Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America

Rating:
Summary: Great research and writing
Review: Based on David Thompson's own account of his explorations of the western North American continent, this is a perceptive tale of hardship and adventure. Jack Nisbet has the intuitive ability to cut to the heart of the subject, not just how this area was discovered but how the discovery influenced the native people and the natural history of the area. His own brief but discerning anecdotes about his interactions with the land and its people provide counterpoint and context for the main narrative.

The writer follows the life of David Thompson from his birth in London in 1770 and his education at a charity school to his apprenticeship with the Hudson's Bay Company and arrival in northern Canada. His major life work was to explore and map what became known as the interior of British Columbia, eastern Washington, western Montana and northern Oregon, focussed on the Columbia River and its tributaries. He crossed and re-crossed the Rocky Mountains through passes known only to native people and he established trading posts and trading relations with native people so he could supply the Hudson's Bay Company, and later the Northwest Company, with the furs they sought. Later in life he "retired" to montreal and later to Ontario where he became astronomer for the International Boundary Commission, guiding the U.S.-Canadian survey of the 49th parallel from Quebec, via the Great Lakes to Manitoba.

This is a story well told. It doesn't bog down in tedious detail yet still manages to convey the day- to-day routines as well as the excitement of discovery and the hardships faced by explorers in harsh terrain in an often bitter climate. The book has an immediacy and depth that are seldom realized together in an historical narrative.

Rating:
Summary: True fortitude
Review: David Thompson. A man of untiring capabilities for exploring, surveying, trapping and trading in western Canada. From the age of fourteen, he gave twenty seven years of his life towards these goals, of which not too many men could begin to attain.
His duties for the Hudson's Bay Company and later the North West Company were to map, trade, trap, locate future trading establishments and discover a passage to the Pacific for commerce. Herein exists tales of endurance, perseverance, stamina and survival in unexplored regions of Canada and the U.S. Pacific Northwest from 1784-1812.
An extremely well written book by Jack Nisbet, along with very good, easy to read maps by Jack McMaster in order to follow the whereabouts of Thompson.

Rating:
Summary: True fortitude
Review: David Thompson. A man of untiring capabilities for exploring, surveying, trapping and trading in western Canada. From the age of fourteen, he gave twenty seven years of his life towards these goals, of which not too many men could begin to attain.
His duties for the Hudson's Bay Company and later the North West Company were to map, trade, trap, locate future trading establishments and discover a passage to the Pacific for commerce. Herein exists tales of endurance, perseverance, stamina and survival in unexplored regions of Canada and the U.S. Pacific Northwest from 1784-1812.
An extremely well written book by Jack Nisbet, along with very good, easy to read maps by Jack McMaster in order to follow the whereabouts of Thompson.

Rating:
Summary: History people should know.
Review: I first read about David Thompson in a National Geographic magazine and I couldn't put it down. David Thompson has done more for the exploration of North America than anyone in the school history books. It is a shame that I have only met one person who has ever heard of David Thompson. Most people would be shocked to find that some of the maps used by Lewis and Clark were drawn up by this Hudson Bay Company explorer who was only in his teens. This man had an amazing life and for more great reading get a hold of his diary of travles.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent account of an early pathfinder
Review: Jack Nisbet does an excellent job by citing David Thompson's journals, including some of his original maps (lack of maps in a book can be annoying when you are talking about early explorations) and commenting on the area today. Wonderful accounts of early Indians in Northwest. The story of this early explorer is a must-read for all Lewis and Clark fans as it occurred about the same time. I found the book easy to read and it makes one want to explore that area of Canada.

Rating:
Summary: One tough and determined guy who opened the door to the West
Review: This book takes the reader on a fascinating journey through a time when what lay west of the Alberta Rockies was merely a faint whisper of great rivers, mountains and forests that beckoned the tough and determined fur traders of the Hudson Bay and Northwest companies. Of course, the prize that each of these competitors sought to find first was a trading route to the Pacific Ocean. There was word of a great river's estuary located to the southwest across the mountains, but the rivers west of the Rockies all flowed northward! David Thompson, after whom the Thompson River in British Columbia was named and perhaps the most unsung of the great North American explorers, was faced with a mystery to solve. And he did so -- surviving bitterly cold winters in the unforgiving outdoors without today's Gore-Tex garments and GPS gadgets. He followed the stars tenaciously and spent may hours out in the elements making and checking his triangulation calculations the old-fashioned way --longhand.

I read this book several years ago and remember well how it readily took me away from today's comfortable but harried world. It's well recommended to anyone with an explorer's bent who would like to join Thompson's party as he searches for the route west of the Rockies in Canada's early back yard. He certainly has earned my respect as one of the great, devoted explorers who opened the West. Nisbet brings his personality to life in a very readable, interesting book, obviously the product of a great deal of detailed research by the author.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating.
Review: This is truly an incredible story, an adventure that I can't believe hasn't been made into a movie by now. By comparison, the Lewis & Clark expedition seems dull and uninspiring. It makes me wish I were canadian.