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On December 8, 1805 Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark established
their winter quarters at Fort Clatsop. Here the Corps of Discovery lived
in preparation for their long journey home.
"We having fixed on this situation as the one best calculated for
our winter quarters," Clark wrote, "I determined to go as
direct a course as I could to the seacoast..." His main purpose
was to locate a route for a salt-making party.
Though Clark was indifferent to salt, the rest of the expedition wanted
it as seasoning. As their diet ranged from elk to fish and dog, salt
improved the taste of their food and thus their morale.
On December 28, 1805 the captains sent five men to establish a salt
camp. Five days later, they found a suitable place on the seacoast fifteen
miles southwest of Fort Clatsop. The seawater had a high salt content
here, and game and wood were abundant.
Near some houses of the friendly Clatsop and Tillamook Indians, "they
commenced the making of salt and found that they could make from three
quarts to a gallon a day." Captain Clark pronounced it "excellent
white and fine."
Three men were constantly at work. Using five brass kettles, the saltmakers
boiled approximately 1,400 gallons of seawater over the next several
weeks. Three-and-one-half bushels of salt were produced for the return
trip.
On February 20, 1806 the seacoast camp was abandoned. Little remained
beyond the stack of fire-blackened rocks which were once the furnace.
In 1900 the long-forgotten site was re-established by the Oregon Historical
Society as a memorial to the Corps of Discovery. It was based on the
rockpile and the testimony of Jenny Michel, a Clatsop Indian born in
1816. Prior to her death in 1905, she recalled her mother's memory of
white men boiling water on that spot. In 1979, the site was donated
by the Oregon Historical Society as an addition to Fort Clatsop National
Memorial.
What remains today are the only touchstones to the time of Captain Clark's
saltmakers. And as for their hospitable Native American neighbors, they
too vanished after the death of Jenny Michel -- one of the last full-blooded
Clatsops -- whose own story is tied to theirs.
To reach the salt works, drive on U.S. Highway 101 to the town of Seaside.
Turn west on Avenue G and follow the green signs to South Beach Drive
and Lewis & Clark Way. There you can imagine that winter day in
1805, when five men arrived to replenish a vital supply of salt for
the Lewis and Clark expedition.
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Salt Works details
One thing Captains Lewis and Clark intended to achieve during their
winter encampment was the production of salt from ocean water. For that
purpose, they sent a group of men to the coast. The saltmakers produced
a total of about four bushels of salt, which the captains hoped would
last them until they reached their caches of supplies along the Missouri
River. Having the salt at Fort Clatsop was a benefit nutritionally and
helped flavor elk meat that was already spoiling.
On December 28, 1805, Lewis and Clark sent "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"
From December 28 until their return to Fort Clatsop on February 21,
1806, the Salt Works operated continuously. The site was established
near a village containing four houses of Clatsops and Tillamooks in
what is today the town of Seaside, Oregon. The men camped in tents,
near the mouth of the Necanicum River and "100 paces" from
the ocean.
From the journals, it is evident that there were always at least three
men at the saltworks site, but the personnel did shift as necessary.
George Gibson, William Bratton, and Joseph Field were stationed at the
site most of that two months. While no description is given of the structure
built for boiling ocean water, oral testimony about the site indicates
stones were placed in an oven or cairn shape with one end left open.
Working through the open end, a fire was built inside the stone oven
and five kettles placed on the top. This testimony is derived primarily
from stories passed down through the generations by Clatsops living
during the expedition's stay and who witnessed the salt making.
The captains report in their journals on January 5, 1806 that the salt
makers could produce from three quarts to one gallon of salt a day,
which means they were boiling approximately 40 gallons of sea water
a day. It was labor-intensive work, keeping the fire hot enough to boil
the salt water and keeping up the supply of fire wood. The journals
indicate also that the salt camp was extremely short on food most of
the time and at least one hunting party was specifically sent out from
Fort Clatsop to hunt for the salt camp. Lack of food, the constant labor
demands, and more direct exposure to the weather than experienced by
the men at the Fort meant that by the beginning of February the salt
makers were hit hard by illness. Gibson had to be carried back to the
fort he was so ill and Bratton was plagued by lower back pains long
after leaving Fort Clatsop for home.
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