In the fall of 1809, David Thompson traveled the Pend Oreille River in search of furs and the reliable transportation corridors necessary to bring them to market, making him the first documented non-Indian to experience this part of northeastern Washington.

Traveling by horseback, Thompson entered what would become Pend Oreille County by way of Lake Pend Oreille. His party followed the “Saleesh River,” as the Pend Oreille was known, hoping it would provide a route to the Pacific Ocean. Traveling northward in the vicinity of present-day Newport they reached a “wide marshy plain” near the site of Cusick. There the party met a group of Kalispel Indians, who gave Thompson and his companions food and information about the route downstream. In return he offered them tobacco and tools.

The Kalispels informed Thompson that “the road thereto is very bad for horses” and provided him with a canoe and a guide. The party paddled downriver for two days to the area of Tiger, Washington, where Thompson decided to turn back. A year later, Thompson made a second expedition along the Pend Oreille, this time reaching Metaline Falls, which halted his journey. Thompson finally succeeded in reaching the Columbia the following year, but not by way of the Pend Oreille River.

Thompson’s visit to Pend Oreille County marked an important moment in the soon-to-be relationship between the Kalispel Indians and non-Indians in the area. As one author noted, Thompson’s contact with the Indians was “the beginning of the recorded fur trade with Kalispels and the white fur traders.”

Credits and Sources:

Bamonte, Tony, and Susan Schaeffer Bamonte. History of Pend Oreille County. Spokane:

Tornado Publications, 1996.

Piper, Allen Leigh. “David Thompson’s Journeys in the Pend Oreille Country.” Big Smoke,

2009.

Photographs courtesy of Historical Research Associates, Inc.