Thompson, David

THOMPSON, David, fur trader, mapmaker (b 30 Apr 1770, London, England; d 10 Feb 1857, Longueuil, QC). He joined the HBC as an apprentice in 1784 and came out to York Factory on Hudson Bay. While serving inland he studied surveying and mapmaking, and he defected from the HBC to join the NORTH WEST CO in 1797 because his new employer gave him freer rein to indulge his interest in exploring. By 1806 he had completed his surveys of the fur country east of the ROCKY MTS, and with the help of aboriginal guides he began to probe the mountain passes, looking for a way across them. In 1807 he made his way over the Rockies via HOWSE PASS and reached the banks of the COLUMBIA R near present-day GOLDEN. He then travelled south and built KOOTENAE HOUSE near the present site of INVERMERE; for 2 years he used this site as a base from which to explore and trade in southeast BC, Idaho and Montana. Thompson was on his way back east to Fort Williamin 1810 when he received orders to re-cross the Rockies immediately and to follow the Columbia to its mouth, where a set of rival American traders was heading. After hiding from a party of hostile Piegans he managed to struggle across the mountains, and in the spring of 1811 he embarked in a CEDAR board canoe for the Pacific Ocean. On 14 July he arrived to find the Americans already installed in Fort Astoria. He then returned east and followed the Columbia to its headwaters, becoming the first person to travel the length of the river and therefore the pioneer of the main FUR TRADE transport route connecting the Interior with the Pacific. Thompson retired from the fur trade in 1812 and lived in Upper Canada, where he completed his maps and worked for many years as a surveyor. Late in his life he wrote his great Narrative, one of the classic accounts of fur trade exploration.
Reading: Richard Glover, ed, David Thompson's Narrative 1784–1812, 1962.