Ridgefield, Washington

The land around Ridgefield was home to the Chinookan village of Cathlapotle, one of the largest Native settlements on the lower Columbia. When William Clark passed here in March of eighteen oh six on the return leg of the Expedition, he described a large village of plank houses along the channel. European settlers arrived in the eighteen fifties, and the town grew along Lake River, a slow Columbia slough.

The Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge was established in nineteen sixty-five to protect wintering waterfowl. Today the refuge covers over five thousand acres and sits on the Cathlapotle site, where archaeological work has recovered many artifacts from the village Clark observed. The refuge is one of the best places along the entire I-Five corridor to watch sandhill cranes and tundra swans in winter.