Bicentennial pays homage to Thompson's trek

Monday, April 19, will quietly slip away largely unnoticed by most Montana and Idaho residents even though it marks the 200th anniversary of explorer-surveyor David Thompson’s departure from Saleesh House (his fur trading post near the mouth of Thompson River) with furs and meat obtained primarily from trade with the Flatheads during his first winter in what is now the state of Montana.

His journal entry for Thursday, April 19, 1810, indicates that it had rained all night and that the temperature at 7 a.m. was 36 degrees; at 2 p.m. it had risen to 50 — much like our weather during the past few of weeks. He and his men spent all day catching up their string of horses and loading them with 28 “packs” and five “parcels” of furs, dried meat, pemmican and personal items. Each pack weighed about 90 pounds.

Once loaded, the horses were trailed downriver to a spot below the chutes and rapids later referred to as Thompson’s Falls. The idea was to get the ton and a half of cargo past the swollen river churning dangerously through the narrow channel that has been tamed since the early 1900s by the Thompson Falls Dam.  A “portage” trail to bypass the chutes was located along the north shore winding along the river to a point below the tailrace.

At 4 p.m. Thompson had his two fragile birchbark canoes in the water on their way downriver to meet the pack string so that the cargo could be loaded into the canoes for transport down the Clark’s Fork River to his other trading post located near Hope. That night, Thompson recorded that they camped near the spot where the transfer would take place.

According to Thompson, it was “A frosty Night.” On the morning of Friday, April 20, more than a ton of merchandise and baggage was divided between the two canoes. Six items were left behind, two packs of furs that had gotten soaked by what Thompson stated was “…the awkward negligence” of one of the voyageurs by the name of Vandette. He did not tell us why the other four were sent back to Saleesh House.

While the canoes were being loaded for the trip, Jaco Finlay, one of Thompson’s long-time, all-around hands and sometimes clerk for the North West Company, had killed a deer. The party would have at least a little fresh meat as they set out. All was finally in order and at 7:30 a.m. Thompson noted in his journal that they had set off on a course that would transport the loaded canoes down the river to the cliffs a few miles west of town we know as the Blue Slide.

Thompson’s furs were bound for the European beaver hat markets by way of Bonners Ferry, Libby and eventually Montreal. It also marked the beginning of the first successfully organized business venture in western Montana and northern Idaho. It would flourish for nearly 60 years.

CARL HAYWOOD

Thompson Falls, Mont.