Clark's Mountain is a summit in

Clatsop County, Oregon Clatsop County () is the northernmost List of counties in Oregon, county in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 41,072. The county seat is Astoria, Oregon, Astoria. The Oregon Geograph ...

. It is named for

William Clark William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Misso ...

(1770–1838), who during the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

, likely viewed the summit from the vicinity of Cape Disappointment. It is located in Ecola State Park, 2.4 km (1.5 mi) northeast of Tillamook Head, 0.8 km (0.5 mi) south of West Point, 3.5 km (2.2 mi) southwest of

Seaside, Oregon Seaside is a city in Clatsop County, Oregon, United States, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The name Seaside is derived from ''Seaside House'', a historic summer resort built in the 1870s by railroad magnate Ben Holladay. The city's population ...

. The summit has an elevation of . The Lewis & Clark Discovery Trail, part of the greater Oregon Coast Trail, goes over the summit.

History

Clark and

Meriwether Lewis Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774 – October 11, 1809) was an American explorer, soldier, politician, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery, with ...

first described what would be known as Tillamook Head and Clark's Mountain on 18 November 1805. On 8 January 1806, Clark took a trip over the summit, where he remarked, "...from this point I beheld the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed..." Lewis originally named the summit "Clark's Mountain and Point of View." However, the name didn't catch on and the entire promontory was later called Tillamook Head. In the early 2000s, the Oregon Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation campaigned to officially name the highest point on Tillamook Head "Clark's Mountain". The Oregon Geographic Names Board approved its use in 2001, followed by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names in 2002. Clark's Mountain is notable for being one of five American federally-recognized place names with a

possessive apostrophe The apostrophe (, ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...

. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names allowed the apostrophe as a way to emphasize the tribute to William Clark.

Notes

References

{{reflist Mountains of Oregon