The Russians at Fort Clatsop
How the "Juno" nearly met the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Contributed by Robert Heacock
Over the years we have heard occasional comments about the potential of a ship taking the Lewis and Clark Expedition, or at least their journals and maps, from the Pacific Northwest to return to the east coast by ship in 1806. This presumably would have also allowed the Expedition to replenish their supply of food, stores and trade goods. In 1792, the year that the mouth of the Columbia River was first entered by Captain Robert Gray, there were 29 ships of various registry on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Those voyages were principally for the sea otter trade, with Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island the center of the activity.
The extraordinary value of sea otter furs purchased on the Pacific Northwest coast and delivered to Canton (present Guangzhou), China was first noticed by the surviving crew members of the Captain James Cooks’ Third Expedition upon their arrival at Macao on December 1, 1779. After the results of the voyage were made public, the fur trade increased regularly. But the seasonal nature of the arrival of the trading ships stymied the hopes of the Expedition, eager to leave the cold and damp confines of Fort Clatsop in 1806.
The Russians established themselves on the Kamchatka Peninsula with the settlement of St. Peter and St. Paul, so named by Vitus Bering after his two ships in 1740. The area now is called Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and until 1924, Petropavlovsk.
In 1762 Catherine II was elevated to Russian empress after the removal of Peter III. She took an active interest in increasing Russian activity in North America, and so expansion based on the fur trade ensued. The Russians increased their activity with temporary shore stations in the Aleutians, but in 1783 they attempted their first permanent settlement at Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island. They subsequently were established at Novo-Arkhangelsk, (New Archangel) at what is now Sitka, Alaska in 1799.
However, the lack of adequate ship assets, plus difficult supply lines from Kamchatka, hardly a cornucopia itself, made for constant difficulties for the Russian expansion. The Russians felt they could best provide food supplies for their needs by establishing agricultural settlements further south along the North American coastline. But to find suitable arable land near the coastline forced them to eventually attempt settlement at locations such as Fort Ross on the Sonoma coast of California in 1808, Spanish claims notwithstanding.
It was during this time of searching for arable coastal land that the Russians felt the need to start an intermediate station somewhere along the coast of the Pacific Northwest, and the mouth of the Columbia River seemed to provide them the most likely location for a base.
So on February 25, 1806 Russian merchant Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov departed New Archangel (Sitka) for the Columbia River on the ship Juno (renamed as the Yunona) purchased from Rhode Island skipper John D’Wolf. Their plan was to establish a settlement at the mouth of the Columbia River, and then expand south to San Francisco.
By March 14 the Russians on Juno and Capt Lt. Nikolai Khostovspotted the mouth of the Columbia River, but weather forced them back out to sea. On March 20 Juno approached the mouth of the Columbia River and anchored, planning to enter on March 21 but ‘the tremendous current and great breakers in the channel hindered us’. It was in this period that the Lewis and Clark Expedition departed their home at Fort Clatsop on March 23, 1806.
On March 31 Juno again attempted to enter the Columbia River, but were unable, as they also were on April 1 when the Juno made its final unsuccessful attempt and then headed south to San Francisco
April 28 the Juno arrived at San Francisco and the Russian crew stayed for six weeks, making repairs and reconnoitering the area, and subsequently returned to Sitka. A second Russian expedition in 1808 went to Humbolt Bay, and in 1812 they established Fort Ross on the Sonoma Coast, which in 1841 was sold to John Sutter for $30,000.
As a result of the Nootka Controversy between England and Spain in 1789, the Convention for Mutual Abandonment of Nootka (Third Nootka Convention) was signed in 1794, with both Britain and Spain abandoning explorations of discovery and/or conquest in Nootka Sound and subsequently the Pacific Northwest Coast. In 1797 Spanish naval activity in the Pacific Northwest ceased.
This meant that by 1806 it was mostly American ships in the Pacific Northwest. However most were not interested in the hazards or minimal benefit of the Columbia River when the prized sea otter were more prevalent in other areas. The decline of the sea otter trade, and the rise of other resources of the great Pacific Northwest, such as timber, fisheries and inland agriculture, later led to an increased importance of the great Columbia River.
Robert Heacock
Liberty Lake, Washington