Lewis & Clark Salt Cairn

Lewis and Clark Salt Cairn. . On January 2, 1806, the Salt Works was established by the three “salt makers” of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Joseph Fields, William Bratten and George Gibson, who remained here until February 20, 1806. These men, assisted at times by hunters and packers, were able during this period to tediously extract approximately four bushels of salt by boiling seawater day and night in five metal “kittles”. , The expedition had run out of salt before arrival at their winter camp at Fort Clatsop, 10 miles to the northeast, and it was very necessary for curing meat and preparing for the return trip to civilization. , This actual site was established by a committee of the Oregon Historical Society in 1900. On the testimony of Jenny Michel, of Seaside, whose Clatsop Indian father remembered seeing the white men boiling water, and had pointed out this place to her when she was a young girl. She was born in this vicinity about 1815 and died in 1905.