Learn / People who shaped Canada

David Thompson

Surveyor and mapmaker · 1770-1857

Mapped close to four million square kilometres, and died poor, blind and forgotten.

Follow this life on the map

Life story

1. April 30, 1770 · London, England
   Born in Westminster to a poor Welsh family
2. 1784 · Churchill, Manitoba
   Apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company at fourteen and sent to Churchill
3. 1807 · Howse Pass, Rocky Mountains
   Crossed Howse Pass and began mapping the Columbia basin
4. July 15, 1811 · Oregon Country
   Reached the mouth of the Columbia River
5. 1814 · Terrebonne, Quebec
   Completed his great map of the North-West, used for decades
6. February 10, 1857 · Longueuil, Quebec
   Died at Longueuil in poverty

Sources

• Wikipedia article: David Thompson (explorer)
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography
• The Canadian Encyclopedia