The Clatsop Indians' all-purpose plant was the Western red cedar tree. The bark pictured here could be used as twine, hats, capes, skirts and fire-starter. The wood was used to make boxes, canoes and houses. The identification of this tree is easy because of its "strippy" reddish-brown bark.

All Coast natives of the Northwest were cedar and seafood people. Life was fairly easy for them, because of the abundance of food and raw materials coupled with the temperate climate. Lewis and Clark had to deal with these shrewd traders; the Clatsops had already bargained for European goods for 25 years.

We started the day with partly sunny weather and a visit to the Columbia Maritime Museum. We then proceeded to Fort Clatsop, the winter home of "The Corp of Discovery." The afternoon was a choice between more Maritime Museum, a walk around Astoria or a trip to the ocean beaches. Those guests who hiked the Pacific shoreline examined the 1906 wreck of the ship "Peter Iredale."

For the first time on our entire voyage, rain fell. Lewis and Clark had rain on all but seven days of their months here.