Fort Clatsop blaze looks like an arson

WARRENTON, Ore. – A replica of the Fort Clatsop compound in Oregon where the Lewis and Clark expedition spent the soggy winter of 1805-1806 after reaching the Pacific has been was destroyed by fire, officials said.

The site is being treated as a crime scene, and officials said Tuesday they were looking for a pickup truck seen leaving the area as firefighters arrived.

The fire on Monday happened just 40 days before a Lewis and Clark Bicentennial event was scheduled to be held at the 50-by-50-foot fort, built by the local community in 1955 to mark the expedition’s sesquicentennial.

“We will rebuild,” Lewis and Clark National Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins said. Fliers soliciting funds for the project were circulating soon after the fire was out.

Fireplaces inside some of the fort’s quarters are sometimes used for ambiance, but Jenkins said it wasn’t clear whether those controlled fires were related to the blaze.