Fort Clatsop Suggested Historic Area Report

H. Sponsors of the project

The project to obtain Federal assistance in the development and administration of the Fort Clatsop Site is not a new one. It goes back to at least 1905 and 1906 when the Oregon Development League, of Astoria, and the Oregon Historical Society sponsored legislation for a Congressional appropriation to purchase 160 additional acres at the site and to erect a suitable monument in commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This effort was at least partly inspired by the earlier success of Sioux City, Iowa, in obtaining Federal funds to assist in the construction of a shaft in memory of Sergeant Charles Floyd, the only member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to lose his life during the journey. A bill requesting an appropriation of up to $10,000 to erect a "fitting monument" at the Fort Clatsop site was actually introduced in Congress toward the end of 1906, but it did not pass. [94]

The next serious attempt to obtain the assistance of the Federal Government in the preservation of the Fort Clatsop site came in 1936, when the Astoria Chamber of Commerce through its secretary, Mr. W. H. Nelson, proposed that several sites in and around Astoria be designated by the Secretary of the Interior as of national historical significance. The Fort Clatsop property was one of these sites. After a field investigation by the National Park Service, the proposal to give national recognition to the site of Fort Clatsop was considered separately by the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings and Monuments at its meeting on March 25-26, 1937. As the result of careful study and deliberation, the Board recognized the site "as having historical significance" but recommended it "for development as a state area, inasmuch as it seemed to have more local than national value." [95]

The matter apparently rested there until after World War II, when the Clatsop County Historical Society and other local civic groups began to clean up the site and rehabilitate it as a historic monument after years of neglect. Realizing that the local organizations and the Oregon Historical Society could not properly finance the maintenance of the property, the Clatsop County Historical Society in June, 1948, passed a resolution calling upon Congress to make the Fort Clatsop Site a national monument. This move was "encouraged," said the local press, by the signing into law of the Act of June 19, 1948, authorizing the establishment of Fort Vancouver National Monument, Washington. [96]

This resolution apparently had no immediate effect beyond stimulating further attempts to identify the exact site of Fort Clatsop, but from that time the idea of establishing a national monument at the property seems never to have been entirely lost sight of by the local historical society and its cooperating organizations. Periodically thereafter they became concerned about the "frightful condition" of the site, and among proposals for special local taxes or a State park, the national monument idea continued to be mentioned as a possible solution. Although a certain amount of this concern was due to fears that the run-down condition of the site and the resulting "bad publicity" would reduce the tourist trade, it is apparent from local press comment that there existed a genuine desire to rescue from neglect "one of the most important historical sites in the northwest." [97]

The national monument movement really began to gather momentum in 1953 after the newly organized Astoria Junior Chamber of Commerce became interested in the upkeep of the site. In October of that year representatives of the Junior Chamber, the Clatsop County Historical Society, the Oregon Historical Society, and other interested groups met in Astoria and formulated a definite, four-point program to achieve national monument status for Fort Clatsop. [98] One result of this renewed interest was the writing of letters, dated October 27, 1953, by Dr. Frank B. Queen of the University of Oregon Medical School to Secretary of the Interior McKay and to Congressman Walter Norblad formally urging that Fort Clatsop be designated a national monument or national historic site. Dr. Queen represented the property as being "virtually uncared for" and "barren of any items of [visible] interest." He believed that national recognition would assist in remedying these conditions and would also result in the site being placed on tourist maps. [99] Mr. Lancaster Pollard, Superintendent of the Oregon Historical Society, was also active in enlisting support for the project.

During the next year, local attention was largely directed at plans for developing the site and reconstructing Fort Clatsop in connection with the Lewis and Clark Sesquicentennial observance, but the national monument proposal was not dropped. For instance, at a meeting held in Astoria early in October, 1954, to work out details of the restoration, the subject of the proposed national monument was raised. Dr. Burt Brown Barker, President of the Oregon Historical Society, told the audience not to be "too ready to turn over your historical sites" to the Federal Government. "Keep control of what is rightfully yours," he urged, "and Fort Clatsop of Lewis and Clark fame belongs to you." [100]

Despite this advice, however, the feeling of the Oregon Historical Society members in general was that the site should not continue to be administered at the state or local level and that administration by the Federal Government would provide the financial resources needed to maintain and develop the area as they believed it deserved. Local civic groups at Astoria endorsed this view, and the Lewis and Clark Sesquicentennial appeared to offer an opportunity to enlist broader support for it. Through various interested individuals, the proposal was brought to the attention of Senator Wayne Morse, Senator Richard L. Neuberger, and other Congressional representatives.

Having a strong personal interest in the Lewis and Clark Expedition and in historical matters, Senator Neuberger was particularly receptive to the national monument idea. In cooperation with Senator Morse, and Senator Dworshak of Idaho, he introduced on July 12, 1955, Senate Bill 2498, "to provide that the Secretary of the Interior shall investigate and report to the Congress as to the advisability of establishing Fort Clatsop, Oregon, as a national monument." During November, the Board of Directors of the Oregon Historical Society passed a resolution favoring this proposal. The bill was passed by both houses of Congress and was approved by the President on June 18, 1956.

Subsequent to the passage of this act (Public Law 590), the proposal to give national monument or national historic site status to the site has received endorsement by several interested organizations and individuals. For instance, a communication favoring such action was sent to the Secretary of the Interior on August 6, 1956, by the Chairman of the National Parks Committee, The Garden Clubs of America. Expressions favoring the proposal have also been issued by the Port land Garden Club and by Senator Harry F. Byrd, of Virginia.

Editorial comment in the Oregon press has been generally in favor of national monument status, but there has also been an expression of regret that the lack of local financial resources makes it impracticable "to keep control of this valuable asset in local hands." [101] The Portland Oregonian of June 21, 1956, stated the prevailing attitude quite clearly. "There can be little doubt" that Fort Clatsop would qualify for national recognition, said one editorial; "it is the most meaningful monument of an expedition unsurpassed in the nation's history." "There is a source of shame, however, in the fact that Oregon itself has never fully met its responsibility with regard to Fort Clatsop," it continued and warned that the Secretary of the Interior might well raise the question, why should the Federal Government recognize a feature which Oregon has not even "elevated to the status of a state park?"