After a long journey from St. Louis to the shores of the Pacific, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark built Fort Clatsop two miles up the Netul River to provide shelter during the winter from December 1805 to March 1806. Constructed entirely out of wood, the Corps of Discovery completed the palisades and barracks on December 30, 1805. Naming the fort in honor of a local friendly Indian tribe, the American explorers used the fort as a center of trade with nearby Native American tribes, supplementing trade by hunting elk and making salt.

Nonetheless, the daily life of the men and captains remained dreary. The captains worked extensively on maps and kept a detailed journal of their stay at the fort. The damp and cold weather wreaked havoc on the health of the men, who constantly battled the common cold, rheumatism, and influenza. The continuous rain and murkiness depressed the explorers and ruined their gunpowder stores, clothes, beds, food, and trade goods.

After the Corps departed the following spring, Fort Clatsop slowly rotted away. The last remnants of the fort disappeared by the mid-1800s. A replica fort was built in 1955 and placed under the administration of the National Park Service. A fire destroyed the replica in late 2005 before the bicentennial of the fort. However, after a series of excavations on the original ruins made possible by the fire, the National Park Service built another replica fort in the same spot.

Researched, written, and narrated by University of West Florida Public History Student Spenser Andrade.