Michel Bourdon
This valley was discovered in
1822 by an expedition of Hudson’s
Bay Company trappers led by
Michel Bourdon.
Bourdon had come to the Northwest with
David Thompson, who had started the Idaho
fur trade in 1808-9. Trappers searched
everywhere for beaver, and were active south
of here four years before Bourdon took them
farther into this mountain wilderness. Fur
hunting went on for another decade in
these parts before the country was
about trapped out and abandoned
by the fur traders.
