East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1911-06-06
WILL PAY TRIBUTE
TO DAVID THOMPSON
KETTLE FAILS TO
CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARY
One Hundred Years Ago Thompson,
As n Trail Blazer, Established n
Trading post for the Hudson Bay
Company.

CDphdilt, w dSlls--N w INl NtlNloii
frontiersmen and early settlers in the
Pacific slope country foregather in
the town of Kettle Falls, Wash. on
Friday June %, to celebrate the
Tooth anniversary of the discovery of
the Kettle falls on the Columbia riv-
er 95 miles north of here, they will
pay tribute to the memory of David
Thompson, trail-blazer for the Hud-
son Bay company. which established
its first trading post on what is now
American territory in 1912.
The celebration will be under the
immediate direction of the Kettle
Falls Pioneer association, headed by
a. w. Smith. George II. Bevan, vice
president of the Stevens County Pio-
neer association, has been selected to
deliver the address Of welcome, other
speakers being Colonel j. NJ. Fish, Dr.
Il. L. Brigham, W. ]. Stambaugh and
Thomas Ledgerwood. The latter
clearly recalls the period when there
was only one settler along the Co.
| lumbla river between Fort Colville and
Fort Spokane, the latter now desig-
mated as Miles in the Postal Guide.
| In addition to the exercises there will
| be the annual reunion of the early
settlers of stevens county and ceE-
tennial dinner. The town of Kettle
Falls, which will be host, was found
ed IN the winter of 1901, but was
settled more than 40 years ago.
There is an interesting Indian le-
gend of the Kettle falls and the orig
| %; t,o
from the Flathead tribesmen, who
referred to them as Ilth-coy-ope, on
account o the numerous kettles in the
rocks. The tradition is that a pebble
was rushed along the current of the
Columbia and found lodgment in u
crack of the rock, anr whirled in its
new bed, it ground bit off the
onyx. Other pebbles came down the
stream and bit into the same stone
and in the ages that passed the large
pot-lile exdaNations We're worn in
the rock At the bottom of these cav
tiles today are pebbles grinding deep.
er into the ledge, athwart which swIr
the waters of a thousand lakes ant
mountain streams on their way 20 the
Pacific ocean, more than coo mile
distant.
Discovered by Thompson.
? Thompson, who discovered the Ker'
tie falls, was the first white man /,
follow the Columbia river through
lake and ravine from the shadows o.
the present continental divide, which
the stream crosses twice, to the Ions
; needles OF uptuted onyx formation
thrust out into the river below tn,
/ lower falls. Tracing ms way aloul
the caprlcious stream he found
r tribe of red men Of whom he coua
e give no better description to factor
of the post on Athabasca lake an,
at Hudsons bay than that the ma
tives wore long pieces of bone sus
pended from tne.r ears. lie and tn
French voyageurs who followed nam
ed the Indians as the tribe of tn
Pend d 'Oreilies. Travelling farthe
south into what Is now the panhandl
, of the state of Idaho, Thompson
found another tribe of natives, nam
. ing them the Coeur d'Alenes.
, Soon after Thompson's first visi
to Kettle Falls and the opening q
Fort Colville, the Northwest Trad
ing company promoted by John ia
cob Astor, established the Spokan
House near the junction of the Spc
kane and the Little Spokane river
! Astor abandoned the post in 1S1
and its effects were taken over
9 the Hudsons Bay company. Fiv
= years afterward the two posts wer
{ consolidated a short distance abov
s Kettle Falls, with Archibald McDor
T. aid as chief trader. 1t was name
/. Fort Colville in honor of Lord Co
vile, then London governor of tn
!! Hudson's Bay company. The post RI
: mained under British dominion unit
/. 1871, when the corporation left tn
l. fort to Angus Mcdonald, father
i Donald Mcdonald, the present own,
Of the site.