David Thompson | |
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| Born | Dafydd ap Thomas (1770-04-30)30 April 1770 Westminster, England |
| Died | 10 February 1857(1857-02-10) (aged 86) |
| Occupations | Explorer andMap Maker |
| Spouse | Charlotte Small |
| Children | Fanny (1801), Samuel (1804), Emma (1806), John (1808), Joshuah (1811), Henry (1813), Charlotte (1815), Elizabeth (1817), William (1819), Thomas (1822), George (1824), Mary (1827), Eliza (1829) |
| Parent(s) | David and Ann Thompson |
| Signature | |
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David Thompson (30 April 1770 – 10 February 1857) was a Britishfur trader,surveyor, andcartographer, known to some native people as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer". Over Thompson's career, he travelled 90,000 kilometres (56,000 mi) acrossNorth America, mapping 4.9 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles) of the continent along the way.[1] For this historic feat, Thompson has been described as the "greatest practical land geographer that the world has produced".[2]: xxxii
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David Thompson was born inWestminster, Middlesex, to recentWelsh migrants from Radnorshire David and Ann Thompson. They changed their family name from ap Thomas to Thompson.[4] When Thompson was two, his father died. Due to his widowed mother not having financial resources, she placed Thompson, 29 April 1777, the day before his seventh birthday,[5] and his older brother in theGrey Coat Hospital, a school for the disadvantaged of Westminster.[6] Thompson graduated to the Grey Coat mathematical school, well known for teaching navigation and surveying.[7]
He received an education for the Royal Navy: including mathematics of trigonometry and geometry, practical navigation including using of nautical instruments, finding latitudes and longitudes and making navigational calculations from observing the sun, moon and tide, and drawing maps and charts, taking land measurements, and sketching landscapes.[8] He later built on these skills to make his career. In 1784, when Thompson was 14, the Grey Coat treasurer paid theHudson's Bay Company the sum of five pounds, upon which the youth became an apprentice employee of the company, contracted for a period of seven years to be trained as a clerk.[9]
He set sail on a ship to North America on 28 May of that year, leaving England.[10]
On 2 September 1784,[9] Thompson arrived inChurchill (now inManitoba) and was put to work as a clerk/secretary, copying the personal papers of the governor of Fort Churchill,Samuel Hearne.[11]: 14 The next year he was transferred to nearbyYork Factory, and over the next few years spent time as a secretary atCumberland House, andSouth Branch House of the Hudson's Bay Company before being transferred toManchester House in 1787[11]: 15–18 . During those years he learned to keep accounts and other records, calculate values of furs (it was noted that he also had several expensive beaver pelts at that time even when a secretary's job would not pay terribly well), track supplies and other duties.[12]: 10–11
On 23 December 1788, Thompson seriously fractured histibia, forcing him to spend the next two winters at Cumberland House convalescing. It was during this time that he greatly refined and expanded his mathematical, astronomical, and surveying skills under the tutelage of Hudson's Bay Company surveyorPhilip Turnor. It was also during this time that he lost sight in his right eye.[13]
In 1790, with his apprenticeship nearing its end, Thompson requested a set of surveying tools in place of the typical parting gift of fine clothes offered by the company to those completing their indenture. He received both[12]: 10–11 . He entered the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company as afur trader. In 1792 he completed his first significant survey, mapping a route toLake Athabasca (where today'sAlberta/Saskatchewan border is located).[13]
Between February and May 1793, Thompson made 34 observations of the longitude of Cumberland House usinglunar distances. The mean of these observations was 102°12′ W, about 2' east of the modern value.[14] The mean error of the 34 observations was about 15' of longitude. Broughton (2009) notes that the precision of the type of sextant used by Thompson was 15" of arc, corresponding to 7.5' of longitude giving an absolute limit to the precision of an individual observation. The error in Thompson's mean was several times less than this. The time he took on these observations, about 3 hours of calculation each, indicates that he understood the power of averages.[7]
In recognition of his map-making and surveying skills, the company promoted Thompson to the[clarification needed] surveyor in 1794. He continued working for the Hudson's Bay Company until 23 May 1797 when, frustrated by an order to cease surveying and focus on the fur trade, he left[11]: 39–41 . He walked 130 kilometres (80 mi) in the snow in order to enter the employ of the competition, theNorth West Company. There he continued to work as afur trader and surveyor[2]: xli–xliii .
Thompson's decision to defect to theNorth West Company (NWC) in 1797 without providing the customary one-year notice was not well received by his former employers. But the North West Company was more supportive of Thompson pursuing his work on surveying and mapping the interior of what was to become Canada, as they judged it in the company's interest to know the exact locations of their settlements and the distances between them.[12]: 23 In 1797, Thompson was sent south by his employers to survey part of the Canada-US boundary along the water routes fromLake Superior toLake of the Woods to satisfy unresolved questions of territory arising from theJay Treaty of 1794 between Great Britain and the United States after the American Revolutionary War.[12]: 24–25
By 1798 Thompson had completed a survey of 6,750 km (4,190 mi) fromGrand Portage, throughLake Winnipeg, to theheadwaters of theAssiniboine andMississippi rivers, as well as two sides ofLake Superior.[10] In 1798, the company sent him to Red Deer Lake (Lac La Biche in present-day Alberta) to establish a trading post. (The English translation of Lac la Biche: Red Deer Lake, was first recorded on the Mackenzie map of 1793.)[15] Thompson spent the next few seasons trading based inFort George (now in Alberta), and during this time led several expeditions into theRocky Mountains.[2]: xlvi
On 10 July 1804, at the annual meeting of the North West Company inKaministiquia, Thompson was made a full partner of the company. He became a 'wintering partner', who was based in the field rather than Montreal, and was granted two of the 92 NWC's shares worth more than £4,000.[16] He spent the next few seasons based there managing the fur trading operations, but still finding time to expand his surveys of the waterways aroundLake Superior. At the 1806 company meeting, officers decided to send Thompson back into the interior. Concern over the United States-backed expedition ofLewis and Clark prompted the North West Company to charge Thompson with the task of finding a route to the Pacific to open up the lucrative trading territories of thePacific Northwest.[12]: 35–38
After the general meeting in 1806, Thompson travelled toRocky Mountain House and prepared for an expedition to follow theColumbia River to the Pacific Ocean. In June 1807 Thompson crossed the Rocky Mountains and spent the summer surveying theColumbia basin; he continued to survey the area over the next few seasons.[12]: 38–65 Thompson mapped and established trading posts in NorthwesternMontana,Idaho,Washington, andWestern Canada. Trading posts he founded includedKootenae House,Kullyspell House andSaleesh House; the latter two were the first trading posts west of the Rockies in Idaho and Montana, respectively.[13] These posts established by Thompson extended North West Company fur trading territory into the Columbia Basin drainage area. The maps he made of the Columbia River basin east of theCascade Mountains were of such high quality and detail that they continued to be useful into the 20th-century[11]: 258 .
In early 1810, Thompson was returning eastward towardMontreal but, while en route atRainy Lake, received orders to return to the Rocky Mountains and establish a route to the mouth of the Columbia. The North West Company was responding to the plans of American entrepreneurJohn Jacob Astor to send a ship around the Americas to establish a fur trading post of the Pacific Fur Company on the Pacific Coast. During his return, Thompson was delayed by an angry group ofPeigan natives atHowse Pass. Instead of pushing through with violence, he led the canoe brigade to seek a new route across theRocky Mountains and found one throughAthabasca Pass.[12]: 85–91
David Thompson was the first European to navigate the full length of the Columbia River[11]: 228–229 . BetweenKettle Falls (3 July 1811) and the Junction of the Columbia andSnake Rivers (9 July), he was travelling through country that had never been visited by Europeans, and took time to visit the villages along the way to establish good relations, helped by copious quantities of tobacco. In 1805Lewis and Clark had descended the Snake River, and continued down the Columbia. On reaching the junction Thompson erected a pole and a notice claiming the country for Great Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build atrading post at the site.[12]: 103–110 This notice was found later that year by Astor company workers looking to establish an inland fur post, contributing to their selection of a more northerly site atFort Okanogan.[17][18] The North West Company established its post ofFort Nez Percés near the Snake River confluence several years later.[19] Continuing down the Columbia, Thompson passed over theCelilo Falls, almost losing the canoe on the rocks, and portaged around the rapids ofThe Dalles and theCascades Rapids[12]: 111–115 . On 14 July 1811, Thompson reached the partially constructedFort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia, arriving two months after thePacific Fur Company's ship, theTonquin.[20]
Before returning upriver and across the mountains, Thompson hiredNaukane, aNative Hawaiian Takane labourer brought to Fort Astoria by the Pacific Fur Company's shipTonquin. Naukane, known as Coxe to Thompson, accompanied Thompson across the continent toLake Superior before journeying on to England.[21]
Thompson wintered at Saleesh House before beginning his final journey in 1812 back to Montreal, where the North West Company was based.[12]: 124–130
In his published journals, Thompson recorded seeing large footprints (“which measured fourteen inches in length by eight inches in breadth”) near what is nowJasper, Alberta, in 1811. It has been suggested that these prints were similar to what has since been called thesasquatch. However, Thompson noted that these tracks showed "a small Nail at the end of each [toe]", which led him to surmise it was a bear, but he had doubts, saying, "I held it to be the track of a large old grizzled bear; yet the shortness of the nails, the ball of the foot, and its great size was not that of a Bear".[22]
The years 1807–1812 are the most carefully scrutinized in his career and comprise his most enduring historical legacy, due to his development of the commercial routes across the Rockies, and his mapping of the lands they traverse.[23]
In 1820, the English geologist,John Jeremiah Bigsby, attended a dinner party given by The Hon.William McGillivray at his home, Chateau St. Antoine, one of the early estates inMontreal'sGolden Square Mile. He describes the party and some of the guests in his entertaining bookThe Shoe and Canoe, giving an excellent description of David Thompson:
I was well placed at table between one of the Miss McGillivray's and a singular-looking person of about fifty. He was plainly dressed, quiet, and observant. His figure was short and compact, and his black hair was worn long all round, and cut square, as if by one stroke of the shears, just above the eyebrows. His complexion was of the gardener's ruddy brown, while the expression of his deeply-furrowed features was friendly and intelligent, but his cut-short nose gave him an odd look. His speech betrayed theWelshman, although he left his native hills when very young. I might have been spared this description of Mr David Thompson by saying he greatly resembledCurran the Irish Orator...[24]
I afterwards travelled much with him, and have now only to speak of him with great respect, or, I ought to say, with admiration... No living person possesses atithe of his information respecting the Hudson's Bay countries... Never mind his Bunyan-like face and cropped hair; he has a very powerful mind, and a singular faculty of picture-making. He can create a wilderness and people it with warring savages, or climb theRocky Mountains with you in a snow-storm, so clearly and palpably, that only shut your eyes and you hear the crack of the rifle, or feel the snow-flakes melt on your cheeks as he talks.[24]
On 10 June 1799 atÎle-à-la-Crosse, Thompson marriedCharlotte Small, a thirteen-year-oldMétis daughter of Scottish fur trader Patrick Small and aCree mother.[25] Their marriage was formalised thirteen years later at the Scotch Presbyterian Church inMontreal on 30 October 1812[11]: 243 . He and Charlotte had 13 children together;[26] five of them were born before he left the fur trade. The family did not adjust easily to life inEastern Canada; they lived in Montreal while he was travelling. Two of the children, John (aged 5) and Emma (aged 7), died ofround worms, a common parasite.[10] By the time of Thompson's death, the couple had been married 57 years, the longest marriage known in Canada pre-Confederation.[10]
Upon his arrival back in Montreal, Thompson retired with a generous pension from the North West Company. He settled in nearbyTerrebonne and worked on completing his great map, a summary of his lifetime of exploring and surveying the interior of North America. The map covered the wide area stretching from Lake Superior to the Pacific, and was given by Thompson to the North West Company. 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. It now resides in theArchives of Ontario.[27]
In 1815, Thompson moved his family toWilliamstown, Upper Canada,[12]: 135 and a few years later was employed to survey the newly established borders with the United States from Lake of the Woods to theEastern Townships ofQuebec, established byTreaty of Ghent after theWar of 1812.[28] In 1843 Thompson completed his atlas of the region fromHudson Bay to the Pacific Ocean.[11]: 254
Afterwards, Thompson returned to a life as a land owner, but soon financial misfortune would ruin him. By 1831 he was so deeply in debt he was forced to take up a position as a surveyor for the British American Land Company to provide for his family.[12]: 138–139 His luck continued to worsen and he was forced to move in with his daughter and son-in-law in 1845. He began work on a manuscript chronicling his life exploring the continent, but this project was left unfinished when his sight failed him completely in 1851.[12]: 143
The land mass mapped by Thompson amounted to 3.9 million square kilometres (1.5 million square miles) of wilderness (one-fifth of the continent). His contemporary, the great explorerAlexander Mackenzie, remarked that Thompson did more in ten months than he would have thought possible in two years.[29]
Despite these significant achievements, Thompson died in Montreal in near obscurity on 10 February 1857, his accomplishments almost unrecognised. He never finished the book of his 28 years in the fur trade, based on his 77 field notebooks, before he died.[30] In the 1890s geologistJ.B. Tyrrell resurrected Thompson's notes and in 1916 published them asDavid Thompson's Narrative, as part of the General Series of theChamplain Society.[2] Further editions and re-examinations of Thompson's life and works were published in 1962 by Richard Glover, in 1971 by Victor Hopwood, and in 2015 by William Moreau.[31]
Thompson's body was interred in Montreal'sMount Royal Cemetery in an unmarked grave. It was not until 1926 that efforts byJ.B. Tyrrell and the Canadian Historical Society resulted in the placing of a tombstone to mark his grave. The next year, Thompson was named aNational Historic Person by the federal government, one of the earliest such designations.[32] A federal plaque reflecting that status is atJasper National Park, Alberta. Meantime, Thompson's achievements are central reasons for other national historic designations:
In 1957, one hundred years after his death, Canada'spost office department honoured him with his image on apostage stamp. TheDavid Thompson Highway in Alberta was named in his honour, along with David Thompson High School on the side of the highway nearLeslieville, Alberta. There are also two David Thompson Secondary Schools, one in Vancouver, BC, and one in Invermere, BC.
His prowess as a geographer is now well-recognized. He has been called "the greatest land geographer that the world has produced."[33][10]
There is a monument dedicated to David Thompson (maintained by the state ofNorth Dakota) near the former town site of the ghost townVerendrye, North Dakota, located approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) north and 1 mile (1.6 km) west ofKarlsruhe, North Dakota.[34]Thompson Falls, Montana, and British Columbia'sThompson River and Thompson Falls on the Blaeberry River are also named after the explorer.[35][36]
There is a statue commemorating David Thompson in downtown Sandpoint, Idaho, near the intersection of Second Avenue and Main Street.[37]
The year 2007 marked the 150th year of Thompson's death and the 200th anniversary of his first crossing of the Rocky Mountains. Commemorative events and exhibits were planned across Canada and the United States from 2007 to 2011 as a celebration of his accomplishments.[38]
In 2007, a commemorative plaque was placed on a wall at the Grey Coat Hospital, the school for the disadvantaged of Westminster David Thompson attended as a boy, by English author and TV presenterRay Mears.[39][1]
Thompson was the subject of a 1964National Film Board of Canada short filmDavid Thompson: The Great Mapmaker,[40] as well as theBBC2 programmeRay Mears' Northern Wilderness (Episode 5), broadcast in November 2009.[41] He's also the subject of 2010KSPS-TV filmUncharted Territory: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau.[42]
He is referenced in the 1981folk song"Northwest Passage" byStan Rogers.[43]
The national park service,Parks Canada, announced in 2018 that it had named its new research vesselRV David Thompson, to be used for underwater archaeology, including sea floor mapping, and for marine science in the Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic Oceans, and the Great Lakes. It will be the main platform for research on theWrecks of HMSErebus and HMSTerror National Historic Site.[44]
The David Thompson Astronomical Observatory atFort William Historical Park was named to commemorate David Thompson and his discoveries.[45]
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