1805

 

November 15: Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific. Scientists now believe that the Coastal Salish people bred small dogs for their fleece, which they wove into dog wool blankets.

 

Scientists have examined 16,000 bone specimens from the dog family, found from Oregon to Alaska, and determined that the vast majority of canid bones were from domesticated dogs, not wolves, coyotes, or foxes. The coastal tribes also had hunting dogs, but sheared the smaller knee-high animals. In the early nineteenth century one white trader mentioned seeing canoes full of “dogs more resembling Cheviot Lambs shorn of their wool.” (Story in The New York Times.)

Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific, by way of the Columbia River.

The expedition spends the winter at Fort Clatsop, which they build.