David Thompson (explorer)
David Thompson (
April 30,
1770 –
February 10,
1857), was an
English-Canadian map-maker and explorer. He was born in
London to
Welsh parents, and died in
Montreal (now
Quebec, then
Canada East in the
Province of Canada).
Thompson was a
fur trader of the
Hudson's Bay Company and
North West Company. In 1785, Thompson was sent to Canada to serve with the
Hudson's Bay Company, and served under
apprentice for seven years.
From
1792 to
1812, he explored and mapped the country west of
Hudson Bay and
Lake Superior, across the
Rocky Mountains to the headwaters of the
Columbia River and down the Columbia to the
Pacific Ocean. He was the first European to explore the Columbia from source to mouth. He joined the
Hudson's Bay Company as an apprentice in 1784. In
1797, he left the Hudson's Bay Company and joined the
North West Company. The maps he made of the Columbia River basin east of the
Cascade Mountains were of such high quality and detail that they continued to be regarded as authoritative well into the mid-20th century.
The land mass mapped by Thompson amounted to 3.9 million square kilometres of wilderness (one-fifth of the continent). His contemporary, the great explorer
Alexander Mackenzie, remarked that Thompson did more in ten months than he would have thought possible in two years. Thompson's
1814 map, his greatest achievement, was so accurate that 100 years later it was still the basis for many of the maps issued by the Canadian government. Thompson also completed the exacting survey of much of the Canada-U.S. boundary along the
49th parallel in the west, and from the St. Lawrence River to
Lake of the Woods.
He married
Charlotte Small, a
Métis, the "Woman of the Paddle Song." He and Charlotte had 13 children.
In his published journals, Thompson recorded seeing large footprints near what is now
Jasper, Alberta, in
1811. It has been suggested that these prints were similar to what has since been called the
sasquatch. However, Thompson noted that these tracks showed "a small Nail at the end of each [toe]", and stated that these tracks "very much resembles a large Bear's Track".
[Thompson, David. Columbia Journals. Edited by Barbara Belyea. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994, p. 135] Thompson died in Montreal in near obscurity, his achievements almost unrecognized. He is interred there in the
Mount Royal Cemetery. However, in
1957, one hundred years after his death, the Canadian government honoured him with his image on a
Canadian postage stamp. His prowess as a geographer is now well-recognized. He has been called "the greatest land geographer who ever lived."
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Complete text of David Thompson's Narrative (Tyrrell edition) Champlain Society digital collection
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Complete text of David Thompson's Narrative (Glover edition) Champlain Society digital collection
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Join the 2008 David Thompson Brigade: canoeing expedition following Thompson's routes
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Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online*
"The greatest land geographer who ever lived: A short history" by J.B. Tyrell*
David Thompson Canadian Fur Trader and Mapmaker*
The Life of David Thompson*
How David Thompson Navigated A technical, in-depth study of the methods used by David Thompson, based on his journals
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Bigfoot Encounters: David Thompson*
DavidThompson200: bicentennial commemorations of Thompson's explorations
