4:57 Min

Video: David Thompson

Map of the North-West Territory of the Province of Canada, stretching from the Fraser River on the west to Lake Superior on the east. By David Thompson, 1814.

David Thompson Sites

For the Hudson's Bay Company, and then as a wintering partner for the North West Company, David Thompson traveled fifty-five thousand miles. The map prepared by David Thompson filled in the blank spaces on one million, nine hundred thousand square miles of northwest Canada. But this was not his only contribution to our historical heritage. David Thompson and his men erected the first establishments west of the Continental Divide in Washington, Idaho, and Montana. He opened the first trade with the northwestern Indian tribes of the United States and Lower Canada. David Thompson made the first recorded information on Northern Plains Indian warfare, guns, and horses (Joseph Ewers). And it should be added that he accomplished all of this, much to the chagrin of several North West partners, without trading whiskey to the Indians.

Summary:

David Thompson ranks as the premier surveyor of North America. Two Canadians, David Thompson and Alexander Mackenzie, are also the leading explorers of North America. From 1792 to 1812, David Thompson mapped most of the country west of Hudson Bay and Lake Superior, across the Rocky Mountains to the source of the Columbia River, and the length of the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean.

Who is David Thompson?

He traveled 5 times further than Lewis & Clark exploring and mapping the American Northwest and Canada

At the Historic park in Rocky Mountain House a cairn is erected to the exploits of David Thompson, and there are similar cairns in Wilmer , British Columbia at the site of his Kootenai House Fort and in Thompson Falls , Montana, the site of his Saleesh House post.

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