Human History
The Kootenai River has been a travel route for thousands of years. The river was where distinctive "sturgeon nosed" canoes were used by the Kootenai Indians (Ktunaxa and Ksanka bands). Along the banks of the river was a prehistoric 'highway" for land travel. Many would follow the river and the trails established by these Native Americans, the first of whom was fur trader and land geographer, David Thompson of the North West Company. He traveled the Kootenai River by canoe intending to open the area for trade reaching this location on May 5, 1808. Later, on May 25, 1810, he was again here on his return trip, this time using the trail as he headed back north to cross to the east side of the Rocky Mountains through Howse Pass in British Columbia.
During the winter of 1808/1809, Finan McDonald, also of the North West Company, opened the first fur trading post. It was on the north side of the river, near present day Libby, Montana. The post later moved further upstream. The rival Pacific Fur Company operated in the area during the winter of 1812/1813. The North West Company operated along the Kootenai until its forced merger with the Hudson Bay Company in 1821. The Hudson Bay Company continued trading operations and sent men to operate a seasonal post, known as Fort Kootenai, on this stretch of the Kootenai River. After 1839, the Hudson Bay trading post was moved up to the Tobacco Plains country where its location was moved several times. Finally, Fort Kootenai was moved across the international border into British Territory in 1865.
Several other travelers of importance came this way. Father Pierre J. DeSmet, a Jesuit priest, traveled the trail in 1845 on his way to establish a Catholic mission on the Tobacco Plains. English explorer James Hector of the Palliser Expedition reached the Big Bend of the Kootenai River in 1859. The Big Bend is where the Kootenai turns from its southward direction to a northern direction. The American Boundary Commission passed through the area in 1860 during the survey and marking of the international boundary line. A ferry was built by Ed Warren in 1864 at the Big Bend of the Kootenai River to provide a crossing for miners who were traveling to the Wild Horse Creek gold strike in British Columbia. The venture failed within a year because of the more popular Moyie Trail in Idaho. In 1891 the Old Tote Road opened, located just opposite here on the south side of the Kootenai River. It was the first road constructed between Demersville (Kalispell) and Libby. The road became a supply route for railroad contractors and settlers coming into the area prior to the completion of the Great Northern Railroad in 1892.
Steamboats operated on the middle Kootenai River for a relatively short period from 1892 to 1901. The steamboats Annerly, Gwendoline, Ruth, Rustler, North Star and J.D. Farrel operated upstream from here transporting passengers and cargo to the Tobacco Plains and Fort Steele, B.C. mining area. Silver ore from the mines was transported downriver to Jennings where it was unloaded from the steamboats and put on railcars of the Great Northern Railroad and then transported to Great Falls, Montana for smelting.
In yearly drives during high water from 1903 to the mid 1920s, timber logs that were cut along the banks of the Kootenai River were floated to the Bonners Ferry Lumber Company mill in Idaho. Men called 'river pigs' guided logs down the Kootenai River. Because of the danger, the equipment and boats were portaged around Kootenai Falls. The "river pigs" then resumed guiding the timbers downstream after the falls. Highway 37 follows the same general route as the old Kootenai Trail through this area. This portion of Highway 37 was once part of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway completed in 1923.
From the Sign