Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 15.djvu/47



JOURNAL OF DAVID THOMPSON

Editorial Introduction by T.C.ELLIOTT

The writer of these notes, in common with other readers of books and manuscripts that pertain to the discovery and exploration of the Columbia river, has waited for many years for access to the exact record left by the remarkable man who discovered the source of the river and first traversed its waters from source to mouth, the latter achievement being in the year 1811. The existence of that record and its depositary has been very generally known since the publica- tion by Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, of Toronto, in 1888, of his paper read before the Canadian Institute on March 3 of that year, and later from the "Henry-Thompson Journals," published by Francis P. Harper in 1897 and edited by the late Dr. Elliott Coues. But the publication of the original manuscript being commercially impossible, and no bibliophile society having yet undertaken to preserve it in printed form, only from brief typewritten transcripts have disconnected por- tions of it been published. It is largely for this reason that only after one hundred years have the life and deeds of this remarkable man begun to be even known to the people resid- ing in the Columbia River basin; also that by the writer and others some erroneous conclusions have been drawn. The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, the field of which includes all of the old Oregon country, now has the honor of publishing the exact record left by David Thompson of his advent upon the waters of the main Columbia river below the international boundary at the 49th parallel of north lati- tude.

On June 23, 1911, the Pioneer Association of Stevens County, Washington, held its annual meeting on the romantic rocky ledge overlooking the Kettle Falls of the Columbia river, one of the most scenic and entrancing spots along the entire river, and the writer of these notes was invited to con- tribute a few remarks commemorative of the presence there one hundred years before of David Thompson, designated as