The past few months, we've been learning about the Lewis and Clark expedition in school. How lucky that we now live in Oregon and can go see the Lewis and Clark museum. A couple of weekends ago, we did just that.
First, we stopped in Fort Stevens State Park, home to many fun things.
On the beach you have the wreck of the Peter Iredale. The Peter Iredale was an English four-mast steel bark coming from a stop in Mexico to pick up some cargo in Portland in the winter of 1906. While waiting at the mouth of the Columbia River, it was whisked away suddenly by strong winds and currents and crashed so hard into the beach it broke three masts on impact. This is all that remains:
It was definitely a cold day on the beach, but we always find plenty to look at regardless of the weather.
Next we made our way over to the Battery Russell, built 1903-1904 by the US Army Corps of Engineers to help protect the mouth of the Columbia River. I was surprised at how much the kids loved the Battery Russell. They had so much fun poking around the old building, walking into the old, dark rooms. Maria's mind was racing with story ideas as she explored. Click on this link if you would like more information about the Battery Russell and to see the layout of the building.
Finally we made it over to the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park. The kids had a lot of fun walking through the museum, seeing things that we've learned about in school and learning new things. The museum also had a junior ranger program that the kids loved doing. They all certified as a junior ranger, they even got a badge which they proudly wore around the park.
The kids have loved learning about Lewis and Clark, but especially Seaman, the newfoundland dog that went with them.
After the museum, we walked over to Fort Clatsop. It was fun to look around see what their fort looked like as they spent the winter of 1805 here in Coastal Oregon. It was even raining for us, as it was for them so many years ago. Poor guys, they reported that in the three months they lived in Fort Clatsop, the rain fell all but 12 days. It was a tough winter for them.
What a fun day it was to travel around and see so many historic sites. We had such a great time, we didn't even make it to all the sites we wanted to see. We definitely want to go back again.
