Today in History November 7th

1805 — Lewis and Clark Expedition first sights the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River.

On November 7th they were near Pillar Rock on the Columbia, more than twenty miles from the Pacific. What they actually saw was the estuary—the broad, tidal transition between river and sea—with the ocean itself still beyond the horizon. Eight days later, on the 15th the main body of the expedition reach a location near present-day Chinook Point, Washington, from which they could actually see the Pacific. Clark’s journal describes it this way, “as the Ocian is imedeately in front and gives us an extensive view of it from Cape Disapointment to Point Addams”