David Thompson (April 30, 1770 – February 10, 1857), was an English-Canadian map-maker and explorer. He was born in London and died in Montreal (now Quebec, then Canada East in the Province of Canada).

Thompson was a fur trader of the Hudson's Bay Company and North West Company. From 1792 to 1812, he explored and mapped the country west of Hudson Bay and Lake Superior, across the Rocky Mountains to the headwaters of the Columbia River and down the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. He was the first European to explore the Columbia from source to mouth. He joined the Hudson's Bay Company as an apprentice in 1784. In 1797, he left the Hudson's Bay Company and joined the North West Company. 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 regarded as authoritative well into the mid-20th century.

The land mass mapped by Thompson amounted to 3.9 million square kilometres of wilderness (one-fifth of the continent). His contemporary, the great explorer Alexander Mackenzie, remarked that Thompson did more in ten months than he would have thought possible in two years. 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. Thompson also completed the exacting survey of much of the Canada-U.S. boundary along the 49th parallel in the west, and from the St. Lawrence River to Lake of the Woods.

He married Charlotte Small, a Métis, the "Woman of the Paddle Song." He and Charlotte had 13 children.

In his published journals, Thompson recorded seeing large footprints near what is now Jasper, Alberta, in 1811. It has been suggested that these prints were similar to what has since been called the sasquatch.

Thompson died in Montreal in near obscurity, his achievements almost unrecognized. He is interred there in the Mount Royal Cemetery. However, in 1957, one hundred years after his death, the Canadian government honoured him with his image on a Canadian postage stamp. His prowess as a geographer is now well-recognized. He has been called "the greatest land geographer who ever lived."

External links

• Complete text of David Thompson's Narrative (Tyrrell edition) Champlain Society digital collection
• Complete text of David Thompson's Narrative (Glover edition) Champlain Society digital collection
• Join the 2008 David Thompson Brigade: canoeing expedition following Thompson's routes
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• "The greatest land geographer who ever lived: A short history" by J.B. Tyrell
• David Thompson Canadian Fur Trader and Mapmaker
• The Life of David Thompson
• How David Thompson Navigated A technical, in-depth study of the methods used by David Thompson, based on his journals
• Bigfoot Encounters: David Thompson
• DavidThompson200: bicentennial commemorations of Thompson's explorations

1770 births | 1857 deaths | English cartographers | English explorers | English surveyors | Canadian cartographers | Canadian explorers | Canadian surveyors | English immigrants to Canada | Explorers of Canada | Explorers of British Columbia | Canadian adventurers | Londoners | People from Quebec

David Thompson | David Thompson | David Thompson