Down the Columbia
This image shows the banks of the Spokane River, near the place where James Birnie’s Spokane House stood. This was originally an American Fur Company post, but both the North West Company and the HBC operated out of this post. David Thompson’s older Spokane House stood a few miles upriver.
In this post, Governor George Simpson is making his way down the Columbia River in October, 1824, on his way to Spokane House and Fort George — neither Fort Colvile nor Fort Vancouver exist at this time. Simpson has just remarked on the force of the Columbia River, and I am sure he is entirely unaware that the river is relatively quiet (it being October.) When the boats go up the river in springtime, the water is higher and flowing faster against them! But that’s alright. He will learn this, I hope, on his return journey in the early spring.
So we will begin this section of the journey from the point where he has finally manipulated James McMillan into going on a mid-winter journey to the Fraser River from Fort George, to find a good spot for an HBC trading post on the lower Fraser. That story is, as you know, found here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/fraser-river/
“Continued our march at Daybreak, the 22nd, the current so strong that we must be making upwards of 100 miles per Diem,” Simpson wrote. People just don’t travel down the Columbia River in the freshets of springtime, the river is too fierce. The mountains were becoming smaller, Simpson noticed, but they were still formidable, “the tops covered with Fog & Snow: the Weather cold, raw, and disagreeable with occasional Showers of Sleet & Rain.” They encamped within a League of the Upper Arrow Lake.
Saturday, Oct. 23rd. Raining in torrents throughout the Night. Left our encampment about 2 hours before Day break, met several Indian canoes and passed through a Lake of about 60 to 70 miles in length and from 1 to 3 miles in breadth, the Country still mountainous but altho’ late in the Season no appearance of Winter.
Sunday, October 24th. Started before Day, from the Lake, fell on a wide smooth Stream of about 8 to 10 miles leading to another Lake similar to that passed yesterday, but about 1/3rd longer, the shores thereof covered with rotten Salmon which the Natives were collecting for their winter stores… Encamped about an hour after Dark, having passed about 2/3rd of the Lake.
On the Monday morning it rained, “but it did not damp the mettle of the Dr.’s men, two of whom amused themselves with a regular set-to as we were embarking about an hour before Day break this morning, and served each other out as gallantly as if they were exhibiting before a Moulsey hurst Ring; they certainly did not want for training as I do not know any thing more likely to put a man’s bellows in order than a voyage from York Factory to the Columbia.” He’s right about that: these men were in good shape.
And Moulsey Hurst? It was a sporting arena on the banks of the Thames, and regularly held cricket and boxing events.
Got to the end of the Lake about mid-Day. Three Leagues lower down the Coutonais [Kootenais] or McGillivray’s River joins the main Stream from the south; it is a considerable body of Water navigable for Canoes but strong and rappidy….
Rappidy is a good word in this case. “A few miles lower down another River falls in from the South, name unknown, and not navigable. The banks of the River today are covered with Red or Norway Pine. Encamped soon after Dusk.”
The next day, the 26th, they passed the mouth of the “Flat Head or Ponderais [Pend-d’Oreille] River” that flowed from the south. “It appeared a large Stream but I understand is full of dangerous rapids; it has never been explored which appears somewhat extraordinary considering the short distance between it and Spokane House, and the length of time that place has been established; I shall take care that it is examined next Season, as it would be highly important for us that the Flat Head Post could be supplied by Water instead of overland Carriage.” About a league below the mouth of the Pend-d’Oreille the boats passed the White Sheep River. “The Country from hence to the Kettle Falls is beautiful with all the varieties of Hill, Dale, Wood, & Water, but the Soil poor, a mixture of Clay & Sand. Got to the Kettle Fall about 1 o’clock pm, where we made a portage of about 3/4th of a mile occasioned by a heavy cascade. The Portage would be a good situation for a fort, as the soil is tolerably good and extensive Gardens might be made and Fish collected in any quantity at little Expense: it has been suggested to me that Spokane Establishment should be removed to this place, but I shall be better able to form an opinion on that head after visiting the latter place.” So someone suggested the idea of moving Spokane House to the Kettle Falls? I wonder who suggested that? Was it the members of the London Committee, or someone on the boats?
The boats reached the Forks of the Spokane River, where Peter Skene Ogden and John Work waited for him, with 30 men who had come upriver with the goods delivered by the London Ship, Vigilant. It is here that Simpson expresses his opinion that the Columbia needs correction:
Mr Ogden had arrived from the Coast about a Week ago. He represents the Country to be in a state of Peace and quietness and the Company’s affairs going on as usual, which is not saying a great deal as if my information is correct, the Columbia department from the Day of its Origin to the present hour has been neglected, shamefully mismanaged, and a scene of the most wasteful extravagance and the most unfortunate dissension. It is high time the system should be changed and I think there is an ample Field for reform and amendment.
So that’s what was driving Simpson! Spokane House was sixty miles from the banks of the Columbia River, and Simpson, McMillan, Thomas McKay, and Chief Factor John McLoughlin set off on a visit to the post. Another man who must have travelled with him was Charles McKay, and all the others who had travelled west with John McLoughlin, to join the Snake River brigades.
The Spokane River was not navigable, and they rode horses. They reached Spokane House on the evening of October 28, finding the road good and the country interesting. “Spokane House is delightfully situated near the banks of the Spokane & Skichew [Little Spokane] River in a fine plain or valley and surrounded at the distance of two or three miles by Hills clothed with Grass and fine Timber to their summits.” Finan McDonald was at Fort Spokane, as was William Kittson, and a large concourse of Indians.
Simpson was interested in the Snake River freemen, and how many furs they were bringing in. But here’s what I noticed: Spokane House had two officers and 7 men; Kootenay House was staffed by William Kittson with 5 men; Flat Head post had Mr. [Finan] McDonald with 7 men; and The Snake Country Expedition under Alexander Ross had 9 men — in all, 28 men and 5 officers worked under Peter Skene Ogden’s command. Simpson also noticed that the Snake River freemen started out to their trapping grounds in February, and returned to Spokane House in November, where they idled over the winter. Simpson thought they should be out trapping over the winter months when the furs were good, and come back in the summer when the furs weren’t so thick and rich. “A great deal of time is also lost in going to and returning from their hunting grounds,” Simpson complained, “say half the year unprofitably consumed, and the very season when they could be most usefully and industriously occupied…” was wasted. He wasn’t too fond of the freemen and called them “the very scum of the country.”
So Simpson put the Snake River trappers under the control of Peter Skene Ogden, with Thomas Dears and Charles McKay, the Blackfoot Interpreter, as his second in command, with 25 HBC men and about 35 Freemen. Finan McDonald he put in charge of Spokane House. “Mr. [John] Work I mean to take down to Fort George for the purpose of accompanying Mr. [James] McMillan to Puget’s Sound & Frazer’s River.” And here he is, complaining about the amount of mustard the HBC men consumed.
The good people of Spokane District…have since its first establishment shewn an extraordinary predilection for European Provisions without once looking at or considering the enormous price it costs; if they had taken that trouble they would have had little difficulty in discovering that all this time they may be said to have been eating Gold. Such fare we cannot afford in the present times, it must therefore be discontinued, and I do not see why one ounce of European Stores or Provisions should be allowed on one side of the Mountain more than the others.”
Then, “everything being settled at Spokane House, to the satisfaction of all parties,” he said, “We started to rejoin our Craft on the Morning of the 30th, and after a hard ride got to the Forks the same Evening, the Dr. [McLoughlin] quite knocked up, being unaccustomed to such violent exercise.” I think Simpson took pleasure in that dig, which says something about his character.
On October 31 he took leave of Peter Skene Ogden and pursued his route down the river. “The country now becomes dreary and wretchedly sterile, scarcely a shrub to be seen.” On November 1 he reached Okanagan House where he met James Birnie and Francis Annance, who had come down from Kamloops. Annance was absorbed into the Fort Langley expedition and must have travelled downriver with Simpson, McLoughlin, McMillan, and Work to Fort George. “It has been said that Farming is no branch of the Fur Trade, but I consider that every pursuit tending to lighten the Expense of the Trade is a branch thereof,” Simpson said. Some of us family members have suspected that it was James Birnie that said that to Simpson, and we may be right.
To return to the beginning of this journey west, go here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/nelson-river/
When I write the next post, it will appear here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/to-fort-george/
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My new book, Working Title: Three Journeys North to the Arctic Sea, will be published in January 2027.
Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2025. All rights reserved.