Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

As we reach the bicentennial of David Thompson's crossing of the Rocky Mountains, it appears that "Sources of the River" is becoming the definitive popular reference. The book deserves it. Like all of Nisbet's books, this one is very well written and enjoyable to read. The book covers Thompson's entire life but focuses on the five years he spent in the Rocky Mountain region of Canada and the United States. That period includes his exploration of the entire length of the Columbia River, the first non-Indian to do so.

Because David Thompson was a contemporary of Lewis and Clark, reviewers are inclined to compare them. This is only partially valid. The latter was a military expedition sent on a mission of exploration. David Thompson was a fur trader working for a commercial company. He had the desire and talent to explore, but trading had to come first. Thompson was the point person for expanding the fur trade across the Rocky Mountains and into the Columbia River drainage. As he advanced his trading territory, his journals recorded an expanding knowledge of the territory and its inhabitants, plants, and animals. Thompson was a geographer and surveyor; his maps are much more accurate than those developed by Lewis and Clark.

Thompson was a rugged individual and this book covers the challenges and hardships of the fur trade. The Indians were an important element in both his trading and his exploration. This book chronicles those relationships. Thompson took a Cree wife who bore him thirteen children and they were together until his death at age eighty-seven.

In addition to the well-researched historical account of David Thompson, we are treated to an occasional aside from Jack Nisbet, often describing his visit to one of the sites important to the history. This book deserves its wide acceptance.

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.

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.

Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America
Wow I just loved this book. It is really well written and I just loved Nisbet's story telling skills. I have spent years as a forest engineer in rough terrain and marvelled at Thompson's strength of character to motor through uncharter territory. He was a driven man. Nisbet allowed me to be transported in back in time to experience what Thompson must have gone through. I have travelled the Kootney country myself as a surveyor and just recently drove through the Washington State from the coast through Spokane up into up reaches of the Columbia River, the area Thompson explored. This is a wonderful book for anyone wanting to know more about the history of Washington State, British Columbia and western Alberta. Thanks Jack Nisbet for making David Thompson's travels come to life.

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.

Jack Nisbet takes the reader on detailed journey of fur trading and exploration that offers a taste of the history of human settlement patterns in this portion (the Columbia River watershed) of the Northwest. His re-enactment of history through Thompson's journals parallels his own contemporary site explorations. The book's narratives now add to my explorations of day hiking venue, enriching the sense of place with a historical perspective.

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.