David Thompson (cartographer)

David Thompson

David Thompson (born April 30, 1770 in London , † February 10, 1857 in Longueuil near Montreal ) was a Canadian cartographer and fur trader .

Thompson's Welsh father died when David Thompson was two years old. At the age of seven, his mother enrolled him in the charitable Gray Coat School near Westminster Abbey . At the age of 14, Thompson signed up as an office clerk with the Hudson's Bay Company . In September 1784 he arrived at Churchill on Hudson Bay . He spent his first two years on the shores of Hudson Bay in the Churchill and York manufacturing facilities. After that he was employed in some trading posts on the Saskatchewan River .

Map of the North West Territory by David Thompson from 1814.

In 1797 Thompson left the Hudson's Bay Company and started with the North West Company . He established trading posts in what is now western Canada and what is now the United States. The maps he made east of the Cascade Range of the Columbia River area and its tributaries were of such high quality and detail that they remained valid until the mid-20th century.

From 1792 to 1812 he explored and mapped the areas east of Hudson Bay and Lake Superior across the Rocky Mountains to the upper reaches of the Columbia River and along the river to the Pacific Ocean . He was the first European to cross the Canadian Rockies and map the Columbia River from source to mouth. For this he traveled 88,000 km. With his performance, he filled the big white spot in the northwest on the map of Canada .

The American navigator Robert Gray was the first white man to discover the Columbia River on May 11, 1792. The Lewis and Clark expedition discovered the mouth of the river by land from the east in 1805.

In June 1807, coming from Rocky Mountain House , he crossed the Rocky Mountains for the first time via Howse Pass and followed the Blaeberry River to the Columbia River, which he explored towards the source. In 2007, the "David Thompson Bicentennial", the bicentennial of the expedition, was therefore celebrated in Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the USA.

In 1811, Thompson crossed the Athabasca Pass ( Athabasca River ) to explore the Columbia River from there to the mouth, in the hope of being able to claim these areas as British territory. It reached Astoria on July 15, 1811 - four months after the Americans had arrived and set up a trading post. If he had been there before them, what is now the US states of Washington and Oregon might today belong to Canada. But that does not reduce his performance. He and his people set up numerous trading posts west of the continental divide - in what is now Washington , Idaho and Montana .

The area that Thompson mapped comprised 10 million km² of wilderness, one-fifth of the continent. The Thompson River was named after him. His contemporary - famous researcher Alexander MacKenzie - said that he believed that the job Thompson could do in ten months could not even be done in two years.

The Canadian Post's commemorative postage in 1957

Thompson's greatest achievement was his 1814 map. It was so accurate that 100 years later the Canadian government used it as the basis for reprinted maps. Thompson also measured the border between the United States and Canada along the 49th parallel west of the Saint Lawrence River to the Lake of the Woods .

He married Charlotte Small, a Métis with whom he had 13 children.

In his published diaries in 1811 he recorded the discovery of large footprints near what is now the Jasper settlement . It has been speculated that these prints were made by Bigfoot .

Thompson died lonely in Longueuil in 1857 and was buried in the Mont-Royal cemetery. His actions were almost completely forgotten. However, in 1957 - on the 100th anniversary of his death - he was honored by the Canadian government with a postage stamp. His skill as a great geographer is now valued.

Memorial to David Thompson in Verendrye , North Dakota

literature

• David Thompson . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
• David Thompson: In the wild North America: 1784–1812 / Ed. By Frank Auerbach, Edition Erdmann, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-86503-028-9 .

Web links

• David Thompson ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Who is David Thompson, Glenbow Museum / Calgary (Flash)