Thompson Falls is a city in and the county seat of Sanders County, Montana. The population was 1,336 at the time of the 2020 census.
History
Thompson Falls was named after British explorer, geographer and fur trader David Thompson, who founded a North West Company fur trading post called Saleesh House in 1809. The community is located next to natural waterfalls on the Clark Fork river.
The settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute in 1846, ended joint occupancy with Britain and established the border with British North America and made the region firmly American. The arrival of the railroad in 1881 brought activity to the area. Two years later, when the gold rush hit nearby Cœur d'Alene, the town grew to accommodate the men going over the Murray Trail to the mines. In 1885 John Russell bought and plotted the town site.
Thompson Falls was established in 1910.
Ecology
An amphibian, the rough-skinned newt, has a population at Thompson Falls which is noncontiguous with the remainder of the Western US population of the species.
In 2010, a fish ladder was completed consisting of 48 pools, each one foot higher than the last, enabling native fish, including bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) to pass the 913-foot Thompson Falls Dam for the first time in nearly a century.
Climate
Under the Köppen climate classification, depending on the variant used, Thompson Falls has either an oceanic climate (Cfb) or a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dfb). Winters are among the very warmest in the state, though the area lacks the very warm chinook winds that blow east of the Rockies. The climate is similar to that of nearby Trout Creek.