David Thompson - Ione, WA
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T0SHEA
N 48° 31.808 W 117° 18.293
11U E 477491 N 5375269
This is a Washington State Historical Marker placed along the Pend Oreille River in northeast Washington, relating a bit of the story of David Thompson, fur trader and mapper extraordinaire.
Waymark Code: WMJHHE
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 11/20/2013
Views: 5
David Thompson 1770 - 1857
In the historic race between British and American fur traders for control of Columbia River trading, Thompson, a partner of North West Company, was first to travel the Columbia from source to mouth. Energetic explorer, surveyor and mapper, he founded Kootenay House in Canada, the first trading post on the Columbia, in 1807, Spokane house in 1810, and first mapped the Perd Oreille, Snake, and other rivers in the Columbia Basin, claiming the entire region for Great Britain.
This Historic Marker is between Highway 20 and the Pend Oreille River not far south of the Canada-US border. Just across the border and 20 miles or so west, the Pend d'Oreille empties into the Columbia.
Another Historic Marker, further north, along the Columbia River in Castlegar, a Canadian National Historic Site, also acknowledges Thompson's importance in the development of the Pacific Northwest.
Having surveyed and mapped, among other areas, most of the Pacific Northwest and the entire length of the Columbia river, an area of over 1,900,000 square miles of wilderness, David Thompson has been recognized as the worlds greatest land geographer.
