Time Travel To Lewis and Clark's Oregon Coast with Seaside Event

Published 08/18/25 at 6:15 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Seaside, Oregon) - More than two centuries ago, the Lewis and Clark Expedition faced a critical shortage: no salt, and no store within 2,000 miles. Their solution? Boil seawater on the coastline of as-yet-to-be named Oregon, more than 30 from their main housing.

On September 9 and 10, the Seaside Museum will host the annual Lewis and Clark Salt Makers event, a living history program that recreates the explorers’ salt-making camp on the beach where it all happened in 1806. The event is presented by the Pacific Northwest Living Historians (PNLH) and supported by a grant from the City of Seaside Tourism Advisory Committee.

Visitors will step into a fully interpreted 19th-century camp, where costumed historians boil seawater over open fires - just as members of the Corps of Northwestern Discovery did during their winter stay. The camp will be located on the beach west of Avenue U and the Prom intersection, open Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

It is a rare chance to see north Oregon coast history in action. You’ll hear stories from the expedition, learn how salt was made, and discover the challenges faced by the explorers during their time on the Pacific coast.

The original salt-making effort began on December 26, 1805, when Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark dispatched five men from Fort Clatsop to find a suitable site. After five days of searching, the group settled on the beach now known as Seaside. There, they boiled seawater for nearly two months, enduring harsh winter conditions to produce the salt needed to preserve meat and season their meals.

Visitors will quite literally time-travel over 200 years when they enter the camp. Reenactors dress the part and sometimes even talk the talk – relaying historical tales in the older English dialects and lingo of the time.

Now in its third decade, the Lewis and Clark Salt Makers event has become a tradition on the Oregon coast, offering families and history enthusiasts a hands-on learning experience. It also sheds light on lesser-known details of the expedition, such as Lewis’s reference to the group as the “Corps of Northwestern Discovery” in his journals.

Admission is free, and the event is made possible through the support of the Seaside Museum, Sandy Cove Inn, Owsley Wood Services, and United Site Services.

Not far down the Promenade, there's Lewis & Clark Way, which hosts the actual spot where the troupe boiled ocean water. The replica of their rock “oven” (saltworks) and a monument sits there, which was confirmed back in the late 1800s by talking to tribal members who had known exactly where it was.

See more at Seaside Visitors

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