Most explorers carried a compass and used a sextant; many knew their north-south position of latitude to a few miles. (Some on steady ground/keel with a keen eye can estimate latitude within a degree with the North Star visible.) Described in writings of Isaac Newton (1643– 1727), the angle between the horizon and Polaris equates to one’s position of latitude in the Northern Hemisphere. Pioneer locals told a legend of a 1791 Spanish exploration team that walked north through the high desert (through eastern Oregon and Washington) to meet the Santa Saturnina, the renamed North West America, then surveying the San Juans. Spain considered this land theirs, a claim that later allowed
the United States to gain title to the San Juan Islands. Somehow fording the Columbia River, their sextant would have given them the latitude of the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, the signal to turn West. Evidence to Pioneers was a blazed (axe gashes in the side of trees) path along what is now the Stanwood – Bryant Road (Darington to Stanwood). Probably just “a legend,” it does illustrate the importance of the sextant … a gigantic model shown, crafted for the Living History Farm so that youngsters might understand how explorers and pioneers found their way before iPhones and GIS. Imagine, being in a NW conifer forest without the latter, former, or a compass on a very cloudy and rainy day. As a boy lost in the forest, this writer would look for Western Hemlock’s tops that typically droop and are affected by the prevailing winds. West of the Cascades if one faces that wind, the storms come in from the right – that is, face the wind coming from the Southwest and look for most storms to roll in from the Northwest. (This was most often true on the Coast, behind the Olympics in the convergence zone, one did become confused at times). How the Indigenous Peoples found their way on the sea during cloudy, rainy days … if they did … we have not a clue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sextant
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/navigate/escapeworks.html
https://www.mat.uc.pt/~helios/Mestre/Novemb00/H61iflan.htm
https://cdm16118.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15015coll5/id/144
https://www.greentimbers.ca/vegetation-wildlife/vegetation/coniferous-trees/western-hemlock/
https://biol326.wordpress.com/2018/03/12/why-the-hemlock-hangs-its-head-in-shame/#:~:text=The%20evolutionary%20reason%20for%20why,the%20wind%20instead%20of%20breaking.
https://zipitclean.com/inventions-inventors/who-invented-the-first-compass/
What country inadvertently allowed the U.S. to lay claim to the San Juan Islands?
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