Fort Clatsop Administrative History

Oregon Historical Society Management and the Sesquicentennial

OHS flagpole and commemorative marker, Woodfield Photo Studio.
(Photo courtesy of Oregon Historical Society, photo negative number 90816)

It was not until 1912 that the historical society was able to install a bronze marker at the site. By then, the stakes that had been placed in 1900 could not be found and since the placement of the first stake was not recorded by a surveyor, it is not clear how they determined where to place the marker. [24]

In 1928, the society was able to purchase two additional acres to the south adjoining their existing acreage and containing a freshwater spring thought to be used by the expedition party during that winter. [25] The site was also cleared, a flagpole erected, and the bronze tablet placed on the cement base of the flagpole. Clatsop County improved the county road leading to the site at that time as well. Over the years, the bronze marker was stolen and replaced at least twice and was removed again during World War II. The site was available to public visitation and occasional cleanup projects were conducted by local civic groups.

William Clark's sketch of Fort Clatsop, drawn on the elkskin cover of his journal.

By the late 1940s, speculation about the authenticity of the site was great enough that Lancaster Pollard, who was director of the Oregon Historical Society at the time, contacted the National Park Service and asked for assistance in completing an archeological survey at the site. The park service sent Region Four archeologist Louis Caywood to assist the historical society. Caywood conducted excavations at the site during July 9-17, 1948. Caywood reported that his excavations were done on the site of the Lewis and Clark encampment. Caywood's excavations will be discussed in greater detail in a later chapter. Aside from brief consideration in 1948 that a Hollywood studio might build a replica of the fort for a movie, nothing changed at the site after the excavations, and there was no regular maintenance program.

In 1953, an editorial in the Oregonian expressed distress at the deplorable condition of the Fort Clatsop site. The site had become a dumping ground, strewn with litter. The Clatsop County Historical Society had been sponsoring cleanup projects at the site since 1947, but those projects were the only maintenance provided. The 1953 editorial happened to correspond with the establishment of the Astoria Junior Chamber of Commerce, or Jaycees, who were looking for a civic project to which they could devote their energy. Cleaning up the Fort Clatsop site seemed like the perfect project. During the summer of 1953, the Jaycees improved the site, removing trash, mowing the brush and grass around the marker area, and restoring the bronze marker that had been in storage since World War II.

During 1954, planning for Lewis and Clark Sesquicentennial celebrations began. The local community decided early that the center of their celebrations would be the Fort Clatsop site. The idea for a reconstruction of Fort Clatsop had been considered before, appearing in print in 1948 when Lancaster Pollard of the Oregon Historical Society told the press that a Hollywood movie company was considering building one. The idea also arose in a letter from a Portland doctor supporting national recognition for the site in 1953. While plans for the Sesquicentennial were getting under way, the Jaycees and the Clatsop County Historical Society decided they should build a replica of Fort Clatsop and formed a joint committee to finance its construction. Wilt Paulson, then president of the Jaycees, named Wesley Shaner, Jr. the project manager, and the Clatsop County Historical Society assigned their secretary, Burnby Bell, to the project. These two were the primary coordinators for the replica project. [26]

Throughout 1954 until August 21, 1955, when the replica was finished and dedicated, many local groups and individuals donated time, effort, and money. First, the project managers contacted Astorian RoIf Klep, an artist who was living in New York City. They asked Klep to research the expedition journals and provide a drawing of the fort. They also approached the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) for permission to construct the replica, which was granted by the society's president, Burt Brown Barker. Barker served on the Oregon governor-appointed committee for the Sesquicentennial celebration and made a personal donation of $100 for work at the site. However, minutes from Clatsop County Historical Society meetings indicate that not all members of the Oregon Historical Society supported the project, undoubtedly because the replica would ultimately fall to them to manage. [27]

After receiving approval from OHS, Wes Shaner and Wilt Paulson approached the vice president of Crown Zellerbach, Ed Stamm, about the possible donation of logs for the fort project. Stamm agreed to donate the logs and further volunteered to "wolmanize" the logs (injecting chemical preservatives into the wood) at no cost. Paulson remembers Stamm saying that if they were going to build the thing, they needed to make it last at least fifty years. [28] In all, Crown Zellerbach provided 408 logs, each approximately 40 feet long with a minimum diameter of 7 inches and an 11 inch base. The logs came from the area around Vernonia, Oregon, and were removed from the forest by draft horses to prevent scarring by logging machinery. Crown Zellerbach provided transportation of the logs and wolmanization at their plant in Wauna, Oregon.

Next, the project managers approached the Finnish Brotherhood of Astoria for help with carpentry skills. The Jaycees had plenty of labor to donate, but no one with fort building experience. Through the Finnish Brotherhood, they received not only technical advice and more volunteers, but also the only hired help on the project, Olavi Hietaharju. Hietaharju was from Finland and had previous cabin-building experience. He was hired by the Oregon Historical Society as foreman for the replica project.

Rolf Klep's rendition of Fort Clatsop, utilized in the construction of the Fort Clatsop Replica.

Rolf Klep completed a charcoal sketch of Fort Clatsop and sent it back to the project coordinators. The sketch was based on William Clark's fifty-foot-square floor plan and what little description was given in the journals. Due to the lack of documentation on the Fort Clatsop structure, Klep turned to the Expedition's previous fort-building experience for possible clues to their construction habits. The Expedition had constructed Fort Mandan, also named for the local Indian people, in which to spend the winter of 1804-1805. The inward sloping roofs of the Fort Clatsop replica are derived from the Fort Mandan structure. Fort Mandan was built in a triangle with the roofs slanted toward an inner court. Klep possibly also relied on examples of log cabins of the 1800s to help him formulate what the fort looked like, but some speculation had to have been involved. For example, Klep's drawing has gun ports at the fort when no mention is made of them existing and it is unlikely that they did. When Klep's drawing was made available, John Wicks, a local architect, made working construction plans from the sketch. Hietaharju followed these plans in the fort construction. The Jaycees also asked Klep for permission to sell copies of his sketch to raise money for the replica project, which he granted. The Jaycees sold prints of the sketch for $10 a piece.

At the time of the replica-building project, Wilt Paulson was manager of the Astoria airport where he arranged for space in the airport hanger for pre-fabrication of the fort building. The plan was to build the fort in the hanger, mark and number the logs, then send them out to be wolmanized. When the logs returned, they would reassemble the fort at the actual site. Through the end of 1954 and into 1955, the volunteers worked on the pre-fabrication work. Hietaharju was there to direct the volunteers in the construction. The fort replica was completed early in 1955, then disassembled and the logs sent out for wolmanizing. In early August 1955, the logs returned from Wauna. To the Jaycees dismay, the banding of the logs for reassembly was destroyed during the wolmanizing process. They returned the logs to the airport hanger, reassembled and remarked the logs, disassembled the fort, and then moved the logs to the site. By the time the replica was finished, they had put it together three times.

The Astoria Lions Club donated materials and labor for building a cement foundation for the fort. Early in August, foundation lines were staked out and the foundation built. How they decided where to place the replica is somewhat sketchy. It is known that they used the spring as a reference point with distances given in the journals, assuming that the spring is the one mentioned. [29] They also had to place the fort in relation to the county road, which at the time came right up to the marker site. A letter from Thomas Vaughan years later states that OHS directed the Jaycees to place the replica directly next to the fort site. This likely meant next to the bronze marker and flagpole, assuming that those markers were on the exact site. The Jaycees considered the weather in deciding which direction the fort's main gate would face using the theory that if the main gate faced the river, wind and rain would blow right into the fort grounds.

While digging the replica's foundation trenches, it is reported the volunteers did find charcoal remnants or pits. Nothing seems to have been done with any of these materials. National Park Service regional historian John Hussey speculated in a 1957 report that they may have found remnants of Joseph B. Stevenson's charcoal operations.

Jaycees working on prefabrication construction, Astoria airport hanger, 1954.
(FOCL photo collection)

With the foundation laid, the replica was constructed at the site. Ruth Shaner, wife of Jaycee project manager Wes Shaner, Jr., remembers that by the last month of the project, her husband really had to push to get volunteers to help finish the replica. Many had grown tired of the project. In an effort to help get volunteers on Sundays, Ruth offered to teach Sunday school to the volunteers' children. [30] This did seem to help, but the project continued to the last minute. With dedication ceremonies planned for August 21, 1955, the Jaycees finished hanging the main gate on the morning of the 21st. A well, pump, picnic tables, and sanitary facilities were also completed during that month. Clatsop County graded the parking area and furnished rock for the parking area and access roads. The August 21 dedication ceremonies for the Fort Clatsop replica included the Secretary of the Interior and former Oregon governor, Douglas McKay; Oregon Governor Paul Paterson; Washington Governor Arthur B. Langlie; the presidents of the Astoria Chamber of Commerce and Junior Chamber of Commerce; Burt Brown Barker and Thomas Vaughan, the president and director of the Oregon Historical Society, respectively; and local boy scouts who arrived by canoe. During the ceremonies, Burt Brown Barker accepted the replica building on behalf of the Oregon Historical Society.

After the ceremonies and the Sesquicentennial celebration was over, site management problems for OHS had become much larger. Rather than merely a marked historical site, they now had a fort, sanitary facilities, and picnic areas to maintain. The Jaycees dropped any future plans they had for clean up and improvements at the site. Director Thomas Vaughn spent a weekend putting a chain link fence around the replica for protection. OHS worked with Burnby Bell to coordinate maintenance at the site. During the summers of 1956 and 1957, OHS was able to come up with a small amount of money to pay an attendant for the summer season to be at the fort during the day and open it up for visitors. Michael Foster was hired to staff the site during the summer of 1958. Foster spent seven days a week greeting visitors, cleaning the pit toilets, and selling souvenirs for the Clatsop County Historical Society, for which he received a small commission. [31] A donation box was placed at the site to help raise money for maintenance. Movement was already well underway to have the site taken over by the federal government.

Replica cabin under construction (FOCL photo collection)

Jaycees working at site. Shown from left to right: Johann Mehlum, Wilt Paulson (smoking), and Joe Nerenberg. (FOCL photo collection)