In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson, long fascinated by what lay west of the Mississippi River, commissioned Meriwether Lewis to explore the Missouri River to its source and chart a direct water route to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis selected his friend, William Clark, to help him lead the expedition. Together with a crew of more than 30 people, Lewis and Clark headed west.

In December 1805, after a long and arduous journey, Lewis and Clark and their “Corps of Volunteers for Northwest Discovery” finally reached the Pacific at the mouth of the Columbia River, on the present-day border between Oregon and Washington. They spent the next three months wintering there before returning home.

The National Park Service (NPS) established the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park on the shores of the Columbia River to commemorate the culmination of the expedition and the explorers’ winter encampment at Fort Clatsop.

Our Role

In 2004, The Conservation Fund purchased more than 920 acres from Weyerhaeuser, one of the largest wood products manufacturers in North America. This acreage, designated one of the nation’s top conservation priorities by the NPS, includes land critical to the Fort to Sea Trail, which will connect the Fort Clatsop National Memorial to Sunset Beach State Recreation Area and the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

In 2005, thanks in part to support from the Centex Land Legacy Fund, we protected several key properties, which added 1,000 acres to Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. This effort included land critical to the Fort to Sea Trail and Clark’s Dismal Nitch, which commemorates Lewis and Clark’s dramatic arrival at the Pacific Ocean. In 1805, the surviving members of the expedition crew spent six days trapped along the rocky shoreline near the mouth of the Columbia River. They battled thunderstorms, wind and high waves before abandoning most of their supplies, burying their canoes and seeking shelter in a nearby cedar forest.

Why This Project Matters

In 2003, in honor of the bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark expedition, TCF embarked on a major campaign to commemorate this legendary journey by protecting open space, river corridors and resources associated with it. Through our Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Initiative, we have helped conserve more than 20,000 acres along the explorers’ famous route. This includes the land protected at the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park in Oregon and Washington.