Last weekend Nina and I went to the National Wildlife Refuge in Ridgefield Washington. On this site a Lewis & Clark camped and documented the Catholpotle Village. The Chinookan settlement consisted of 14 plankhouses, 900 people & canoes. The meeting was commemorated by the painting oby Gene Ellen. A few years back, the Chinook Tribe in partnership with the US Forest Service rebuilt/recreated a plankhouse in the Wildlife Reserve. Here I am sitting in the door to give you a sense of scale. Big, huh! 37' by 78' Cedar Structure. You can read more about it here: http://www.ridgefieldfriends.org/plankhouse-history.php (Like how does one build a "traditional" plankhouse when your ancestors never left architectual plans and the oral history is spotty at best?)
Great post! I wanna visit here and see the plankhouses. I wonder how far it is from Long Beach, WA, where a friend of ours has a cabin?
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