Fort Clatsop Expansion May Include Station Camp

McGOWAN, WA-A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate this week directs the National Park Service to study creating an interpretive site or park at Station Camp, a tiny spot on the north shore of the Columbia River where Lewis and Clark are believed to have first glimpsed the Pacific Ocean.

The primary focus of the bill is to allow Fort Clatsop National Memorial, across the Astoria Bridge in Warrenton, Ore., to expand to 1,500 acres from its current size of 130 acres. The park service is reportedly considering acquisition of the Station Camp land as part of that expansion.

The impetus for the bill sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., is to expand the national memorial by 2003, when one of the most important events of the American West – the bicentennial of the Corps of Discovery – gets underway. Park service officials have been working on a deal with Willamette Industries and other Fort Clatsop landowners to acquire more property once the bill is passed.