"The Best Single Spot for Outdoor Experiential Education" |
Science, History, Literature
Skamokawa Center is the best single spot to access the Lewis and Clark Trail to relive experiences of that epic journey, and the logical base for interpretive activities of the science, history, and literature of the end of the trail,” according to David Nicandri, Director of the Washington State Historical Society and state coordinator of Washington’s bicentennial celebration.
Skamokawa Center is the gateway to exploration, discovery, and outdoor learning on the Lewis and Clark Water Trail. It is where, as William Clark saw it, “The river widens into a kind of Bay & is Crouded with low islands subject to be covered by the tides.”
Program Support
Skamokawa Center is equipped to support field trips and other programs of exploration, discovery, and outdoor learning for teachers and students. The Center provides experienced historian/naturalist guides, kayaks and related equipment, kayak instruction, seminar and classroom space, meal services, and comfortable overnight facilities in Skamokawa Inn, Shoreline Apartments, and The Shoreline Hostel.
The new Shoreline Hostel has room for up to 21 with comfortable beds and bunks in five separate bedrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, dining and meeting space, three decks, glorious views, and very moderate costs.
Nature and History
Two great national wildlife refuges come together at Skamokawa: 35,000 acres of islands and sloughs of the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge and the 5,000 acre White-tailed Deer National Wildlife Refuge. This outdoor laboratory for active learning has ancient Sitka spruce swamps, tidal marshes, and undisturbed places of solitude, much as it was 200 years ago when the Corps of Discovery paddled Elochoman Slough, traded with the Wahkiakum near Skamokawa Center, and camped on a rocky shore just beyond. Down river, pilings mark river history where canneries, mills and whole towns once thrived. Skamokawa Country resonates with the pre history and history of the Lower Columbia.
Bats, Larks, and Lewis and Clark Skamokawa Center provides our high school students with rewarding outdoor learning experiences in several areas including field science, stewardship projects, and history. Working with Skamokawa Center naturalist Andrew Emlen, science teacher Jeff Rooklidge and Wahkiakum High students have surveyed islands in the Lower Columbia for nesting Streaked Horned Larks, a threatened species, and discovered two previously unknown colonies; built and monitored wood duck nest boxes in the Julia Butler Hansen Wildlife Refuge, achieving a sixty percent success rate in attracting wood duck pairs in the first year; designed experiments for the North American Bat House Research Project to determine bat roosting preferences; and are undertaking management programs to control invasive species including English Ivy and purple loosestrife. In trips along the Lewis and Clark Water Trail, history students keep a journal, take compass bearings, make maps, and try their hand at botanical sketching and descriptions just as Lewis and Clark did. This is experiential learning at its best. Robert Garrett, Superintendent |
Opportunities for Active Learning |
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Paddle the Lewis and Clark route through Skamokawa Country to observe and record in personal journals "objects worthy of notice," as Jefferson had instructed Lewis. Compare and discuss what has been observed. Use tools of the time to accomplish some of the day-to-day tasks of the Corps of Discovery and contrast these with modern methods. |
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Use field observations made by Lewis and Clark to understand these explorers as forerunners in botany, zoology, geography, cartography, and ethnology. Compare their findings to present conditions to grasp the sweep of history two centuries of environmental, social, economic, and cultural change. |
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Examine on-the-ground conditions and related issues of public policy now shaping the destiny of the Lower Columbia: erosion control and restoration of marshland habitats, tribal, sport, and commercial fishing, threatened and endangered species, cultural and historic preservation, recovery of upland wildlife, the modern Indian sovereignty movement, regulation of forest practices, and the sustainability of river communities. |
What a fabulous stay we have had. The kids have absolutely loved kayaking here and are overwhelmed by the kindness and generous services of the staff. We hope to return again. Thanks from everyone. The Catlin Gabel School Breakaway Group |
Through the Eyes of the Explorers |
The five sites listed below and shown on the following map are among those noted in the Lewis and Clark journal entries of November 7, 1805.They are examples of sites in Skamokawa Country that can be seen through the eyes of the explorers. |
| 1." . . . high rugid hills with steep assent the shore boalt and rocky." Just below the Elochoman Marina is the last point where the 15 million year-old Columbia River basalt flow cooled on land, forming the steep cliffs of columnar (boalt and rocky) rock. The coastline beyond is where the basalt dove to the seafloor, cooling rapidly and giving the basalt a different appearance and fewer "boalt and rocky" cliffs. |
| 2. " . . . village which is situated . . . behind a cluster of marshy islands." This Wahkiakum village was located at the mouth of the Elochoman River where the Corps visited. It was a location that elicited much attention to the dress of Indian women. |
| 3." . . . a large marshy
island near the middle of the river near which Several Canoes Came
along Side with Skins, roots, fish & c. to Sell, and had a temporey
residence on this island." Tenasillahe Island was the site of a seasonal fishing and hunting village. In Chinook jargon tenas is small or low, and illahee means land. |
| 4." . . . they sold us fish,
Wap pa to roots three dogs and 2 otter skins for which we gave fish
hooks of which they were verry fond." This site is Hornstra Beach where there is a large patch of wapato. The tubers can still be dug and sampled. |
| 5." The river widens into a kind of Bay & is Crouded with low islands subject to be covered by the tides. " The islands of the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge at this point are examples of intertidal marsh. Their low profile allows an unimpeded view, some say, to the mouth of the river and that Clark was indeed "in view of the ocean." ". . . with difficulty found a place clear of the tide and Sufficently large to lie on and the only place we could get was on round Stones." The shoreline, once inhospitable to camping, is still in evidence but differs in major ways. When the Corps of Discovery slept there, the shore was a tangle of giant logs, rocks and debris. Sand beaches didn’t exist until modern times when logs and debris were largely eliminated by modern logging and channel clearing. Sand beaches then formed as the result of sediment deposited by dredging and upstream dams that slowed the flow of the river. |
Next Steps
Contact Skamokawa Center at 1-888-920-2777 or info@skamokawakayak.com