The Lewis and Clark Expedition, begun in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1804, had as its guide the Indian woman, Sacajawea,

called in English, "The Bird Woman". The Indians were the red-skinned race which first inhabited the land and considered it to

be their own, as indeed it was until the white men came. Sacajawea was the first link between the Indian and the white man

along the great Columbia River.

During the winter of 1805 the Expedition reached the mouth of the Klickitat River where it empties into the Columbia. There,

they found the Klickitat Indian tribe encamped and made their own camp there, bartering goods for the delicious smoked

salmon which the tribe prepared. During their two-day stay they referred in their records to the location as "Klickitat Landing",

and the future settlement which was later to be known as "Lyle" was thus given its original name.

The Klickitats listened to the voice and gestures of Sacajawea and did not molest these brave explorers. But if they had also

listened to the Song of the Rivers, they might have grasped the portent of the white man's first visit to Klickitat Landing.