OREGON
LEWIS & CLARK TRAIL

The journey's true winter destination and most significant site in Oregon. After a contentious vote in which every member of the party — including Sacagawea and York — cast a voice, the Corps chose to winter on the south side of the Columbia based on advice from the local Clatsop people. Construction of the 50-foot-square stockade took three weeks, finished December 30, 1805. The Corps spent a long, wet, monotonous winter here — Sergeant Gass tallied 131 elk and 20 deer killed for food between December 1 and March 20. Lewis spent much of the winter writing detailed natural history notes and drafting maps that would prove invaluable to future settlers. On March 23, 1806, the Corps left their houses and furniture to Clatsop Chief Coboway and departed for the long journey home. A faithful 1955 replica based on Clark's own sketch sits at the original site today, alongside an excellent NPS visitor center and exhibit hall.

Part of the broader Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, this site preserves a Clatsop village location that William Clark personally documented during the expedition's exploration of the river mouth. The later Fort Stevens itself defended the entrance to the Columbia River from the Civil War through World War II — adding a layer of American military history atop the same strategic ground the Corps of Discovery first recognized as significant in 1805.

The western terminus of the Fort to Sea Trail, a roughly 6.5-mile hiking trail beginning at Fort Clatsop and tracing an approximation of the route members of the Corps would have walked to reach the open Pacific coastline. Sunset Beach offers direct ocean access with sweeping views stretching from Cape Disappointment in Washington to Tillamook Head to the south — a fitting modern pilgrimage connecting the expedition's winter quarters to the ocean they had crossed a continent to see.

The river adjacent to Fort Clatsop, named for the expedition, was their water access route to the fort and the broader Columbia estuary. A small detachment of men was stationed nearby at a salt-making camp for weeks, boiling seawater down to make the precious commodity needed to preserve meat for the long return journey — eventually producing about 20 gallons of salt by February 21, 1806, a tangible reminder of the resourcefulness required to survive an entire winter so far from resupply.

A bronze statue and historic marker at the foot of Broadway Street commemorate Oregon's official 'End of the Lewis & Clark Trail' designation — adopted by the Oregon Legislature in the 1920s. Nearby, a faithful replica of the salt cairn marks the site where a small party of men spent two grueling months boiling seawater to produce salt for the return trip. In 1900, an 86-year-old Clatsop woman named Jennie Michel (Tsinistum), whose mother had personally met expedition members in 1805, helped researchers identify the precise historic salt works location — a remarkable direct link across generations to the expedition itself.

Seaside's local museum provides context on the town's founding role as the symbolic endpoint of the entire westward journey, alongside displays on the broader history of Oregon's first beach resort town. The annual Lewis and Clark Salt Makers Reenactment, held the third weekend of August, brings the salt-boiling process vividly to life with period-dressed reenactors using replica equipment.

In early January 1806, several members of the expedition — including William Clark — made a difficult overland trek along this dramatic, forested coastline after learning that a whale had washed ashore nearby. Clark recorded it in his journal, eager for the oil and blubber that could supplement their dwindling food supplies. By the time the party arrived, local Tillamook people had already claimed most of the whale, but Clark managed to trade for some oil and blubber. Today the park offers spectacular old-growth forest trails, views of Haystack Rock, and a visceral sense of the difficult coastal terrain the Corps navigated in search of provisions during their final, hungry weeks at Fort Clatsop.

From a campsite opposite this rock formation, William Clark wrote his famous (if premature) journal entry: 'Ocian in view! O! the joy.' Historians have since determined Clark was actually viewing the wide Columbia River estuary, not the open Pacific itself — the true ocean view was still eight days away. The rock, still visible jutting 75 to 100 feet from the river depending on tide, retains the name the expedition gave it over two centuries ago.

A 125-foot column completed in 1926 commemorating the region's pioneer history, including the Lewis and Clark Expedition's arrival at the mouth of the Columbia. The spiral frieze depicts key historical events, and the observation deck at the top offers sweeping views of the river mouth, the Columbia River Bar, and the broader landscape the Corps documented as they prepared to winter nearby. Astoria's riverfront, the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, anchors the entire Lower Columbia Lewis and Clark experience.

The National Park Service's primary interpretive facility for the entire Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, spanning both Oregon and Washington sites. Ranger-led programs, an exhibit hall, and a well-stocked gift shop provide the most comprehensive single introduction to the expedition's culminating chapter — the arrival, winter encampment, and eventual departure that closed the outbound half of America's greatest exploration story.