Suffering bad weather and lack of comforts during a Wintering Over program last year, Michael Riley, left, and Clinton Smith got a taste of what the Corps of Discovery experienced at Fort Clatsop. File photo by Lori Assa.

In November 1805, a tiny band of explorers, after a 21/2-year journey, arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River, completing an epic trek across the North American continent.

This week, their exploits are honored in “Destination: The Pacific,” one of 15 Signature Events nationwide commemorating the explorers’ famous trek to the Pacific and back two centuries ago.

The event begins Friday with a Veteran’s Day ceremony featuring a Native American color guard, and includes music, food, dancing, lectures, hikes, interpretive programs and other events, all designed to connect people across time, distance and cultures in a common bond of exploration and discovery.

“We wanted to appeal to the adventurers and explorers among us,” said Jan Mitchell, chairwoman of the “Destination” organizing committee.

The event kicks off with the centerpiece of the Northwest’s Lewis and Clark story – Fort Clatsop – gone, accidentally destroyed by fire just last month. But that calamity, blamed on errant sparks from one of the building’s fireplaces, will affect virtually none of the many events planned for the Bicentennial.

Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the other 31 members of their party had traveled more than 4,000 miles when they reached the mouth of the Columbia River, an expedition as audacious an undertaking in its day as the first moon landing. The party journeyed through country that was a blank slate to their countrymen back east, an area that some, including President Thomas Jefferson, believed might still be home to prehistoric animals.

Along the way, the explorers established relations with numerous American Indian tribes, made detailed notes on animals, plant life and geology, and helped strengthen the claim of the fledgling United States to the vast region.

After a relatively easy trek down the lower Columbia River, the group struggled the last few miles toward the Pacific, pinned to the north shore by one vicious storm after another. They finally reached a wide sand beach “in full view of the ocian” just east of present-day Chinook, Wash., that the group dubbed Station Camp. They declared their westward journey complete and set about seeking an “eligible” location for winter quarters. Their encampment, Fort Clatsop, south of Astoria on what was then called the Netul River, would be their home for three months through the damp, dreary winter.

To share the explorers’ story, along with that of the native people they encountered and the communities that grew up in the wake of their journey, Bicentennial organizers have put together a program that offers a healthy mix of scholarship and fun, from lectures by noted Lewis and Clark experts to musical revues to coastal hikes.

“We wanted to have authoritative, intellectual content, but not just a conference,” Mitchell said.

The Astoria Bridge plays its part in the Bicentennial in a Sunday, Nov. 13 ceremony that includes pouring Missouri River water into the Columbia. File photo by Lori Assa.The Fort to Sea Trail dedication Monday, Nov. 14, offers an opportunity to follow more or less in the explorers’ footsteps, as the five-mile pathway is opened to the public. A hike along the entire trail begins at 8 a.m., while the noon ceremony at the west trailhead on Sunset Beach Road will be followed by a short hike to the end of the trail, which roughly follows the route that the expedition members used to reach the beach from Fort Clatsop.

More fun is planned at the Festival of the Pacific, Friday through Sunday, Nov. 11 through 13 at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds, where more than 70 food, art and craft vendors will offer their wares. There will be a Kids Corps Discovery area where children can try on buckskin clothes, make their own journals, beads and paper-bag “hides,” and check out a kid-sized Clatsop Indian plank house, ranger station and botanical exhibit.

Singer, storyteller and flute player Keith Bear appears at ‘The Waters Speak,’ Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 12 and 13, in Ilwaco, Wash.Other festival features include Warm Springs Tribe’s Quartz Creek Drum and Dance Group, birds of prey from the Oregon Zoo, autograph signing by NASA astronaut Bonnie Dunbar and a botanical garden.

The “Ocian in View” lecture series, offered in Astoria and Ilwaco, Wash., includes some of the leading Lewis and Clark scholars, including Gary Moulton, editor of the Corps of Discovery Journals, and includes discussions about the roles of expedition members Sacagawea and York.

Another top priority for organizers, Mitchell said, was to give Native American groups a major presence in the commemoration. That includes the opening ceremony Friday, Nov. 11, which features representatives of a dozen tribes in a tribute to veterans. The event, which will include appearances by the governors of Oregon and Washington, was organized by the Oregon and Washington National Guard in recognition of the Corps of Discovery’s status as a military expedition.

The tribes will also have a presence at Consider the Columbia, an event Sunday, Nov. 13 on the Astoria Bridge that will include ceremonial spilling of waters from all the rivers on the Lewis and Clark trail into the Columbia.

Local historian and author Rex Ziak is one of several speakers in the ‘Ocian in View’ program schedule. File photo by Tom Bennett.The loss of Fort Clatsop has altered some of the Bicentennial program, which was to include first-person interpreters performing at the fort. Those programs will be moved to other areas of Fort Clatsop park, and will instead focus on the activities that the party engaged in before they moved into the fort.

The fort, a replica of Lewis and Clark’s winter encampment, was built 50 years ago thanks to a largely all-volunteer effort and has hosted thousands of visitors since its construction. In the wake of the fire, Bicentennial organizers received calls from visitors wondering what the accident would mean for the planned events, Mitchell said.

“People at first were disappointed – they thought Fort Clatsop was the heart of things,” she said. “But someone compared it to the Grinch – he took the presents and the tree, but he didn’t take Christmas.”

Re-enactors may dust off their elkskins for the occasion. File photo by Lori Assa.After the initial shock, park staff and other local community members quickly set to work on plans to rebuild the historic structure. Work on the new Fort Clatsop won’t begin until after the Bicentennial, but in the meantime, visitors to the park will be able to watch archaeologists as they examine the ground underneath the replica fort for evidence of the original structure.

? Opening Ceremony

10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 11, Fort Stevens State Park, Hammond, free.

? Festival of the Pacific

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 11 and 12, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, Clatsop County Fairgrounds, $5 adults, $3 children/seniors, free for 6 and younger; three-day pass $12 adults, $7 children/seniors.

? Corps of Discovery II: 200 Years to the Future

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Monday, Nov. 15, Long Beach, Wash., city center; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 19 and 20, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 21 and 22, Seaside Convention Center, free.

? The Waters Speak

7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 12 and 13, Hilltop School Auditorium, Ilwaco, Wash., $12 adults, $7 children.

? Consider the Columbia

8 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, Astoria Bridge, $10 for first 900 participants and $15 for others, advance reservations required.

? Merry to the Fiddle

8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, Liberty Theater, $10 advance, $15 at the door.

? Fort to Sea Trail dedication

9 a.m. hike and noon ceremony, Monday, Nov. 14, Sunset Beach, free.

? Re-enactors at the Pacific

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, Chinook County Park, Chinook, Wash., free.

? Ocian in View lecture series

Tickets are $10 unless otherwise noted. For ticket information and reservations, call (503) 861-4403 or go online at www.destinationthepacific.com

? “Fur Trade, Soft Gold, Lewis and Clark,” by Rex Ziak, 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, Liberty Theater.

? “What Has Happened to Lewis and Clark’s Lower Columbia River? An Ecologist and Historian Offers Answers,” by Daniel Botkin and William Lang, 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, Hilltop Auditorium and 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, CCC Performing Arts Center.

? “Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes: Past, Present and Future,” by Clatsop-Nehalem tribal elders, 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12 and Sunday, Nov. 14, CCC Performing Arts Center.

? “Exploration Then and Now: Conversations with Astronaut Bonnie Dunbar and Capt. William Clark,” by Bonnie Dunbar and Bud Clarke, 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, Hilltop Auditorium and Sunday, Nov. 13, CCC Performing Arts Center.

? “Hollywood vs. History,” by Robert Carrier and Amy Mossett, 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, Liberty Theater and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, Hilltop Auditorium.

Two other presentations in the series are free to the public:

? “Sacagawea, York and the Vote at Station Camp: Delusions of Democracy?” by Hasan Davis and Amy Mossett, 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11 and 1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14, Hilltop Auditorium.

? “Fur Trade, Soft Gold, Lewis and Clark,” by Rex Ziak, 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, Hilltop Auditorium, Ilwaco.