Ever heard of a man named David Thompson? Not many people
have. This man should be one of Canada's most heroic figures.
But he's not.
Between 1792 and 1812 he roamed over a huge area of land in
western Canada and a large portion of the northwestern United
States and he mapped much of what he had seen. It’s been said
that Thompson made Lewis and Clark look like tourists. Thompson
covered 80,000 miles by foot, horseback, dog sled and
canoe—compared with Lewis and Clark’s 8,000-some miles.
His maps, made with relatively crude instruments and
seat-of-the-buckskin-pants reckoning, covered more than 1.5 million
square miles and stand up well to today’s satellite images.
On his journeys through the wilderness he compiled 77 journals
filled with keen observations of wildlife, vegetation and geology.
He carried with him the essential tools of a surveyor, including a
sextant, compass, watch, and a set of astronomical charts and
tables. A small pan filled with mercury served as an artificial
horizon.
Thompson came to Canada from England when he was 14 years
old, joined the Hudson Bay Co and was sent at the age of 15 deep
into the wilderness to start a trading post. Three years later he
broke his leg and wrote that the injury was one of the most
fortunate events of his life, for during his recuperation he met
the companys most prominent surveyor who took a liking to him and
began teaching him mathematics and practical astrology. Here was
laid the foundation for his map-making skills. His love of
cartography caused him to leave the Hudson Bay Company and begin
working for the rival Northwest Company where he was given free
rein to pursue his love. He then ranged far and wide mapping and
surveying from Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean and from present
Montana, Idaho and Washington to northern Alberta and Saskatchewan.
He located the source of the Columbia River and narrowly missed
finding the source of the Mississippi River. He fixed the positions
of fur trading posts, Indian villages, trade routes, and rivers and
lakes, and some of the earliest maps he made were known by Lewis
and Clark and Thomas Jefferson.
He died a pauper in 1857 and was buried in an unmarked grave
in Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal. No known photographs of him
exist.
Imagine what he could have done with a GPS.
To avoid the need for stealth along this sometimes busy
section of trail I've included a photo spoiler of the
location.
Bring a writing tool.
Learn more about how people knew where they were on the
planet in the old days. Sextant