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Cathlapotle Plankhouse
Chinookan’s built one-roofed, multiple dwellings called plankhouses as far back as the mid-1300s.
It took as many as 100 trees and 2000 person hours to build over a course of several years.
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By the time the Lewis and Clark expedition showed up in 1805 one of the largest villages had as many as 14.
Thirty-five years later white man’s diseases wiped out entire villages and the houses disappeared.
This reconstructed house is an interpretive center used by the Chinook Indian Nation.
Second Sundays NW Main Ave Ridgefield, WA ridgefieldfriends.org/plankhouse facebook.com/ridgefieldfriends Open seasonally from May 1-Sep 30.
