Construction of FtCl

n 5 December 1805 Captain Lewis at last found a suitable site for their 1805-06 winter encampment. Its main attraction was that several of his hunters had seen "great numbers" of elk thereabouts. It was on the south side of the Columbia River estuary a short distance up the Netul River (today's Lewis and Clark River). Later that day Lewis hurried back up the estuary to Point William (today's Tongue Point), where Clark and the main party were anxiously awaiting him—"a 1000 conjectures has crouded into my mind respecting his probable Situation & Safety," Clark breathed with a sigh. High winds and waves kept them all from moving the next day, but the 7^th dawned under a fair sky, so they stemmed the incoming tide for the nine miles down to "Meriwethers Bay"¹ as fast as they could paddle, and set up a temporary bivouac "in a thick groth of pine² about 200 yards from the river, . . . on a rise about 30 feet higher than the high tides." Clark approved of Lewis's choice. This, he said, was "certainly the most eligable Situation for our purposes of any in its neighbourhood." A freshwater spring was close by.

Figure 2 Floor plan of Fort Clatsop Pass cursor over image to read details. bove is a tracing of the floor plan for Fort Clatsop that was drawn on the outside back cover of the field journal, which Clark had covered with elk skin to keep its contents clean and dry. He drew another, slightly different layout elsewhere, but evidence clearly shows that this is the one that was used.

Day 1, 10 December 1805, marked the beginning of work on the Corps' third winter garrison. That was the day Clark returned from supervising the placement of the salt-makers' camp on the beach, to find all hands—those who weren't too sick to work—clearing the ground and surveying the boundaries of the structure. They worked as fast as they could, and the daily, mostly intermittent rain showers, punctuated by powerful storms, strengthened their resolve.

Day 2 saw them begin to raise the log walls of one line of huts.

Day 3 brought visible progress, and their first challenge: "In the forenoon we finished 3 rooms of our cabins," Sgt. Gass reported, "all but the covering; which I expect will be a difficult part of the business, as we have not yet found any timber which splits well; two men went out to make some boards, if possible, for our roofs." But luck soon favored them.

Tree of Life

Day 4 cheered them all when their two timber cruisers found exactly what was needed—western redcedar (Thuja plicata Donn)⁵, known to natives of the northwest coast as "The Tree of Life."

They had all noticed that grand tree along the upper reaches of the Lochsa River canyon, only a day or two after they left Packer Meadows on the Bitterroot Divide. Private Whitehouse was the first of the journalists to recognize "Some tall Strait Siprass [cypress], or white ceeder" on the banks of the Lochsa River somewhere downstream from Killed Colt Camp. Farther along on K'useyneiskit, on the 19^th a six-man advance party of hunters led by Capt. Clark camped in a grove of western redcedar and western white pine to which recent history has given the name "Lewis and Clark Grove." Whitehouse, who was in the rest of the party led by Capt. Lewis that camped in that same grove on the next day, observed "considerable of Strait handsome timber . . . which resembles [northern] white ceeder but is called Arbervity." It is not known whether the private took his cue from Lewis, or recognized the similarity from his own experience, but Lewis used the same nickname in his journal entry for the day: "the Arborvitae . . . grows to an immence size, being from 2 to 6 feet in diameter." Whitehouse's likening the western redcedar to the northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis L. (1753)—ironically, the specific epithet occidentalis is Latin for "western"—was appropriate inasmuch as the foliages as well as the sapwood are almost identical. Also, both have the same small, plaited, scale-like leaves in flat sprays—except that those of the eastern species turn to yellowish green in winter—and both are easily split for boards, shingles and shakes. From his ground-level perspective, Whitehouse could easily have missed the two species' main distinction, which is that the eastern species rarely grows more than half as tall as the western.⁴

Sgt. Gass, who was a carpenter prior to his enlistment in the Army, oversaw the progress with a practiced eye, and reported enthusiastically, "We Continue to put up the Streight butiful balsom³ pine on our houses—and we are much pleased to find that the timber Splits most butifully and to the width of 2 feet or more."

Day 5 was a benchmark day: "We completed the building of our huts, 7 in number," Gass remembered, "all but the covering, which I now find will not be so difficult as I expected; as we have found a kind of timber in plenty, which splits freely, and makes the finest puncheons I have ever seen. They can be split 10 feet long and two broad, not more than an inch and an half thick.”

Treat the Meat

Day 5 also brought a disappointment that literally boded ill for daily life in the fort. Clark lamented: "[A]ll our last Supply of Elk has Spoiled in the repeeted rains which has been fallen ever Since our arrival at this place, and for a long time before." Throughout November and December there were a few days when the sun shone through, but not long enough to draw the moisture from anything under it. Consider what the hunters had to endure. It's a wonder that little Pomp, not yet one year old, survived without apparent illness.

Most of the winter, the weather would turn out to be surprisingly warm compared with winters from the Rockies eastward. That was both a blessing and a curse. At skin-level, the temperature would at last be tolerable for everyone, even downright comfortable, as soon as they had a warm, dry shelter day and night. On the other hand, the temperature seldom dropped into the low 30s Fahrenheit, nor stayed there long if it did, which meant that bacteria could begin to multiply in fresh meat within a few hours of being killed and butchered. Therefore it was essential to get it processed and into the smokehouse within 5 or 6 hours of being bled out, skinned, butchered and trimmed of ligaments, connective tissues and fat. In the trimmed meat, all bloody spots or other discoloration, and all "off-odors" as well as visible evidence of parasites and other insects had to be cut away. Finally, it was necessary to slice the meat (with the grain) into strips approximately ¼-inch thick, 1 inch wide and 10 inches long, to ensure fast, thorough drying of each slice evenly from inside out. Let the slightest bit of moisture remain anywhere inside, and bacteria will begin to take over right there, and the whole slice will soon be spoiled. Modern hunters freeze their venison first, and wait until it is partially thawed before slicing it. However, the Corps' hunters had no choice but to slice the meat raw, which is dangerous as well as tedious, even with a very sharp knife.

Salt

The next step is the process of dehydrating it, drawing out all of the natural moisture in the fibers. Good ventilation and efficient circulation of warm air in the smokehouse would hasten the drying if the fire's temperature were carefully controlled, night and day. Rubbing the trimmed and sliced flitches with salt, whenever they got some, would quickly draw moisture to the surface of the meat. On January 5 the salt makers, Joseph Fields, Bratton and Gibson, having found that "they could obtain from 3 quarts to a gallon a day," brought to the fort about a gallon of salt, "excellent, fine, strong, & white," which was, said Lewis, "a great treat to myself and most of the party, having not had any since the 20th of December. Beyond the daily dietary needs of 33 persons, salt served such demanding functions—especially in drying meat and curing hides for clothing and moccasins—that a gallon would not have lasted very long. The first significant supply wouldn't didn't arrive from the seaside salt works until the third of February, when Lewis would write:

Day 6 was spent by Gass and two others in "fixing and finishing the quarters of the Commanding Officers, while two other men were "preparing puncheons for covering the huts." "Puncheon" has been a wiggly word. From the mid-14th century on, according to the OED, it denoted a tool for punching holes, making dies for coins, or casting printers' type. Three hundred years passed, and it became the name of a small split log laid with the smooth side up as paving for a road or a walkway. For Patrick Gass in the early 1800s it was either a split log, or else a thin plank split from a larger log. But in Webster's 1806 dictionary puncheon was defined as "a tool to make a hole" and, incongruously, as "a large cask," while "a short timber for supporting weights" was called a "punchin." One suspects that Webster's own nemesis, phonetic spelling, was the root of the confusion.

Figure 3 A Froe (Frow, Frower) Pass cursor over image to read details. The etymology of this unusual word is too vague to recount here, but one form or another—frower, frow, froe, fromward, frommard, etc.—has been in the wood-worker's vocabulary since at least the latter half of the 16th century. It was especially common in the U.S. throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and is still known, if seldom used, by most carpenters. Basically, it denotes a tool consisting of a thick straight blade about 2-3 inches wide, from ½ to ⅜ inches thick in thickness (sometimes wedge-shaped; if so, the flat top is narrower than the bottom blade), and about 12 inches long, with one end wrapped around an 18-20 inch vertical wooden haft (handle). It is used for cleaving or riving (splitting) planks, shingles, and slats or laths from clear, solid logs for use in the construction of dwellings and furniture.6 A froe is used first to square up a log by removing four successive segments of the circumference. The blade is carefully placed across the end of the standing log and with light, evenly spaced strokes of a wooden maul (mallet or froe club) until the blade is fully embedded in the log, while the river keeps the blade vertical. The riving continues with blows from the mallet against the beveled free end of the blade, accompanied by opposing lateral pressure with the hand holding the haft. Between blows, careful transverse leverage is applied with the haft to enhance the riving. As the blade is driven down the log, successively larger wooden wedges may be inserted into the rift to facilitate further splitting. From the fact that Israel Whelan, the U.S. Army Purveyor of Public Supplies in Philadelphia, purchased two "shingling hatchets" for the expedition, it is clear that Lewis anticipated the construction of log fortifications for their winter bivouacs, but there is no evidence that the captain ordered any froes. However, an inventory of supplies found in the Elkskin-bound journal for December 7—the day Clark and his party paddled from Tongue Point to Lewis's Bay—lists 1 Frow and 1 "malet," with no related information.11

Day 7. Clark: “we had a house Covered with Punchen & our meat hung up. . . . Several men Complaining of hurting themselves Carry meet, &c.”

Day 8 (16 December, Clark: "The trees which our men have fallen latterly Split verry badly into boards. . . . our Leather Lodge has become So rotten that the Smallest thing tares it into holes and it is now Scrcely Sufficent to keep . . . the rain off a Spot Sufficiently large for our bead [i.e., bed; possibly pronounced as two syllables, bay-ud]."

Day 9, 18 December, was the first day they worked in snow and hail. The men were nearing the end of their endurance. Clark explained: "The men being thinly Dressed and mockersons without Socks is the reason that but little can be done at the Houses to day—."⁷ At noon, "the Hail & Snow Seased and rain Suckceeded for the latter part of the day." What a relief!

Fleas!

Day 10, Clark "despatched Sjt. Pryer with 8 men in 2 Canoes across the bay for the boads⁸ of an Indian house which is abandoned."⁹ They returned that afternoon "with a load of old boards," but as to their use in completing the fort they were found to be "verry indifferent"—which leaves us wondering what that verbal shrug meant. Odds are that the structure they pillaged, like many other vacant domiciles they had seen along the lower Columbia, might not have been permanently abandoned, but was built to serve as a temporary residence for one of two reasons. For one thing, Coastal tribes often lived near the ocean in winter, and moved to alternate homes on nearby rivers during salmon runs. Since it was said to be located near the Netul river, it might have been occupied only during salmon that were done before the expedition arrived in early December, and begun after they left in late March. On the other hand, it may have been temporarily vacated by a native family for whom it had been made uninhabitable by an overabundance of fleas.¹⁰

There is no indication in the expedition's journals that any of the Clatsop people complained about the pilferage, but the natives may have learned of it somehow, and politely brought the matter to one of the captains' attention, for on December 29th Clark noted that "[t]he flees are So noumerous in this Countrey and difficult to get Cleare of that the Indians have difft. houses & villages to which they remove frequently to get rid of them."¹⁰ In either case, we don't read of any claims made nor apologies offered, nor that the Americans ever considered putting the booty back where they found it.

The captains' expropriation of lumber from that structure was a deed that today would be prosecuted as larceny, which the statutes of the State of Oregon define as "feloniously and unlawfully taking the property of another against their will or without their consent, with the intention of defrauding and depriving them of its use." Ironically, there is abundant evidence that the Corps of Discovery was quick to respond to thefts of their property by the natives.

Days 12 & 13 were devoted to steady progress in daubing the chinks between logs in the four huts that were roofed, finishing their puncheon flooring and bunks. Frustrations were inevitable. On the 12th day (December 21) a couple of the men felled "Several trees which would not Split into punchins," and on the 13th day "We discover that part of our last Supply of meat is Spoiling from the womph [warmth] of the weather not withstanding a constant Smoke kept under it day and night."

Day 14 The captains moved into their hut today, even though it was not quite finished.

Day 15 at least brought them to the first day all of the men shared shelter from the rain and wind and built fires to dry out. Joe Fields smoothed a wide board for each of the captains to write on. Otherwise, "our Store of Meat entirely Spoiled," Sgt. Gass repeated, but, he added, "we are obliged to make use of it as we have nothing else except a little pounded fish, the remains of what we purchased near the great falls of the Columbia," nearly two months ago.

Smoke alarm

Day 16 was Christmas Day. "All our party moved into their huts," Lewis wrote. Clark was obviously pleased for them: "All the party Snugly fixed in their huts." But there was still more work to be done. It was Sgt. Gass who reported on a situation that rather spoiled their Christmas jollity: "We found our huts smoked; there being no chimneys in them except in the officers' rooms. The men were therefore employed, except some hunters who went out, in making chimnies to the huts." Perhaps chimneys had been omitted because the Indians didn't use them, and didn't appear to be troubled by smoke, so the easterners concluded that a hole in the roof above the fire would be enough to keep the inside air clean. But the coastal Indians had learned long ago how to cope with the physics of fire management and fresh air circulation in a closed structure. For one thing, the soldiers strived to make their huts snug, and as Clark said, they succeeded. They daubed mud in the chinks between the logs to keep out the wind, whereas the Indians allowed their houses to "breathe."

Moreover, the natives had various ways to manipulate the balance of atmospheric pressure, temperature and air flow in what we now call the "stack effect." As the warming or cooking fire heats the room above the outside temperature, the warm air rises, increasing the atmospheric pressure toward the floor, and raising it toward the ceiling. The horizontal zone in which the atmospheric pressure inside is equal to that outdoors is a neutral pressure plane which holds the smoke indoors, close to the fire. Also, with 8 men in each of the two 16 by 15-foot rooms and 10 in the 18 x 15-foot room, the frequent opening of doors would have created strong down-drafts and increased the concentration of smoke in the rooms, especially when the wind was blowing hard. Heating and ventilating are much easier to control with a properly designed chimney and flue. Indeed, as one authority has declared, "The chimney is the engine that drives a wood heat system."¹²

Day 17 Joseph Fields "finish a Table & 2 Seats" for the captains today. Life at the fort was somewhat more comfortable today, except for one daily complaint that had remained unspoken until now. Clark: "The flees are So troublesome that I have Slept but little for 2 nights past and we have regularly to kill them out of our blankets everyday for Several past."

Day 18 Captain Clark tried to sound nonchalant: (27 December) "the men Complete Chimneys & Bunks to day. . . . Musquetors troublesom." In the next draft of this day's journal he managed to suppress his anxiety. "Musquetors to day, or an insect So much the Size Shape and appearance of a Musquetor that we Could observe no kind of difference." He didn't mention that it didn't seem to sing in his ears. No matter. It was only a shocking look-almost, sometimes, roughly, remotely or never-look alike.

Day 19 Clark "Sent out the hunters and Salt makers, & employed the balance of the men Carrying pickets &C."

Day 20 Clark: "our fortification is Completed this evening . . . this day proved to be the fairest and best which we have had since our arrival at this place, only three Showers dureing this whole day."

Day 21

(31 December 1805): I" derected Sinks [pit toilets, 2 of them] to be dug and a Sentinal Box ['for the centinel to Stand in out of the rain'] which was accomplished."

Day 22 January 1, 1806, Sergeant Gass: "We gave our Fortification the name of Fort Clatsop."

--Joseph Mussulman

1. Clark called it "Meriwethers Bay" in the mistaken belief that Lewis was the first white man ever to see it. In fact, the first was Lieutenant William Broughton, of Captain George Vancouver's expedition, who in 1792 named it after the British Navy's Sir George Young, by whose surname the bay is still known. (Incidentally, it only rained from 10 to 12, and at 2 P.M. that day.)

2. Well into the early 19th century in England and the U.S., naturalists persisted in calling all evergreen trees "pines."

3. Clark's "balsom" (properly balsam) identified one of the most conspicuous features of that particular "pine." Noah Webster, in his Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, defined the substance as "an oily, arom[at]ic substance flowing from trees[;] that which gives ease." He defined the adjective balsamic as "healing, mitigating, unctuous, soft," and the nominative form of the same word as "a healing softening medicine." Lewis included two forms of balsam oil among the medicaments he purchased in Philadelphia for the expedition's medicine chest: Bals[amic] Copaiboe and Bals[amic] Traumaticum.

4. Also commonly known as northern white cedar and eastern arborvitae, its native range is from southeastern Canada and northeastern U.S., south to North Carolina and as far west as Minnesota and Wisconsin. It was introduced to Europe by French explorers in 1536. The ethnobotany of the northern white cedar is similar to that of the western species. In Ojibwe Indian culture it is known as the "Grandmother Cedar."

5. "Donn" is the botanists' abbreviation for James Donn (1758-1813), the English naturalist who wrote the description of the original type specimen of Thuja plicata. In contrast to the western redcedar, the maximum height of a mature (50-year-old) northern redcedar (Thuja occidentalis L.) is 55 to 60 feet, and the diameter of the bole about 48 inches. "Eastern Redcedar: An American Wood," United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 260 eredc.pdf. USDA Plants Profile, Thuja occidentalis L; USFS Silvics of North America.

6. Average temperature and humidity at nearby Astoria is taken from http://www.climate-zone.com/climate/united-states/oregon/astoria/. Meat-drying procedures and standards are from The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, FAO Animal Production and Health Paper 79, a Manual on simple methods of meat preservation.

7. They began tackling that problem as soon as their rooms were roofed and the log walls chinked to keep out the cold wind. By March 13 Sgt. Gass could report, as they began packing to leave Fort Clatsop, that they had managed to make 338 pairs of "mockasons" for their homeward journey. "This stock," he pointed out, "was not provided without great labour," as the most of them are made of [the toughest parts of] the skins of elk. Each man has also a sufficient quantity of patch-leather." They left on the 23rd.

8. In 18th-century Britain, and among American Colonists from those places in the British Isles, speakers developed the habit of habitually eliding the rhotic sound when it occurred before a consonant. That accounts for the missing /r/ in Clark's phonetic spelling of "board."

9. Their appropriation of parts of an apparently abandoned Indian house actually was an act of petty theft on the part of Sergeant Pryor and his men. Clark was well aware of the reason some houses were unoccupied—[CHECK SOURCE OF THIS] to allow the life cycle of the infestation of fleas to die off for want of hosts, human or animal, after which the occupants could take up residence in the alternative house until the flea population drove them out again.

10. Robert F. Harwood & Maurice T. James, Entomology in Human and Animal Health, 7th ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1979), 319, 322.

11. The native people who had lived along the Pacific Coast for hundreds of years had evolved a technology that enabled the construction of "plank houses" without the need of metal tools such as froes. Lewis encountered the hard evidence of that, having noticed the very hard wood of the Oregon crab apple tree, Malus fusca (Rafinesque), and observed how the natives used it:[T]he natives make great uce of it to form their wedges with which they split their boards of pine for the purpose of building houses.    these wedges they also employ in spliting their firewood and in hollowing out their canoes. I have seen the natives drive the wedges of this wood into solid dry pine which it cleft without fracturing or injuring the wedge in the smallest degree.He continued: "[W]e have also found this wood usefull to us for ax handles as well as glutts [gluts] or wedges."

12. The Wood Heat Organization Inc., http://www.woodheat.org/all-about-chimneys.html (Retrieved 21 March 2013).

6. A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, in which Five Thousand Words are added to the number found in the Best English Compends (Hartford, Connecticut: Sidney's Press, 1806). "Frower" was an earlier form of "frow" (also spelled "froe") that came from the adjective "froward," referring to the act of turning the vertical handle away from the wood block to effect the split.