About 15,000 years ago, this area was covered by huge glaciers which formed unique geological formations throughout the valley called drumlins – hills of glacial till deposited by the glaciers. Ice periodically dammed up the Kootenai River creating a vast inland lake.
The Kutenai Indians inhabited the area for centuries, growing a form of tobacco on the plains near the river and giving the area it's name.
Trade in this region was initially dominated by Canadian fur companies. The Kootenai River was explored in 1808 by the great North West Company trader and geographer David Thompson. The company carried on a lively trade with the Kutenai, Salish, and other tribes of the inland northwest for decades.
Rich gold strikes on Wild Horse Creek in southeastern British Columbia drew American prospectors to the area in the mid-1860s. Although the gold didn’t pan out for many of them, their reports of abundant resources in the region drew miners, cattlemen, farmers and loggers to northwestern Montana. Steamboats plied the river in the 1890s, carrying mail and supplies to the region’s inhabitants north of Jennings. The steamboats gave way to the Great Northern Railway in 1901. The Kootenai River and it's tributaries are routes that tie the land and its people together.
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.