Fort Clatsop Administrative History

Documents like these may carry the name of one author, but it takes many more people to finish a product. David Johnson, history department chair at Portland State University and my advisor, deserves my appreciation for recommending me for this job. I thank Gretchen Luxenberg for hiring me, guiding me, listening to my never-ending stream of questions, and handling all of the voice mail messages I left for her. Thanks also to David Louter for fielding questions about NPS policies and document format.

In researching for the memorial archive and history, I received a tremendous amount of help from Henry Keith of the Western Regional Office, who photocopied files from the San Bruno National Archives and Records Center and mailed them to me. Nancy Hori and Mary Ellen Bartholomew at the Pacific Northwest Regional library also helped me search for missing files and mailed me literature. Thanks to Stephanie Toothman, Jim Thomson, Fred York, Kent Bush, Ted Catton, and Laurin Huffman for their assistance.

I thank Thomas Vaughan, Wilt Paulson, Joe Nerenberg, and Ruth Shaner for sharing replica construction history; Faith Peterson for writing me concerning her husband's superintendency; John Hussey and Paul Schumacher for taking the time to write their remembrances of Fort Clatsop; Michael Foster of the historical association; former superintendents Jim Thomson, Robert Scoff, Paul Haertel, John Miele, Frank Walker, former staff members Ross Petersen, Al Stonestreet, Scott Eckberg, Dan Dattilio, and Barbe Minard for speaking with me and reviewing drafts of this history.

The current park staff was very patient and helpful, reminding me of details and errors and fielding my phone calls during their busy schedules, especially Curt Johnson, Cynthia Orlando, and Curt Ahola. Jane Warner and Lynne Johnson were invaluable in helping me acquire photos from the memorial collection. David Ek deserves credit for all the maps in this document, which was a significant help.

Janine Cannon deserves thanks for reading this on her vacation and helping edit, Bill Cannon for being an inexhaustible cheerleader, and David Miller for his patience as I clicked away at the computer. If I have forgotten anyone, I apologize, and offer my thanks.