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Originally built in 1889, the Warrior Rock Lighthouse has since been replaced with a larger, more modern lighthouse by the US Coast Guard. The new lighthouse still stands on the original sandstone foundation on the north end of Sauvie Island. A half-scale replica of the original now stands on the St. Helens waterfront, and the original bell (cast in Philadelphia in 1855) can be seen behind the historic St. Helens County Courthouse.

Fort Clatsop was the winter encampment for the Corps of discovery from December 1805 to March 1806. The visitor center includes the Fort Clatsop exhibit built by the explorers, an interpretive center offering an exhibit hall, gift shop and an orientation film. The center features ranger-led programs, reenactments in the fort and trailheads for the Fort To Sea Trail and Netul River Trail as well as restrooms and a picnic area. The park is open every day of the year except December 25th. Costumed programs are scheduled during the summer months, beginning mid-june and ending Labor Day weekend.

The North Coast Land Conservancy's Blind Slough Swamp Preserve protects the best example of a Sitka spruce swamp remaining in Oregon. Once common in coastal estuaries from Tillamook to Alaska, this habitat type has been mostly lost in Oregon and Washington to logging, diking and other development. The preserve is bordered on three sides by Columbia River sloughs and channels, and it adjoins the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge. Blind Slough Swamp is in an area well known for birding, canoeing and kayaking opportunities. The overstory on the preserve is dominated by Sitka spruce, some

When Lewis and Clark camped here on their way to the Pacific in November 1805, there were actually three islands separated by narrow channels. They named the largest Diamond Island for its shape. The Columbia River is constantly at work, reshaping the landscape through which it flows, and by the time the U.S. government took over the island to graze cattle it in 1850, there were only two islands. The renamed Government Island had taken its current form as one island when the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey mapped it in 1902. It is perhaps only a matter of time until it merges yet again with

For millenia, whenever mountain snows melted rapidly or heavy rains drenched the Northwest, the rising Columbia River would top its banks and spread out over its floodplain, weaving a braided network of branches and side channels. Soggy backwater sloughs would rise from their slow-moving slumber and absorb the floodwaters of the pulsing river. Between such events, they provided quiet habitat to a diverse cast of wildlife characters. The Columbia Slough in North Portland has changed dramatically since the arrival of European Americans. The eighteen-mile-long channel once ran from the Columbia

Delta Park in North Portland lies at the site of Vanport City, an 'instant city' that sprang up in less than a year to become Oregon’s second largest city. Vanport was a company town that housed shipbuilders during World War II. The hastily constructed community was built on the frequently inundated floodplain of the Columbia River. On May 30, 1948, despite assurances from officials that they were safe from rising floodwaters on the Columbia, residents found their homes swept away by a twelve-foot wall of water when the levee at North Portland Road broke. Vanport was never rebuilt and Portland

This regional park across from Chinook Landing on the Oregon shore offers playgrounds, ball fields, and paddle boat rentals on the 64-acre lake. Wetlands at the west end of the park provide habitat for a surprising amount of wildlife. An assortment of birds and mammals can be observed from a viewing platform and walking trails. Directions: Take Exit 14 (Fairview) from I-84 and go north on 207th Avenue to Sandy Boulevard. Turn right onto Sandy and travel east to 223rd and turn left. Proceed north to Blue Lake Road and the park.

Hall J. Kelley was a New Englander whose heart was in Oregon. In the early 1800s he pushed hard for the establishment of the region’s center of commerce and culture on a soggy point where the Willamette River empties into the Columbia. Several other settlements were vying for the same thing, and Portland, of course, eventually won out. The settlements grew and converged into one large metropolitan area, leaving Kelley’s spit of land to be filled with dredge material from the river and turned into a park by the Port of Portland. It is probably a good thing that Kelley’s dream wasn’t realized

The Clark County Historical Museum is located in downtown Vancouver not far from the Vancouver National Historic Reserve. The museum opened in 1909 in Vancouver’s Carnegie Library. The library eventually outgrew the building and found a new home, but the museum has stayed in the building, which was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. The museum exhibits artifacts of Native American life and the history of Vancouver, including the role of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the U.S. military in shaping the region. Revolving exhibits highlight particular aspects of the city’s