A History of Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks and the Columbia-Pacific Region Douglas Deur Empires o the Turning Tide A History of Lewis and f Clark National Historical Park and the Columbia-Pacific Region Douglas Deur 2016 With Contributions by Stephen R. Mark, Crater Lake National Park Deborah Confer, University of Washington Rachel Lahoff, Portland State University Members of the Wilkes Expedition, encountering the forests of the Astoria area in 1841. From Wilkes' Narrative (Wilkes 1845). Cover: "Lumbering," one of two murals depicting Oregon industries by artist Carl Morris; funded by the Work Projects Administration Federal Arts Project for the Eugene, Oregon Post Office, the mural was painted in 1942 and installed the following year. Back cover: Top: A ship rounds Cape Disappointment, in a watercolor by British spy Henry Warre in 1845. Image courtesy Oregon Historical Society. Middle: The view from Ecola State Park, looking south. Courtesy M.N. Pierce Photography. Bottom: A Joseph Hume Brand Salmon can label, showing a likeness of Joseph Hume, founder of the first Columbia-Pacific cannery in Knappton, Washington Territory. Image courtesy of Oregon State Archives, Historical Oregon Trademark #113. Cover and book design by Mary Williams Hyde. Fonts used in this book are old map fonts: Cabin, Merriweather and Cardo. Pacific West Region: Social Science Series Publication Number 2016-001 National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior ISBN 978-0-692-42174-1 Table of Contents Foreword: Land and Life in the Columbia-Pacific Region i 1 The Environments of the Columbia-Pacific Region 1 A Brief Introduction 2 The People of the Columbia-Pacific Region 11 at the Time of European Contact 3 The Unknown Coast 25 European Exploration and the Maritime Fur Trade in the Columbia-Pacific Region 4 Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery 47 Explorations on the Pacific Shore 5 The Rise and Fall of Empires on the Columbia-Pacific 63 Native Nations and the Fur Traders of the Early 19th Century 6 Reoccupying the Land 87 Settlers and the Formation of Agricultural Landscapes 7 A Rush of Silver 117 The Rise and Fall of Salmon Canning on the Lower Columbia 8 Cutting the Forests, Reshaping the Land 151 The Historical Development of the Columbia-Pacific Timber Industry 9 Navigating the Bar 187 Early Lifesaving and Aids to Navigation at the Mouth of the Columbia River 10 An Arcadian Triangle of Fire 221 Landscapes of Militarization the Lower Columbia 11 Creating Spaces of Recreation and Conservation 259 in the Columbia-Pacific Region 12 Toward a Conclusion 301 The Historical Landscapes of Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks Bibliography 311 Notes 371 Index 407 Foreword: Land and Life in the Columbia-Pacific Region Since the beginning of human time on the lower Columbia, this great Western river has been a nexus of regional significance, a place where natural bounty and North- west inhabitants meet and mingle. Spilling from the Northwestern interior, the Columbia meets the coast with a scale and force that define the Columbia-Pacific region, as it is often called today. From the estuaries teeming with life to the wave- pummeled outer beaches, and on verdant and rain-soaked slopes, water defines the place. Here, the West’s largest river meets the Earth’s greatest sea. The human history of the Columbia-Pacific region matches the scale of its geography. A trade and transportation corridor for unknown generations before Lewis and Clark’s tenure, the mouth of the Columbia has long served as a crossroads between cultures, a geographical locus for the interaction of peoples from around the region and across the globe. From ancient times into the present, this place has also served as an economic locus, where the resource wealth of the Northwestern interior, from Willamette Valley beaver furs to Palouse grain, have crossed paths with the incoming resources of the coast and Pacific basin. Long before Lewis and Clark, people converged here to trade, to work together, and to share their ideas, languages and songs. Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, whose visit in the winter of 1805–06 shapes the mandates and message of today’s Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Park (LEWI), were keystone characters in many respects. They were symbolically central and catalytic figures, representing the vanguard of Anglo- American exploration and ultimately, the reoccupation and transformation of the larger Northwest region. Their influence in this story cannot be lightly dismissed. Yet the captains and their Corps of Discovery were visitors, stepping into and back out of a world they could only perceive through the lens of one rain-soaked winter spent huddled on its shores. As the Corps’ ranks seemed to understand, they did arrived in a region with its own rich and ancient history. The history that would follow the Corps of Discovery’s visit would prove to have its own richness, bringing a succession of new peoples and new ways of living that would change the land in — i — Empires of the Turning Tide profound and enduring ways. The arrival of Lewis and Clark was in this respect a historical pivot-point, marking the end of thousands of years of autonomous Native American occupation and the beginning of something quite different, a story still being written today. The document that follows is in many respects an attempt to place the Corps of Discovery’s journey in larger historical context, so these connections can be better understood. If there are linkages that connect the successive phases of history in the region, they tend to be rooted in the nature of the Columbia-Pacific landscape. The relationship of humans with the distinctive lands and natural resources has always defined the region’s character. More often than not, economies have centered on the accumulation and exchange of naturally occurring things—wild fish, trees from coastal forests, otter and beaver furs taken from the shore—and the freedom of movement along ocean beaches and navigable waters. Even the modern tourist industry, which does not harvest from the land per se, still depends on these natural landscapes for momentum and appeal. Beach, ocean, and mountainscape present natural resources in their own right. Another theme that links these phases of history is a tendency toward economic busts and booms. Distant markets rise and fall and natural resources have at times been harvested beyond the limits of sustainability—especially in the 20th century era of laissez faire economies prior to the advent of regulatory controls. The sea otters that first brought explorers and non-Native traders to this coastline were all but extirpated from the Columbia-Pacific region a century later, the species of the area nearly extinct as otter furs adorned the hats, coats and capes of Asian and European gentry. Beaver fared a little better, rebounding slowly from depressed numbers in the 19th century. Salmon canning magnates arrived from depleted New England and California fishing grounds, building a nationally significant salmon industry on the banks of the Columbia estuary and feeding people throughout the nation, only to see the fish numbers plummet and the industry depart for Alaskan waters a few decades later. The Columbia-Pacific’s timber industry and the forests that spawned it are still here today. Yet both are much changed. With modern tree farms bearing little resemblance to the ancient forests that preceded them, timber products and economies have transformed accordingly. As an industry that does not rely on resource extraction, tourism’s potential for overexploitation may be relatively small. Still there are thresholds that may yet limit or change its character as people arrive in growing numbers and the Columbia-Pacific becomes an increasingly urbanized region. — ii — Foreword: Land and Life in the Columbia-Pacific Region While the economies of the Columbia-Pacific region have risen and fallen like the tides, new peoples have washed up on its shores with each cycle. The region’s history is characterized by remarkable ethnic diversity that continues to shape the culture and character of the region. Long before Lewis and Clark’s journeys, resident Native American communities—the Chinook, Clatsop and others—hosted traders, travelers, and even slaves hailing from tribes throughout the Northwestern region, gathering here to participate in a bustling trade at the river’s mouth. The European fur trade in turn brought people of French-Canadian, Native Hawaiian, Cree, Iroquois, Metis, and other ethnicities to the river’s mouth who worked under the oversight of a British (often ethnically Scottish) managerial class. As the fur trade waned, new industries developed through the initiative of venture capitalists, largely of northwestern European extraction and mostly from the American East, who recruited immigrant labor to build their empires. Some recruited immigrants from southern China, mostly male, who served as laborers in the region’s canneries and early farms. Indeed, for a time the Chinese population rivalled that of the native-born American population in the Columbia-Pacific region. Some also recruited Scandinavian immigrants—Norwegians, Swedes, and Finns, in particular—who moved to the region as families. They helped build the early logging industry, worked in canneries and fishing boats, and eventually founded their own businesses and small farms. In time, new waves of immigrant labor arrived. For example, Japanese workers came in the early 20th century only to be removed under nationwide internment policies during World War II. Since their departure, other newcomers have come, especially laborers from Mexico and parts of Central and South America. Their presence in local industries has been widespread. Especially since the late 20th century, their impact is felt in every part of the burgeoning tourist industry.