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Lewis and Clark Return to North Oregon Coast Town

(Seaside, Oregon) – It’s the closest thing to time travel available to coastal visitors – without huge advances in physics.

On August 18 - 20, Seaside, the Fort Clatsop National Memorial and the Seaside History Museum celebrate Seaside’s contribution to the history of Lewis & Clark with the “Saltmakers Return.” On these dates, head to Avenue U (at the southern end of town) and you’ll find signs declaring “You Are Now Entering 1806.”

They aren’t kidding. The men in period costume – set with the task of boiling sea water for salt – don’t even talk like the modern populace, speaking in period dialect and completely unaware of any cultural or technological reference beyond the year 1806. Visitors are encouraged to ask questions, but the demonstrators will be playing their parts to the tee, so they won't "understand" modern words or terms of modern conveniences. Officials advise: "The best way to start a conversation with a Salt Maker is to ask, 'How are you today?' 'Where are you from?' and 'What is your name?' " From there, you can ask other questions about their journey.

During the Corps of Discovery’s stay in NW Oregon in the winter of 1805-06, some were dispatched to what would eventually become Seaside. There, they obtained salt the old fashioned, frontier way.

At the time, they worked in shifts for three days straight. The re-enactment crew will do the same thing.

There is a replica of the rock construction they used to boil the water a few blocks down from Avenue U – the actual site, so determined during the Lewis & Clark Centennial 100 years ago, through discussions with local tribal members still living who remembered the group.

The Saltmakers Return is a particularly fun, interesting and extremely detailed interactive interpretation on the Oregon coast, as those playing the parts have thoroughly studied the past lives of these men, army protocols of the time and their personal adventures en route to this place and this moment in time.

The event also features “contextual greeters,” who are place at the entrance to this “other time” and prepare visitors for this temporal adventure. As one of the greeters put it: “My job was to welcome visitors, let them know they were traveling back to the year 1806, and tell them they were approaching the Lewis & Clark Salt Works. They were to forget the hotels, houses and parked cars a few hundred yards behind them and imagine they were approaching this camp about 200 years ago. The visitors would soon find themselves entering a different culture.”

The event takes place on the beach at Avenue U. It begins at 5 p.m. on Friday and ends at 5 p.m. on Sunday. (503) 738-7065.

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