This is one four signs located toward western end of Washington State’s Dismal Nitch Safety Rest Area.
Marker Name: Clark’s Dismal Nitch
Marker Text: Trapped for Six Days
The mouth of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean were just around the point, but the explorers of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were pinned on the rocky shore by a torrential downpour and high waves. They could not move forward from this place William Clark referred to as “this dismal nitich.”
They had endured so much during their journey and were frustratingly close to achieving their mission. But the immensity of a Pacific Northwest storm kept them from their goal. After several days of fierce wind and persistent rain, the explorers were wet, hungry, and cold in their half-rotten leather clothing. Clark wrote: “It would be distressing to a feeling person to See our Situation at this time all wet and cold with our bedding &c. also wet, in a Cove Scercely large nough to Contain us.”
During the six days the explorers waited here for the storm to pass, Patrick Gass described the weather as the most disagreeable he had ever experienced.
Forced to Turn Back
The Lewis and Clark Expedition was forced to backtrack at least twice during the frustrating days spent here. This was one of the few times the Expedition moved backward instead of forward toward its goal. Sergeant John Ordway wrote: “abt. Noon the wind rose So high that obledged us to turn back from a point of rocks and roe about 2 miles back into a cove . . . unloaded the canoes and Stayed untill towards evening. Then loaded again thinking to find a Safer harbour.”
Keeping Dry on the Coast
Members of the Expedition were miserable while camped here in 1805, but the native people of the Pacific Coast and lower Columbia River lived comfortably in wet, stormy weather. They wore clothing that protected them from the wind and rain, including robes, skirts, capes, and hats tightly woven from cedar bark, bear grass, and other materials. Their homes, solidly constructed of timber planks with platform beds raised above the ground and internal fire pits, kept them warm and dry.
November 13, 1805 - “The storm continued & hard rain during last night . . . Our Buffalo robes are getting rotten, and the most part of our baggage were wet. We have a very disagreeable time of it, the most part of our Men having slept in the rain, ever since this storm began, & are continually wet.” - Joseph Whitehouse
November 14, 1805 - “We expected last night to have been able to proceed on this morning, but the rain continued, and the river still remained rough, and we are therefore obliged to lie by . . . the weather continued wet, and the most disagreeable I had ever seen.” - Patrick Gass
November 15, 1805 - “this dismal nitich where we have been confined for 6 days passed, without the possibility of proceeding on, returning to a better Situation, or get out to hunt, Scerce of Provisions, and torents of rain poreing on us all the time” - William Clark