Lewis and Clark Expedition

November 17, 1805

Destination: The Pacific
Ocian in View

With the dawn of the new day, Sergeant Gass’ journal entry describes a much better situation.

“We had a fine pleasant clear morning, and 6 hunters went out. About noon they all came in; but the hunter who remained out last night did not return. He had killed 2 deer and the other men brought them in with some brants and a deer they had killed.”

Roosevelt Elk
Photo Courtesy of beachdog.com

Clark tells us that

“At half past 1 o’clock Capt. Lewis returned having traversed Haley Bay to Cape Disappointment and the Sea coast to the North for Some distance.” Captain Clark now decided he would also lead a party of men over the same terrain and he made preparations to do so the following day. He "directed all the men who wished to See more of the main Ocian to prepare themselves to Set out with me early on tomorrow morning.”

Sketch by James G. Swan, as published in his book, "The Northwest Coast", first printed in 1857 by Harper & Brothers.

Clark also took note of the Chinooks who followed Captain Lewis as he returned from his venture north. In the day’s journal entry, he observed that

“This Chin nook Nation is about 400 Souls [who] inhabid the Countrey on the Small rivrs which run into the bay below us and on the Ponds to the NW of us, live principally on fish and roots, they are well armed with fusees and Sometimes kill Elk Deer and fowl.”

That evening, a party arrived whom Clark described as “the principal Chief of the Chin nooks and his familey.”

It is worth noting that Clark’s estimate of the number of persons comprising the Chinook nation would have been a very conservative number, affected by the fact that, it now being past the summer season, the natives who dwelled in the region would have moved to winter quarters, leaving such villages as that located at what is now known as Station Camp, deserted.

November1805
Overview
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