David Thompson, Explorer - Map Maker
 

At the Historic park in Rocky Mountain House a cairn is erected to the exploits of David Thompson, and there are similar cairns in Wilmer , British Columbia at the site of his Kootenai House Fort and in Thompson Falls , Montana, the site of his Saleesh House post.

Links to find more about David Thompson
Wikipedia

David Thompson Days ~ Location Rose Garden,
Main Street, Thompson Falls, MT

David Thompson Days a Community Rendezvous Sponsored by Thompson Falls Chamber of Commerce, Falls Motel, Conoco, Subway and River's Bend Golf Course.

Saturday, July 5th

An Event you won't want to miss. Come and spend the day and learn about the history of David Thompson

A Rendezvous camp will be set up at the Rose Garden along Main Street, downtown
Thompson Falls. Throughout the day Voyagers of the early 1800 hundreds will be dressed in authentic attire
and re-enacting the life of a fur trader. Stories will be told around an open camp fire, and the
type of food that was cooked back then. Demonstrations on how to clean, load and fire
blanks with a flint rifle, how to start a fire, axe throwing and weaving. A fur trading tent will be on display for
all those to see furs, and traps that were used, along with a replica of a 25 foot Voyager Canoe.

Guest Speaker, Jack Nesbet, Titled: The Mapmaker's Eye: Tracking David Thompson across the Rocky Mountains.
Jack Nisbet is a teacher, naturalist, and writer who explores the intersection of human and natural history in the Intermountain West. Nisbet's illustrated presentation will follow Canadian furman David Thompson from his London birthplace to his 1807-12 journeys down the Kootenai, Flathead, and Clark Fork Rivers. Early artwork of these drainages, tribal oral accounts, and local natural history will be used to flesh out Thompson�s field journals, and particular attention will be paid to the connections between Thompson, Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and the American trappers who flowed back up the Missouri and across the Continental Divide in the wake of the Corp of Discovery.

The evening will end with Music On The River a David Thompson Days Outdoor Concert featuring "Nobody Famous" with Special Guest Artist Brody located at River's Bend Golf Course.

The Rendezvous will begin:

*. 10:00 am Parade
* 11:30 am Dessert Contest Between Local Businesses
* 1:30 Guest Speaker: Jack Nesbit, Titled: The Mapmaker�s Eye: Tracking David Thompson across the Rocky Mountains
* 3:00 on The Life of a Voyer / Fur Trader demonstrations and stories of David Thompson
* 6:00 Live Music on The River at River's Bend Golf Course, David Thompson Days Outdoor Concert with
Nobody Famous & Special Guest Artist Broby.

Tickets: Adult $15.00
Students $10.00
5 & Under Free

Tickets can be purchased at: Conoco Feed-n-Fuel, First Security Bank, Falls Motel and Thompson Falls Chamber, and River's Bend Golf Course for more information call 827-9434

Souvenir and Food Will Be Sold.

Vendor Space Available call 827-7006
*Vendor Reservation Form Click

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Video
Who is David Thompson?

He traveled 5 times further than Lewis & Clark exploring and mapping the American Northwest and Canada

Summary:

David Thompson ranks as the premier surveyor of North America. Two Canadians, David Thompson and Alexander Mackenzie, are also the leading explorers of North America. From 1792 to 1812, David Thompson mapped most of the country west of Hudson Bay and Lake Superior, across the Rocky Mountains to the source of the Columbia River, and the length of the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean.

For the Hudson's Bay Company, and then as a wintering partner for the North West Company, David Thompson traveled fifty-five thousand miles. The map prepared by David Thompson filled in the blank spaces on one million, nine hundred thousand square miles of northwest Canada. But this was not his only contribution to our historical heritage. David Thompson and his men erected the first establishments west of the Continental Divide in Washington, Idaho, and Montana. He opened the first trade with the northwestern Indian tribes of the United States and Lower Canada. David Thompson made the first recorded information on Northern Plains Indian warfare, guns, and horses (Joseph Ewers). And it should be added that he accomplished all of this, much to the chagrin of several North West partners, without trading whiskey to the Indians.

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