Cape Disappointment State Park | |
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Location | Pacific County, Washington, United States |
Coordinates | 46°17′28″N124°04′20″W / 46.29111°N 124.07222°W Coordinates: 46°17′28″N124°04′20″W / 46.29111°N 124.07222°W [1] |
Area | 2,023 acres (8.19 km2) |
Elevation | 20 ft (6.1 m) [1] |
Established | Early 1950s |
Operator | Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission |
Website | Cape Disappointment State Park |
Cape Disappointment State Park (formerly Fort Canby State Park) is a public recreation area on Cape Disappointment, located southwest of Ilwaco, Washington, on the bottom end of Long Beach Peninsula, the northern headlands where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. The state park's 2,023 acres (819 ha) encompass a diverse landscape of old-growth forest, freshwater lakes, freshwater and saltwater marshes, and oceanside tidelands. Park sites include Fort Canby, the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, North Head Lighthouse, and Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. [2] Cape Disappointment is one of several state parks and sites in Washington and Oregon that are included in Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. [3]
Cape Disappointment earned its name when Captain John Meares failed to cross the river bar in 1788. The feat was accomplished in 1792 by American Captain Robert Gray. The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived at Cape Disappointment in 1805. [2]
In 1862, during the American Civil War, a camp called Post at Cape Disappointment was established and fortifications existed here from that date to protect the northern approaches to the mouth of the Columbia River from possible attacks by Confederate raiders or foreign fleets. It was garrisoned by Company A, U.S. 9th Infantry Regiment and Company A, 8th Regiment California Volunteer Infantry in the District of Oregon. In 1863, its mate Fort Stevens was established on the south bank of the Columbia River. In 1864, the post was renamed Fort Cape Disappointment. Some Civil War-era fortifications still exist: the Tower (or Right) Battery, Left Battery, and Center Battery.
Fort Cape Disappointment was expanded and renamed Fort Canby in 1875. By 1906, when construction finished under the Endicott program, Fort Canby became part of the three-fort Harbor Defenses of the Columbia River as a subpost of Fort Stevens along with Fort Columbia. [4] The fort was further expanded during World War II. After being decommissioned in the years following World War II, the fort was turned over to the state for use as a state park in the early 1950s. [5] Workers with the Civilian Conservation Corps helped restore the fort and improved roads and trails during the 1930s. [2]
The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center sits on a cliff that overlooks the confluence of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. There are exhibits about the 1803–1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition from St. Louis, Missouri to the Pacific coast, the park's later history, including the lighthouses, U.S. Coast Guard and military activities, and the area's maritime and natural history. [6]
Cape Disappointment State Park offers camping and other overnight accommodations, eight miles (13 km) of hiking trails, stands of old-growth Sitka spruce, [7] watercraft launch sites, picnicking facilities, and tours of the North Head Lighthouse. [2]
Many of the WWII-era military facilities still exist in a ruined state throughout the park and are accessible to the public.
Cape Disappointment State Park’s camping facilities include standard campsites, full hookup RV sites, yurts, cabins, and historic vacation homes. Camp facilities include full-service restrooms with showers and a park store nearby for groceries, wood, and a café. [8]
Scouting in the U.S. state of Oregon includes the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and Girl Scouts (GSUSA) youth organizations, as well as newer organizations like the Baden-Powell Service Association.
Waikiki Beach is a beach at Cape Disappointment, Washington.
The Confluence Project is a series of outdoor installations and interpretive artworks located in public parks along the Columbia River and its tributaries in the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. Each art installation explores the confluence of history, culture and ecology of the Columbia River system. The project draws on the region's history, including Native American traditional stories and entries from the Lewis and Clark Expedition journals, to "evoke a landscape and a way of life submerged in time and memory." The project reaches from the mouth of the Columbia River to Hells Canyon.
The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately 362 miles (583 km) from the California state border in the south to the Columbia River in the north. The region is not a specific geological, environmental, or political entity, and includes the Columbia River Estuary.
Cape Blanco is a prominent headland on the Pacific Ocean coast of southwestern Oregon in the United States, forming the westernmost point in the state. Cape Blanco extends further west than any point of land in the contiguous United States except portions of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, including Cape Alava, the true westernmost point. The cape is part of Cape Blanco State Park and is the location of the Cape Blanco Light, first lit in 1870.
The Oregon Coast Trail (OCT) is a long-distance hiking route along the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of Oregon in the United States. It follows the coast of Oregon from the mouth of the Columbia River to the California border south of Brookings.
The Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, located in the vicinity of the mouth of the Columbia River, commemorates the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Administration of the park, which includes both federal and state lands, is a cooperative effort of the National Park Service and the states of Oregon and Washington. The National Historical Park was dedicated on November 12, 2004.
Fort Stevens was an American military installation that guarded the mouth of the Columbia River in the state of Oregon. Built near the end of the American Civil War, it was named for a slain Civil War general and former Washington Territory governor, Isaac I. Stevens. The fort was an active military reservation from 1863–1947. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Columbia Bar, also frequently called the Graveyard of the Pacific, is a system of bars and shoals at the mouth of the Columbia River spanning the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. It is known as one of the most dangerous bar crossings in the world. The bar is about 3 miles (5 km) wide and 6 miles (10 km) long.
Beacon Rock State Park is a geologic preserve and public recreation area on Route 14 in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area in Skamania County, Washington, United States. The park takes its name from Beacon Rock, an 848-foot (258 m) basalt volcanic plug on the north shore of the Columbia River 32 miles (51 km) east of Vancouver. On October 31, 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived here and first measured tides on the river, indicating that they were nearing the ocean.
Fort Columbia State Park is a public recreation area and historic preserve at the site of former Fort Columbia, located on Chinook Point at the mouth of the Columbia River in Chinook, Washington. The 618-acre (250 ha) state park features twelve historic wood-frame fort buildings as well as an interpretive center and hiking trails. The park's grounds are located over a tunneled section of U.S. Route 101.
The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail is a route across the United States commemorating the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to 1806. It is part of the National Trails System of the United States. It extends for some 4,900 miles (7,900 km) from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon.
North Head Lighthouse is an active aid to navigation overlooking the Pacific Ocean from North Head, a rocky promontory located approximately two miles north of Cape Disappointment and the mouth of the Columbia River, near Ilwaco, Pacific County, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is part of Cape Disappointment State Park.
Peter Grant Stewart was a jeweler and pioneer of the Oregon Country in what later became the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. A native of New York state, he traveled the Oregon Trail to the Willamette Valley and settled first in Oregon City and later in what became Washington. He was served on the Second Executive Committee of the Provisional Government of Oregon, and his homesite became part of Fort Canby at the mouth of the Columbia River.
State Route 100 (SR 100) is a 4.68-mile-long (7.53 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Washington, serving Cape Disappointment State Park in Pacific County. The highway travels counterclockwise from U.S. Route 101 (US 101) in Ilwaco south to Cape Disappointment and north to an intersection with itself in Ilwaco. SR 100, part of the Lewis and Clark Trail Scenic Byway, serves as a loop route and has a spur route that serves the state park and a Coast Guard station. SR 100 was established in 1991 on the existing North Head Road, which was a paved county road by the late 1950s. The highway was washed away during a 1994 winter storm and had its spur route shortened in 2006.
Chinook Point is a headland in Pacific County, Washington. Located just northwest of the mouth of the Columbia River, it is historically significant for several reasons. Captain Robert Gray, the first non-native to enter the river, saw it from Chinook Point in 1792. In 1805, it was the site of an encampment by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It has been the site of military fortifications since 1864, most notably in the late 1890s, when most of the presently surviving Fort Columbia structures were built. The point, which constitutes the most developed portion of Fort Columbia State Park, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
The District of Oregon was a Union Army command department formed during the American Civil War.
Lewis and Clark Trail State Park is a 36-acre (15 ha) Washington state park located on the Touchet River in Columbia County with both old-growth forest and 1,333 feet (406 m) of river shoreline. The park offers camping, hiking, fishing, swimming, birdwatching, interpretive activities, wildlife viewing, and athletic fields.
Sacajawea State Park is a public recreation area and historical preserve in the city of Pasco, Washington, covering 267 acres (108 ha) at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers where the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped on October 16, 1805. The state park bears the name of the Shoshone woman Sacagawea, who was an active member of the expedition married to expedition member Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian interpreter and explorer. The park's Sacajawea Interpretive Center features exhibits about her and about the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The Department of the Columbia was a major command (Department) of the United States Army during the 19th century.
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