil War, transportation by rail really skyrocketed, and Congress began to intensely focus on completing a grand transcontinental railroad that would connect the entire country, from the East Coast to the West Coast.

For most of the 1800s, your options for travel to the West Coast to the golden hills of California were (1) an incredibly arduous overland trail by wagon across the plains, deserts, and mountains or (2) the long and expensive trek by sea all the way around South America's Cape Horn. Either way, it was a dangerous journey that would take months. Rail could make the journey much more feasible, but the task of completing that rail was a monumental effort.

A transcontinental railroad had been a dream as early as the 1830s. In the 1850s, the U.S. government started to get on board with taking on this gigantic task and started to do surveys and looked into possible locations. Eventually it was decided that the route would roughly trace the paths of the most commonly traveled trails west: Mormon, Oregon, and California Trails. The outbreak of the Civil War also necessitated a more northerly route.

Construction started in 1863, the line was built by two private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants. The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California started at Sacramento and headed east, while the Union Pacific Railroad started in Omaha and headed west.

Eventually the two rail lines met in the high desert of Promontory Summit, Utah; about 66 miles northwest of Salt Lake City. The mad rush to get to the meeting place was incredible. On April 28th 1869, over 10 miles of track was laid in a single day. Workers (most of the workers on the Central Pacific were Chinese immigrants, while most of the Union Pacific were Irish immigrants) labored long and hard hours for extremely low wages.

The transcontinental railroad officially completed on May 10, 1869. The ceremony included the driving of the final spike "the golden spike" by Leland Stanford, governor of California and President of Central Pacific Railroad. The transcontinental railroad immediately ushered the U.S. into the Industrial Age. A journey that once took nearly 6 months now took only a week, and was obviously much cheaper to travel across the country.

Golden Spike National Historic Site preserves the exact spot where this important historical event occurred. They have a great museum at the site.

a replica of the golden spike, the real one is enshrined at Stanford University

    During the summer, the site holds a re-enactment of the May 1869 celebration. As a fourth grader, Tara went to the site on a field trip and participated in the re-enactment. She played the part of the choir director that sang patriotic songs. Since we visited at wintertime, the trains were in for maintenance. Our tour guide let us go to the garage to check out the locomotives. These locomotives are very intricate replicas and very cool.

 This was a cool site and is well worth a quick stop. For more info: https://www.nps.gov/gosp/index.htm