long and careful search I have not found the original Act creating this County. I found, in the Journal of the Provisional Legislature, under date of June 22, 1844, that the Act creating Clatsop District was passed that day. ("Oregon Archives," page 43). December 19, 1845, there was approved an Act of the Provisional Legislature defining the line dividing Clatsop and Twality Districts. This Act provides: "That the line dividing Clatsop and Tuality districts shall commence in the middle of the main channel of the Columbia river, at Oak Point mountain on said river; thence south to a supposed line dividing Yamhill and Tuality districts; thence west along said line to the Pacific Ocean; thence north along said line to the mouth of the Columbia river; thence up the middle of the main channel to the place of beginning." (General and Special Laws of 1843-9, Page 36.)
The Act of June 27, 1844, which I have already quoted from, cutting off all parts of Districts north of the Columbia River, passed five days after the Act creating Clatsop District, so it probably became necessary to again define its boundaries. By the Act of December 19, 1845, Clatsop District became all of the northern portion of Twality District, south of the Columbia River, and all of the western portion of Twality District, including what is now Tillamook County.
Its name is that of a small Indian tribe whose habitat was south of the mouth of the Columbia River and near the adjacent shore of the Pacific Ocean. This tribe is mentioned many times in the Journals of Lewis and Clark. Their winter quarters, on Lewis and Clark River, in 1805-6, was named Fort Clatsop by Lewis and Clark.
In the "Original Journals" of Lewis and Clark it is spelled in several ways: Clatsop, Vol. 3, pages 241, 258, 311, 312, 313, 317 and numerous other places; Clat-sop, Vol. 3, pages 258, 282; Vol. 4, page 278; Vol. 6, page 117; Clap-sott, Vol. 3, page 238; Clot-sop, Vol. 3, pages 244, 294.
Patrick Gass was a sergeant in the Lewis and Clark expedition. He kept a Journal, which was published in Pittsburgh,
