Synopses & Reviews
In Columbia Journals David Thompson -- fur trader, explorer, and cartographer -- records his exploration of the Columbia River basin and his efforts on behalf of the North West Company to establish good trade routes across the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The journals provide a detailed picture of the fur business during its greatest expansion, offer a glimpse of Native culture at the moment of contact with Europeans, and describe landscapes that have since been transformed by settlement and industry.
Written between 1800 and 1812, the Columbia journals are the basis for Thompson's maps and the second part of his better-known Narrative, but they have been largely overlooked by historians. This authoritative edition, complete with extensive notes and Thompson's hand-drawn maps, brings an important document to light.