Destination: The Pacific is a nationally sanctioned Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemorative event, which will take place from Nov. 11 to 15, 2005, with events stretching from Long Beach to Cannon Beach.

Destination: The Pacific will include “Ocian In View” educational programs in Oregon and Washington.

Our region is counting down to this signature event commemorating the Corps’ realization of Jefferson’s quest – arrival by land at the Pacific Ocean and the wintering over at Fort Clatsop.

The event will open Nov. 11, at Fort Stevens State Park in Warrenton, Ore., with members of the National Guard and Indian tribes participating with a color guard displaying 50 flags of Indian nations across the country. Other events planned:

The national Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Exhibition is scheduled to be at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland and will be coming to this area as well.

The Station Camp site at McGowan, centerpiece of the new Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Park, will be dedicated Nov. 15, in connection with a re-enactment of “The Arrival,” sponsored by the Washington State Historical Society.

The national dedication of the Maya Lin sculpture at Cape Disappointment State Park, the first of several planned for sites along the river, is scheduled for Nov. 18, the date that William Clark and his men hiked to Cape Disappointment from Station Camp 200 years ago.

A special commemoration is planned for Nov. 24, Thanksgiving Day.

“Ocian in View” will include a forum of speakers and panelists focusing on history, tribal issues and stewardship of the Columbia River and a debate – “Is it History or Is it Hollywood?” – at the Liberty Theater in Astoria.

“Consider the Columbia” will provide an opportunity “to experience the epic sweep of the river while standing on the Astoria-Megler Bridge,” with a goal of gathering 4,300 people to hold hands across the bridge.

A Festival of the Pacific: Lewis and Clark Remembered is planned at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds with vendors, musicians, story tellers, a botanical garden of native plants, demonstrations and entertainment.

“Painless Lewis and Clark,” at the Liberty Theater, a folk-music revue of the history of the expedition by Randy Sparks, founder of the New Christy Minstrels.

Corps of Discovery II, a National Park Service traveling exhibit, will be in Long Beach Nov. 7 through Nov. 15 and in Seaside, Ore., Nov. 18, 19, 22 and 23.

Other DTP events planned through March 2006 are a rededication of Fort Clatsop in December, a Tillamook Head Trail story and hike in January, The Saltmakers Return in February and The Departure March 23.

“Ocian in View” is presented by the Pacific County Friends of Lewis and Clark. The program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Washington, a statewide non-profit organization supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and local contributors. For more information on the program, call 642-2805 and for available lodging, call the Long Beach Peninsula Visitors Bureau at (800) 451-2542 or access the Peninsula’s Web site at www.funbeach.com. Lewis and Clark information is available at www.lewisandclarkwa.org.