Thompson Country, also referred to as The Thompson and sometimes as the Thompson Valley and historically known as the Couteau Country or Couteau District, is a historic geographic region of the

Southern Interior of British Columbia Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, ...

, more or less defined by the basin of the

Thompson River The Thompson River is the largest tributary of the Fraser River, flowing through the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada. The Thompson River has two main branches, the South Thompson River and the North Thompson River. The ri ...

. This is a tributary of the

Fraser Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal e ...

; the major city in the area is Kamloops.

Origin and usage

The term originated among Scots and English in the days of the fur trade, who described Thompson Country as lying between New Caledonia to the north and the

Columbia District The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the disputed Oregon Country. It was explored by the North West Company betw ...

or Oregon Country to the south.''The Thompson Country'', Mark Sweeten Wade
/ref> Prior to their dominance, French traders referred to this as ''Couteau nifeCountry'' or ''Couteau District''. The Thompson nomenclature is still used today, although not as an official designation. It is often used combination forms, such as the Thompson-Okanagan or Thompson-Nicola Regional District. Weather forecasts and tourism information refer to the area as Thompson-Shuswap. Although strictly referring to the entire Thompson basin, and potentially used in that context, more commonly it refers to the immediate vicinity of the Thompson River, with subareas such as the

Bonaparte Country Bonaparte Provincial Park is an 11,811 hectare provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. It is located within the Bonaparte Plateau. History The park was established April 30, 1996 under the Kamloops Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP ...

Nicola Country The Nicola Country, also known as the Nicola Valley and often referred to simply as The Nicola, and originally Nicolas' Country or Nicholas' Country, adapted to Nicola's Country and simplified since, is a region in the Southern Interior of British ...

usually referred to separately. The term "North Thompson" used to refer to the valley of the

North Thompson River The North Thompson River is the northern branch of the Thompson River, the largest tributary of the Fraser River, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It originates at the toe of the Thompson Glacier in the Premier Range of the Cariboo ...

. The term "South Thompson" refers not only to the short valley of the

South Thompson River The South Thompson River is the southern branch of the Thompson River, the largest tributary of the Fraser River, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It originates at the outlet of Little Shuswap Lake at the town of Chase and flows appr ...

but also to Kamloops and towns westward along the Thompson and the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on ...

, as far as Spences Bridge. The Thompson Canyon downstream from there to Lytton at the Thompson's confluence with the Fraser, is usually referred to as being part of the Fraser Canyon. That is also applied to the highway from Hope to Spences Bridge or sometimes Cache Creek.

Climate and terrain

The Thompson Country is semi-arid and desert-like, except in the upper reaches of the North Thompson and in the higher areas of the plateaus to the north and south of the river (the Bonaparte Plateau and

Thompson Plateau The Thompson Plateau forms the southern portion of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia, Canada, lying to the west of Okanagan Lake, south of the Thompson River and east of (although never adjoining it) the Fraser River. At its most southern p ...

, respectively). Because of the low elevation of the valley's floor, winter temperatures are not too severe. As the region is in the immediate

rainshadow A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side. Evaporated moisture from water bodies (such as oceans and large lakes) is carrie ...

of the Coast Mountains and Cascade Range, summer temperatures are among the hottest in Canada. The region is characterized by sagebrush and rangeland, with benchlands flanking the Thompson's deepening canyon from Savona downstream. Desert and, higher up, pine-covered mountains and hillsides flank the river and Kamloops Lake, which lies at the heart of the region. Lytton vies with nearby

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abo ...

for the title of "Canada's Hot Spot", with summer temperatures regularly above . Since the nineteenth century, ranching has been the historic core of the economy in the South Thompson and the adjoining Nicola and Bonaparte countries. It is also important northeast of Kamloops in the Shuswap Highland country, towards Adams Lake and the rest of the Shuswap Country. Logging and tourism are other traditionally important industries, especially in the North Thompson.

History

Most of the Thompson Country is the territory of the Secwepemc people, who traditionally spoke a

Salishan language The Salishan (also Salish) languages are a family of languages of the Pacific Northwest in North America (the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana). They are characterised by ag ...

. From Spences Bridge downstream, the Thompson and the Nicola basins are the territory of the various

Nlaka'pamux The Nlaka'pamux or Nlakapamuk ( ; ), also previously known as the ''Thompson'', ''Thompson River Salish'', ''Thompson Salish'', ''Thompson River Indians'' or ''Thompson River people'', and historically as the ''Klackarpun'', ''Haukamaugh'', ''Kni ...

nations. The Thompson Country, the South Thompson in particular, was one of the first areas of the Colony of British Columbia to be opened by the government to land alienation and active settlement by non-indigenous peoples. Fur traders originally used what was known as the Brigade Trail, which ran from the

Okanagan The Okanagan ( ), also known as the Okanagan Valley and sometimes as the Okanagan Country, is a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia defined by the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River. It is par ...

via Kamloops northwestward to Green Lake, by the last leg of the Okanagan Trail from

Washington Territory The Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was created from the ...

to the

Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser ...

. Its western portion was the key section of the Cariboo Road connecting the

to the

Cariboo Plateau The Cariboo Plateau is a volcanic plateau in south-central British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Fraser Plateau that itself is a northward extension of the North American Plateau. The southern limit of the plateau is the Bonaparte River alth ...

and its distant goldfields. This area has been important to the history of British Columbia. Many of the earliest ranches in the Interior are still operating today. The Douglas Lake Ranch, based in the Nicola Country but spanning the Thompson and including some of the Shuswap, is one of the world's largest. Near Cache Creek, the historic Ashcroft Manor and Semlin Ranch and others were British military land-grants. The Ashcroft and Semlin ranches were owned and occupied by a Lieutenant-Governor and a Premier, respectively. The Thompson's settlement, history, and economy have been dominated by the two transcontinental rail lines flanking the river: the Canadian National Railway parallels the North Thompson, and the Canadian Pacific Railway the South Thompson.

References

External links

Aerial view of classic Thompson Country landscape, looking northeast from above the mouth of the Nicola RiverRandall & Kat's Flying Photos
{{Subdivisions of British Columbia, regions=yes Interior of British Columbia Thompson-Nicola Regional District History of British Columbia

Origin and usage

Climate and terrain

History

See also

References

External links