The Lewis and Clark Report

200 years ago today, William Clark and a small party were watching the Pacific waves beat on the Washington shore. This party had embarked a few days before on an overland hike to Cape Disappointment, at the mouth of the Columbia. There, on Nov. 18, they inscribed their names and the date on a tree.

Within the next few weeks they would cross the Columbia to the Oregon side and make their winter camp, which they called Fort Clatsop, near present-day Astoria.

This was the beginning of a long, wet winter. We will resume our bi-weekly Lewis and Clark Report next spring, when the expedition begins the long trek home.

100 Years Ago in the Inland Northwest

The Spokesman-Review ran a titillating story from Lewiston headlined: “Young Girl On A Wild Spree.”

A 17-year-old “domestic” (housemaid) from Clarkston had obtained liquor from some “fiend,” and had proceeded to pound it down. She then stole her employer’s horse and rode drunkenly into the middle of Lewiston where she proceeded to “stagger helplessly about.”

She was immediately arrested and locked up in the women’s ward of the jail, where she began fighting and tearing the place to smithereens. Every breakable piece of furniture was smashed, the light was busted, the bedstead jammed askew and the window shattered. She continually screamed for someone to release her. A drunk in the men’s ward kept shouting back that he was unable to do so.

She was released the next day to her employer. The correspondent added that “she was the daughter of Quaker parents and it is probable that the person who furnished her with the liquor will be severely dealt with.”