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Cathlamet, Washington.
Cathlamet, Washington, as seen from Puget Island.
The Cathlamet Channel is in the foreground.
Image taken March 5, 2005.
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Cathlamet ...
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Cathlamet, Washington, is located on the Cathlamet Channel, just opposite Puget Island, at Columbia River Mile (RM) 40. (The main channel of the Columbia River is on the opposite side of Puget Island.) Cathlamet is connected to Puget Island by a 1/2-mile long fixed highway bridge. Just downstream of Cathlamet are the Hunting Islands and the head of the
Elochoman Slough
which separates the Hunting Islands from the Washington mainland. Seven miles downstream of Cathlamet is the town of Skamokawa.
Immediately upstream is
Cape Horn of Wahkiakum County, near where Lewis and Clark spent the night of November 6, 1805. On the morning of November 7, 1805, the men stopped to visit at Cathlamet.
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"... we Set out early proceeded under the Stard Shore under a high rugid hills with Steep assent the Shore boalt and rockey, the fog So thick we could not See across the river, two Canos of Indians met and returned with us to their village which is Situated on the Stard Side behind a cluster of Marshey Islands, on a narrow chanl. of the river through which we passed to the Village of 4 Houses, ...
Those people call themselves War-ci-â-cum
...
after delaying at this village one hour and a half we Set out piloted by an Indian dressed in a Salors dress, to the main Chanel of the river,
..."
[Clark, November 7, 1805]
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Cathlamet, Washington, as seen from Puget Island.
Image taken March 5, 2005.
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Cathlamet, Washington.
Cathlamet, Washington, as seen from overlook along Washington State Highway 4.
Image taken March 5, 2005.
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Cathlamet Channel ...
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Cathlamet Channel is the 10-mile long waterway on the northeast side of Puget Island separating the island from the Washington shoreline, while the main channel of the Columbia River is on the southwest side of Puget Island separating it from the Oregon shore. The downstream end of the Cathlamet Channel joins the main channel of the Columbia River at River Mile (RM) 37, across from the lower end of Tenasillahe Island and following the shoreline of the Hunting Islands. Washington State Route 409 bridge crosses between Puget Island and Cathlamet.
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Views of Cathlamet Channel ...
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Cathlamet Channel as seen from Puget Island, Washington.
Image taken March 5, 2005.
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Puget Island, Cathlamet Channel, Cathlamet Bridge, from Bradley State Wayside.
Mount Rainier is in the distance, right.
Image taken April 19, 2005.
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Cathlamet Channel from Nassa Point, Washington.
View from Washington Highway 4.
Image taken October 13, 2007.
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Cathlamet - Puget Island Bridge ...
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The bridge between
Puget Island and Cathlamet (Washington State Route 409) was built in 1938, thus eliminating the need for the Puget Island to Cathlamet ferry. A ferry still exists on the south side of Puget Island however, connecting Puget Island to Westport, Oregon. The ferry terminal on Puget Island is the end of Washington State Route 409.
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Puget Island and Cathlamet, Washington.
Image taken March 5, 2005.
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Driving the Cathlamet Bridge, Washington.
Image taken October 13, 2007.
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Early Cathlamet ...
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Cathlamet was once the site of a large Chinookan village in the early 1800s. It takes its name from the Chinookans who called themselves Kathlamets of Kala-amat. When Lewis and Clark passed in 1805, "Caltharmar" was the main village on the southern side of the river (location of today's Knappa, Oregon). It is thought that the tribe eventually crossed the Columbia and re-settled on the north.
In 1846 a retiring Hudson's Bay Company employee from Astoria, James Birnie, set up a trading post at the location of today's Cathlamet, and for many years the site was called "Birnie's Retreat".
The name "Birnie" still is used on "Birnie Slough", located across Cathlamet Channel on Puget Island.
The 1858 cadastral survey (tax survey) for T8N R6W has "Cathlamette" located at the location of today's Cathlamet. The map shows a "wharf" and a "store". The Cathlamet Channel was "Columbia River". Puget Island was "Pugets Island".
The 1863 cadastral survey does not have the town indicated. It shows the location of today's Cathlamet as the Donation Land Claim (DLC) of James Birnie, Claim No.37, for 637.06 acres. To the east was the DLC of A.C. Anderson (Claim No.38, 265.78 acres). To the west was the DLC of Wm. Strong (Claim No.39, 210.23 acres).
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Cathlamet, Washington, as seen from Birnie Slough on Puget Island.
Image taken November 9, 2003.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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Clark, November 7, 1805 ...
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A cloudy foggey morning Some rain. we Set out [from their camp at Cape Horn] early proceeded under the Stard Shore under a high rugid hills with Steep assent the Shore boalt and rockey, the fog So thick we could not See across the river [typical for this area in the winter], two Canos of Indians met and returned with us to their village which is Situated on the Stard Side behind a cluster of Marshey Islands [Puget Island and the Hunting Islands] , on a narrow chanl. of the river [Cathlamet Channel] through which we passed to the Village of 4 Houses, [Cathlamet, Washington area] ....
Those people call themselves War-ci-â-cum
...
after delaying at this village one hour [Cathlamet, Washington area] and a half we Set out piloted by an Indian dressed in a Salors dress, to the main Chanel of the river, the tide being in we Should have found much dificuelty in passing into the main Chanel from behind those islands [Puget Island and the Hunting Islands], without a pilot, a large marshey Island [Tenasillahe Island] near the middle of the river near which Several Canoes Came allong Side with Skins, roots fish &c. to Sell, and had a temporey residence on this Island, here we See great numbers of water fowls about those marshey Islands; here the high mountanious Countrey approaches the river on the Lard Side [near Clifton, Oregon], a high mountn. to the S W. about 20 miles [Saddle Mountain], the high mountans. Countrey Continue on the Stard Side, about 14 miles below the last village and 18 miles of this day we landed at a village of the Same nation [Skamokawa, Washington]. This village is at the foot of the high hills on the Stard Side back of 2 Small Islands [today, Price Island lies between Skamokawa and the Columbia River] it contains 7 indifferent houses built in the Same form of those above, ... opposit to this Village the high mountaneous Countrey leave the river on the Lard Side [downstream of Aldrich Point] below which the river widens into a kind of Bay [Cathlamet Bay] & is Crouded with low Islands Subject to be Covered by the tides [today this is the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge, part of the Lower Columbia River Estuary] - we proceeded on about 12 miles below the Village [Skamokawa] under a high mountaneous Countrey on the Stard. Side.
Shore boald and rockey and
Encamped under a high hill [ridge of Jim Crow Point] on the Stard. Side opposit to a rock [Pillar Rock] Situated half a mile from the Shore, about 50 feet high and 20 feet Diamieter,
we with dificuelty found a place Clear of the tide and Sufficiently large to lie on and the only place we could get was on round Stones on which we lay our mats rain Continud. moderately all day & Two Indians accompanied us from the last village, they we detected in Stealing a knife and returned, our Small Canoe which got Seperated in the fog this morning joined us this evening from a large Island Situated nearest the Lard Side below the high hills on that Side, the river being too wide to See either the form Shape or Size of the Islands on the Lard Side [part of the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge].
Great joy in camp we are in View of the Ocian [Clark's famous "Ocian in view! O! the Joy"], this great Pacific Octean [Pacific Ocean] which we been So long anxious to See. and the roreing or noise made by the waves brakeing on the rockey Shores (as I Suppose) may be heard distictly
we made 34 miles to day as Computed
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