You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2008.
A Vast Inland Freshwater Passage:
David Thompson’s Exploration of the Columbia River
By Simone Keiran
Published December 2008,
Resolution, Magazine for the Maritime Museum of British Columbia.
Astrolab used to measure distance between celestial bodies and earth for navigation.
Never had mountain ranges been more underrated than when David Thompson first broached the Great Divide in his search for a route to the Pacific Ocean. Maps of the period distorted the reality and minimized the difficulties, showing a single line of mountains as opposed to dozens of ranges, highlands and plateaus. The NW Passage had lured explorers for centuries, drawing many deep into Canada’s wilderness—and many an explorer’s underwriters deep into their wallets—hoping to discover a network of easily navigable waterways such as the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes to transport loot cheaply across the continent. The Northwest Trading Company (NWTC), Thompson’s employer, didn’t hope too much, though, at least not enough to finance a proper one-time expedition by Thompson to find the river that emptied into the Pacific at the present-day Port of Astoria—first claimed by Captain Vancouver in the name of the British Crown in 1792—and to explore and chart its length from its source in the Rocky Mountains to its mouth. This was the Columbia River, the British Empire’s last great hope for a North West Passage. Thompson mapped the great western river in fits and starts over the course of 11 years, delayed by impassable winter terrain, arms disputes between the Blackfoot and Flathead nations, the necessity of pursuing the fur trade along the way, moderate interest from financiers, and even a lack of game to feed the expedition.
