Archives West Finding Aid

Erwin N. Thompson, born 18 August 1926 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was a historian and author with an interest in Pacific Northwest history. He served in both the Royal Canadian Navy and the United States Army, and was sent to Okinawa, Japan as part of the postwar occupation forces. In 1960, he graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles with a degree in history, subsequently becoming the head park historian at the Whitman Mission National Monument near Walla Walla, Washington. His book "Shallow Grave at Waiilatpu: The Sagers' West," which documents the Sager family's circa 1843-1846 migration to Oregon territory and their deaths in the Whitman Incident, was published in 1969 to general acclaim. He died in Jefferson, Colorado, on June 15, 1998, at the age of 71.