How was it that the mouth of the river was so eagerly sought, and took so long to find? Early explorers did share updates to maps. Even so, Spanish, French, British, and Russian sea captains searched the coastline for a river, but gave up, sometimes not realizing they had arrived. Battling intense waves and weather, plus hardship on board, most early explorers decided the river mouth was only an inlet, and moved on.

In 1775, a Spanish explorer who sailed from Mexico, Bruno de Hezeta, believed that they had found a river mouth. However, his crew were unable to explore it due to illness.

British Captain John Meares reached the estuary in 1778. Strangely, he didn’t go further, even though he was motivated by a reward of 20,000 pounds from the British Parliament. At first, Meares believed he was close, but then gave up, and named ‘Cape Disappointment’ and ‘Deception Bay’ as he turned around.

An American captain, Robert Gray, was the first non-native person to enter the river in 1792. After noticing signs of a river current, Gray ran his ship over the bar and through enormous breakers to enter the river mouth. He named the river after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva.