Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994 TAG: 9403220016
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN KLINGLESMITH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The river's mood has changed considerably. Turbulent swells now flow quietly. Dams soothe the raging tantrums from its British Columbia source to the final splash into the Pacific Ocean. Calm waters await cruise passengers retracing Lewis and Clark's river path from Astoria, Oregon, to Lewiston, Idaho.
The itinerary followed by the Spirit of '98, a vessel resembling a 1920s steamer, takes voyagers up and down the 500-mile route and into the river's past.
The Columbia is western America's third longest river, running some 1,200 miles along the border of Washington and Oregon. Glaciers and massive prehistoric floods scoured basalt plateaus creating its tortuous course. However, one Indian tale recounts how "Coyote" dug channels through the Cascade Mountains to feed the "The People."
A Bostonian, Capt. Robert Gray, spied the muddy currents in 1792 while commanding the Columbia Rediviva off the misty Oregon coast and rekindled mariners' hopes of a Northwest Passage to the Orient.
President Thomas Jefferson sought this same quest instructing Lewis and Clark to seek "the direct water communication from sea to sea." Thus the Corp of Discovery set out in May 1804 from St. Louis. Their adventure lasted 28 months and covered 7,000 miles. The band, including the Shoshoni Indian woman called Sacajawea and her child, Little Pomp, traveled through hostile and enchanting lands. Each mile revealed fascinating new plants and animals. A million words filled Lewis and Clark's journals forming one of America's most treasured historical records.
The Columbia didn't prove to be the fabled route to India's riches, but rather a wellspring of the American Dream. Pioneers soon followed Lewis and Clark's lead. Thousands lumbered along the Oregon Trail in search of a new life. Some never made it beyond the Cascades, choosing to tame the desert-like terrain spreading over eastern Oregon and Washington. Diverted water nurtured the parched land growing grains, fruits and vegetables in abundance. Dams harnessed the river and with their navigational locks secured it for safe and expedient transport.
Bonneville Dam was the first. President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the project in 1937 and wedded the river's fate to man's ambition. Construction ensured jobs in the Depression Era while power generation fueled burgeoning industries.
The dams elicit strong emotions. Two Oregonians, Bill Bagby and wife, Peggy Japhet, who toured the Columbia aboard the Spirit of 98, say the dams are awesome. Indeed they are. Towering concrete walls defy the river's momentum. Locks swallow approaching ships, temporarily engulfing vessels in idle pools, before releasing them to float away. Bagby points out, "Certainly the dams allow the benefit of cruising and they've economically improved the area, but I'm saddened by the loss of the rapids and habitat."
Progress has its price. Lewis and Clark reported "salmon by the hundreds of thousands." The adventurers camped at Bradford Island near Bonneville Dam where the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers maintain fish ladders for migrating salmon. Glass portals within the visitor center allow peeks at fat Chinook and Coho struggling against the swift flow. Up to 16 million salmon once returned up the Columbia annually; today perhaps 2 million swim home.
On the positive side, Columbia River dams produce electricity to service 8 million homes and fill watery playgrounds for fishermen, pleasure boaters and windsurfers. At no place is this more evident than the Columbia River Gorge, an 85-mile stretch which Lewis and Clark poetically described, "we passed along under high, steep and rocky sides of the mountains which now close on each side of the river, forming stupendous precipices ... down these heights frequently descend the most beautiful cascades."
Multnomah Falls and the behemoth 875-foot protrusion aptly called Beacon Rock are landmarks the explorers would still find familiar. But the area around Hood River, Oregon, would surely amaze them. Stiff breezes attract thousands of boardsailors transforming the community into a neon-wet-suit and fluorescent-sail Mecca.
East of the gorge the Columbia grows calmer, more lake-like, entering dry, rumpled hills. Withered grass paints the mounds tawny brown. Just for a moment one could imagine having been transported to Egypt's Nile enclosed by sand dunes. Yet this land rewards industrious farmers with bountiful crops of wheat, barley and sorghum. Nearly 20 percent of America's feed grain grows here.
Lewiston, Idaho, and Clarkston, Washington, form a key terminus for harvests. Here the Spirit of 98 docks at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers shifting passengers to jet boats for thrilling rides into the rapid-infested waters of Hells Canyon. These nimble aluminum craft draw only 12 inches of water and skate over the thrusting torrent at speeds up to 35 mph.
It's like riding in a bus with bad shocks. Bouncing, twisting and gliding the 70-mile route through America's deepest gorge brings the wild ravines up close. Rugged rock outcroppings lunge skyward like ancient battlements. Mountain sheep peer from their sanctuaries, as if guarding the strand of jade-green current.
Lewis and Clark wisely avoided Hells Canyon. Nonetheless, they braved perilous rapids on the lower Snake and upper Columbia. With winter approaching they increasingly risked running the white water rather than portage their canoes. The gamble paid off and they reached the Pacific coast within a month. Today, cruise ships make the same float in two days.
"It would be distressing to see our situation, all wet and cold," wrote Clark as the expedition endured a rain-soaked campsite near present-day Astoria. "I can neither get out to hunt, return to a better situation or proceed on," he continued. Yet they did. Trudging farther, the exhausted Corp of Discovery completed a bivouac on December 30,1805, and dubbed it Fort Clatsop in honor of the local Indians. Here they wintered for 106 days, all but 12 of them rainy. While their companions repaired equipment, Lewis and Clark filled journals with musings on the local people, flora and fauna.
Their copious scribbles enabled the National Park Service to accurately reconstruct Fort Clatsop. The squat structure speaks of a cramped and rugged stay. Bunks crowd the walls, rough-hewn logs form benches and makeshift tables.
It seems ironic that this crude compound symbolizes both a momentous end and beginning. The explorers reached the Pacific, and through their efforts, opened a route for others to follow ... even today.
If you go:
Alaska Sightseeing/Cruise West, which operates the Spirit of 98, specializes in small-ship cruising and offers eight-day excursions along the Columbia River from April to October departing from Portland, Oregon. Prices begin at $1,595 per person and include meals and shore excursions. Call 800-426-7702 for more information
Dan Klinglesmith is a travel writer and photographer based in Denver, Colo.
by CNB