Travis Fedje, an interpreter with the Pacific Northwest Living Historians, spreads out salt made from seawater over the weekend.

It begins by trudging into the Pacific Ocean along the shoreline in Seaside and capturing buckets full of water—ideally skimming it off the top of a wave to limit the amount of sand in the liquid.

After being carried in buckets on a yoke to a campsite, the seawater is filtered and then boiled over a fire, nonstop, with several more buckets being added over time until the boiling process has reduced the contents down to wet, concentrated salt.

This is what a group of historical interpreters with the Pacific Northwest Living Historians do for the annual Lewis and Clark Salt Makers event, which took place this year on Sept. 9 and Sept. 10. It is modeled after the salt making process that was undertaken by members of the Corps of Discovery expedition in 1806.

In fact, the process those men followed in the 19th century—most likely learned from the expedition members who previously were employed at a saltworks in Kentucky—was not recorded by the captains or those keeping detailed journals.

“They knew the process, but they never described it,” said interpreter John Orthmann, who has been participating in the event for about two decades. Similarly, “they didn’t describe chopping down trees or milking a cow, just like we wouldn’t describe starting our car or cooking something in a microwave. For them, it wasn’t worth wasting the ink.”

As a result, the interpreters with Pacific Northwest Living Historians have worked on figuring out how those original expedition members most likely made the salt, and then making adaptations to their living history demonstration.

“I like trying to experience the feeling of this whole process,” said Glen Allison, a retired history teacher and current interpreter with Pacifc Northwest Living Historians, who sometimes portrays Meriwether Lewis. “It’s really neat that this was the end of the Lewis and Clark trail—they got here, and then they went back—and we’re doing this here, almost in the same spot.”

As a result, the interpreters with Pacific Northwest Living Historians have worked on figuring out how those original expedition members most likely made the salt and then making adaptations to their living history demonstration.

‘Keeping history alive’

The weekend also used to include spectators bartering whatever they wanted for imitations of items that were likely carried by the Corps of Discovery.

As engaging and interactive as the trading could be, though, it also got a bit overwhelming to do in tandem with trying to make salt.

“We cut (the bartering) out of the picture and focused on the salt making,” he said.

However, this year, kids were still encouraged to trade in some fashion. After speaking with the reenactors, they could stop by a table and chat with Margaret Fedje and Lisa Crabtree, two other members of Pacific Northwest Living Historians. In exchange for sharing a fact they learned, they would receive a bead or a commemorative Lewis and Clark nickel.

“That gets kids engaged,” Fedje said.

She also makes items out of buckskin—a skill she learned when working at Fort Clatsop several years ago—and puts them on display for people to look at and purchase. For her, the best parts of the annual Salt Makers event include meeting and educating people.

Crabtree adds that she enjoys “keeping history alive.”

For Orthmann, there’s also a distinction between learning about something in a history book and seeing it physically demonstrated.

“We call it living history,” he said. “You’re never going to get it from the pages of a book the way you will if you get your hands on it and actually do it.”