Cannon Beach

Cultural resources at locations along the Pacific Coast, such as here at Cannon Beach, are threatened by erosion from sea level rise and intensifying storms.

Creative Commons License

On January 6, 1806, Clark and some expedition members set out to investigate reports of a beached whale, arriving at this site two days later. Clark remarked in his journal on the beauty of the coast and the great sea stack rocks out in the ocean. By the time they reached the whale, local Indigenous people had already harvested everything but the skeleton.44

Rising sea levels and increasing storms are causing greater rates of erosion along the Oregon coastline. Erosion threatens Indigenous cultural and archaeological sites all along the Pacific Coast. These places, such as nearby Ecola Creek, include shell middens, fishing structures, petroglyphs, and village sites. A study found the average erosion rate at Cannon Beach to be about 1.6 feet per year since 1967. Even a slight sea level rise greatly increases the risk of flooding events. Adaptations along the coast will be necessary to mitigate the risk of flooding and erosion.45

Citations:
44 NPS, “Ecola Creek/Cannon Beach,” Pittsburgh to the Pacific: High Potential Historic Sites of the Lewis and Clark National Historical Trail, 2022, 93, https://www.nps.gov/lecl/getinvolved/upload/2022_LCNHT_HPHS_Report_508compliantUPDATE-2.pdf; William Clark, January 8, 1806 entry, in Gary E. Moulton, Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/item/lc.jrn.1806-01-08.
45 Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Fifth Oregon Climate Assessment (Corvalis: Oregon State University, 2021), 76–78, https://www.oregon.gov/highered/public-engagement/Documents/Commission/FullCommission/2021/Feb%2011/4.2%20Public%20Comment-Erica%20Fleishman%20OCAR5.pdf; Jeffrey A. Weber, et al., Regional Framework for Climate Adaptation: Clatsop and Tillamook Counties (Corvallis: Oregon Sea Grant, 2015), 51, https://pnwcirc.org/sites/pnwcirc.org/files/regional_framework_adapt_clat_till.pdf; Madonna L. Moss and Jon Erlandson, “Native American Archaeological Sites of the Oregon Coast: the Historic Context for the Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places,” in Dunes, Headlands, Estuaries, and Rivers: Current Archaeological Research on the Oregon Coast, edited by Guy L. Tasa and Brian L. O’Neill (Association of Oregon Archaeologists Occasional Papers, No. 8, 2008), 10, 16

Climate Change:Lewis and Clark Trail

Lewis and Clark NHT Visitor Centers and Museums

This map shows a range of features associated with the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, which commemorates the 1803-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition. The trail spans a large portion of the North American continent, from the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. The trail is comprised of the historic route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, an auto tour route, high potential historic sites (shown in black), visitor centers (shown in orange), and pivotal places (shown in green). These features can be selected on the map to reveal additional information. Also shown is a base map displaying state boundaries, cities, rivers, and highways. The map conveys how a significant area of the North American continent was traversed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition and indicates the many places where visitors can learn about their journey and experience the landscape through which they traveled.