The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-06-07
TO Celebrate the tooth Ami
versary of the First
Trading Post.
FIRST TRAIL BLAZER
In Washington State for the
Hudson Bay Company
Was David Thompson.

NNatiOnAI NEWS AssoclhtlonD
Spokane. Wash, June when vet.
eran 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 river. 95
miles north of here. they will pay
tribute to the memory OF David
Thompson. a trailblazer for the Hud-
son Bay company, which established
its first trading post on what now Is
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 Pho
neer association has been selected to
deliver the address OF welcome. other
speakers being Colonel ]. NJ. Fish, DR..
B. l.. Brigham. w. J. Stambaugh and
Thomas Ledgerwood. The latter
clearly recalls the period when there
was only one settler along the Colum-
bia 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 set.
tiers Of Stevens county and a centen.
NAL dinner. The town of Kettle Falls
which will be host. was founded in
the winter Of 1901. but was settled
more than 40 years ago
Old inolan Legend.
There Ia an interesting Indian leg.
end Of the Kettle Falls and the origin
OF It's name. probably handed down
from the Flathead tribesmen. who re-
ferred TO them as llth-coy-ope. on ac-
count OF the numerous kettles in the
rocks. The tradition Ia that a pebble
was rushed along the current OF the
Columbia and found Judgment in n
crack Of the rock. and whirled in its
new bed. II ground bit of the onyx.
Other pebbles came down the stream
and bit into the same stone and in
the ages that passed the large pot.like
excavations were worn In the rock.
At the bottom OF these cavities today
are pebbles. grinding deeper into the
ledge athwart which swirl the waters
OF q thousand lakes and mountain
streams on their way to the Pacific
ocean. more than 600 miles distant.
Thompson. who discovered the Ket.
tie Falls. was the first white man to
follow the Columbia river through
Lake and ravine from the shadows Of
the present continental divide. which
the stream crosses twice. to the long
needles Of uptilted onyx formation
thrust out into the river and below the
lower falls. Tracing his way along
the capricious stream he found tribe
OF red men. OF whom he could give
no better description to the factors Of
the post on Athabasca lake and at
Hudson Bay than that the natives
fore long pieces OF bone suspended
from their ears. He and the French
voyageurs who followed named the In.
dams az the tribe OF the Pend d'Ore-
Tiles. Travelling farther south into
what 10 now the panhandle Of the
state Of Idaho, Thompson found anoth.
er tribe Of natives. naming them the
Occur d'Alenes.
Astor Abandons Post.
Soon after Thompson's first visit to
Kettle Falls and the opening of Fort
Colville. the Northwest Trading COM
pany. promoted by John Jacob Astor
established the Spokane House near
the junction OF the Spokane and the
Little Spokane rivers. Astor aban.
doned tho post In 1916 and its effects
were taken over by the Hudson Bay
company. Five years afterward the
two posts we're consolidated a short
distance above Kettle Falls. with
Archibald Mcdonald as chief trader