Oregon Historical Quarterly Fall 2004

Special Issue
Dissecting the Columbia: Lewis and Clark West of the Divide

Describing a New Environment: Lewis and Clark and Enlightenment Science in the Columbia River Basin, by William L. Lang
The story of Lewis and Clark’s journey west to the Pacific Ocean and safe return to St. Louis is often told as one of adventure and courage. Historian Bill Lang asks readers to also view the explorers as scientists who, guided by Thomas Jefferson’s instructions, "documented the relationships between people and environment” that they observed during their travels. Lang describes how the explorers' journals, "mostly undigested, often graphically direct, and largely bereft of interpretation or personal affectation, . . . offer us a thinly glazed window on the Columbia River Basin of two centuries ago.”

The Evolving Landscape of the Columbia River Gorge: Lewis and Clark and Cataclysms on the Columbia, by Jim E. O’Connor
Geologist Jim O’Connor explains that “the Lewis and Clark Expedition can be viewed as a hinge point for the Columbia River," with "the changes engineered to the river and its valley in the two hundred years since their visit mirrored by tremendous changes geologically engendered in the thousands of years before.” O’Connor draws upon the expedition journals and twentieth-century geologic scholarship to examine the catastrophic changes that have affected the Columbia River Basin over thousands of years. The “resilience of the Columbia ecosystem” in the face of cataclysmic changes may offer hope to some that the river could overcome the drastic re-ordering wrought by humans in the twentieth century.

Focusing on the Columbia Gorge: Photography, Geology, and the Pioneer West, by Terry N. Toedtemeier
Without the technology of photography, Lewis and Clark relied upon words and sketches to record their observations of the West. Photographer and curator Terry Toedtemeier observes that Lewis and Clark’s journal records "were, in essence, proto-photographic, presaging the role photography would play in documenting the West during the U.S. Geologic Surveys over a half century later.” Toedtemeier explores the work of Carleton E. Watkins, Albert H. Wulzen, Albert Henry Barnes, Arthur B. McAlpin, Frank G. Abell, George M. Weister, Benjamin A. Gifford, Bertram C. Towne, and Alfred Monner, whose photographs of the Columbia River Gorge offer a view of the river that Lewis and Clark would have seen, before the advent of modern dams.

Where Have All the Native Fish Gone? The Fate of the Fish That Lewis and Clark Encountered on the Lower Columbia River, by Virginia L. Butler
Using the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and recent archeological findings, anthropologist Virginia Butler examines the tremendous changes in Columbia River fish populations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Together, the journals and archeological findings dating to the past ten thousand years offer evidence of the importance of fish to Native American lifeways. It is generally understood today that salmon populations on the Columbia have declined severely since Lewis and Clark's time. By carefully comparing Lewis and Clark’s relatively recent descriptions of Columbia River fish populations with both archaeological evidence and contemporary surveys of fish populations, Butler demonstrates that “most native fish are in decline or are being replaced by alien species." Because of the longstanding importance of native fish to the cultures of the region, Butler concludes, "the case can be made that these creatures deserve a place here long into the future.”

Still Exploring, Still Learning in 1806: Observations of the Lewis and Clark Expedition between the Columbia and the Bitterroot Range, by Robert Carriker
After leaving the Columbia River on their 1806 journey east, the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition spent close to a month with the Nez Perces by the river they named Kooskooske (now called the Clearwater River) in present-day eastern Washington and central Idaho. Historian Robert Carriker examines journal entries from this period to illustrate how the explorers relied on Nez Perce knowledge and personal reconnaissance to map and understand the geography of the region. Carriker also relates the extensive cataloging of flora and fauna done by Lewis and Clark during this stopover. He concludes that "the portion of the return journey between the Columbia River and the Lolo Trail was one of the most productive learning experiences of the entire expedition.”

Soyaapo and the Remaking of Lewis and Clark, by Mark Spence
The processes of exploration and settlement, historian Mark Spence explains, "alter the meaning and content of particular places." The place-names and boundary references that result can obscure the complex and significant changes that underlie their establishment. Spence explores these ideas by considering the experiences of the Nez Perces as they intertwined with the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition across two hundred years. After the initial encounter between the Natives and the explorers, the Lewis and Clark story quickly faded to insignificance in the U.S. national memory while the Nez Perces entered a period of massive social, cultural, and political upheaval. The Nez Perce National Historic Trail marks sites that exemplify some of the transformations that occurred as the Nez Perces confronted U.S. western expansion. The 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland marked the re-emergence of the Lewis and Clark story in the national consciousness and its re-interpretation as a heroic symbol of territorial expansion. This comparatively recent interpretation of the Lewis and Clark story remains imbedded in the place-names and landscapes of the modern Pacific Northwest. Spence argues that it is time to move beyond this hundred-year-old interpretation of the Lewis and Clark experience in "a collective effort to re-story the physical and cultural landscape and to create a new story that no one can yet imagine — but perhaps one without reference to Lewis and Clark."

A Tribute to Rick Harmon
Friends and colleagues remember the humor, intellect, and high moral standards of Rick Harmon, editor of the Oregon Historical Quarterly from 1987 to 1999, who died on May 20, 2004. Spotlight on Affiliates Columbia Gorge Discovery Center / Wasco County Historical Museum

 

Book Review Essay The Ordeal of Thomas Jefferson: Whirl Is King, by Clay S. Jenkinson  

Historian Clay Jenkinson reviews Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase, by Roger G. Kennedy, and A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America, by Jon Kukla.

Colin G. Calloway, One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark, reviewed by Theodore Binnema

William Clark, edited by James J. Holmberg, Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark, reviewed by Stephen Dow Beckham

Castle McLaughlin, Arts of Diplomacy: Lewis and Clark’s Indian Collection, reviewed by Peter H. Hassrick

Brian Hall, I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company: A Novel of Lewis and Clark, and Howard Frank Mosher, The True Account: A Novel of the Lewis and Clark and Kinneson Expeditions, reviewed by Michael McGregor

W. Dale Nelson, Interpreters with Lewis and Clark: The Story of Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau, reviewed by Albert Furtwangler

Tracy Potter, Sheheke, Mandan Indian Diplomat: The Story of White Coyote, Thomas Jefferson, and Lewis and Clark, reviewed by W. Otis Halfmoon

Rock Hushka and Thomas Red Owl Haukaas, Lewis and Clark Territory: Contemporary Artists Revisit Place, Race, and Memory, reviewed by Jeffry Uecker

Clay S. Jenkinson, editor, A Vast and Open Plain: The Writings of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in North Dakota, 1804–1806, reviewed by Keith Edgerton

Greg MacGregor, Lewis and Clark Revisited: A Photographer’s Trail, reviewed by Rob Masonis

Paul A. Johnsgard, Lewis and Clark on the Great Plains: A Natural History, reviewed by Rhoda Love

Julie Fanselow, Traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail, 3rd ed., and Elizabeth Grossman, Adventuring along the Lewis and Clark Trail, reviewed by Ken DuBois

Keith G. Hay, The Lewis and Clark Columbia River Water Trail: A Guide for Paddlers, Hikers, and Other Explorers, reviewed by JoAnn Roe