DESSERT
The Lady is Changeable. Catch Her When She is Angry. by Hobe Kytr The exhibits at the Columbia River Maritime Museum resound with tales of the infamy of the Columbia bar. Yet, for visitors who come here during fair weather, this can be quite confusing. To offer an illustration, a cruise ship full of passengers embarks on a tour of the Columbia River valley during an exquisite Pacific Northwest Indian summer. Just before they come to the Museum , they go out to see the bar, and it is well marked, smooth as glass, picture perfect. Ah, but the lady is changeable. Catch her when she is angry . See her when breakers bigger than boxcars stretch from shore to shore, and you will understand. Consider these entries from Pacific Coasts of Central America and United States Pilot (Eight edition, 1975): "14.6 Pilotage across Columbia River bar . . . is compulsory. "14.11 Landmarks. The entrance of CoThe French bark Colonel de Villebois Mareuil crossing Columbia bar under tow . lumbia River is difficult to make in bad weather, Photo taken from the steam tug Goliath, Captain 0. Beaton, master, October, 1912. as there are few well-defined landmarks. "14.12 [2nd paragraph] South Jetty extends for a distance of about 5 1/2 miles from Point Adams ... the Two hundred years ago , Robert Gray, by dint of courage, outer half is submerged ... Shoal ground extends NW and W felt his way through the breakers south of Cape Disappointfrom the outer end of Clatsop Spit along the N side of the South ment and found his way into a great river. His passage jetty; due to spring freshets and NW storms there is a tendency crossed what is now dry land. Broughton, entering the river with Gray's chart six months .later, found the features so for the shoal to grow in a NW direction. "14.13 Cape Disappointment ... [6th paragraph] Seen different as to question Gray's veracity. In 1841, the ill-fated from S, Cape Disappointment appears as three low knobs, Peacock of the Wilkes ' expedition ran aground on the sandy separated by low, flat ridges . .. From W the cape is not spit which has since borne her name. That spot, faithfully prominent .. . From NW the cape appears as a flat island, with charted by the US Exploring Expedition, is today on the main a slight depression in the centre and a wooded knob at either end; channel range. (Peacock Spit, which once swung around "Bar. Caution. [2nd paragraph] Tidal streams. The bar is seasonally with the prevailing current and wind, has been said to be very dangerous because of sudden and unpredictable anchored by the north jetty.) In 1899, Lightship No. 50 was changes in the tidal streams, often accompanied by breakers .. . swept off station and driven ashore at the foot of McKenzie "[3rd paragraph] On the flood , there is a dangerous set Head . But, where once the fury of the open ocean pounded towards Clatsop Spit ... Heavy breakers have been reported the face of this headland, fami lies today go camping on dry as far inside the entrance as about 3 mile E of the outer end of land inside Ft. Canby State Park. And what of this moody cape, named for disappointment? the S jetty ... " What makes the entrance to the Columbia so formidable is In 1775, the Portuguese Bruno Heceta, sai ling for the viceroy not just that conditions can change abruptly, but that the bar is of New Spain in the Santiago, found what he believed was the so long. Compounding the matter, it is far from a straight run. entrance to a great river in this latitude. Pushed back by a A vessel negotiating the shipping channel between the outer tremendous outflow of river-colored water, he was unable to end of the south jetty and Point Adams must make a minimum gain entrance. Standing offshore, he drew a chart, labeling of three course corrections. And thi s is with modem navigation what he saw Baya de la Assumpcion and the Rio San Roque. improvements. The crossing used to be much more difficult. To the south was Cabo Frondoso, and to the north, Cabo San It is no wonder that large vessels under sail, especially square- Roque. Thirteen years later, John Meares, late of the British riggers dependent on a favorable wind , found this bar treach- Navy, pursuing the fur trade in the vessel Felice, arrived with erous. The mouth of the river is lined with the bones of vessels a Spanish chart and immediately recognized "Heceta 's whose masters trusted to the whims of the winds and tides. Entrada." Creeping around the northerly cape, he found the The old-timers spoke of phantom shoal sands that changed water to shoal alarmingly and viewed a solid line of enormous with every tide. Many is the master who came to grief by breakers extending as far as the south shore of the supposed trusting an old chart for safe passage. This great river carries bay. Before he departed , he reasserted a new set of geographic the largest fresh-water outflow entering the Pacific Ocean in names reflecting his own sentiments: Cape Disappointment the Western hemisphere. And the vast area of western North and Deception Bay. It remained for the American, Robert America it drains is volcanic country. Great quantities of sand, Gray, to disprove his opinion. But the name of the cape had volcanic ash, and pumice are borne downstream until they persisted, and so it remains to this day. meet the might of the North Pacific. The world 's two longest sandy beaches extend to the north and south of the mouth of the Hobe Kytr is a museum educ{{Jtor at the Columbia River Maritime Columbia. Sand accretion since jetty construction began over Museum, and editor of the miuseum' s quarterly Quarterdeck, from a hundred years ago is measured in miles. which this article is reprinted/. 46
S>EA HISTORY 61 , SPRING 1992