Today The Daily Astorian features a column by longtime Southwest Washington historian and author Rex Ziak. The author of In Full View, offers a rebuttal to more recently presented historical evidence about the location of Dismal Nitch, one of the key sites visited by the Lewis and Clark expedition. Ziak is credited with being the first in recent years to pinpoint an exact opinion on the location of the historical site, but others have since suggested an alternative.

I have read with great interest the recent articles about the Lewis and Clark campsites of Nov. 10 through Nov. 14, 1805, known as Dismal Nitch.

Finally after 210 years of obscurity, these sites are receiving their deserved attention. The most honorable way we can recognize this history, or any history, is to be as truthful as possible.

Unfortunately, the wrong campsites are about to be recognized. The federal government, according to the newspapers, has been led to believe that places where Lewis and Clark never set foot are their campsites, and this tragic error is all my fault. I hope I can correct this tragedy before it goes any further.

Let me explain how this happened.

Back in December 1991 I stumbled upon a curious mathematical problem while looking into local Lewis and Clark history. I happened to notice that William Clark said they had arrived within view of the ocean on Nov. 7; later he tells us they arrived at Fort Clatsop on Dec. 7. The distance between these two places measures approximately 18 miles. Naturally I could not help but wonder, Why?

Why did Lewis and Clark spend one entire month traveling such a short distance? Where did they go? What were they doing? What were they thinking? I called Fort Clatsop to find out but was told they concentrated on the winter camp experience. Worse yet was the Lewis and Clark interpretive center at Cape Disappointment with its worn out display focusing on Montana. My own small library contained a couple books on Lewis and Clark, but they skipped over this portion of the story or gave impossibly complex explanations.

Language issues

While I am not a trained historian, I was fortunate to have acquired a serious interest in ancient Roman history. My general interest was the period from 112 B.C. through 44 B.C., with a specific fascination of Romes invasion of Gaul. Over time I became more intrigued reading how the great scholars looked back to 58. B.C. and could determine where Julius Caesar had crossed a river or constructed a winter camp. Their analytical process and deep research captivated me; the British scholar T. Rice Holmes became my hero. By early 1992 Lewis and Clark had replaced Julius Caesar. Instead of looking at Caesars routes through TransAlpine Gaul I began to trace Lewis and Clark through the Bitterroots.

Same format

My approach to researching this history followed T. Rice Holmes. First I studied their language so I could correctly interpret their 200-year-old vocabulary. Next I calculated every physical property for that period of time and finally I asked myself simple questions. Research is all about the questions you ask. I asked where are they camping … what did they do at that campsite…where did they go next. Step by step I dissected their movements.

The Nov. 7 campsite is obvious and well known. Their camp on the 8th was easy to find and the 9th occurred in the exact same place. However, their history on the 10th suddenly disappeared into murky confusion. William Clarks journal disintegrates into a obscure maze of disassociated sentences. Connecting the dots makes your head spin. It was here that I had run head-on into the second most confusing chapter of their entire expedition. This is the place that had befuddled any historian who had attempted this history.

The problem comes from the fact that William Clark was dealing with the most difficult, dangerous and deadly circumstances of their entire journey. As a result, is journal writing style is broken. Instead of clarity, we read interrupted sentences, hindsights and vague details. There are contradiction and baffling utterances. His estimation of distances is crazy. Looking at their crisscrossing movements along that shore will make your head throb.

Close research

Fortunately for me this history occurred less than 10 minutes from my house, so I could visit and revisit this mysterious shoreline time and time again. Also, because I was a freelance photographer with time between assignments. I could spend as many weeks each winter as I wanted researching this history. Armed with techniques I had gleaned from the great British scholars, I set to work.

At first glance I had assumed the Hungry Harbor cove to be the most likely location of Lewis and Clarks Nov. 10 to Nov. 14 campsite. It seemed logical and approximately the distance Clark mentioned. Every time I passed I could envision their party camped somewhere along that curving shore.

As the years went by and my research grew more extensive, I began to realize the Hungry Harbor cove did not match their behavior nor did it match Clarks journal. The terrain, distances and watersheds were wrong. It did not match the profile of campsite locations they would choose. It became perfectly clear to me that Lewis and Clark had never set foot there. My hasty speculation several years earlier fell apart like a cheap wheel.

So I started over. I explored the shore from Point Ellice to Grays Bay and opened my mind to any possibility. I found a total of ten different sites that resembled Clarks description in some form. I knew eight of these sites were wrong.

I walked that shore at high tide and low; in the middle of the day and at night. Back and forth I went, carefully examining each possibility. I held Clarks words up to the terrain, the river, and sky and looked for matching clues. One by one the sites were eliminated, including Hungry Harbor.

Megler fits

The final site surprised even me. It was not the place where I would have ever guessed, however Megler had more than 85 percent correlation with Clarks journals. It also fit their behavioral profile for selection of a campsite. Also, there exists physical evidence (non-written proof) that proves the two campsites, Nov. 10 to Nov. 14, were located exactly there.

Surprised by these results I spent the next two winters confirming and reconfirming my conclusions. (That is what the British scholars who valued their reputations always did ) The more time I spent around Megler, the more I became convinced. In fact, one eventful November day provided me with the last remaining piece to the puzzle. Now I could feel absolutely positive about this site.

Around 1995 a bestselling book on Lewis and Clark hit the stores. The unscrupulous and deceptive manner in which Stephen Ambrose handled this lower Columbia history was shameful. But it also thoroughly convinced me that this history was completely unknown to the scholars in our universities.

Invited

I began to give talks on Lewis and Clark in South Bend which led to an invitation to fill a vacancy on the governors historical advisory committee. I passed the audition and was officially recognized as a board member by Gary Locke in early 1997. This brought me into direct contact with the greatest Lewis and Clark historians residing in Washington State. Discussions with them and with the director of the Washington State Historical Society further convinced me that this entire month of Lewis and Clark history was unknown.

The dean of the history department from Gonzaga University, Dr. Robert Carriker, reviewed my research and declared I had unlocked a chapter of history that was completely unknown. He said I had to publish my discoveries before they were stolen. He said Ambrose will steal this discovery from you and if he doesnt Duncan will, and if he doesnt Nicandri will, and if he doesnt … I will!

The complexity of writing a book about a well-known history that had been overlooked was numbing. The movements of Lewis and Clark are so intricate that I would have to create dozens of maps to illustrate their routes. This would take several years and I felt this history should be known immediately.

I contacted the editors of the local newspapers to explain this unknown history. The editor of The Daily Astorian, Steve Forrester of Astoria, who is a keen amateur historian himself, asked many questions. He was intrigued with my discovery that proved the McGowan area to be the actual western end of Lewis and Clarks journey. Forrester invited me to write essays for his papers; they appeared in November 1997.

Buzzing

Prior to that time I doubt if there were more than a dozen people in Pacific County who ever thought about Lewis and Clark but after those articles appeared, both sides of the river were buzzing. People were talking about condors, whales and campsites with me everywhere I went.

The first local person to show deep interest was the city manager of Long Beach, Nabiel Shawa. When he realized that Pacific County possessed the most significant unrecognized historic site west of the Mississippi, and with the upcoming Bicentennial only eight years away, he saw the opportunity to develop this into a phenomenal occasion that would bring renown and tourists to the county. I was back and forth to city hall countless times. Everyone employed there, from the water treatment plant and maintenance crew to the workers at city hall, became interested.

Capital talks

Soon we were in Washington, D.C., meeting with senators and representatives and we lobbied extensively in Olympia, educating our leaders about this history. State Sen. Sid Snyder gave his support and by 1999 we had $2.1 million budgeted to move U.S. Highway 101 around Lewis and Clarks final campsite. Carolyn Glenn, Karen Snyder and many others were instrumental in getting the local movement started and organizing the Ocean in View weekend.

The Ocean in View weekends involved bus tours that retraced Lewis and Clarks arrival at the ocean. As this weekend became more popular, these bus tours quickly sold out. To my surprise, more buses were added to absorb the overflow and Jim Sayce jumped on to handle the narration. As a clerk at city hall, he had learned about this history during my frequent visits there. Clearly his ego called out for him to do something besides anonymously shuffle paper for the city and these bus tours gave him the needed attention.

Looking back now I see that was my big mistake. I should have schooled him in this history. If I had done so, we would not be in this embarrassing situation today.

Apparently Sayce drove out along the Columbia, looked out his window and declared what he saw to be a Lewis and Clark campsite. Of course, that was fine to do; but the problem occurred when he led his bus group there and narrated his speculation as if it were fact.

Upon discussing this with other board members no one seemed to care. I guess they viewed one harmless bus tour each year misinforming of a few dozen people was forgivable. I was in the final stretch of finishing my book, which had me busy 18 hours a day and assumed his interest would fade away once the Bicentennial was finished.

Now many years have gone by and rather than fade away or correct his misunderstandings, Sayce remains entrenched into believing his own false notions. Whats worse, now he has projected his fabricated ideas into the minds of newspaper editors and federal workers who have absolutely no background in the story.

This history has baffled historians for centuries so there is absolutely no way any casual observer on a field trip would even know what questions to ask. As a result, under Sayces guidance we are racing towards spending money to commemorate places where Lewis and Clark never set foot.

Much research

I spent six years researching and an additional five years doing deeper research in order to produce a book that would prevent this exact type of careless interpretation. My book, In Full View is the only comprehensive description of Lewis and Clarks movements in the lower Columbia region. It is heavily illustrated with maps showing every Lewis and Clark campsite and tracing their intricate movements. In 2004 this book was singled out by the Washington State Library as Recommended Adult Reading; in 2010 it was selected again by the State Librarian as Memorable Reads. The book is available at local museums or directly from the publisher through Amazon.com, and it will tell you more than you ever imagined about our local history, and to give deserving recognition, it is dedicated to T. Rice Holmes.

I thought I was finished with this history of Lewis and Clark. Now when I see careless speculation leading uninformed people to spend money to commemorate places where nothing occurred, I realize my work is not done.

Fortunately, for me it shouldnt require much time to correct this history. I have indisputable physical evidence that will turn the preposterous Hungry Harbor theory upside down in five minutes and prove that Lewis and Clark camped precisely where I illustrated in my book.