Cape Disappointment Interpretive Center, Washington

History is layered at the southwestern-most corner of the state, where an interpretive center (officially the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center), sits atop an abandoned coastal battery, at the point where Lewis and Clark stood to view the Pacific at the end of their long journey, on the grounds of the Cape Disappointment State Park. Cape Disappointment is the north side of the mouth of the Columbia River, a region known as the "graveyard of the Pacific," as hundreds of ships have sunk in these treacherous waters. The Coast Guard operates the nation's only Motor Lifeboat School nearby.