History Buffs Hike To Cliff For Clark's Point Of View

CANNON BEACH, Ore. - The final quarter-mile of bushwhacking was so demanding, so impenetrable, that only half the members of Glen Kirkpatrick's expedition made it to the cliff overlooking the Pacific.

But the 12 history buffs who followed the amateur historian to the end of his journey received the ultimate payoff: a chance to experience a magnificent view of the ocean from perhaps the same obscure promontory William Clark stood upon nearly 200 years ago. The explorer described the scene in his diary as the most beautiful he had ever seen.

But reconstructing history, in this case, required considerable modern-day exertion and a little courage.

A trek not for the timid

Tillamook Head, the forest-clad headland separating Seaside and Cannon Beach, is littered with 100-foot-tall Sitka spruce trees toppled by fierce coastal storms, landing like a child's pickup sticks. Sword ferns tall enough to swallow a hiker from view give the landscape the feel of a jungle.

Having bushwhacked through the forest four times previously, Kirkpatrick knew exactly where he wanted to pop out of the brush on the side of the cliff that connects with higher ground. He had been studying maps and journals of the expedition for five years and was convinced he had identified the location where Clark had paused to draw three maps.

This wasn't just any cliff. Kirkpatrick believes it is the perch Clark sat on 193 years ago when the explorer described what may have been the most stunning setting seen during the three-year long Lewis and Clark expedition.

"This has got to be it: Clark's point of view," said Kirkpatrick, 49, an Oregon Department of Transportation rail division employee from Newberg. "It's the only place where you have such a sweeping view to the north and south."

From Clark's vantage point

Five-mile wide Tillamook Head rises to 1,500 feet before plunging to meet the battering waves of the Pacific. An eroded, muddy portion of the Oregon Coast Trail crosses the headland, connecting Seaside on the north with Cannon Beach on the south. The trail roughly follows the route used by Clark and his companions when they traveled south from the beach at Seaside to see a dead whale at Cannon Beach.

A state park marker along the trail purports to note Clark's vantage, but Kirkpatrick has been convinced since 1994 the location is wrong. The state park employee who placed the marker admits the location was selected at random and has been hoping someone would pinpoint the actual spot.

In an attempt to prove his thesis, Kirkpatrick led 24 Lewis and Clark buffs up Tillamook Head in mid-June. Only 12 were brave enough to leave the trail and fight their way through the brush to reach the viewpoint.

To prevent anyone from falling, Kirkpatrick tied a rope around each hiker's waist and secured it to a tree that grows atop the promontory. One by one, the hikers scrambled around the tree, then crawled on hands and knees to the edge of the cliff where Kirkpatrick believes Clark spent part of Jan. 9, 1806, drawing maps of the Oregon coast.

"I beheld the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed," Clark wrote in his journal.

The same can be said today.

"Tillamook Head is one of the few places where you can literally walk in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, Sacajawea and the men of the expedition," Kirkpatrick said. Tillamook Head is protected as part of Ecola State Park.

As the nation prepares to celebrate the bicentennial of the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark expedition, local chapters from the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation are working to secure financial support for pet projects, such as restoring a part of the trail, uncovering a campsite or constructing new interpretive facilities.

Restoration of Clark's trail over Tillamook Head has been proposed by the foundation's Oregon chapter. The group will request $900,000 in federal money for the project, which has the backing of the Clatsop County Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Association.

When Clark heard about the beaching of the whale, he led a dozen of his men and Sacajawea, the expedition's interpreter, across Tillamook Head. The whale would have been near Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, according to Kirkpatrick.

While crossing Tillamook Head, Clark took advantage of a rare sunny day that winter and fought his way through the brush to get a view of the coast. The spot he chose, according to Kirkpatrick, is a narrow point of land that juts out steeply on all but the east side. A simple misstep, or a crumbling of the fragile basalt underlayer, could result in a fatal fall to anyone attempting to reach the point.

"Clark was a mapmaker," Kirkpatrick said. "He was always looking for the best spot to see the widest view possible."

Oh, what a view

Clark's vantage, according to Kirkpatrick, is at the end of Bird Point, a quarter-mile bushwhack south of the fenced viewpoint closest to the hikers' campground atop Tillamook Head. Bird Point is the only place on Tillamook Head that has a view 25 miles north to Cape Disappointment and 40 miles south to Cape Lookout.

Clark also wrote that from his viewpoint he could see the Clatsop Plain, the sandy beach just south of the Columbia River. The plain isn't visible from Bird Point (the view ends where the river's south jetty meets land), but Kirkpatrick believes erosion could have whittled the cliff under Bird Point and changed the angle of the view.

Keith Hay, who joined Kirkpatrick on the outing, said he is convinced they located the point Clark visited.

"It still has a tremendous view today," said Hay, president of Oregon's chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. "It's a unique point where we were able to sit within six inches of falling off the tip."

Linda Nelson, a Lewis and Clark hobbyist, said she wasn't sure Clark had visited the spot, but said it didn't matter.

"It's a marvelous place," she said. "I don't need to be sure. The important thing is that people are still interested."

Because of the steepness of the spot, Kirkpatrick does not encourage visitors to seek it out.

"I have some mixed feelings about making it part of the trail because it would require building a platform like the one atop Multnomah Falls," he said. "It may be best just to leave it alone."