President's Corner

Dear Chapter Members,

Your board is focused on a number of key areas including stewardship projects, strengthening our relationship with the national foundation, and planning upcoming events. We also recently sent an electronic survey to our membership, which many of you completed. Many thanks to chapter secretary Ted Kaye for spearheading the survey effort—the results will be summarized in the next newsletter and will guide our future efforts.

Last month the national Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation held a board meeting in Troutdale. Members were impressed with the participation and support from the Oregon Chapter. Several chapter board members attended the day-long meeting, and we subsidized the board’s meals. I met the new editor of We Proceeded On, Bob Clark, President Dan Sturdevant, and several other board members. They were interested in hearing about our stewardship projects: 1) the improvement of signage for the Nichaqwli Village site at Blue Lake Park and 2) updating the Lewis & Clark on the Columbia River map-guide. These projects are funded in part by grants from the National Foundation and NPS, and will be finished this year.

In April, chapter members Thelma Haggenmiller, Steven McClure, Roger Wendlick, and Larry & Ellie McClure acted as hosts/narrators/interpreters for a special history cruise from Cascade Locks on the Columbia Gorge sternwheeler. Several of the national board members came and will remember it as a highlight of their visit. We are expanding our connections with the cruise operator and plan a Willamette River cruise next year.

This year we will not be able to do our paddle event on the Columbia River, because of erosion that is happening in the Skamakowa area. Margaret Miller is researching an alternate route but advises us that the danger of falling banks and erosion control measures being taken by the state make it dangerous for us to use Steamboat Slough and the roads near the river.

However, a new opportunity for outdoor volunteer activity has come to us. We have been invited to participate August 17th in the Seaport Celebration, a fun, day-long event hosted by the Port of Portland with live music and the chance for people to see Portland’s working waterfront up close. Several of us have been wanting to go to Terminal 4, where William Clark camped in April of 1806 when he explored the Willamette. Organizer Steven McClure will be calling for volunteers to help interpret the Corps’ excursion on the Willamette and to spread the word about our chapter.

Your humble and obedient servant,

Mark Johnson
markbarb2@comcast.net

Medicine and the Charbonneaux

Lewis & Clark researcher and writer John Fisher presented a course of discovery entitled “Medicine, Madame Charbonneau, & Pomp” at the Tualatin Heritage Center on March 15.

A number of chapter members and other interested participants enjoyed a fascinating, sometimes hands-on, display of Mr. Fisher's replica medicine chest containing many original remedies, including 50 herbs and chemicals, and 15 instruments used on the expedition.

No one volunteered to be bled or purged so John entertained with a fine discussion and PowerPoint show.

The renowned scholar and raconteur, our own board member Roger Wendlick, had the honor of introducing his esteemed colleague, who hails from Juliaetta, Idaho.

Chapter Activities
Explore More!


Ellie McClure and national foundation secretary Larry Epstein and his wife
Carrie from Cut Bank, Montana, enjoy scenery on the Columbia Gorge Sternwheeler

Thelma Haggenmiller and Lyn Trainer lead Explore More!, a series of chapter trips which include a Lewis & Clark connection but also help members learn about other historical and cultural events that happened since that time.

Our “captains” continue to plan exciting trips for us. Watch this newsletter, your mail, your e-mail, and especially the chapter website for more information and details.

Scott Tucker Named Superintendent at Fort Clatsop
The National Park Service has named Scott Tucker the new superintendent of the Lewis & Clark National Historical Park, centered at Fort Clatsop. He and his family will arrive in Astoria in late June. He currently manages the President’s Park, the 54 acres around the White House. He also served as the first manager of visitor services for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Scott helped launch the Corps of Discovery II project, serving as the deputy chief of interpretation for the traveling exhibit that followed the trail of the original Corps of Discovery during the L&C bicentennial.

L&C Library Available
The widow of John H. Stofiel is downsizing and offering his extensive library for sale.

Stofiel had served as president of our predecessor organization, the Oregon Lewis & Clark Foundation, and as secretary-treasurer of the national foundation.

Included are 472 Lewis & Clark-related books, art, 130 W.P.O.s, long runs of the Oregon Historical Quarterly and Montana Magazine, and other publications and souvenirs.

For more information call Norma Stofiel in Salem at 503-589-9302.

Oregon Chapter's Name Badges
Send $10.00 and your name (as you want it to appear), to Dick Hohnbaum, 6916 Wheatland Lane N., Keizer, Oregon 97303. Make checks payable to OR-LCTHF. (click the picture above to see a larger image.)

2013 Chapter Events
See the Events page for more details if available!

• May 24–27: Regional Meeting with Idaho and Washington chapters at Weippe Prairie, Idaho.
• August 17 Port of Portland Seaport Celebration at Terminal 4 (Clark’s 4/2/06 campsite).
• Nov. 2 Cascade Locks– Portland cruise on Columbia Gorge sternwheeler.
• April 2014 Columbia/ Willamette day cruise on Willamette Star, recapitulating Clark’s exploration 108 years later.

Officers:

(non-voting)

President	Mark Johnson '13
Vice President	Glen Kirkpatrick '14
Secretary	Ted Kaye '13
Treasurer	Dick Hohnbaum '14
Directors	Gentry Cutsforth ’15 David Ellingson ’14 Thelma Haggenmiller ’13 Mary Johnson ’15 Ellie McClure ’14 Steven McClure ’13 Lyn Trainer ’13 Roger Wendlick ’15 Tom Wilson ’14
Ex Officio	Doug Erickson Larry McClure Scott Tucker
Director Emeritus	Keith Hay

Please contact Mark Johnson with interest in Chapter service

Sternwheeler Cruise up the Columbia River

The Columbia Gorge sternwheeler on its namesake river

Members of our chapter and our national LCTHF board enjoyed a 5-hour journey upriver from Cascade Locks to The Dalles on a pleasant and sunny April 18 Columbia Gorge sternwheeler cruise. All aboard enjoyed the informative commentary by the captain, who pointed out many Lewis & Clark highlights as well as geological and other historical features.

Particular thanks go to R. J. (Bob) Brown, Thelma Haggenmiller, and Glen Kirkpatrick, who dressed in their leathers and brought replica Expedition artifacts. Roger Wendlick backed up his answers to questions with journal references.

Passengers from the general public also appreciated the chance to learn more about the Columbia River water trail. All received chapter flyers and had a chance to look at the L&C Atlas—two have joined the chapter!

Thelma arranged the cruise when the vessel was being repositioned to the Tri-Cities area for a festival. The national board met the following Saturday at Edgefield in Troutdale.

The sternwheeler, operated by the Portland Spirit Co., offers popular seasonal cruises on the river. Be sure to recommend this trip to your out-of-town visitors!