12 Facts About Thompson River

Thompson River is the largest tributary of the Fraser River, flowing through the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada.

The Thompson was named by Fraser River explorer, Simon Fraser, in honour of his friend, Columbia Basin explorer David Thompson.

Notable feature along the North Thompson River is Little Hells Gate, a mini-replica of the much larger rapid on the Fraser downstream from the mouth of the Thompson River.

At Ashcroft, the Thompson Canyon begins and the river turns southwestward to its confluence with the Fraser.

Thompson River valley has existed in some form for at least 50 million years; however, for much of its history, it did not drain to the southwest into the Pacific Ocean as it does today.

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From this point, the Thompson waters stopped flowing eastward into the Columbia River system, and the river became a tributary of the Fraser.

Some older archaeological sites on the lower Thompson River include the Drynoch Slide site, near Spences Bridge, with artifacts dating to about 7350 BCE, and the Landels site, near Ashcroft, which dates to older than 8000 BCE.

South Thompson River has the watershed's oldest dated evidence of human habitation, at the Gore site near Pritchard.

Archaeological investigation in the North Thompson has been sparse, but artifacts near Bridge Lake to the west of the river have been dated to 3000 BCE, while pieces found near the tributary Clearwater River are possibly as old as 6000 to 7000 BCE.

Thompson River named the river after his colleague, David Thompson, who had mapped much of western Canada and was at the time exploring the Columbia River basin to the east.

Several bird species are found in Thompson River environments, including osprey, merganser, wood ducks, and American dippers.

However, unlike major river systems to the north and east like the Columbia and Nechako, the Thompson has no hydroelectric dams or major man-made water diversions.