Artist's conception of David Thompson. Oil painting by Alice Marshall ©.
|
Parks Canada Salutes David Thompson
Through its national parks, national historic sites and heritage rivers, Parks Canada celebrates the spirit of Canada’s greatest explorer. David Thompson opened up the continent and charted the course of the Canadian imagination.
The 14-year-old lad from London arrived at Hudson Bay in 1784 with a new way of seeing the world, a European view that would direct the future of two nations. By horseback, canoe, dogsled and on foot, this multi-talented man travelled more than 90,000 kilometres. His great map offered the first clear vision of Canada.
Many of the natural wonders Thompson saw and the travel routes and historic places that link us to his time have become national parks and historic sites. These places define Canada and follow Thompson’s example in connecting the land, the waters, the past and the people.
The points of David Thompson’s moral compass—truth, co-operation, fairness and respect—still inspire the Canadian consciousness and illuminate our national spirit. They always will.
The Many Lives of David Thompson
Naturalist
Thompson is a keen observer and keeps daily journals detailing his meteorological, astronomical and wildlife observations. His scientific attitude gives him an endless desire to understand and interpret the natural world. He is curious about Aboriginal peoples and their extensive knowledge of hunting, fishing and living off the land. He knows that he must depend on them and views them as partners in commerce.
Fur Trader
Throughout most of his career with the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company, Thompson is an active trader with Aboriginal peoples. He establishes the Columbia fur trade and new trading posts in British Columbia, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. He also plays an important role in trans-mountain trade, which Simon Fraser establishes in 1806. Thompson often travels with his wife, Charlotte Small, a mixed-blood Scot/Cree from the Upper Churchill River. He takes Charlotte and their five children with him when he moves to Montréal in the summer of 1812. It is her first time east of Lake Superior, and war with the United States makes it a harrowing journey.
Writer
Thompson’s Narrative is one of the world’s great travel books. This memoir of his western explorations, along with his 77 field journals, provides detail for generations of historians. Thompson records events of the fur trade during its greatest expansion. He describes landscapes long since altered by industry and settlement, and provides a first-hand account of Aboriginal peoples at crucial moments of first contact with Europeans. In his later years, he writes for newspapers and pens many letters to senior government officials expressing his thoughts and ideas.
Scientific Explorer and Innovator
Best known for his trans-mountain explorations, Thompson also spends 28 years exploring more than 90,000 kilometres of northwestern North America, equivalent to travelling twice around the planet. He completes the long-sought inland Northwest Passage, proving that the Columbia River is a navigable route to the Pacific. Raised in the sizzling intellectual climate of London in the late 1700s, Thompson has learned and absorbed new ideas such as the scientific method. His disciplined approach to recording data gives his maps astonishing accuracy. He frequently invents ingenious devices.
Cartographer
David Thompson is perhaps the world’s foremost geographer, mapping 3.9 million square kilometres (1/6th) of North America. His meticulously detailed maps, which fix the positions of dozens of trading posts and trade routes, are used into the 20th century. He maps the Columbia River from its source to its mouth. He surveys the border between Upper and Lower Canada in what is now Ontario and Québec and explores a proposed canal route from Georgian Bay/Lake Huron to the Ottawa River. As official astronomer to the British Boundary Commission, he travels and maps the U.S./Canada border from Cornwall to Lake of the Woods.
