Engineer respondsto Clark's comment

November always gets Lewis and Clark historians stirred up.

It’s the month when William Clark mentions in his diary that the Corps of Discovery finally saw the Pacific Ocean. It is also the culmination to a set of journals that record many of the amazing moments the Corps of Discovery had exploring America 200 years ago.

For the historian, Clark’s journals are more than a record of an arduous, scientific journey, filled with quiet moments in the huge expanse that would become America. The journals are also one man’s personal experience that paints an intimate tapestry of adventure, science and, of course, controversy.

In particular is one moment in Clark’s diary when he writes “Ocian in view, O! the joy.” This particular passage has created much debate amongst historians who journey with Clark through his diaries.

That passage is also what pulled Skamokawa resident Mike Reese into the debate.

“I have been interested in the Lewis and Clark diaries since about 1998,” said Reese, “and when I came to Skamokawa to look at the site thought to be where Clark said ‘Ocian in view! O! the joy’ I realized he couldn’t have seen the ocean from the place most historians think he did.”

Reese’s analysis stems from his background in the aerospace industry and his work on over-the-horizon radar (OTH) technology. This kind of radar bounces radio waves off the ionosphere and then retrieves the frequencies to build a radar picture.

The OTH method looks beyond the curvature of the earth to compile data in three different ways in relation to the viewer, the height of the viewer, and the way light bounces off the ionosphere.

Reese’s research discovered that a person five feet tall can’t see any more than about three miles straight ahead before the earth’s curvature and the light’s refraction begin to affect what is seen.

“That means from where Clark and his crew camped (a little west of Skamokawa), Clark would have to have been at least 175 feet above the river to see the ocean, and his diary doesn’t mention that,” said Reese.

Reese said that the Clark diaries first mention the “Oh the joy, Ocean in View” phrase on November 7 while the Corps of Discovery camped across from Pillar Rock, a few miles east of the Astoria Megler Bridge.

“They couldn’t have seen the ocean from that site either, because they are still a little over 18 miles from the open ocean,” said Reese.

Reese said his calculations of the earth’s curvature put Clark’s statement of “Ocian in view! O! The joy” somewhere near Point Ellice when they have their first opportunity to see the Pacific Ocean.

“That’s probably more accurate,” said Reese, “because that particular phrase was written in Clark’s course and distance log and all those entries, from October 18th to November 15th are written consecutively, suggesting Clark compiled them after they had rounded Point Ellice.”

In 2002, Gary E. Moulton, author of the definitive work, The Journals of Lewis & Clark Expedition, wrote Reese a letter thanking him for finally settling the debate of when The Corps of Discovery first saw the Pacific Ocean.

The Corps of Discovery was launched by President Thomas Jefferson in 1804 from St. Charles, Missouri. The group was tasked with exploring the west and perhaps finding a navigable waterway across America. Years later the expedition became defined by its physical hardships and its scientific inquiry.