Finding the road to the Buffalo

It’s been almost two centuries since David Thompson first set foot into Sanders County, and now, as Thompson Day approaches next week in Thompson Falls one author wanted to revisit where the illustrious Canadian explorer once walked.

Carl Haywood, author of the book Sometimes Only Horses to Eat - a narration of Thompson’s travels from 1807-1812 - visited spots on The Road to the Buffalo trail system, now know known as the Kootenai Trail, the path David Thompson used as he made his way through Thompson Falls and into Plains.

Thompson first used the trail to enter Sanders County in 1809 while working for the North West Company in search of trading opportunities. Yet, Thompson wasn’t the first to traverse the winding path. Many west side Indian tribes, according to Haywood, had been using the trail system for hundreds of years as they sought roaming bison herds east of the continental divide.

According to Haywood the Road to the Buffalo trail system passed through Thompson Falls and followed the Clark Fork and Flathead River all the way to a point where the Jocko River flowed into the Flathead River. The trail system even used to continue past the town of Arlee.

“The Road to the Buffalo at that time was like the interstate to the Indians,” Haywood said about the trail. Today this trail that Thompson walked so long ago is gradually disappearing due to either construction where roads and houses have been built over it or where the natural landscape itself has engulfed it with vegetation.

Haywood expressed his regret for the loss of the trail and said that he felt conservation efforts should be made to preserve the trail. “I think it’s important to conserve as much history as we can where we’re able to do so because the farther we get from the time something happened the more important it gets historically,” Haywood said.

Haywood pointed out a few places in Sanders County where people might catch glimpses of the vanishing trail. One of those places is just off Graves Creek Road in Thompson Falls. Haywood said that parts of the trail might be spotted in the rising hillsides nearby.

And between Thompson Falls and Plains, along highway 200 that parallels the Clark Fork River is the infamous Bad Rock section of the trail system. The beginning of this trail can be spotted just off the highway and it’s not a recommended tourist attraction, as some of the trail has been covered by jagged shale and nearby there are even signs posted about falling rock.

Haywood said Bad Rock was easily the most hazardous part of the trail and that other explorers such as Pierre-Jean De Smet had crossed it as well.

In Haywood’s book De Smet’s account of the trail is quoted: “Our path during a great part of the day was on the declivity of a lofty, rocky mountain; we were here obliged to climb a steep rough pass from 400 to 600 feet high. I had before seen scenes of landscapes of awful grandeur, but this one certainly surpassed all others in horror.”

Thompson himself recalled the spot in his journals as “much bad road.” Haywood is worried that the Bad Rock section of the trail will be destroyed if highway 200 is allowed to be widened. “It’s important to conserve history, just from the point that once it’s gone you can never get it back,” Haywood said.

From Bad Rock Thompson followed the Road to the Buffalo four miles up river near Weeksville Creek and Buffalo Bill Creek, it was from this vantage point that he got his first view of what is now Plains. Eventually, Thompson made his way passed Lynch Creek and continued his journey into Camas Prairie.

To find out information about Thompson’s travels for his book Haywood had to visit many of the trails and campgrounds that Thompson used. Haywood referenced Thompson’s journals for longitude and latitude coordinates and also his descriptions of the area. By doing this Haywood gained new insights about campgrounds and even the exact location where Thompson built his Saleesh House trading post.

“It was a lot of cat and mouse and putting together puzzles, lots of pieces of puzzles, you had to go out there and just try to make all the pieces fit,” Haywood said. By doing the hands on fieldwork Haywood said he also gained a special perspective about Thompson. “You can actually get a feel for where the person was and take a look at the country and see what Thompson was actually going through,” Haywood said.

Sometimes Haywood tries to visualize what the country looked like before the railroad and modern construction passed through the Sanders County. “Life is much easier now than it was then, we don’t always appreciate that and we don’t always appreciate what it took our predecessors to pave the way so that we could live here today. You just have to get out here and take a look for yourself,” Haywood said.