A Convenient Place for Making Salt

After establishing winter quarters at Fort Clatsop on 7 December 1805, the Corps of Discovery sent a party to the sea coast to find a place to make salt for the expedition’s diet of fish, elk, and dog. On 28 December 1805, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark sent five men with five large kettles to establish a saltmaking camp on this beach, and two men returned to Fort Clatsop eight days later with a sample judged excellent. The camp operated until 21 February 1806 and produced 3 1/2 bushels of salt, nearly 28 gallons, while usually three men boiled sea water day and night in a tedious process. The party eventually established itself near the lodge of some Killamuck families, who were very friendly and gave them a considerable quantity of blubber from a whale that had perished on the coast.

Seaside, Oregon · United States