In 2017, Cape Disappointment State Park registered 117,453 camping nights, second only to Deception Pass State Park. Patty and I added our persons to the 2018 statistics over Memorial Day Weekend. Camping -- an overnight stay away from home in a shelter such as a tent -- has been happening in this locale for a long time.
213 years ago (on my birthday!) William Clark and 10 others from the expedition he led with Meriwether Lewis stayed at a spot not far from our shelter - away - from - home at Campsite #141. Seargant John Ordway wrote in his journal that "towards evening we arived at the Cape disapointment on the Sea Shore. went over a bald hill where we had a handsom view of the ocean. we went on a Short distance on the coast and Camped for the night." Clark noted in his journal that the "men appear much Satisfied with their trip beholding with estonishment the high waves dashing against the rocks & this emence ocean."
We arrived around noon on the Thursday before Memorial Day to find few of the park's 220 campsites occupied by tents and RVs. As we sorted out the various poles and stakes and cords necessary to pitching our tent we shook off the anxieties of the drive and let the sound of high waves dashing against the rocks fill our ears.
Clark and company were on their 553rd consecutive night of camping when they got here, and they minced no words in their diaries about the unpleasantness they encountered in Washington in November. Three days earlier Clark wrote in his journal-- "the most disagreeable time I have experienced. Confined on a tempiest Coast wet, where I can neither get out to hunt, return to a better Situation, or proceed on..."
While Memorial Day weekend is traditionally a camping in the rain affair, it seems we lucked out this year with only a bit of drizzle to dampen our satisfaction. Just as Clark used his time in the area to walk around and check things out, so did we.
We walked the length of Benson Beach, climbed the bluff to the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center on Cape Disappointment, explored the Confluence Project artworks designed by Maya Lin, walked to the North Head Lighthouse, and spent a delightful time close to the powerful crashing surf below the headlands near Beard's Hollow. Nights we returned to our cozy tent. Camping remains a well-established favorite pastime of Americans; more than 14% of us go camping in any year, with the highest participation among residents of the western states. The most camping trips are in state parks and involve sleeping in tents. There must be a deeply-rooted urge for this connection.
As we walked the beach we noted the large number of dead shore pines, many falling on to the beach. Of course, all of this beach is an artifact of the jetty built in the early 20th century to facilitate shipping into the Columbia River.
Record high water last winter caused the mortality and also destroyed 10 popular campsites. Most likely, this is a harbinger of things to come, with higher seas and harsher storms the predicted local effects of our warming planet.
The interpretive center fostered an immersion into the story of the near-legendary trip of the Corps of Discovery.
Lewis & Clark's journey was such an epic voyage--with clear instructions given by President Jefferson, meticulous planning and execution, assistance and advice from nearly every contact with resident people, their trip literally filled in a giant blank space on the map.
It resonates with people more than 200 years later because of the transparency afforded by their journals-- a beautiful snapshot of a place on the verge of huge impacts, but where people were living as they had for generations, rivers were astonishingly full of fish, forests of giant trees covered landscapes, bison and bears roamed the prairies.
Every camper at Cape Disappointment identifies with their process of planning for a trip-- making lists, doing some shopping, picking the right partners to go with, and doing some research about what might be there. Certainly many modern-day visits here are also enlivened by some challenges, personal discoveries and unexpected serendipity, just as Lewis & Clark detailed in their writing.
Interestingly, the first display encountered in the interpretive center is a quotation from the president's directive to the captains:
"in all your intercourse with the natives, treat them in the most friendly & conciliatory manner which their own conduct will admit...make them acquainted with the position, extent, character, peaceable & commercial dispositions of the U.S. of our wish to be neighborly, friendly & useful to them..."
While it seems from the record that they in fact followed this directive well, I can't help but wonder.....what if all of the successive contact from Euro-Americans had followed the same spirit?
In 2005, to honor the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a series of art installations designed by Maya Lin were placed at significant places visited by them. For me the highlight of the project at Cape Disappointment is this dedication prayer from the Chinook Tribe at the Cedar Circle:
We call upon the Earth our Planet Home,
With its beautiful depths and soaring heights,
Its vitality and abundance of life,
And together we ask that it
Teach us and Show us the Way
We call upon the Mountains,
Saddle Mountain and Wahkiakum Mountain,
the Willapa Hills, the summits of intense silence, and we ask that they
Teach us and Show us the Way
We call upon the waters that rim the Earth, the waters of our Great River Iyagatthl Imathl,
the waters of Willapa Bay and all of the waters,
the flowing of our Rivers and Streams,
the water that falls upon us,
and we ask that they
Teach us and Show us the Way
We call upon the forests, the great Cedar trees,
reaching strongly to the sky, with the Earth in their Roots,
and the heavens in their branches,
Cedar Tree, the keeper of all knowledge,
and we ask them to
Teach us and Show us the Way
We call upon the creatures of the fields and
forest and the seas, our brothers and sisters
Lilu the wolf, Mulak the elk and Mawich the deer
ChackChack the eagle, the great whales,
and the Sturgeon, and the Salmon People
Who share our Chinook waters
and we ask that they
Teach us and Show us the Way
We call upon all those who have lived on this Earth,
our ancestors and our friends,
who dreamed the best for future generations, and upon whose lives our lives are built
and with Thanksgiving we call on them to
Teach us and Show us the Way
And lastly we call upon all that we hold most sacred,
the presence and power of the Great Spirit
which flows through all the universe,
to be with us and to
Teach us and Show us the Way
I am struck with another profound "what if"-- What if this deeply rooted indigenous knowledge had predominated over the zeal of manifest destiny, and a uniquely multicultural path had guided the story of this place? Is there still time for that knowledge to inform a uniquely place-centered culture here in this homeland?
These are the thoughts that swirl in my head as I drift to sleep......and dream the best for future generations........the sound of eternal waves in the background.
-David