Fort Clatsop Administrative History

James M. Thomson, 1965-1969

During his term as superintendent, Jim Thomson managed the park's needs one at a time, working from the park's master plan. Basic infrastructure necessities occupied most of his time. Often finding the park at the bottom of the budget chain (in a region with such parks as Mt. Rainier, Crater Lake, Olympic, Yosemite, Redwoods, etc.), he used available funding to achieve necessary maintenance projects. [2]

A continuing headache was the water line to the park. The line crossed the bottom of the Lewis and Clark River and the continual presence of log rafts moving along the river caused frequent pinching and puncturing of the water line. When this occurred, all water in the visitor center, employee residences, and the utility structure would be off until the line was repaired. Repair generally took at least two days, since a repairman would have to travel two hours from Portland. Construction of a reinforced water line to eliminate these pressure problems was completed in 1965.

Increased parking space was also needed at the memorial. During periods of heavy visitation, visitors would park in open spaces off the county road and wherever they could find space. To help alleviate this problem, Thomson was able to get regional reserve funds to widen the current parking lot and later to create an overflow parking area. A space for 13 cars and 4 busses was cleared, graded, and graveled off the main parking and entrance road. Paving and installation of curbs would be completed at a later date.

Upon arrival at the memorial, Thomson requested funds to add a third bedroom to the two-bedroom superintendent's house (purchased during lands acquisition) for his family, with three sons, to be able to comfortably live in it. In 1966, the Region Four office provided $3,000 for Thomson and told him that if he could get the work done for that amount of money, he could proceed. Thomson contracted with a local carpenter and added a bedroom, a bathroom, expanded a storage space, and improved the electrical wiring in the house.

An important improvement to the visitor center was the installation of a ventilation system in the auditorium. While plans to enlarge the room were still being shuffled around in the budget process, the fan created much-needed air circulation in the room, which was often filled to capacity with visitors.

A report completed by Charles Peterson in 1964 evaluating the operations of the visitor center after its first year had identified three main problems with the new visitor center. Two of these were the limited space in the auditorium and parking area. However, the most serious problem plaguing the center was the fact that out of a total 48,249 visitors, only 34,808 actually entered the visitor center. The problem lay in the visibility of the fort replica from the parking lot and the ability of the visitor to walk straight to the replica, bypassing the visitor center and its facilities. In 1966, Thomson began the planting of a screen of trees between the replica and the parking lot that would direct visitor traffic through the visitor center and then to the replica. Ross Petersen, hired as a maintenance worker, was responsible for the tree planting. He was able to provide great assistance over the years in the memorial's tree planting efforts. Petersen, who operated his own nursery, planted trees from his own stock as well as transplanting young trees from the memorial grounds. By the time Thomson left in 1969, the growth of the trees and additional foliage between them, such as blackberry bushes, had succeeded in screening the replica from the parking lot and visitor traffic was moving through the center as intended. [3]

Visitation at the memorial continued to grow. During Thomson's term, the memorial hosted its 100,000th visitor, who was greeted with gifts of books from the FCHA counter and dinner in Astoria. Interpretation relied heavily on a visitor-activated audio station in the replica during both Peterson and Thomson's terms as superintendent. Due to limited staff, tours were given to visiting school groups, but daily interpretive programs were not available. During Thomson's term as superintendent, the costumed demonstration programs were initiated. Park Ranger Emmet Nichols requested permission to begin black powder flintlock rifle demonstrations at the memorial in 1969. Nichols, who was an enthusiast of period weapons, offered to make a buckskin outfit for the demonstrations.

Thomson gave his permission and the memorial acquired a black powder flintlock musket like those used by the Expedition. Nichols would deliver the program a few times daily during the summer season, presenting the loading and firing skills necessary to operate the weapons such as Lewis and Clark used. Off-site programs were also developed with Fort Stevens State Park, where memorial staff would present films on the Expedition for campers at the nearby state park.

With regard to law enforcement, Thomson spent time, much of it after hours, trying to curtail illegal poachers. Open fields on the outer edges of the memorial and off the sides of the county road provided attractive poaching grounds. Park staff who occupied the two residences at the memorial felt endangered by poachers shooting so near their homes. Thomson and Nichols often went on night patrols in the park vehicle or on foot, shining flashlights to warn off potential poachers. On several occasions, Thomson and Nichols would hear shots fired and would attempt to find the poachers or just get to the animal to deprive the poachers of it. Through the later efforts of the memorial's reforestation program, the open meadow areas no longer exist, but poaching continues to be a threat at the memorial.

Jim Thomson remembers managing Fort Clatsop out of his hip pocket. [4] Projects were always waiting to be done and when money became available, he and the staff did what they could. In November 1969, Thomson accepted a promotion to Lake Meredeth National Recreation Area (Sanford National Recreation Area) in the Texas Panhandle.