The year 1809 brought to the active notice of the NorthWesters the intention of John Jacob Astor to occupy the mouth of the Columbia River, and the records of the House of Commons in London show a petition from the North-West Company for a charter which would give them prior rights to trade upon Columbian waters. David Thompson, however, was not waiting for charters, but prepared to act according to the teachings of the later David Harum, that is "to do to the other fellow as he would do to you and do it fust." He knew from the results of the winter trade at Kootenay Falls that there were Indians of a friendly disposition living to the south of the Kootenay, and doubtless he also had already some knowledge of the route of the Lewis and Clark party on their return trip in 1806, for the following year he had a copy of Patrick Gass' Journal with him as he traveled. So after a trip across the Rocky Mountains to leave his furs and obtain more trading goods, he returned to the Columbia during the summer of 1809, and from there descended the Kootenay River as far as the present site of Bonner's Ferry, in Idaho, where his goods were transferred to pack animals and taken southward across the regular Indian trail (the "Lake Indian Road," as he called it) to Pend d'Oreille Lake. And on the 10th of September, 1809, upon one of the points jutting out into the lake near the town of Hope, Idaho, he set up his leather lodge or tent upon the site of the next trading post upon Columbian waters, which was called "Kullyspell House." A substantial log house was at once built for the protection of the goods and furs and another for the officers and men, and Mr. Finan McDonald placed in charge. Kullyspell House did not remain in active use for more than two winters, probably, other posts to the eastward and westward being found sufficient to care for the trade; but business was lively there during the season of 1809-10. Ross Cox, who passed that way in the fall of 1812, makes no mention of this Post, but John Work, when crossing the lake in 1825, mentions a camp at "the Old Fort." No trace of its site has been found in these later years.

Thompson's Prairie, Montana, looking Southeast from site of "Saleesh House"
Canyon of Thompson River on left, and of Clark Fork River on the right

No sooner had the buildings of Kullyspell House been well begun than David Thompson set off again, to the southeastward up the Clark's Fork of the Columbia River, in the direction of the principal habitat of the Saleesh Indians, a tribe more commonly but less properly known as the Flatheads. He traveled about seventy-five miles up the river to a small plain ever since known as Thompson's Prairie, and on a bench overlooking the north bank of Clark's Fork River, located his next trading post, called Saleesh House. Three miles below is Thompson's Falls and two miles above is Thompson River, and to the State of Montana alone belongs the distinction of preserving to history in its nomenclature a permanent reference to this indefatigable and remarkable man. Thompson's Prairie appears to have been in olden times a refuge of the Saleesh Indians when pursued by their enemies, the roving Piegans or Blackfeet. Just above the prairie to the southeastward the hills again hug the river on either side, and there is a stretch of shell or sliding rock over which the Indian trail passed. This place is locally known to the Indians as Bad Rock and across it the Piegans did not dare to pass; and Mr. Thompson carefully placed his "House" on the safe side of Bad Rock. After acquiring firearms the Saleesh were on more of an equality with the Piegans and able to defend themselves in battle, both when hunting the buffalo along the Missouri River and in their own country. So in later years this trading post was, temporarily at least, removed further up the river beyond Bad Rock. In 1824-25 it was located where the Northern Pacific Railroad station named Eddy now is, and later it was near Weekesville, a few miles further up the river. About 1847 Angus McDonald removed it to Post Creek, near the St. Ignatius Mission, in the beautiful Flathead Valley. Wherever located, it was the scene every winter of very lively and extensive trade, the Saleesh being of all the tribes of Indians the most moral and friendly in their relations with the whites, not even the Nez Perces being excepted. Missoula, Montana, today succeeds Saleesh House as the commercial center of the Flathead Country, and as a city exceeds Astoria in both popu

lation and bank deposits. David Thompson spent the winter of 1809-10 at this trading post, in company with his clerk, James McMillan, who arrived in November by way of Kootenay River with additional trading goods. Again, in 1811-12, after his famous journey to the mouth of the Columbia, Mr. Thompson wintered here.

When in April, 1810, he started on his annual journey across the Rocky Mountains, Mr. McMillan accompanying him, by the usual long and wearisome series of canoe routes and portages, Mr. Thompson expected to be back again in the early fall, and he left Finan McDonald in charge of Saleesh House, with instructions or permission to assist the Saleesh Indians in the use of their newly-acquired firearms. Such an activity was very much to the liking of that restless Highlander, and he even accompanied the tribe on their annual buffalo hunt and took part in a successful battle with the Piegans on the plains along the Missouri River. The Piegans were so angered by this that they at once made trouble on the Saskatchewan River, further north, and prevented Mr. Thompson's party from returning over the usual mountain pass. He was compelled to seek a route through the Athabasca Pass, and as a result did not arrive at the Columbia at all until the middle of January, 1811, and was ice-bound for the rest of the winter at the mouth of Canoe River.

In April, 1810, when at Kullyspell House, Mr. Thompson had also engaged the services for the summer of one Jaco Finlay (whose full name was Jacques Raphael Finlay) an intelligent half-breed, who seems to have been already living in the Saleesh country as a sort of free-hunter; and the presumption is that he authorized Finlay to push the trade further west into the Skeetshoo, which would be the Coeur d'Alene Country. At any rate, when Mr. Thompson returned to the Saleesh Country in June, 1811, he found no one there nor at Kullyspell House; but he did find both Jaco Finlay and Finan McDonald residing and trading at a new post designated as Spokane House. To Jaco Finlay, then, possibly assisted by or assisting Finan McDonald, probably belongs the honor of