Fort fire a chance to dig into history

WARRENTON, Ore. — A fire that destroyed the replica of Fort Clatsop, where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark spent the winter of 1805-1806, has provided a rare chance for archaeologists to probe the ground where the fort stood, seeking even the subtlest evidence of the explorers or the Clatsop Indians who came before them.

The Oct. 3 blaze was ruled accidental, having started from a fire in one of the barracks.

Archaeologists set aside nearly all of November to excavate the site before construction of the new replica begins Dec. 10, 200 years to the day from when construction of the original fort began. They hope to prepare a report on their findings and open the replica to visitors by next summer.

Scientists from the National Park Service used remote sensing to seek soil irregularities that might signal a post hole, or a fire pit or anything else manmade. They dug down about a foot to the "plow zone," farmed beginning in the 1850s, then down about another foot to the sediments that were intact before that and probably contemporary with the explorers' Corps of Discovery.

Where some previous searches used backhoes, this effort used trowels and paint brushes, taking things a centimeter or less at a time.

The few artifacts found — ceramic bits, a piece of a child's ceramic doll — can be traced to later pioneers or to Indian tribes.

Newer research has exposed a clearer picture of what the original winter encampment looked like, so it can be rebuilt with greater accuracy.

As more was learned, changes were made to the replica to make it more authentic. A fireplace was added in 1963 and gun ports were filled in a year later because they were not historically accurate.

Those who rebuild the replica will have access to some of the lesser-known journals kept by enlisted members of the Corps of Discovery who did the actual building and who described the fort in better detail than Lewis and Clark did.

The only surviving illustration of how it may have looked was one drawn by Clark before the fort was built.

"There is nothing written that says they followed that sketch," said Chip Jenkins, superintendent of the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park.

The original fort was probably pretty rustic.

"It was raining, their tents had rotted, they probably were sleeping in the open or under a rotting elk hide," Jenkins said.

Not everyone thinks the excavation was centered where it should be.

Archaeologist Kenneth Karsmizki, who heads the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center in The Dalles and has excavated at Fort Clatsop and other Lewis and Clark campsites, said journal entries of expedition members vary substantially about the site of the fort, and the area probed could be off by a mile or much more.