Lewis and Clark State Park History

Lewis and Clark State Park preserves precious remnants of once-common southwest Washington landscapes along a historic Indigenous travel route.

Indigenous Lands

The park lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation. For thousands of years this area has provided habitat for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their cultures.

Today’s Lewis and Clark State Park lies near the midpoint of the Cowlitz Trail, an overland pathway established by Indigenous residents to travel between the Columbia River and Puget Sound. The route would become the basis of a wagon road, a section of the Pacific Highway, and eventually, Interstate 5. The park also contains remnants of Cowlitz Prairie, a naturally treeless landform of importance to Indigenous people for the camas and wapato plants that are significant food sources.

Local tribes refused to accept the conditions proposed by Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens at the Chehalis River Treaty Council in February 1855. Subsequently, title to the land was relinquished to the US federal government and the Chehalis Reservation was established by executive order of Secretary of the Interior J. P. Usher on July 8, 1864. The Cowlitz Tribe received federal recognition in 2000.

One of the First State Parks

The land in today’s Lewis and Clark State Park was granted by the US federal government to the State of Washington at statehood in 1889 as a trust “for all the people” to financially support public schools and other public institutions. In June 1922, recognizing that these 520 acres of state trust land contained the last remaining stand of old growth forest along the route of the Pacific Highway, State Land Commissioner C. V. Savidge reserved the lands for park purposes and leased the lands to the State Park Board to manage. The park was dedicated on September 23, 1922. The following April, a caretaker was hired to oversee the park at a salary of $50 per month.

The Civilian Conservation Corps

In the 1930’s as the Great Depression deepened, people throughout Washington and across the US struggled with poverty as job losses and business closures erased their economic security. Newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved fast to provide material relief for suffering families, and one of the earliest hallmark programs of the administration was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Intended to provide useful employment and training for single men aged 18 to 25, the CCC ultimately provided jobs for more than 2 million enrollees who performed work in national and state parks and forests at more than 500 camps.

CCC Company 1633 was organized in Illinois in June 1933, and its 200 men arrived at Lewis and Clark State Park in November 1934, after completing more than a year of work in nearby Rainbow Falls State Park. Assigned to the park for more than two years, the workers cleared trails in the park’s old-growth forest areas, routing the trails “so the most interesting and beautiful sections could be unfolded before the hikers.” They also began work on a caretaker’s house, garage, community kitchen shelters, two road bridges and a restroom before being reassigned to Mount Rainier National Park in January 1936.

CCC Company 1209, formed in New York, arrived at the park in October 1937 to complete the projects started earlier. With the completion of the projects, this company also moved on to Mount Rainier, having earned the admiration of the local community, some members of which were “…amazed at what could be done by the CCC boys under good direction.”

The kitchen shelters, restrooms and picnic area built by the CCC with simple hand tools and locally sourced stone and timber remain almost intact today, their rustic architecture a testament to high quality workmanship.

Protecting a Treasured Forest

Old growth forests such as those in L:ewis and Clark State Park are distinct from managed forests due to their characteristic large old trees, standing dead snags, large downed logs decaying into soil and a diversity of species and ages. Many animal species rely on aspects of such forests for their survival.

On October 12, 1962, the Columbus Day storm generated peak winds of 89 mph in the vicinity of Lewis and Clark State Park, causing extensive downfall of timber, especially on the southern edge of the park.  Most of the park was closed for some time for cleanup work and log salvage. Receipts for the salvaged timber were paid to the Department of Natural Resources, as the land was still being leased from the department.

In 1971 the Washington State Legislature decided that continued lease of trust lands for park purposes was not in the best interest of the state and directed the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (WSPRC) to negotiate a sale of the leased lands. The two agencies entered into a contract for the purchase of 15,083 acres in 24 parks, including 520 acres in Lewis and Clark State Park, at a total purchase price of $11.4 million. However, the timber on the lands was excluded from the contract, as there was no source of funding. The timber in Lewis and Clark State Park alone was appraised to be more than 15 million board feet valued at $6.9 million, the largest amount in any leased state park area. In 1980, the legislature authorized the sale of bonds to cover the cost of the timber; on September 28, 1981, it was deeded to the WSPRC, securing its protection.