When was david thompson born

The Great Northern Railroad donated the land to the state and commissioned and erected the monument, which was dedicated on July 17, The pedestal under the globe bears the following inscription:.

Passed near here in and on a scientific and trading expedition. He made the first map of the country which is now North Dakota and achieved many noteworthy discoveries in the Northwest. Bismarck, North Dakota Get Directions. His parents had only recently migrated from Wales to London when he was born and less than two years later his father died, leaving David, his mother, and a younger brother, John, in financial difficulty.

At age seven Thompson was admitted to the Grey Coat Hospital, a charity school established to provide a moral and practical education to the poor children of Westminster, and, once accepted, he appears to have maintained little direct contact with his family. In the fall of the London committee of the HBC ordered Thompson down to York Factory and he made the mile trip south on foot with two Indians, living off the land.

Thompson was sent inland in the summer of , and in September he left Cumberland House Sask. At Cumberland House the following summer he appears to have perfected a working knowledge of the Cree language, an essential skill for a prospective fur trader in that region. The chief at this post was George Hudson, a former Grey Coat Hospital boy and apprentice whose moral and physical deterioration served Thompson as a lasting object-lesson on the dangers of long isolation.

During that summer Thompson also underwent a religious experience which he described as a game of draughts with the devil.

The experience had a strong influence on his conduct for the rest of his life and confirmed him in his abstemious habits and pious beliefs. He passed the winter of —88 with Peigan Indians in the Rocky Mountain foothills and learned their language.

Back at Manchester House in the fall of , he seriously fractured his right leg on 23 December in a sled accident. In the spring he was carried down to Cumberland House where he was gradually nursed back to health.

By the end of the summer of he had regained enough strength to move around with the help of crutches, although he was not ready to withstand the voyage back up the river and was left to spend the winter at Cumberland House. By the spring Thompson had not yet recovered his strength and, to make matters worse, he had lost the sight in his right eye.

As a consequence he was not considered by Turnor for the expedition to Lake Athabasca. Instead, Fidler and Ross were chosen to complete the party.

Thompson was sent down to York Factory to finish his apprenticeship under the direction of Colen, who had replaced Marten as resident chief there. To his credit, Thompson was determined that his training under Turnor should not be wasted. His interest in surveying and astronomy had been thoroughly aroused. On 30 Aug. Over the next year, when not busy with his duties as clerk or writer, Thompson carefully worked up the survey observations he had made while travelling from Cumberland House to York Factory and he submitted them to the London committee with a further request to be sent on surveys.

Furthermore, his request for surveying instruments was granted. He therefore had every reason to hope that he would soon be recognized as surveyor for the company and he probably contemplated replacing Turnor in that position.

It was not a vain hope. This survey was to provide information about communications in the area, a new arena of competition between the HBC and the North West Company, and about the rivers flowing through it, which were believed to provide a more direct route to Lake Athabasca by way of Reindeer Lake.

After wintering at a post he built on Sipiwesk Lake Man. Unable to proceed to Reindeer Lake without a proper guide, he returned to York Factory. Thompson was sent up the Saskatchewan. Any plans for exploration that winter appear to have been abandoned because of the unsettled relations with the Indians.

He spent the winter at Buckingham House and in the spring of returned to Cumberland House, surveying those portions of the North Saskatchewan River not already mapped. Ross and Thompson, who was to accompany Ross as his assistant, were forced to abandon their plans to proceed from Cumberland House to Lake Athabasca when the canoemen refused to proceed on the expedition without new contracts at a higher rate of pay.

Tomison, now inland chief, would not promise the higher rates, arguing that he did not have authorization from London to do so, but Colen and most of the other HBC officers believed that Tomison was opposed to the project out of fear that it would weaken his position. Convinced that Tomison would never willingly support an expedition from Cumberland House, Thompson and Ross decided to pursue the alternate route through Reindeer Lake. Accordingly, in June they headed off with the few servants specifically assigned to them over Cranberry Portage Man.

Thompson continued northeastward to York Factory to obtain the additional men and supplies needed for the expedition. There he was delayed 21 days by the late arrival of the supply ship, and, by the time he arrived back at Reed Lake on 2 September, it was too late in the year to proceed any farther. At last it seemed as if the long-delayed Athabasca expedition would get off the ground. Starting up the Nelson on 18 July, they were only able to reach the Churchill River before they had to set up quarters for the winter: Thompson at Duck Portage Sask.

Finally, in , while Ross went down to the bay for a new outfit of supplies, Thompson dashed north from Fairford House with two young Chipewyan guides and reached the east end of Lake Athabasca. The six-week return trip was accomplished under difficult and sometimes hazardous conditions. The route surveyed, however, proved to be a major disappointment; barely passable in the early summer with a small canoe, it was impassable when Thompson and Ross attempted to reach Lake Athabasca in September with three large canoes loaded with trade goods.

As a consequence, they were forced to spend an unproductive and uncomfortable winter at Bedford House, a post they built on the west side of Reindeer Lake. Remember me. I forgot my password. Why sign up? Create Account. Suggest an Edit. Enter your suggested edit s to this article in the form field below. Accessed 12 November In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published January 07, ; Last Edited March 04, The Canadian Encyclopedia , s.

Thank you for your submission Our team will be reviewing your submission and get back to you with any further questions. Thanks for contributing to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Article by Don Gilmore. It was a poor repayment to an employer that had treated him well and trained him as a surveyor.

It was his surveying skill and his wilderness experience which made Thompson welcome at the North West Company, the great rival of the Hudson's Bay Company for the fur trade of the Northwest. The wealth of the company allowed him to devote most of the time from to to surveying and exploring with only infrequent periods of actually engaging in the fur trade. In he was made a partner in the company.

For several years Thompson made extensive journeys through the western plains, the Rocky Mountains, and along the Pacific slope, mapping and surveying as he traveled. In he undertook the expedition for which he is best known. The Columbia River had long been a magnet for western traders, and Thompson was the first to travel the river from its source to its mouth.