Traveling the River: Lewis and Clark Expedition Canoes - Oregon Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

This sign is located along the trail at the Canoe Landing at Fort Clatsop.

Marker Name: Traveling the River: Lewis and Clark Expedition Canoes
Marker Text: Camping on the North Fork of the Clearwater River in present-day Idaho, the Corps of Discovery began building dugout canoes from pine logs by shaping the hulls with axes and adzes, then burning them out with smoldering fires. Despite “nearly all the men Sick,” they built five canoes in ten days. These same sturdy dugouts that brought the explorers safely through the perils of the Clearwater and Snake were easily swamped in the waves and sometimes difficult to maneuver in the wide open Columbia. Shortly after leaving the Clearwater camp, one of the dugouts, according to Clark, “Split open on one Side and Bottom filled with water & Sunk on the rapid, the men, Several of which Could not Swim hung on to the Canoe . . .”
The explorers first saw and acquired a Chinookan canoe near The Dalles. “These Canoes are neeter made than any I have ever Seen,” wrote Clark, “Calculated to ride the waves, and carry emence burthens.” While at Fort Clatsop during the winter of 1805-06, the expedition repaired the dugout canoes and purchased another Chinookan canoe. They also “took (or stole) one from the local Clatsops in restitution for some stolen elk meat.

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