Mapping the Pacific Northwest Coast: Cook's 1779 Voyage

The detailed European mapping of the Pacific Northwest Coast (present-day Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska) began in earnest with Captain James Cook's third voyage (1776–1780).

Cook's 1779 Season

• March 1778: Arrives off Oregon coast (~44°N); names Cape Foulweather.
• March–April 1778: Sails north, mapping coastline intermittently (weather-limited).
• April 1778: Enters Nootka Sound (Vancouver Island, ~49°35′N); spends **~1 month** refitting, trading with Nuu-chah-nulth (Mowachaht).
• May–August 1778: Continues north, mapping Vancouver Island, Queen Charlotte Sound, Alexander Archipelago, Cook Inlet (Alaska) to ~61°N.
• August 1778: Enters Bering Strait to ~70°44′N; blocked by ice.
• Winter 1778–79: Hawaiian Islands (where Cook is killed Feb 1779).

Significance

• First systematic, instrument-based survey (chronometer K1, lunar distances) of this coast.
• Proved no Northwest Passage at temperate latitudes.
• Charts published 1784; used by all subsequent explorers (Vancouver, Malaspina, La Pérouse, Dixon, Meares).
• Initiated maritime fur trade (sea otter pelts to China)—drove next 40 years of exploration/settlement.

Subsequent Key Surveys

• George Vancouver (1791–95): Definitive detailed charts (admiralty standard).
• Alexander Mackenzie (1793): Overland to Pacific (Bella Coola).
• Lewis & Clark (1805): Columbia River to Pacific.
• US Coast Survey (1850s+): Systematic hydrography.

Cook's 1779 work—especially the Nootka Sound residency and Alaska/BC mapping—was the foundational European cartographic framework for the Pacific Northwest.