the film forum library tutorial contact

Retracing River Route of Lewis and Clark on Mighty Columbia by Gary Lee, The Washington Post Modesto Bee - Feb. 15, 2004

Seeing the United States on an inland cruise is as satisfying today as it was 200 years ago.

Usually low-key, relatively hassle-free and patriotic-themed, such trips appeal directly to the growing interest in discovering some lesser-known American locales.

"Inland water trips are more tranquil, luxurious and safer than other travel options," said Don Eslinger, a California tour coordinator specializing in steamboat cruises. "That seems to be what people want."

Fortunately for cruisers, the increased interest has brought greater variety. While traditional routes along the Mississippi are the most popular, travelers can now tour the lush Pacific Northwest.

Along the Columbia River,across the regal blue waters of the gorge, Beacon Rock soared skyward. As our paddle-wheel boat chugged along, a few passengers clambered to the top deck for a closer look at the 848-foot monolith. Two days later we gathered again, in a soft drizzle, as our boat surged with the waves of the river through a sweep of bays to the edge of the ocean.

The following morning we traipsed through log cabins at nearby Fort Clatsop, a re-creation of a 19th-century encampment surrounded by tall pines.

Each scene captured the allure of the Pacific Northwest from a different angle. But for us, they were also landmarks in a stirring chapter of America's past. At the end of their 1804-05 expedition from Missouri to the West Coast, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark had canoed along these waters.

They had camped beneath that soaring rock (the world's second-highest, after Gibraltar), which they had named. They braved a downpour through the bays at the river's mouth before making their triumphant sighting of the Pacific.

Two hundred years after the launch of Lewis and Clark's mission, as cities from St. Louis to Astoria, Ore., plan bicentennial commemorations, I joined in the hoopla by taking an eight-day cruise tracing the route the explorers followed from the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers to Fort Clatsop.

I sailed on the Empress of the North, a 235-passenger stern-wheeler -- a diesel-powered boat with the paddle wheel on the stern -- owned by the American West Steamboat Co. Our trip started in Portland, chugged eastward on the Columbia to where it meets the Snake (not up the Snake), then doubled back to trace the last leg of the explorers' trip. Visits to key historic sites were included, as well as on-board lectures.

For me, the prospect of learning about a key chapter in America's past and seeing some spectacular scenery made a voyage on the Columbia too attractive to resist.

History comes alive

Like many Americans, I knew only vague details of Lewis and Clark's 3,700-mile trip: that it took more than two years, involved a constant struggle with nature and played a decisive role in the growth of the United States westward.

We boarded the Empress, which was docked at Jantzen Beach, near Portland. The new vessel, the biggest and most luxurious among the handful of passenger boats traveling the Columbia, spared us the gritty realities the explorers suffered. They tackled the river's rapids in rough-hewn dugouts made of Ponderosa pine. Our stern-wheeler, 360 feet long and 58 feet wide, featured four levels of spacious cabins, complete with DVD players and minibars.

There were two sprawling lounges; corridors lined with historical photographs of the 1897-98 Klondike Gold Rush, Native American art and reproductions of paintings from the Old West; and a dining room decorated with red velvet banquettes and chandeliers.

As a floating history classroom, the cruise did not disappoint. We sailed the same route the explorers took and saw several of the spots where they camped along the way. Like the explorers, we hopscotched to different stops on either side of the river in Washington state and Oregon.

Jefferson's impetus

Our first morning started with a Lewis and Clark 101 lesson. Bill Hottell, a specialist in the settlement of the Pacific Northwest who also leads tours for the Smithsonian, talked about Thomas Jefferson's inspiration for launching the expedition. The visionary president directed the explorers to find a commercial water route from the Missouri River through the wild and largely unknown Rockies to the Pacific. Finally, he harbored dreams of bringing the Northwest -- then mostly disputed territory inhabited by Indian tribes -- under U.S. control.

After docking in the small town of Stevenson, Wash., about 150 miles from the Pacific, we toured the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center. An exhibition illustrated just how hard the Lewis and Clark trek along the Columbia was. During that era, the river rushed at a reckless pace, over deep gorges, dramatic falls and fierce rapids.

Heavy rains pelted the explorers during most of their trip; it took them nearly six weeks to travel from the juncture of the Snake and the Columbia, a distance that we breezed along in four days. And the Native American tribes they encountered were not always friendly. They reported positive encounters with the Clatsop, Nez Perce and other tribes, but tangled with Chinooks, whom they suspected of stealing.

That afternoon, a rainstorm swept in. Undeterred, we visited by bus the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center across the river in the Dalles, Ore. A display showed how trade between the Indian tribes and the explorers had taken place. The explorers offered beads, buttons, knives and other trinkets in exchange for dried fish, deer meat, sea otter furs and other objects from various tribes.

Changing landscape

As the Empress churned west, the Columbia Valley became more scenic and lush. To be sure, much of the ecology has changed since Lewis and Clark passed through. Settlements of Nez Perce, Chinook and other tribes have been wiped out or starkly reduced, replaced by towns like Stevenson and the Dalles. Salmon rushed into the river at the rate of up to 18 million a year during the early 19th century. Today the annual flow is measured at about 2 million.

And the river that came close to stumping Lewis and Clark has been harnessed by an intricate system of locks and dams. The Empress passed eight times through some of the major locks that were built on the lower Columbia and Snake in the last half of the 20th century, including Bonneville, the Dalles and John Day. They are designed to control the river's level and flow as well as capture its force as a source of electrical power.

"This system is what distinguishes the Columbia from the Mississippi and other major rivers," explained David Landis, the ship's acting captain. "Passing through these locks allows passengers a great chance to see firsthand how a contemporary river is controlled."

Our last full day started with a bus tour of Astoria, Ore., the oldest settlement in the Northwest, established in 1811 by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Co. A port city of picturesque homes, antiques stores and restaurants, it was a place I could happily return to for a longer visit.

We ended at Fort Clatsop. After much discussion about where to spend the winter, the Lewis and Clark troupe decided to take a vote.

The balloting would later go down in U.S. history as the first on-record official delegation involving a Native American, a woman and a black.

Using the team members' journals, historians have re-created the warren of log cabins as close as possible to how the explorers built it. Two rows of small cabins were separated by a small courtyard.

The spacious cabin with a dirt floor where the two leaders stayed was on one side; Charbonneau and Sacagawea's cabin was on the other. The cabins of the other explorers were in between.

They spent the winter reworking their journals, stocking up on supplies and establishing ties with the local Indian tribes.

Back on the boat that evening, my thoughts turned to the explorers and their triumphant battle with the odds. Like them, we had encountered rainstorms, difficult river conditions and high winds that forced a change in our itinerary.

Looking around the table, I wondered whether we would have had the backbone to pull off a mission like theirs. Somehow, I doubted it.

If You Go ...

American West Steamboat Co. offers several departures of its 8-night "Path of the Explorers" cruise from April 3 to Dec. 26.

Empress of the North rates range from $1,859 to $5,309 per person double, plus airfare. Specials include up to $400 off and free airfare to Portland on select April and May cruises. Port charges run $134 extra.

Related Sites:
American West Steamboat Company Their Ships are In - 2/3 down the page is:

American West Steamboat Company Itinerary Comparison Chart
Please use this chart as a quick reference for which features are included on each cruise itinerary.
Feature or Shore Tour	7-Night Lewis & Clark Cruise Round-trip Portland	7-Night Three Great Rivers Round-trip Portland	8-Night Path of the Explorers Round-trip Portland	11-Night Northwest Exploration Portland to Seattle
Astoria	x	x	x	x
Astoria Column	x	x	x	x
British Columbia Royal Museum				x
Bonneville Dam		x	x	x
Butchart Gardens				x
Cannon Beach		x
Clarkston / Lewiston		x	x	x
Confederated Tribes Native Dances		x
Columbia Gorge Cruise	x	x	x	x
Columbia Gorge Discovery Ctr.		x	x	x
Columbia Gorge Interpretive Ctr.			x	x
Columbia River Maritime Museum	x	x	x	x
End Of The Lewis & Clark Route	x	x	x	x
Fort Canby	x		x	x
Fort Walla Walla			x	x
Hells Canyon Jet Boat		x	x	x
Holiday Theme Cruises	x	x	x
Ilwaco Heritage Museum			x	x
Lake Quinalt				x
Lelooska Native Dance Program	x
Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center	x		x	x
Lewis & Clark’s Fort Clatsop	x	x	x	x
Lewis & Clark’s Station Camp	x		x	x
Long Beach, Washington			x	x
Longview, Washington	x	x		x
Makah Cultural Center				x
Maryhill Museum of Art		x		x
Mt. Hood Railroad			x
Mt. St. Helens	x	x	x	x
Multnomah Channel	x	x	x	x
Multnomah Falls	x	x	x	x
Nez Perce Interpretive Program			x	x
Noted Lewis & Clark Historian	x
Onboard Historian	x	x	x
Oregon Trail History	x	x	x	x
Portland Art Museum	x
Portland Hotel Overnight	x		x
Pendleton Real West Show		x
Pendleton, Oregon		x
Puget Sound Cruise				x
Salmon Bake with Native Dances				x
San Juan Islands Cruise				x
Seattle				x
Seattle City Tour				x
Special Lewis & Clark Programs	x
Stonehenge Memorial		x		x
Tamastslikt Cultural Institute		x
The Dalles, Oregon		x	x	x
Transit 8 Locks and Dams		x	x	x
Victoria, Canada				x
Vista House	x	x
Walla Walla			x	x
Whitman Mission			x	x
Willamette River Cruise	x	x	x	x
Wine Tasting	x	x	x	x
Winery Tour			x	x
Feature or Shore Tour	7-Night Lewis & Clark Cruise Round-trip Portland	7-Night Three Great Rivers Round-trip Portland	8-Night Path of the Explorers Round-trip Portland	11-Night Northwest Exploration Portland to Seattle
2004 Departure Dates		3/20, 3/27, 4/24, 5/1, 5/8, 5/15, 5/22, 5/29, 6/5, 6/12, 6/19, 6/26, 7/3, 7/10, 7/17, 7/24, 7/31, 8/7, 8/14, 8/21, 8/28, 9/4, 9/11, 9/18, 9/25, 10/2, 10/9, 11/6, 11/13, 11/20, 11/27, 12/4, 12/11, 12/19, 12/26	2/14, 2/21, 3/13, 3/20, 3/27, 4/3, 4/10, 4/17, 4/24, 5/1, 10/3, 10/10, 10/17, 10/24, 10/31, 11/7, 11/14, 11/21, 11/28, 12/5, 12/12, 12/19, 12/26	5/9 Portland - Seattle 9/23 Seattle - Portland