David Thompson (explorer)
David Thompson ( born April 30, 1770 in London, † February 10, 1857 in Montreal) was a Canadian fur trader and cartographer.
Thompson's Welsh father died when David Thompson was two years old. At the age of seven years, his mother enrolled him in charitable Grey Coat School at nearby Westminster Abbey. At the age of 14 years, Thompson undertook as an office assistant at the Hudson's Bay Company. In September 1784, he arrived in Churchill on Hudson Bay. He spent his first two years on the shores of Hudson Bay in the production facilities in Churchill and York. After that he was employed in some commercial stations on the Saskatchewan River.
1797 Thompson left the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company began with. He founded a trading post in what is now western Canada and the United States today. The cards he created east of the Cascade Range from the area of the Columbia River and its tributaries were of such high quality and attention to detail that they remained valid until the middle of the 20th century.
From 1792 to 1812 he researched and charted the territories east of the Hudson Bay and Lake Superior over the Rocky Mountains across the headwaters of the Columbia River and along the river to the Pacific Ocean. He was the first European who crossed the Canadian Rockies and charted the Columbia River from its source to its mouth. For this, he traveled 88,000 km. With his power he filled on the map of Canada the great white spot in the Northwest.
The U.S. sailor Robert Gray had discovered the first white man to the Columbia River on May 11, 1792. The Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 had discovered the mouth of the river from the east by land.
In June 1807, he crossed, coming from Rocky Mountain House, about the Howse Pass for the first time the Rocky Mountains and followed the Blaeberry River to the Columbia River, which he explored in the direction of the source. In 2007, therefore, was in Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States, the " David Thompson Bicentennial ", ie the bicentennial anniversary of the expedition, celebrated.
1811 Thompson crossed the Athabasca Pass ( Athabasca River) to explore from there the Columbia River to its mouth, in the hope, be able to claim these areas as British territory. He arrived on July 15, 1811 Astoria - four months after the Americans had arrived there and had set up a trading post. If he had been there before them, the territory of the present U.S. states of Washington and Oregon would perhaps belong to Canada today. But that does not diminish his achievements. He and his people built numerous trading posts west of the Continental Divide - in today's states of Washington, Idaho and Montana.
The area, which charted Thompson, involved 10 million km ² wilderness and thus one-fifth of the continent. The Thompson River was named after him. His contemporary - the famous explorer Alexander MacKenzie - said that he believed the work that Thompson had done in ten months was not even create in two years.
The greatest achievement of Thompson was his map of 1814. She was so accurate that they served the Canadian government as a basis for newly issued cards for another 100 years later. Thompson surveyed the border between the U.S. and Canada along the 49th parallel west of the St. Lawrence River to Lake of the Woods.
He married Charlotte Small, a Métis, with whom he had 13 children.
In his published diaries he recorded in 1811, the discovery of large footprints near the present settlement Jasper. It has been speculated that these footprints of Bigfoot come.
Thompson died alone in 1857 in Montreal and was buried in the cemetery of Mont- Royal. His actions were almost completely forgotten. However, it was 1957 - honored by the Canadian government with a stamp - to mark the 100th anniversary of his death. His ability as a great geographer is now highly valued.