Local historians and community residents alike celebrated the bicentennial of iconic fur trader David Thompson and his journey down the Columbia River last Saturday at the old Saint Paul’s Mission/Kettle Falls Historic Center. More than 100 canoeists, mostly Canadian, paddled 50-foot voyageur canoes along the route surveyed by Thompson, who made the trip from Canada to Astoria, Oregon by canoe in 12 days in the early 1800s. Over his career he mapped over 3.9 million square kilometers of North America and has been described by historians as the "greatest land geographer who ever lived."
