Columbia Journals by David Thompson
In Columbia Journals, the fur trader, explorer, and cartographer records his exploration of the Columbia River basin and his efforts on behalf of the Northwest Company to establish good trade routes across the Rocky Mountains. The journals provide a detailed picture of the fur business during its greatest expansion, offer a glimpse of Native culture at the moment of contact with Europeans, and describe landscapes that have since been transformed by settlement and industry. Thompson’s hand-drawn maps preserve a contemporary image of the country he explored.
