An AI-assisted contemporary historical narrative by Clio Walker, based on the expedition journals. It is not the captains' own text or a submission by either of them. This episode covers December 8, 1805, to January 5, 1806: building Fort Clatsop near the mouth of the Columbia, the first month of the winter there, and the order that shut its gates at sunset.

On the evening of December 30, 1805, the last stretch of stockade and the two gates of Fort Clatsop were in place.

At sunset the captains let their Native visitors know that from then on the gates would close at sunset, every Indian would have to leave the fort, and no one would be let back in until the gates opened after sunrise the next morning.

The visitors that day were Wahkiakums. Clark wrote that they left the houses with reluctance.

The next morning Clark found their conduct changed. He put it down to two things: the sentinel on his post at the gate, and the firm practice of putting everyone out at sunset. That evening the visitors left before sundown without being told.

Counting from the clearing of the ground on December 9 and the felling of trees on the 10th, the fort took three weeks to build. What the journals record most in that month is rain, fleas, spoiled elk meat, and a gate that had to be shut every evening.

1. The Road to the Sea

On December 7 the expedition chose its winter quarters on high ground on the west bank of a small river running into Youngs Bay. The next morning Clark set out west with five men to find the sea.

He wrote down three purposes: to find a place to make salt; to blaze a route through the trees so that hunters lost in cloudy weather could find their way back to the fort; and to see whether there was game in that direction to feed the men who would be sent to make salt.

The way was harder than it looked. They waded slashes knee-deep, rafted a creek about sixty yards wide, and followed a gang of elk into the bogs. Clark wrote that in some bogs the weight of one man would shake half an acre, and in many places he sank up to his hips without finding bottom. That night they killed an elk and camped on a spot barely large enough to lie clear of the water, covered with elk skins.

It rained all the next night and everyone was wet. By a creek Clark met three Clatsop men carrying fresh salmon, who made signs that their village was close by on the coast and invited him to come.

The village stood at the mouth of a small river, at present-day Seaside, Oregon: three board houses sunk into the ground, about twelve families. A young chief named Cuskalah invited him into his house, spread two new mats, and with his wife served fish, roots and cranberries, and a soup made from a kind of berry bread, served in a neat wooden trencher and eaten with a cockle shell.

That night, soon after Clark lay down, he was "attacked most violently by the flees," and they kept up the siege all night.

On the morning of December 10 he walked on the beach collecting shells and saw people walking up and down the shore. One man came over and told him they were looking for fish left by the tide, and said, in English, "Sturgion was verry good." Clark concluded that this small band depended in part for its winter food on fish the sea threw ashore.

Back at the village he shot two brant with his small rifle, then took the head off a duck with one shot. Every man in the village came to look at the duck, the gun, and the size of the ball.

2. Timber That Splits

When Clark got back to camp, Lewis had all hands felling trees.

Ordway described the plan: three lines of huts forming three sides of a square, seven rooms in all, each sixteen by eighteen feet; the fourth side was to be picketed, with gates at two corners, "So as to have it a defensive fort."

At first the roofs were the worry. Gass expected covering them to be the hardest part, since they had found no timber that split well. On December 13 Clark wrote with relief that the straight, handsome "balsom pine" they were now cutting split beautifully, to a width of two feet or more. Gass said it made puncheons ten feet long, two feet wide and no more than an inch and a half thick, "the finest puncheons I have ever seen." The editors think the tree was most likely grand fir.

While they built, Clatsops came often by canoe to trade. On December 12 Clark gave their chief a small medal. He wrote the name as "Con-ny-au" or "Com mo-wol"; the editors identify him as the Clatsop leader more often written Coboway.

Clark was struck by his neighbors' trading. He called them close dealers who would haggle over very little and never closed a bargain unless they thought they had the advantage, and who valued only blue and white beads.

3. The Worst Day

On December 13 Drouillard and Shannon came back to report eighteen elk killed upriver.

On the 15th Clark took sixteen men and three canoes to bring in the meat. They took the canoes as far as the tide reached, went ashore in parties, and each man carried a quarter of elk per trip. Clark wrote that all hands packed, "not one man exempted from this labour"; he carried meat himself and cooked for the others. On the third trip darkness fell and about half the men lost their way. Five of them, Ordway, Colter, Collins, Whitehouse and McNeal, stayed out all night in the rain without fire.

Clark's own party fared little better. They sat up most of the night under elk skins, and when they lay down the water soon came up under them.

On the morning of the 16th the five men came in wet and cold. Clark wrote that "their appearance was truly distressing." The wind blew violently from the southeast, trees fell on every side, and rain, hail and thunder came by turns. In his first entry he wrote: "Certainly one of the worst days that ever was!"

The meat came in and a meat house was built, but the meat would not keep. On the 14th Clark had already written that the last supply of elk had spoiled in the constant rain, and that scarcely a man in camp could boast of having been dry for a single day since they landed. On the 22nd part of the newest supply was spoiling despite a smoke kept under it day and night.

From the night of the 17th until noon on the 18th, rain, snow and hail came by turns. Clark wrote that because the men were thinly dressed, with moccasins and no socks, little could be done on the houses that day.

4. Christmas

On December 23 Clark and Lewis moved into their hut before it was finished. On the 24th most of the men moved into theirs.

That day Cuskalah came with his younger brother and two women and laid before each captain a mat and a parcel of roots. Some time later he asked for two files in return. The captains had no files to spare, so they gave the presents back, which displeased him a little. The same day Clark wrote that their store of meat had spoiled entirely, and they had to eat it anyway, having nothing else but a little pounded fish.

At daybreak on the 25th the captains were woken by gunfire. The whole party fired a salute under their windows, gave a shout, and sang a song together.

After breakfast the captains divided what tobacco remained, half to the men who used it; to each of the others they gave a handkerchief. Clark's two entries disagree on how much tobacco there was: the first says "2 Carrots," the second "12 carrots."

Clark received presents too: a fleece shirt, drawers and socks from Lewis, a pair of moccasins from Whitehouse, a small Indian basket from Goodrich, and two dozen white weasel tails from Sacagawea.

Clark described dinner plainly: poor elk, so spoiled they ate it out of mere necessity, some spoiled pounded fish, and a few roots. They would have spent the day feasting, he said, had they had anything to raise their spirits or even satisfy their appetites.

Ordway wrote in another key. They had no spirits, but they were all in good health, "which we esteem more than all the ardent Spirits in the world." They had nothing but poor elk and no salt to season it, yet kept in good spirits, expecting this to be the last winter they would pass this way. Whitehouse wrote that the whole party gave thanks to God for his goodness and hoped to return safely to the United States.

That day everyone moved into the new fort. Ordway recorded that the officers named it after the Clatsop nation living nearest them: Fort Clatsop.

5. Smoke, Fleas and Spoiled Meat

The day after they moved in, they found the huts full of smoke.

With the wind high and the rain heavy, the smoke had nowhere to go. Gass wrote that there were no chimneys except in the officers' rooms; another entry that day said they could not live in the huts without building chimneys. By the 27th the chimneys and bunks were done, and Whitehouse found the huts comfortable and free of smoke.

The fleas stayed. Clark wrote that he had slept little for two nights, that the blankets had to be searched and the fleas killed every day or there was no sleep at all. On the 29th he added that the fleas here were so numerous that the Indians kept several houses and villages and moved between them to escape, yet they never stepped into the expedition's huts without leaving swarms behind. Much of the men's powder had got wet in their horns.

There were always sick men. Clark wrote that York was very unwell with a violent cold and a strain from carrying meat out of the woods and lifting heavy logs onto the huts; Cruzatte had a violent cold; several men had boils and bruises.

On the 28th Joseph Field, Bratton and Gibson set out with five of the largest kettles to find a place on the coast and make salt; Willard and Weiser went to help carry the kettles and were to come straight back.

Meanwhile the spoiled elk grew harder to eat. Clark wrote that it had become very disagreeable both to the taste and to the smell. When Comowool brought roots and dried berries on the 27th, Clark called them timely and very welcome to their stomachs. On the 29th Wahkiakums brought wappato, which he called a welcome addition to the spoiled elk. He bought about a bushel and a half for a few red beads, small pieces of brass wire and some old check cloth, and gave the young chief a small medal and a piece of red ribbon to tie around the top of his hat, a double cone, which Clark drew in his journal.

On the 30th Drouillard killed four elk not far from the fort. Six men went for them at once and were back by dusk. That night the captains had a supper of elk tongues and marrow bones, "truly gratifying," Clark wrote.

That was the evening the fort was finished and the sunset rule announced.

6. The Gate at Sunset

On the 31st the men dug latrines and built a box to keep the sentinel out of the rain.

The same day a Skillute from upriver brought Clark a musket to repair. It needed only a screw flattened so it would catch. In return the man gave him a peck of wappato, and Clark gave him a piece of sheepskin and a small piece of blue cloth to cover the lock.

Clark also described a young man who had come with the Clatsops: about twenty-five, much lighter-skinned than the others, freckled, with long dusky red hair. Clark was sure he must be at least half white. He seemed to understand more English than his companions but spoke not a word of it, and lived wholly as the others did. The editors suggest he may have been the man the Astorians later knew as Jack Ramsay, whose father had come from a British trading vessel.

At first light on January 1, 1806, Lewis was woken by a volley fired by the party in front of the captains' quarters to usher in the new year. It was, he wrote, the only mark of respect they could pay the day. Their meal was better than at Christmas, but the chief pleasure lay in anticipating January 1, 1807, when they hoped to be among friends and, remembering the present, to enjoy fully the repast civilization had prepared for them. For now they had boiled elk and wappato, and pure water to drink.

That day the captains issued an order, written in the expedition's orderly book. The editors note that it was the last order entered there.

The guard was to be, as usual, one sergeant and three privates, relieved each morning at sunrise. The sentinel was posted day and night on the parade in front of the captains' quarters; when Indians arrived he was to tell the sergeant, who would report to the captains. The garrison was to treat the natives in a friendly manner and was not to abuse, assault or strike them unless struck first. Anyone could peaceably put a troublesome visitor out of his room; if the visitor refused, the sergeant of the guard would put him out of the fort, using whatever coercion he judged necessary, "not extending to the taking of life." Any theft was to be reported to the captains, who would decide what to do.

Every day at sunset the sergeant, with the interpreter Charbonneau and two of the guard, was to put all Indians out of the fort. Then both gates were to be shut and the main gate locked until sunrise. The water gate stayed open to the garrison, with the sentinel opening and shutting it at night. The sergeant of the guard kept the key to the meat house and checked the canoes at least once a day. Each mess kept one ax; all other public tools were to be deposited in the captains' room, and anyone who sold or disposed of tools, iron, arms or ammunition would be tried for breaking the order.

At the foot of the order the captains signed their names. Lewis wrote: "Capt. 1st U. S. Regt."

7. A Gallon of Salt

The rules were in place. Life did not get easier.

On January 2 Lewis wrote that the new huts were already infested with fleas, and that they would evidently have to live with this "intolerably troublesome vermin" for as long as they stayed. On the 3rd Comowool came again with six Clatsops, bringing roots, berries, three dogs and a little blubber. Lewis wrote that the men, having had to live on dogs for some time, had grown very fond of the meat, and had been healthier and stronger then than at any time since leaving the buffalo country. He himself found it agreeable food and much preferred it to lean venison or elk. He gave the chief a pair of satin breeches.

That evening three hunters came back with almost nothing, one deer and a few birds, barely enough to feed themselves. Lewis said it reminded them to take time by the forelock and keep several parties out while they still had a little meat in hand.

Willard and Weiser had still not returned, and the captains feared they were lost. On the 3rd they sent Gass and Shannon to look for them.

On the 4th Lewis wrote at length about his neighbors: they had been very friendly, were mild and inoffensive, but would pilfer if they thought no one would notice; in trade they always refused the first price and often later accepted less. Once, he said, he had offered a Chinook his watch, two knives and a good many beads for a small sea otter skin he did not much want; the man refused, and the next day pressed him to take the skin for a few strands of the same beads. That was Lewis's own explanation, and it shows his point of view. The last thing he wrote that day was that the wappato was all gone.

At five in the afternoon on January 5, Willard and Weiser came back. They had not been lost. The salt makers had not found a suitable spot until the fifth day, on the coast about fifteen miles southwest, near some Tillamook families. The camp was up, and they could make three quarts to a gallon of salt a day.

They brought back about a gallon. Lewis called it "excellent, fine, strong, & white," and a great treat to himself and most of the party, who had had none since December 20. He said "most," because his friend Captain Clark declared it a matter of indifference to him whether he had salt or not. As for himself, Lewis admitted that he had felt the want of it.

Coda

Of all the clauses in the January 1 order, the one about closing the gates at sunset is the most detailed.

Every day the sentinel stood at the gate and watched the same neighbors come in and go out. They brought roots, berries, mats and dogs, and took away fish hooks, beads and a small piece of blue cloth. They had also taken the expedition's men into their own houses, spread new mats for them, and given them soup to eat with a shell.

The first time Clark reached the Clatsops' village by the sea, he slept in Cuskalah's house and was bitten by fleas all night.

Later the fleas moved into Fort Clatsop too. The gate could be shut at sunset. The fleas could not be shut out.

Sources, editions and narrative limits

1. Main source: The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, ed. Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001), digital edition at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu), entries for December 8, 1805, to January 5, 1806. Clark's two journals (the Elkskin-bound Journal and Codex I), Lewis's entries (his bird note of December 18, 1805, and Codex J from January 1, 1806) and the orderly book entry of January 1, 1806, are in volume 6; Ordway's, Gass's and Whitehouse's entries are in volumes 9, 10 and 11. The digital edition was read on November 2, 2026; the printed volumes were not checked, and no page numbers are given. 2. Quotations follow the UNL text with the original spelling. The Chinese version lists the English wording behind each scene and quotation. 3. Small differences: on December 30, Clark says six men went for the elk, Gass and Whitehouse seven; the story follows Clark. Clark and Gass count eighteen elk on December 13, Ordway and Whitehouse seventeen; the story follows Clark. The Christmas tobacco is "2 Carrots" in one Clark entry and "12 carrots" in the other; both are given. The December 26 entry saying they could not live in the huts without chimneys is labeled Gass in the UNL edition, but it should be Whitehouse's: Gass's own December 25 entry already covers December 26–28 (the line that only the officers' rooms had chimneys comes from it), and the December 26 entry follows the form of Whitehouse's December 25 and 27 entries. This remains to be checked against volume 11 of the printed edition. The three sides and seven rooms come from Ordway on December 13; Whitehouse says two rooms to each hut. 4. Editors' identifications, all from UNL notes: the Clatsop chief "Con-ny-au/Com mo-wol" as Coboway (Dec. 12); the "balsom pine" as probably grand fir (Dec. 13); the red-haired man as possibly Jack Ramsay (Dec. 31); the salt camp at present-day Seaside, Oregon (Dec. 28); the January 1 order as the last in the orderly book (Jan. 1, n. 18). 5. Map: coordinates for the Fort Clatsop site and Seaside are from Wikidata (Q1375324, Q2624434) and serve only as area reference points. Clark's December 8 camp in the woods and the route of Willard and Weiser are not mapped. 6. Limits: Lewis's and Clark's remarks about their neighbors as close dealers, hagglers and pilferers are the writers' own views and are reported as such, not as judgments of the Clatsop or Chinook people. For December 24 only the returned presents are told; the offer of women recorded that day is not. Native words and actions come to us through the expedition's writers, with their biases and misunderstandings. No dialogue or inner thoughts have been invented.