Trego's Mountain Ear

It seems more significant than the Trump tariffs.  The predictions are that this week, the Hudson’s Bay Company will declare bankruptcy.  The Bay company has been in business since 1670 – I think it is the longest continuously operating business in North America.  Obviously it’s a coincidence that HBC is also an abbreviation for Here Before Christ – but the Hudson’s Bay Company is still a longtime institution. 

The Bay Company doesn’t directly influence our local economy anymore – but Thompson Falls gets its name from David Thompson – the Company’s geographer who explored the West didn’t stay north of the 49th parallel. 

Neither did Peter Skene Ogden – whose name graces a city in Utah.  One of Ogden’s evaluations from his labors for HBC describes him as ‘possibly the most unprincipled man in Indian country.’  And now, the Hudson’s Bay Company is looking at bankruptcy.

I’ve never made a purchase from HBC – but the history and the connection with the Rocky Mountain west make it relevant.  Still, when the Bay Company has grown to include Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, it may have lost all connection with the rural areas and the fur trade.  Still, I hope the company can turn around – after 350 years, I would hate to lose the name and history,