Landmarks of Westward Expansion; 102; Exploration by Sea

[intro music] [Mark] Hi again. I'm Mark Sparks. [Jane] And I'm Jane Ferguson. [Mark] Smell the salt air, feel the breeze off the water below. [Jane] There's always something magical about the Oregon coast, especially in the spring. And the view from here on the deck of the Cape Perpetua visitors center is hard to beat. It's the perfect spot for our look at the history

of the Oregon coast and its early exploration by sea. [Jane] But Indians had been living along the Oregon coast long before the first ships appeared. And I'd like to know more about what life was like for them before the first sails appeared on the horizon.. [Mark] Some of the Indian tribes who lived along the Pacific coast called the ocean 'the river with one bank.' For all of them, the Pacific Ocean was filled with a mighty spirit. The coastal Indians learned to live in harmony with this great ocean, and the land, the climate, and the living things around them made it a good place to live. Cape Perpetua is located in one of the most rugged areas of the Oregon coast. It was once home to the Alsea Indian tribe. Their villages were hidden away in the valleys along the local streams and rivers of the central Oregon coast. They were just one of the many tribes who made the Oregon coast their home.

[Jane] The village was the center of life for Indians here on the coast. It wasn't easy to travel over the mountains or up and down the coast, so each tribe was very much on its own. [Mark] They Alsea people had their own language and traditions which they passed on to their children. The most important lessons to learn were how to catch fish and gather food. The Alseas, like most other coastal tribes, were lucky in that they could almost always find enough to eat. The forests were full of roots, berries, and game, and the ocean and streams were filled with many kinds of fish and shellfish. I think I'll go see what I can find for dinner. [Jane] Out there? Good luck. We can learn about the Indians here in Cape Perpetua by studying what they left behind. James Kimokau with a naturalist and the Cape Perpetua Center director. Hi James. [Jame] Hi Jane. [Jane] What are you looking at? [James] This is part of a shell mound, or shell midden, left here by the Alsea Indians. During the spring and summer they used to camp out here. When the tide was out they collected mussels and crabs and other shellfish off the rocks, carried them up

here, built a fire, and had a feast. This is where they threw the shells. We're learning more all the time and doing everything we can to make sure we don't destroy other evidence that will help us to better understand how the Alsea lived before the coming of the explorers. [Jane] Thanks a lot James. [thumping sound] [Mark] A digging stick, very much like this one, was used by the Alsea people, both for digging up roots and for prying mussels like these from the rocks. Large carrying baskets, made from soft cedar bark, were filled with mussels, crabs, anemones and other shellfish. These were taken back up the hill to the tribe's temporary camps used in the spring and summer. [Jane] So, what's for dinner? [Mark] You know I couldn't find a menu. [laughter] [Jane] The Alseas had smoked salmon, fresh shellfish, and plenty of roots and berries in the hills. They probably ate better than we do today. [Mark] And surrounded by all this

beauty. What a life. [Jane] And it was probably on a day, much like this one, hundreds of years ago, that an Alsea woman, her carrying basket filled with mussels, looked up from her food gathering, and scanning the horizon, she saw something she'd never seen before. It was unlike any canoe she'd ever seen. Perhaps it was a monster. That's what one Indian legend called the first ships seen off this coast. An old woman first thought it was a whale. But it had two spruce trees sticking out of its back. It couldn't be a whale. It had to be a monster. [music] [Mark] We have no records of when the Alsea first saw a foreign sailing ship off their coast, but we know that on their trading journeys up the coast the Alsea probably heard about the visitors in the big

boats even before one was actually seen. In the beginning, the Alsea people treated the visitors as they would guests from any other visiting tribe, and they were as eager to trade with them as the other coastal tribes were. The visitors from the big ships had come. There would be no turning back. But what was it like for the men on board those ships? What were they looking for? And why did they keep coming? [Jane] The Coast of the Pacific Northwest was a mystery which everyone wanted to solve. Some came in search of treasure. But in one way or another they were all searching for something many of them had heard of, but none had seen. The Northwest Passage. It was hoped there was a direct passage by water from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. If they could find it, trade with China and the East would be much easier.

And as late as 1770, much of the coast of the Pacific Northwest was still uncharted. Mapmakers wanted to be able to fill in the location of the Northwest Passage. By 1770, England, Spain and Russia were all sending ships along the Pacific coast. But none had found either the Northwest Passage or the mouth of the great river of the West, the river we now call the Columbia. In July 1776, just one week after the American Declaration of Independence was signed, Britain sent one of its most daring explorers on a voyage to the Pacific Northwest. His name was Captain James Cook. [music] This was Cook's third voyage to the Pacific. He set out in his ship, the HMS Resolution, and nearly two years later, on March 7, 1778, he got his first real look at the Oregon coast. It was St. Perpetua's day. [music] [ocean waves] [Mark] Pacific. That's the name given this ocean by the explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Pacific

means peaceful, and yet Magellan never saw this part of the Oregon coast. When Cook's ship came in sight of the cape it was so rough and stormy, and the waves were so high, there was no hope of trying to come ashore. In fact, it was all he could do to hold his own against the stormy ocean. When the weather cleared four days later, Cooke could still see the cape. Since he'd first seen it on St. Perpetua's day. He named it Cape Perpetua. This is Captain Cook's chasm just south of the cape. [ocean waves] [Jane] Captain Cook never found the Northwest Passage or the great river of the west, but farther up the coast his men bought some sea otter furs from the natives. Later, when they were able to sell these for a huge profit in China, word of a new way to make a lot of money spread quickly. In 1788, ten years after

Cook's voyage to the Northwest, an American named Robert Gray sailed into these waters in search of sea otter furs. More than ever now, the English wanted to establish their claim on a part of the Northwest. To support their claims, and to find out once and for all if the Northwest Passage and the great river of the West did exist, they sent George Vancouver to make a survey of the coast. Vancouver had already made up his mind before he got here. He was so sure that both the Northwest Passage, and the River of the West were no more than stories made up by old sailors, that he felt it was only right that he set off from England on April 1st, April Fool's Day. And George Vancouver was at least half right. He did finally prove that there was no Northwest Passage, no shortcut to the Pacific. But in the spring of 1792, he failed in the other half of his mission, to find the great river of the West. Vancouver was near the mouth of the Columbia. He saw the clues that this was a large waterway. Muddy water, drifting logs, cross currents, sea gulls. But he didn't believe these

signs. He wrote in his log, "Not considering the opening worthy of more attention, I continued our pursuit to the Northwest.' [Jane] It just so happened that Captain Robert Gray was in this area at the same time. His ship, the Columbia Redaviva, was also headed north. But unlike Vancouver, he felt certain these clues might lead to the entrance of the great river of the West. At four ,n the morning on May 11,Gray arrived at the river's mouth. The waters were so dangerous, they waited four hours until the winds, the tide and the currents were just right. And when Gray gave the command, they crashed through the waves and entered the great river of the West. Captain Gray named the river the Columbia, after his ship. This great discovery would soon encourage other American traders to use the Columbia river for their winter camps.. [Mark] Even more importantly, the presence of the United States was, for the first time, established in Western America.

[Jane] And what became of the Alsea people here along the coast? They wanted a chance to trade with the men who came in ships. Unfortunately, those trading ships also brought diseases, such as measles and smallpox. Diseases the Indians had no way of fighting. [Mark] Village life for the Alseas and other coastal tribes would never be the same again.