Kootanae House, also spelled Kootenae House, was a
North West Company fur trading post built by
Jaco Finlay
Jacques Raphaël Finlay (1768–1828), commonly known as Jaco or Jacco (pr. Jocko), was an early Canadian fur trader, scout, and explorer associated with the North West Company. He built Spokane House and Kootanae House, two key fur-trading po ...
under the direction of
David Thompson near present-day
Invermere, British Columbia
Invermere is a community in eastern British Columbia, Canada, near the border of Alberta. It is the hub of the Columbia Valley between Golden to the north and Cranbrook to the south. Invermere sits on the northwest shore of Windermere Lake and ...
in 1807. It was abandoned in 1812. In 1808 Thompson reckoned its location as . The actual location is Kootenae House National Historic Site, located at (the discrepancy is due to inaccuracies in Thompson's measurements).
The site was designated a
National Historic Site of Canada
National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...
in 1934.
In July 2005,
Parks Canada, in cooperation with several members of the
Ktunaxa Nation conducted archaeological investigations at the site of Thompson's Kootanae House, near Invermere BC. Kootanae House was David Thompson's first post constructed in the Columbia Basin and his "jumping off point" for further explorations throughout the region.
The Archaeology confirms that this site is the location of a North West Company trading posts and lays to rest some inconsistencies between the site and Thompson's description of the trading post.
See also
*
List of National Historic Sites of Canada in British Columbia
*
Kullyspell House Kullyspell House (also spelled Kullyspel House) was a fur trading post established in 1809 on Lake Pend Oreille in what is now North Idaho. It was built by Finan McDonald under the direction of David Thompson of the North West Company.
The post ...
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Saleesh House Saleesh House, also known as Flathead Post, was a North West Company fur trading post built near present-day Thompson Falls, Montana in 1809 by David Thompson and James McMillan of the North West Company. It became a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) p ...
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Fort Kootenay
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
*
Kootenay, British Columbia
Fisherville is a ghost town on the northwest shore of the Wild Horse River in the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. The locality, off the Fort Steele-Wildhorse Road, is by road about northeast of Fort Steele.
Name origin
In l ...
(Fisherville)
References
Fur trade National Historic Sites of Canada
History of British Columbia
History of the Pacific Northwest
Oregon Country
Heritage sites in British Columbia
Columbia Valley
North West Company
National Historic Sites in British Columbia
Forts or trading posts on the National Historic Sites of Canada register
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