Sources of the River
Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America
Jack Nisbet
Sasquatch Books, 2007
David Thompson was the first European to explore and map the full reach of the Columbia River from its source in the northern Rocky Mountains in what is now British Columbia. He ranged over the inland upper northwest, setting up trade houses and surveying for the NorthWest Company, a competitor to Hudson’s Bay Company for the fur trade. His sharp eye and meticulous practices lead to such accurate latitude and longitude readings that they stand up to modern techniques. He also observed the social practices of the First Nations he encountered (sometimes as the first white man they’d seen). He was able to record the locations of the tribes he encountered, mineral deposits, forests, and other geographic details. His work was motivated by a curiosity for the land and a desire to do a good job. The stories of his travels - compiled from several remaining notebooks, and a “Narrative” unfinished at the time of his death - are riveting, I can barely imagine the difficulties he and his crews faced as a matter of course. Unfortunately, after retirement, he was unable to get his maps published during his lifetime, and they have languished half forgotten. Nisbet interposes his own travels in the modern day inland NW, on a heavily dammed Columbia River.
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