May 17, 2016

May 17  Astoria

   

   We arrived in Astoria on a beautiful sunny morning.  The dock is in the working port with gigantic piles of logs along the pier, waiting to be shipped to Asian markets, taking over 17 days to cross the Pacific.  There is a light breeze with a temperature of just 10 C, but pleasant, since there is little wind.  We obtained our excursion stickers in the theatre and had a short wait before being directed to exit the ship and meet the bus and guide for our outing. 

   At 9:45 we were leaving the parking lot and a short tour of Astoria, which experienced a major fire in December 1922, which destroyed a large part of the town.   We drove through several streets to see the Victorian homes that survived the fire.  The Liberty Theater was pointed out. In the 1930s theater companies from Portland, Oregon travelled to Astoria to perform. One time the leading man did not show up for the play and the leading lady thought that her boyfriend could step into the part. This was the first live theater performance for Clark Gable. 

   The first tour stop was at the Columbia River Maritime Museum where we learned a lot about Astoria’s history and the history of the American Northwest.  Astoria is located at the mouth of the Columbia River.  Astoria was discovered by European explorers in July 1788 by British fur trader, John Meares.  At the mouth of the Columbia River is the dangerous Columbia River Bar, which has caused the sinking of over 200 ships in the past few centuries. The Columbia River brings with it sediment which is deposited as it flows toward the ocean.  Today, a channel from the mouth at Astoria along the river course to Portland is dredged to allow ocean ships to safely navigate to the ports. Ships with a draft of 54 feet can safely navigate the Columbia River at its mouth.  Meares’ ship could not cross the Columbia River Bar and he named the sight Deception Bay.  In 1791, George Vancouver, who had accompanied James Cook on his second and third voyages was given command of Cook’s ship Discovery, was invited to continue the survey of the Pacific coast, as had been Cook’s assignment.  He, too, missed the mouth of the Columbia River. Finally in 1792, American fur trader, Robert Gray, waited nine days to cross the bar and discovered the mouth of the Columbia River.  Early fur trading vessels would employ local Indians, such as the Clatsop, to pilot their ships around the bar.  To aid navigation of the Columbia River Bar, in 1885 to 1895 a four mile south jetty was built.  Then from 1914 to 1917, the two mile north jetty was built.  It was still difficult to navigate the Columbia River up to the Cascade Mountains, there were sets of massive rapids that needed long overland portages, as well as the Celilo Falls rock formation, which stretched 140 feet across the Columbia River. Lewis and Clark had named the Celilo Falls as the Great Columbia Falls. Several decades later, steamboats were introduced after locks and canals were built around the river’s obstacles. Today there are 14 dams along the Columbia River, reminding us of the dams on China’s Yangtze River used to tame the mid section of that river.  

    Fort Astoria was founded in 1810 by fur traders who represented the fur trading company owned by John Jacob Astor. The fort was built in early 1811 by men sponsored by Mr. Astor, they had travelled on the ship Tonquin from New York harbour, sailing around South America’s tip, Cape Horn, then north along the Pacific coast. Fort Astoria was the first American settlement west of the Mississippi River. At that time, California was part of Mexico.  The fort was taken over by the British in 1812. Thirty years later, Oregon Trail pioneers began to trickle into the area. Later more people arrived after the Donation Land Claim Act passed giving settlers with families 640 acres.

   The Salmon Fishery was strong in the 19th century. Salting had been used to preserve fish shipped to Hawaii and New York, but a lot of fish spoiled. In 1809, a French scientist invented the canning process, to help feed Napoleon’s invading armies as he marched across Europe.  The canning method of preservation soon spread around the world. There were over 30 canning factories in Astoria in the latter part of the 19th century. It was the canning capital of the world. Today salmon are flash frozen at sea, in large refrigerated ship, then are shipped directly to the markets.

   The second stop was at the 125 foot tall Astoria Column, built in 1926, on Coxcomb Hill, at an elevation of about 600 feet above sea level. It overlooks Astoria, surrounding ocean, rivers and mountains.  Within the column is a spiral staircase of 164 cast iron steps, which we ascended to get a great view of the area, including in the distance 3,283 foot Saddle Mountain, a peak in the Cascade Mountains. The Astoria Column was the 12th and final monument erected between Astoria and St. Paul, Minnesota, sponsored by the Great Northern Railroad. The exterior wall is decorated with a frieze depicting 22 important regional events.

   Finally we were crossing the town to travel five miles to the replica of Meriweather Lewis and William Clark’s Fort Clatsop, where they wintered from December 7, 1805 to March 23, 1806 with their Corps of Discovery contingent. It is believed that Lewis and Clark were aware of the 1794 exploration of the Fraser River and Bella Coola River, as well as the earlier exploration of the MacKenzie River, further north by British explorer, Alexander Mackenzie, (a 10% shareholder in the fur trading company, North West Company), having read his journals published in late 1801 entitled “Voyages from Montreal . . . to the Frozen and Pacific oceans”.  William Clark was the party’s cartographer.  It took just two weeks to erect the six room log fort.  The winter was wet with only 12 days without rain.  They had hoped that a ship might have arrived to take them back to New England or New Orleans.

    In 1803, American President Jefferson had selected Meriweather Lewis to lead an expeditionary party to explore the northern Missouri River and find a water route to the Pacific Ocean and also make a scientific record of what natural science discoveries that they made.  The Corps of Discovery departed from St. Louis, Missouri on May 14, 1804.  They built Fort Mandan, in the present day state of North Dakota, and wintered there for the winter of 1804 - 1805. The fur trapper guide Toussaint Charbonneau was their interpreter assisted by his young native wife, Sacagawea.  Having a woman accompany them showed native tribes that they were not a threat.  In the spring of 1805, they found the source rivers of the Missouri River then crossed the Continental Divide by land, continuing down the Clearwater, Snake and Columbia rivers. They proved that there was not a water route from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. 

   During the winter, three men rotated to a camp on the Pacific Ocean where they produced enough salt in two months for the preserving needs of the party for their journey back to Missouri.  They survived the wet winter on roots, salmon and elk with help from the local Indians.  The Corps of Discovery arrived back in St. Louis on September 23, 1806.  Their sponsors had given them up as dead, since it was more than two years since they had started their journey.

    Fort Clatsop was the last stop of our excursion and we returned to the ship’s dock. When we returned to the dock, we decided to walk the 1.75 miles to downtown Astoria along the Riverwalk, which also followed the Trolley rail.  The old style 1913 trolley only passed us once. When we returned went to the buffet and picked out some slices of pizza and some coffee.

   At 4 p.m., the ship left its Astoria berth to begin the cruise to Seattle, Washington.  The ship hugged the channel along the western shore and passed the Columbia River Bar.  You could not tell the difference in the water at the opening.  We listened to a presentation about the Canadian Culture by an American social anthropologist, who spoke a lot about the native population and gave some history of the French and English conflicts and their Indian allies.  He missed pronounced several words – Metis and Iroquois for example and was corrected by the few dozen Canadian audience members that our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, shown on the screen, was not called Steven Harper.  Some of the blog was created before dinner.

    All six of us recounted our day at the dinner table.  We ordered Boston Lettuce & Gorgonzola Salad, Cream of Broccoli Soup and Crab cakes as starters and the entées of Beef Short Ribs with mashed potatoes and peas or Chicken Saltimbacca with fontima cheese diced squashes in lemon caper sauce.  For dessert Apple Tart Tatin and Olive Oil Cremeux were ordered.

   The entertainment tonight was pianist David Howarth, who gave an enjoyable performance of his own arrangements, including the theme to Phantom of the Opera.

Total distance walked 10.11 km and 33 sets of stairs