Early Western Explorers

Long before sail and overland routes brought European-American explorers to the Columbia and Snake rivers, the corridor was home to many tribal nations whose presence on the water predates the written record by thousands of years (see Tribal Communities). The names below are a partial summary of the early non-Native expeditions that documented the Northwest Discovery Water Trail corridor between 1792 and 1811.

Captain Robert Gray (1792)

The American merchant captain whose ship Columbia Rediviva crossed the Columbia River bar on May 11, 1792, giving the river its present English name.

• Captain Robert Gray, HistoryLink.org

Lewis & Clark Expedition (1803–1806)

The Corps of Discovery descended the Snake and Columbia in 1805 and returned upriver in 1806, charting the corridor and the peoples already living along it.

• Discovering Lewis & Clark
• Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation

David Thompson (1807–1811)

The British–Canadian fur trader and surveyor mapped the upper Columbia drainage and reached the confluence of the Snake and Columbia in July 1811.

• David Thompson at the Snake/Columbia confluence, HistoryLink.org

Related resources

• The Oregon Trail (National Park Service)
• Black pioneers and settlers of the Pacific Northwest

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Originally published on ndwt.org; reused with permission from the Washington Water Trails Association — see project NOTICE.