Columbia Journals [Hardcover]

David Thompson (Author), Barbara Belyea (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1993

With the publication of David Thompson's "Columbia Journals", Barbara Belyea gives wider recognition to the fur trader, primary explorer, and cartographer who lived from 1770 to 1857. His "Columbia Journals" not only documents the North West Company's efforts to find good trade routes across the Canadian Rocky Mountains but reveals Thompson's personal interest in mapping the Pacific watershed north of California. His accounts give a detailed picture of the fur business during its greatest expansion and remind us of the extent to which the territory he explored has been transformed by settlement, roads, and hydroelectric dams. Thompson's journals trace the fur trade's westernmost expansion while his hand-drawn maps preserve a contemporary image of the country he explored. Belyea suggests that most previous historical research, based on Thompson's "Narrative", has overlooked this contemporary, professional record of the explorer's activities. Her analysis of generic differences between the memoir and the journal proposes a reassessment of the way sources have been used in histories of the fur trade. The extensive notes which accompany the "Columbia Journals" provide a documentary context for Thompson's own account. Details of Thompson's manuscript maps are included, together with the work of other cartographers of the period.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Columbia Journals allows us to evaluate David Thompson more fully as an actor in the history of the west, and to understand more critically the assessment and misinterpretations made by a number of earlier researchers." Richard Ruggles, Queen's University, Ontario --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

"Columbia Journals allows us to evaluate David Thompson more fully as an actor in the history of the west, and to understand more critically the assessment and misinterpretations made by a number of earlier researchers." - Richard Ruggles, emeritus professor, Queen's University --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Mcgill Queens Univ Pr (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0773509895
• ISBN-13: 978-0773509894
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,061,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Explorer extraordinaire, January 14, 2003

By 

William J Higgins III (Laramie, Wyoming United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Columbia Journals (Paperback)

David Thompson was an explorer and cartographer of great magnitude. These personal journals document his explorations in the Canadian Rockies and northwestern U.S. from 1800-1811. His responsibilities were to discover and map new trade routes for the North West Company across the mountains and eventually to the Columbia River Basin. The journals depict the many hardships he and his men endured while on several exploratory trips: the impenetrable mountain snows; surviving severe winters of -30 F; the trials and tribulations of building trading posts, canoes, sleds; the demeanor of local Indian tribes; lack of food; etc. As Dr. Belyea says in her introduction, "David Thompson's Columbia journals require of the reader a perseverence that is well rewarded..the journals are dry and difficult..and the reader must work hard to create his or her own pattern of understanding". It is a worthy book from an exceptional man. The seven reproductions of maps by Arrowsmith, Thompson, etc. are quite poor in quality and I would therefore suggest an atlas for those unfamiliar with the geography of the area so as to follow his whereabouts.