Editing David Thompson (explorer)

{{short description|Canadian fur trader and surveyor (1770–1857)}}
{{Other people||David Thompson (disambiguation){{!}}David Thompson}}
{{pp-move}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=March 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = David Thompson
| image = David Thompson (1770-1857).jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1770|4|30}}
| birth_place = Westminster, England
| birth_name        = Dafydd ap Thomas
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1857|2|10|1770|4|30}}
| death_place = [[Longueuil]], [[Canada East]]
| occupation = Explorer and [[Cartography|Map Maker]]
| spouse = [[Charlotte Small]]
| parents = David and Ann Thompson
| 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)
| signature = David Thompson signature.svg
}}
'''David Thompson''' (30 April 1770 – 10 February 1857) was an [[English Canadians|Anglo-Canadian]] [[fur trade]]r, [[Surveying|surveyor]], and [[Cartography|cartographer]], known to some native people as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer". Over Thompson's career, he travelled {{convert|90000|km}} across [[North America]], mapping {{convert|4.9|e6km2|e6sqmi|abbr=off}} of the continent along the way.<ref name="HBC History Foundation">{{cite web|title=The Country of Adventurers: David Thompson narrated by Rick Hansen|date=19 October 2015 |publisher=HBC History Foundation |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_vzybpOiIM| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/m_vzybpOiIM| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}</ref> For this historic feat, Thompson has been described as the "greatest practical land geographer that the world has produced".<ref name=Tyrrell>{{Cite book|title = David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations in Western America, 1784–1812.|url = https://archive.org/details/davidthompsonsna12thom|doi = 10.3138/9781442618114|first = David|last = Thompson|editor-last = Tyrrell|editor-first = Joseph|publisher = Champlain Society|year = 1916| hdl=2027/uiug.30112076489480 |isbn = 978-1-4426-1811-4}}</ref>{{rp|xxxii}}

==Early life==
[[File:Grey Coat Hospital b29004251 0176016 (c).jpg|thumb|left |Grey Coat Hospital, front entrance, taken in 1880<ref name=Day1902>{{cite book |last=Day |first=Elsie Sarah |title=An old Westminster endowment : being a history of the Grey Coat Hospital as recorded in the minute books |date=1902 |publisher=H. Rees |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/b29004251}}</ref>]]David Thompson was born in [[Westminster]], Middlesex, to recent [[Welsh people|Welsh]] migrants from Radnorshire David and Ann Thompson. They changed their family name from ap Thomas to Thompson.<ref name="BBCNews2025">{{cite web |last1=Prior |first1=Neil |title=The Welsh explorer who put Canada on the map |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjewjpgl502o |website=BBC News |access-date=5 May 2025}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite book|first=David |last=Thompson |editor-first=William E. |editor-last=Moreau |title=The Writings of David Thompson, Volume 1, The Travels, 1850 version |publisher=The Champlain Society| date=2009 |page=xx |isbn=978-0773535589}}</ref> and his older brother in the [[Grey Coat Hospital]], a school for the disadvantaged of Westminster.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritage/history/people/explorers/david-thompson |title=David Thompson |publisher=Hudson's Bay Company History Foundation |access-date=9 January 2013 |archive-date=18 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418041931/http://www.hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritage/history/people/explorers/david-thompson |url-status=dead }}</ref> Thompson graduated to the Grey Coat mathematical school, well known for teaching navigation and surveying.<ref name="Broughton">{{cite journal |last1=Broughton |first1=Peter |title=The Accuracy and Use of Sextants and Watches in Rupert's Land in the 1790s |journal=Annals of Science |date=2009 |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=209–229 |doi=10.1080/00033790902743001|s2cid=144444555 }}</ref>

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.<ref>Thompson/Moreau p. xxi</ref> He later built on these skills to make his career. In 1784, when Thompson was 14, the Grey Coat treasurer paid the [[Hudson'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.<ref name="Thompson/Moreau p.xxiii">Thompson/Moreau p. xxiii</ref>

He set sail on a ship to North America on 28 May of that year, leaving England.<ref name="vanherk">{{cite magazine|url=https://secure.indas.on.ca/canadiangeo/store/index.php?site=default&feature=CG-200704|first=Aritha|last=Van Herk|title=Travels with Charlotte|website=canadiangeographic.ca|publisher=Canadian Geographic Magazine|year=2007|series=July/August|url-access=subscription|access-date=27 March 2018}}{{Dead link|date=September 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

==Hudson's Bay Company (HBC)==
On 2 September 1784,<ref name="Thompson/Moreau p.xxiii"/> Thompson arrived in [[Churchill, Manitoba|Churchill]] (now in [[Manitoba]]) and was put to work as a clerk/secretary, copying the personal papers of the governor of Fort Churchill, [[Samuel Hearne]].<ref name="NisbetSources">{{cite book |last1=Nisbet |first1=Jack |author-link=Jack Nisbet (writer) |title=Sources of the River:Tracking David Thompson across North America |date=1994 |publisher=Sasquatch Books |location=Seattle, WA |isbn=1-57061-006-1}}</ref>{{rp|14}} The next year he was transferred to nearby [[York Factory, Manitoba|York Factory]], and over the next few years spent time as a secretary at [[Cumberland House, Saskatchewan|Cumberland House]], and [[South Branch House]] of the Hudson's Bay Company before being transferred to [[Pine Island Fort|Manchester House]] in 1787{{r|NisbetSources|pages=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.<ref name="NisbetEye">{{cite book |last1=Nisbet |first1=Jack |author-link=Jack Nisbet (writer)|title=The Mapmaker's Eye: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau |date=2005 |publisher=[[Washington State University Press]] |location=Pullman, WA |isbn=0-87422-285-0}}</ref>{{rp|10–11}}

On 23 December 1788, Thompson seriously fractured his [[tibia]], 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 surveyor [[Philip Turnor]]. It was also during this time that he lost sight in his right eye.<ref name="Gottfred">{{cite web |first=J. & A. |last=Gottfred |title=The Life of David Thompson |website=Northwest Journal |date=2002 |issn=1206-4203 |url=http://www.northwestjournal.ca/V1.htm |access-date=29 July 2020 |archive-date=6 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200206030023/http://www.northwestjournal.ca/V1.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

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{{r|"NisbetEye"|pp=10-11}}. He entered the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company as a [[fur trader]]. In 1792 he completed his first significant survey, mapping a route to [[Lake Athabasca]] (where today's [[Alberta]]/[[Saskatchewan]] border is located).<ref name="Gottfred" />

Between February and May 1793, Thompson made 34 observations of the longitude of Cumberland House using [[Lunar distance (navigation)|lunar distances]]. The mean of these observations was 102°12′ W, about 2' east of the modern value.<ref name="Sebert1971">{{cite book |last1=Sebert |first1=L.M. |title=The Determination of Longitude in Western Canada. Technical Report No: 71-3 |date=1971 |publisher=Surveys and Mapping Branch, Department of Energy, Mines and Resources |location=Ottawa}} Sebert gives 102°16′ as the longitude of Cumberland House, but Old Cumberland House, still in use at that time, was 2km to the east, see: {{cite web |title=Cumberland House Provincial Park |url=https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=3111&pid=0 |website=Canada's Historic Places |publisher=Parks Canada |access-date=21 August 2020}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Broughton"/>

In recognition of his map-making and surveying skills, the company promoted Thompson to the{{clarify|was there only one for the HBC company? or was he promoted to the position/role of surveyor?|date=March 2023}} 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{{r|NisbetSources|pages=39-41}}. He walked {{convert|80|mi|km|order=flip}} in the snow in order to enter the employ of the competition, the [[North West Company]]. There he continued to work as a [[fur trader]] and surveyor{{r|Tyrrell|pp=xli-xliii}}.

==North West Company==
Thompson's decision to defect to the [[North 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.{{r|NisbetEye|page=23}} In 1797, Thompson was sent south by his employers to survey part of the Canada-US boundary along the water routes from [[Lake Superior]] to [[Lake of the Woods]] to satisfy unresolved questions of territory arising from the [[Jay Treaty]] of 1794 between Great Britain and the United States after the American Revolutionary War.{{r|NisbetEye|pages=24–25}}

By 1798 Thompson had completed a survey of {{convert|6750|km|mi|abbr=on}} from [[Grand Portage]], through [[Lake Winnipeg]], to the [[River source|headwaters]] of the [[Assiniboine River|Assiniboine]] and [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] rivers, as well as two sides of [[Lake Superior]].<ref name="vanherk"/> In 1798, the company sent him to Red Deer Lake ([[Lac la Biche (Alberta)|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.)<ref name=AlbertaAtlas>{{cite web|url=http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/Projects/Alberta-Lakes/view/?region=Peace%20and%20Athabasca%20Region&basin=Athabasca%20River%20Basin&lake=Lac%20La%20Biche&number=1|publisher=University of Alberta|location=Edmonton, Alberta|title=Lac La Biche|series=Atlas of Alberta Lakes|year=2004|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610064531/http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/Projects/Alberta-Lakes/view/?region=Peace%20and%20Athabasca%20Region&basin=Athabasca%20River%20Basin&lake=Lac%20La%20Biche&number=1|archive-date=10 June 2015|access-date=27 March 2018}}</ref> Thompson spent the next few seasons trading based in [[Buckingham House (fur-trade post)#Fort George|Fort George]] (now in Alberta), and during this time led several expeditions into the [[Rocky Mountains]].{{r|Tyrrell|page=xlvi}}

On 10 July 1804, at the annual meeting of the North West Company in [[Fort William, Ontario|Kaministiquia]], 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.<ref>Thompson/Moreau p. xxxv</ref> He spent the next few seasons based there managing the fur trading operations, but still finding time to expand his surveys of the waterways around [[Lake Superior]]. At the 1806 company meeting, officers decided to send Thompson back into the interior. Concern over the United States-backed expedition of [[Lewis and Clark Expedition|Lewis 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 the [[Pacific Northwest]].{{r|NisbetEye|pages=35–38}}

==Columbia River travels==
[[File:Columbiarivermap.png|upright=1.35|thumb|David Thompson navigated the entire length of the [[Columbia River]] in 1811. This map of the Columbia and its tributaries shows modern political boundaries.]]

After the general meeting in 1806, Thompson travelled to [[Rocky Mountain House]] and prepared for an expedition to follow the [[Columbia River]] to the Pacific Ocean. In June 1807 Thompson crossed the Rocky Mountains and spent the summer surveying the [[Columbia River Drainage Basin|Columbia basin]]; he continued to survey the area over the next few seasons.{{r|NisbetEye|pages=38-65}} Thompson mapped and established trading posts in Northwestern [[Montana]], [[Idaho]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]], and [[Western Canada]]. Trading posts he founded included [[Kootenae House]], [[Kullyspell House]] and [[Saleesh House]]; the latter two were the first trading posts west of the Rockies in Idaho and Montana, respectively.<ref name="Gottfred" /> 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 the [[Cascade Mountains]] were of such high quality and detail that they continued to be useful into the 20th-century{{r|NisbetSources|page=258}}.

In early 1810, Thompson was returning eastward toward [[Montreal]] but, while en route at [[Rainy 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 entrepreneur [[John 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 of [[Northern Peigan|Peigan]] natives at [[Howse Pass]]. He was ultimately forced to seek a new route across the [[Rocky Mountains]] and found one through the [[Athabasca Pass]].{{r|NisbetEye|pages=85-91}}

David Thompson was the first European to navigate the full length of the Columbia River{{r|NisbetSources|pages=228-229}}. Between [[Kettle Falls]] (3 July 1811) and the Junction of the Columbia and [[Snake River]]s (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 1805 [[Lewis and Clark Expedition|Lewis 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 a [[trading post]] at the site.{{r|NisbetEye|pages=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 at [[Fort Okanogan]].<ref name="Laut">{{cite book |last1=Laut |first1=Agnes C. |title=Pioneers of the Pacific coast : a chronicle of sea rovers and fur hunters |date=1915 |publisher=Brook & company |location=Toronto |page=108}}</ref><ref name="Schafer">{{cite book |last1=Schafer |first1=J |title=A History of the Pacific Northwest |date=1918 |publisher=The Macmillan Company |location=New York |page=75}}</ref> The North West Company established its post of [[Fort Nez Percés]] near the Snake River confluence several years later.<ref name="Hines">{{cite journal |last1=Hines |first1=Clarence |title=The Erection of Fort Nez Perce |journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly |date=1939 |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=327–335 |jstor=20611211}}</ref> Continuing down the Columbia, Thompson passed over the [[Celilo Falls]], almost losing the canoe on the rocks, and portaged around the rapids of [[The Dalles, Oregon|The Dalles]] and the [[Cascades Rapids]]{{r|NisbetEye|pages=111-115}}. On 14 July 1811, Thompson reached the partially constructed [[Fort Astoria]] at the mouth of the Columbia, arriving two months after the [[Pacific Fur Company]]'s ship, the ''[[Tonquin (1807)|Tonquin]]''.<ref>{{cite book| last = Meinig| first = D.W.| author-link = D.W. Meinig| title = The Great Columbia Plain| edition = Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classic| orig-year = 1968| year = 1995| publisher = University of Washington Press| isbn = 978-0-295-97485-9| pages = 37–38, 50 }}</ref>

Before returning upriver and across the mountains, Thompson hired [[Naukane]], a [[Native Hawaiians|Native Hawaiian]] Takane labourer brought to Fort Astoria by the Pacific Fur Company's ship ''Tonquin''. Naukane, known as Coxe to Thompson, accompanied Thompson across the continent to [[Lake Superior]] before journeying on to England.<ref name="Kittelson">{{cite journal |last1=Kittelson |first1=David |title=John Coxe: Hawaii's First Soldier of Fortune |journal=Hawaii Historical Review |date=1965 |volume=1 |issue=10 |pages=194–198 |url=https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/12081/HHR-Vol1No10-1962.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808062213/https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/12081/HHR-Vol1No10-1962.pdf |archive-date=2019-08-08 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Thompson wintered at Saleesh House before beginning his final journey in 1812 back to Montreal, where the North West Company was based{{r|NisbetEye|pages=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 now [[Jasper, Alberta|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]", 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".<ref>Thompson, David. ''Columbia Journals''. Edited by Barbara Belyea. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994, p. 135</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Moreau |editor1-first=William E. |title=The Writings of David Thompson, Volume 1: The Travels, 1850 Version |date=2009 |publisher=The Publications of the Champlain Society |page=12 |doi=10.3138/9781442620766 |isbn=978-0-7735-3557-2 }}</ref>

==Appearance and personality==
[[File:DavidThompson.png|thumb|left|David Thompson late in life]]
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 in [[Montreal]]'s [[Golden Square Mile]]. He describes the party and some of the guests in his entertaining book ''The Shoe and Canoe'', giving an excellent description of David Thompson:

{{blockquote|text=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 the [[Wales|Welshman]], although he left his native hills when very young. I might have been spared this description of Mr David Thompson by saying he greatly resembled [[John Philpot Curran|Curran]] the Irish Orator...<ref name=Bigsby>{{cite book |first=John Jeremiah |last=Bigsby |title=The Shoe and Canoe: or Pictures of Travel in the Canadas; with Facts and Opinions on Emigration, State Policy, and Other Points of Public Interest |url=https://archive.org/details/shoeandcanoeorp01bigsgoog |year=1850 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |pages=[https://archive.org/details/shoeandcanoeorp01bigsgoog/page/n125 113]–114}}</ref>}}

{{blockquote|text=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 a [[tithe]] 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 the [[Rocky 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.<ref name=Bigsby/>}}

==Marriage and children==
On 10 June 1799 at [[Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan|Île-à-la-Crosse]], Thompson married [[Charlotte Small]], a thirteen-year-old [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis]] daughter of Scottish fur trader Patrick Small and a [[Cree]] mother.<ref>{{Cite DCB |last=Nicks |first=John |title=Thompson, David (1770–1857) |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/thompson_david_1770_1857_8E.html |volume=8}}</ref> Their marriage was formalised thirteen years later at the Scotch Presbyterian Church in [[Montreal]] on 30 October 1812{{r|NisbetSources|page=243}}. He and Charlotte had 13 children together;<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sterling|first1= Keir B.|title= David Thompson {{!}} Science and Its Times, edited by Neil Schlager and Josh Lauer, vol. 4: 1700 to 1799, Gale, 2000, p. 74. Gale Virtual Reference Library|url= http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3408501666/GVRL?u=lond95336&sid=GVRL&xid=df137bb4|accessdate= 20 January 2019}}</ref> five of them were born before he left the fur trade. The family did not adjust easily to life in [[Eastern Canada]]; they lived in Montreal while he was travelling. Two of the children, John (aged 5) and Emma (aged 7), died of [[Ascariasis|round worms]], a common parasite.<ref name="vanherk"/> By the time of Thompson's death, the couple had been married 57 years, the longest marriage known in Canada pre-[[Canadian Confederation|Confederation]].<ref name="vanherk"/>

==Later life==
[[File:1814ThompsonMap.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|left|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.]]
Upon his arrival back in Montreal, Thompson retired with a generous pension from the North West Company. He settled in nearby [[Terrebonne, Quebec|Terrebonne]] 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 the [[Archives of Ontario]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/exhibits/thompson/records.htm |title=David Thompson Records Held by the Archives of Ontario |website=[[Archives of Ontario]] |access-date=29 January 2019 |archive-date=2 August 2007 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070802143042/http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/exhibits/thompson/records.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1815, Thompson moved his family to [[Williamstown, Ontario|Williamstown, Upper Canada]],{{r|NisbetEye|page=135}} and a few years later was employed to survey the newly established borders with the United States from Lake of the Woods to the [[Eastern Townships]] of [[Quebec]], established by [[Treaty of Ghent]] after the [[War of 1812]].<ref name="Pollitt">{{cite journal |last1=Pollitt |first1=Frances L. |title=Mapping the International Boundary Between the United States and Canada 1797–1843 |journal=Journal of Map & Geography Libraries |date=2007 |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=97–110 |doi=10.1300/J230v03n02_06|s2cid=129281712 }}</ref> In 1843 Thompson completed his atlas of the region from [[Hudson Bay]] to the Pacific Ocean.{{r|NisbetSources|page=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.{{r|NisbetEye|pages=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.{{r|NisbetEye|page=143}}

==Death and afterward==
[[File:Stamp-Thompson-1957.jpg|thumb|upright|Postage stamp commemorating David Thompson's life]]

The land mass mapped by Thompson amounted to {{convert|3.9|e6km2|e6sqmi|abbr=off}} of wilderness (one-fifth of the continent). His contemporary, the great explorer [[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Alexander Mackenzie]], remarked that Thompson did more in ten months than he would have thought possible in two years.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/davidthompsonsna12thom|page=[https://archive.org/details/davidthompsonsna12thom/page/297 297]|title=David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations in Western America, 1784–1812|last=Thompson|first=David|date=1916|publisher=Champlain Society|language=en}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://secure.indas.on.ca/canadiangeo/store/index.php?site=default&feature=CG-200704 |first=Rick |last=Boychuk |title=David Thompson's living legacy |website=canadiangeographic.ca |publisher=Canadian Geographic Magazine |year=2007 |series=July/August |volume=127 |issue=4 |page=13 |url-access=subscription |access-date=27 March 2018 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In the 1890s geologist [[Joseph Tyrrell|J.B. Tyrrell]] resurrected Thompson's notes and in 1916 published them as ''David Thompson's Narrative'', as part of the General Series of the [[Champlain Society]].<ref name=Tyrrell/> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title = David Thompson's Narrative, 1784–1812 (volume II)|doi = 10.3138/9781442618237|first = David|last = Thompson|publisher = Champlain Society|year = 1962|isbn = 978-1-4426-1823-7|editor-last = Glover|editor-first = Richard}}</ref>

[[File:LLB Thompson statue.jpg|thumb|left|upright|David Thompson and two First Nations guides on the shore of [[Lac la Biche (Alberta)|Lac la Biche]], where he landed on 4 October 1798.]]
Thompson's body was interred in Montreal's [[Mount Royal Cemetery]] in an unmarked grave. It was not until 1926 that efforts by [[Joseph Tyrrell|J.B. Tyrrell]] and the Canadian Historical Society resulted in the placing of a tombstone to mark his grave. The next year, Thompson was named a [[Persons of National Historic Significance|National Historic Person]] by the federal government, one of the earliest such designations.<ref>[http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=899 David Thompson National Historic Person], Directory of Federal Heritage Designations, Parks Canada</ref> A federal plaque reflecting that status is at [[Jasper National Park]], Alberta. Meantime, Thompson's achievements are central reasons for other national historic designations:
* David Thompson on the Columbia River [[Events of National Historic Significance|National Historic Event]], marked at [[Castlegar, BC]]
* [[Athabasca Pass]] [[National Historic Sites of Canada|National Historic Site]] (NHS), at Jasper National Park
* Boat Encampment NHS, BC
* [[Howse Pass]] NHS, [[Banff National Park]], Alberta
* [[Kootenae House]] NHS, BC
* [[Rocky Mountain House]] NHS, Alberta

[[File:David n Charlotte Thompson grave Montreal QC IMG 6598.jpg|thumb|right|upright|David & Charlotte Thompson's gravestone in Mount Royal Cemetery]]

In 1957, one hundred years after his death, Canada's [[Canada Post|post office department]] honoured him with his image on a [[List of people on stamps of Canada|postage stamp]]. The [[David Thompson Highway]] in Alberta was named in his honour, along with David Thompson High School on the side of the highway near [[Leslieville, Alberta|Leslieville]], 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."<ref name="tyrrell">''[http://link.library.utoronto.ca/champlain/item_record.cfm?Idno=9_96855&lang=eng&query=thompson%20AND%20david&searchtype=Author&startrow=1&Limit=All David Thompson's narrative of his explorations in western America, 1784–1812]{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}'' (edited by J.B. Tyrrell)</ref><ref name="vanherk"/>

There is a monument dedicated to David Thompson (maintained by the state of [[North Dakota]]) near the former town site of the ghost town [[Verendrye, North Dakota|Verendrye]], North Dakota, located approximately {{convert|2|mi}} north and {{convert|1|mi}} west of [[Karlsruhe, North Dakota|Karlsruhe]], North Dakota.<ref name=Verendrye>{{cite journal |url= http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/6/v06i03p283-313.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020194508/http://collections.mnhs.org/mnhistorymagazine/articles/6/v06i03p283-313.pdf |archive-date=2012-10-20 |url-status=live |title= The Upper Missouri Historical Expedition |journal= [[Minnesota History (journal)|Minnesota History]] |page= 305 |publisher= [[Minnesota Historical Society]] |volume= 6 |issue= 3 |year= 1925}}</ref> [[Thompson Falls, Montana|Thompson Falls]], Montana, and British Columbia's [[Thompson River]] and Thompson Falls on the Blaeberry River are also named after the explorer.<ref name="White1942">{{cite journal |last1=White |first1=M. Catherine |title=Saleesh House: the first trading post among the Flathead |journal=The Pacific Northwest Quarterly |date=1942 |volume=33 |issue=370–380 |pages=251–263 |jstor=41441196}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Rivers of North America|last1 = Benke|first1 = Arthur C.|publisher = Elsevier|year = 2005|isbn = 978-0120882533|location = Boston|first2 = Colbert E.|last2 = Cushing|page=708 |url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/riversofnorthame0000unse}}</ref>

[[File:David Thompson Monument.JPG|thumb|right|upright|David Thompson Memorial, Verendrye, North Dakota]]
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.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.davidthompson200.org/| title = David Thompson Bicentennials| access-date = 28 June 2007| archive-date = 13 May 2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070513045207/http://www.davidthompson200.org/| url-status = dead}}</ref>

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 presenter [[Ray Mears]].<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/britain-who-charted-canada-honoured-at-home-455181.html | title = Briton who charted Canada honoured at home | newspaper = [[The Independent]] | date = 29 June 2007 | access-date = 12 January 2009 | first = Ian | last = Herbert }}{{Dead link|date=August 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="HBC History Foundation"/>

Thompson was the subject of a 1964 [[National Film Board of Canada]] short film ''David Thompson: The Great Mapmaker '',<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.nfb.ca/film/david_thompson_the_great_mapmaker/| title = ''David Thompson: The Great Mapmaker '', National Film Board of Canada}}</ref> as well as the [[BBC2]] programme ''[[Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness]]'' (Episode 5), broadcast in November 2009.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8354658.stm BBC Wales news report]. Retrieved 25 November 2009.</ref> He's also the subject of 2010 [[KSPS-TV]] film ''Uncharted Territory: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau''.<ref name="ksps-UT">{{cite web |title=Uncharted Territory: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau |url=https://www.pbs.org/video/ksps-documentaries-uncharted-territory-david-thompson-on-the-columbia-plateau/ |website=PBS |publisher=PBS.org |access-date=16 November 2020 |format=DVD;56m |date=2010}}</ref>

He is referenced in the 1981 [[folk music|folk]] song [[Northwest Passage (song)|"Northwest Passage"]] by [[Stan Rogers]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rogers |first1=Stan |title=Northwest Passage |url=https://genius.com/Stan-rogers-northwest-passage-lyrics |website=Genius |access-date=2 August 2020}}</ref>

The national park service, [[Parks Canada]], announced in 2018 that it had named its new research vessel {{ship|RV|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 the [[Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site|Wrecks of HMS ''Erebus'' and HMS ''Terror'' National Historic Site]].<ref>[https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2018/03/rv-david-thompson---parks-canadas-new-research-vessel.html RV David Thompson – Parks Canada’s New Research Vessel], Parks Canada backgrounder, 16 March 2018</ref>

The David Thompson Astronomical Observatory at [[Fort William Historical Park]] was named to commemorate David Thompson and his discoveries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://fwhp.ca/observatory|title=Observatory – Fort William Historical Park|access-date=25 July 2019|archive-date=10 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710085713/http://fwhp.ca/observatory|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Exploration of North America]]
* [[Fur trade]]

==Works==
* 1814: Map of the North-West Territory of the Province of Canada
* 1897: ''New light on the early history of the greater Northwest'' (edited by Elliott Coues) [https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.30487 Volume I]; [https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.30488 Volume II]; [https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.30489 Volume III]
* 1916: ''[https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_92052/3 David Thompson's narrative of his explorations in western America, 1784–1812]'' (edited by J.B. Tyrrell)
* 1950: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=cJenGAAACAAJ&pg=PP1 David Thompson's journals relating to Montana and adjacent regions, 1808–1812]'' (edited by M. Catherine White)
* 1962: ''[https://archive.today/20130101104245/http://link.library.utoronto.ca/champlain/item_record.cfm?Idno=9_96867&lang=eng&query=9_96867&searchtype=Bibrecord&startrow=1&Limit=All David Thompson's narrative, 1784–1812]'' (edited by Richard Glover)
* 1974: ''David Thompson's journal of the international boundary survey, 1817–1827: western Lake Erie, August–September 1819'' (edited by Clarke E. Leverette)
* 1993: ''Columbia Journals'' (edited by Barbara Belyea)
* 2006: "[http://www.arcturusconsulting.net/products.htm Moccasin Miles – The Travels of Charlotte Small Thompson 1799–1812] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227122700/http://www.arcturusconsulting.net/products.htm |date=27 February 2009 }}" Contemporary and Historical Maps: Charlotte Small (S. Leanne Playter/Andreas N. Korsos|Publisher: Arcturus Consulting)
* 2006/2007: [http://www.arcturusconsulting.net/products.htm "David Thompson in Alberta 1787–1812"; "David Thompson on the Columbia River 1807–1812"; "The Explorations and Travels of David Thompson 1784–1812"; "Posts and Forts of the North American Fur Trade 1600–1870"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227122700/http://www.arcturusconsulting.net/products.htm |date=27 February 2009 }} Contemporary and Historical Maps: David Thompson (Andreas N. Korsos|Publisher: Arcturus Consulting)
* 2010 : Official Documentary of Thompson was released by national geographic, ca.

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Notes==
* {{cite book| last = Jenish| first = D'Arcy| title = Epic wanderer: David Thompson and the mapping of the Canadian West| year = 2003| publisher = Doubleday Canada| location = Toronto| isbn = 978-0-385-65973-4 }}
* {{cite book| last = Thompson| first = David| title = Columbia Journals| year = 1994| publisher = McGill-Queen's University Press| location = Montreal| isbn = 978-0-7735-0989-4 }}
* {{cite web  | title = David Thompson Canada's greatest Geographer  | work = David Thompson Things  | url = http://www.davidthompsonthings.com/geog1.html  | access-date = 23 June 2007  | url-status = dead  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080123095015/http://www.davidthompsonthings.com/geog1.html  | archive-date = 23 January 2008  }}
* {{cite map |title=The Explorations and Travels of David Thompson 1784–1812 |work=Andreas N. Korsos |publisher=Arcturus Consulting |url=http://www.arcturusconsulting.net/shop.htm |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-9783707-2-5 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228103922/http://www.arcturusconsulting.net/shop.htm |archive-date=28 February 2009  }}
* 2006: "Moccasin Miles – The Travels of Charlotte Small Thompson 1799–1812" Contemporary and Historical Maps: Charlotte Small (S. Leanne Playter/Andreas N. Korsos|Publisher: Arcturus Consulting)

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|author=Andra-Warner, Elle|title=David Thompson: A Life of Adventure and Discovery|publisher=Heritage House Publishing Co. Ltd.|year=2010}}
* {{cite book|last=Cochrane |first=Charles Norris |editor-last=Wallace |editor-first=William Stewart |author-link=Charles Norris Cochrane |editor-link=William Stewart Wallace|title=David Thompson |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20221227 |publisher=The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited |year=1924}}
* {{cite book|author=Flandrau, Grace|title=Koo-koo-sint, the Star Man: a chronicle of David Thompson|publisher=Great Northern Railway|year=1925}} [https://archive.today/20121214120528/http://www.secstate.wa.gov/history/publications_detail.aspx?p=86 Available online through the Washington State Library's Classics in Washington History collection]
* {{cite book|author=Haywood, Carl W.|title=Sometime Only Horses to Eat: David Thompson; The Saleesh House Period 1807–1812: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America|publisher=Stonydale Press Publishing Co.|year=2008}}
* {{cite book|author=Jenish, D'Arcy|title=Epic Wanderer: David Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West|publisher=Doubleday Canada|year=2003}}
* {{cite book|author=McCart, Joyce and Peter|title=On the Road with David Thompson|publisher=Fifth House|year=2000}}
* {{cite book|author=Nisbet, Jack |author-link=Jack Nisbet (writer) |title=Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America|url=https://archive.org/details/sourcesofrivertr0000nisb|url-access=registration|publisher=Sasquatch Books|year=1994}}
* {{cite book|last=Tyrrell |first=Joseph Burr |author-link=Joseph Tyrrell |title=David Thompson, Canada's Greatest Geographer |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20140840 |year=1922}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{Archival records|title=Thompson papers}}
* David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations in Western America 1784–1812 Vol's I and II, Champlain Society 1916, [https://archive.org/download/davidthompsonsna00thom/davidthompsonsna00thom_bw.pdf PDF (B/W) 25.1 MB]
* [http://link.library.utoronto.ca/champlain/item_record.cfm?Idno=9_96855&lang=eng&query=thompson%20AND%20david&searchtype=Author&startrow=1&Limit=All Complete text of David Thompson's ''Narrative'' (Tyrrell edition)]{{Dead link|date=December 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Champlain Society digital collection
* [https://champlainsociety.utpjournals.press/doi/book/10.3138/9781442618237 Complete text of David Thompson's ''Narrative'' (Glover edition)] Champlain Society digital collection
* {{Oregon Encyclopedia|thompson_david|David Thompson}}
* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=4218 Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'']
* ''[http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/thompson/index.aspx David Thompson: Map Maker, Explorer and Visionary]'', online exhibit on Archives of Ontario website
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060719085105/http://www.davidthompson200.org/cms/ DavidThompson200]: bicentennial commemorations of Thompson's explorations
* KSPS Public TV ([[PBS]]), {{YouTube|EccSnNgQP7c|Uncharted Territory: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau}}, Narrative of David Thompson's life and travels. / Feb 2011
* [https://champlainsociety.utpjournals.press/doi/book/10.3138/9781442620766 The Writings of David Thompson] edited by William E. Moreau. Three volumes.
* [http://www.library.utoronto.ca/fisher/collections/findaids/thompson_david.pdf David Thompson Papers, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208061133/http://www.library.utoronto.ca/fisher/collections/findaids/thompson_david.pdf |date=8 December 2015 }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, David}}
[[Category:North West Company]]
[[Category:English surveyors]]
[[Category:Canadian people of Welsh descent]]
[[Category:English cartographers]]
[[Category:English explorers]]
[[Category:Canadian cartographers]]
[[Category:Canadian male canoeists]]
[[Category:Canadian explorers]]
[[Category:Canadian surveyors]]
[[Category:English emigrants to pre-Confederation Canada]]
[[Category:Explorers of British Columbia]]
[[Category:Explorers of Canada]]
[[Category:North West Company people]]
[[Category:People from Westminster]]
[[Category:People from Montreal]]
[[Category:Pre-Confederation Quebec people]]
[[Category:Interior of British Columbia]]
[[Category:Hudson's Bay Company people]]
[[Category:1770 births]]
[[Category:1857 deaths]]
[[Category:History of the Pacific Northwest]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:Explorers of Washington (state)]]
[[Category:People educated at Grey Coat Hospital]]
[[Category:English explorers of North America]]
[[Category:Welsh topographers]]
[[Category:Burials at Mount Royal Cemetery]]