For the Hudson's Bay Company, and then as a wintering partner for the North West Company, David Thompson traveled fifty-five thousand miles. The map prepared by David Thompson filled in the blank spaces on one million nine hundred thousand square miles of northwest Canada. But this was not his only contribution to our historical heritage. David Thompson and his men erected the first establishments west of the Continental Divide in Washington, Idaho, and Montana. He opened the first trade with the northwestern Indian tribes of the United States and Lower Canada. David Thompson recorded  the first information on Northern Plains Indian warfare, guns, and horses (Josephy, Ewers). David Thompson accomplished all of this, much to the chagrin of several North West partners, without trading whiskey to the Indians.

                       David Thompson Map-National Geographic, May 1996

The North West Company map from Lake Superior and Hudson Bay to the mouth of the Columbia River prepared by David Thompson covered an area of two million three hundred and forty thousand square miles. The David Thompson map hung in the Great Hall of the North West Company headquarters at Fort William on Thunder Bay on Lake Superior. In 1814, he revised all of his surveys into a second great map  measuring six and a half by ten feet long. The revised David Thompson map showed an accurate location of all the North West Company posts. 

David Thompson was born in Westminster, England, April 30, 1770. His Welsh father died when he was two years old. At the age of seven, his mother enrolled him in the charitable Grey Coat School near Westminster Abbey. At the age of fourteen, he  apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company as a clerk, Thompson, arrived at Churchill Factory on Hudson Bay in September of 1784. His first two years were spent on the shores of Hudson Bay at the Churchill and York factories before being stationed at several posts on the Saskatchewan River.

Thompson spent the winter of 1787-88 on the Bow River...not far from Calgary. From a Cree Indian named Saukamapee, Thompson learned and later recorded in his narratives the only known Plains Indian history before the arrival of white men (Josephy). During the winter, Saukamapee described two battles between the Blackfeet and the Shoshone (Ewers). The first one occurred around 1720. Saukamapee told him as the warriors approached each other both sides shouted, leaped, and sang. About a hundred yards apart, each group stopped and sat behind their shields. The warriors’ arrows could not penetrate the thick rawhide shields, but having smaller shields, a few Blackfeet were wounded. The fighting stopped at dusk, and the participants went home. During a battle lasting most of the day, there were only a few minor wounds. Not a single warrior was killed. 

 The second battle occurred ten years later. Saukamapee and nine other Cree were at the Blackfeet camp and offered to help. The Cree had guns from Hudson's Bay or North West traders. The battle started the same, but when the Cree fired the muzzleloaders, the noise panicked the Snakes (Shoshone). The warriors fled, and several were killed with bows and lances.

 Horses were not used in this battle; however, a few days later, a Snake Indian and his horse was killed. Despite the horse being dead, people from a nearby village would not get too close. The strange animal carried a man and his possessions, so the Blackfeet called it Big Dog. Later, mainly because of its size, the name for a horse was changed to Elk Dog.

In December of 1788, David Thompson fell down a steep creek bank and broke his leg. The break was so severs, he might lose his leg. After spending several months at Manchester House on the North Saskatchewan River, he was sent downriver to Cumberland House. Located on the Saskatchewan River near Lake Winnipeg, Cumberland House was the first interior trading post built by the Hudson's Bay Company. From Cumberland House, men with canoes could reach the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean. There were many portages on the water routes, but none took more than a day (O'Meara).

Hudson's Bay Company's astronomer, Philip Turnor, was at Cumberland House planning a surveying expedition to the Athabasca country. Over the winter, Turnor tutored the convalescing David in surveying and practical astronomy. During his navigational training, Thompson lost the sight in his right eye probably from staring at the sun (Gottfred).

Despite a limp and the loss of sight in one eye, surveying and mapping became David Thompson's passion. When his apprenticeship expired, Thompson signed on for another seven years. Instead of the customary suit of clothes for reenlisting, Thompson requested the Hudson’s Bay Company furnish him with a compass, watches, thermometers, sextant, an artificial horizon, and Nautical Almanacs. With his new instruments, Thompson spent the next several years exploring and trading around York Factory and in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

                                      Elk shedding velvet off antlers - Google

Dissatisfied with the Hudson’s Bay Company’s emphasis on the Indian fur trade, David Thompson resigned after his term of service was up. He joined the North West Company at its Grand Portage headquarters on Lake Superior in July of  1797.

Thompson’s first assignment was to determine the longitude and latitude of the North West Company posts affected by the Jay Treaty of 1794. This treaty required the North West Company to respect the boundary  set forth by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the American Revolution. Enforcing the Jay Treaty was difficult because the precise location of the boundary was unclear.

In November, David Thompson and nine men set out to determine the location of the Missouri River Mandan villages. The permanent Missouri River Indian villages of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara were the site of trade fairs between the Plains Indians and the Hudson’s Bay and North West fur traders. From the Mandan villages, Thompson proceeded east to Turtle Lake which he declared to be the headwaters of the Mississippi…the actual headwaters was later determined to be a few miles away. Continuing on, he surveyed the south shore of Lake Superior to Sault Ste. Marie. From there, David Thompson mapped the east shore and most of the north shore of Lake Superior before arriving back at Grand Portage in June of 1798. In a ten-month period, David Thompson mapped close to four thousand miles. Based on his survey, the North West Company moved its headquarters at Grand Portage inland to Fort Kaministiquia (Thunder Bay, Ontario). The fort was renamed Fort William in 1807.

David Thompson’s map from this survey was an important resource for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Following Albert Gallatin’s instructions, the mapmaker Nicholas King incorporated Thompson’s drawings of the upper Missouri onto a map for the expedition. A tracing from Thompson’s map showing the Great Bend of the Missouri is on display in the Library of Congress. A notation on the front of the map in President Jefferson’s hand reads: “Bend of the Missouri, Long. 101° 25' Lat. 47° 32' by Mr. Thomson astronomer to the N.W. Company in 1798 (Virginia.edu).”

On June 10, 1799, David Thompson married Charlotte Small. She was the daughter of  Patrick Small and his Indian wife; Patrick Small was a prominent North West Company partner. Charlotte had five children while accompany her husband on many of his travels.

David Thompson spent the years from 1802 to 1806 traveling and trading between the Peace River and the Churchill River areas. At the annual meeting of the North West Company partners at Fort Kaministiquia (Fort William) in 1806, Thompson was promoted to a wintering partner of the company. Since Mackenzie’s 1793 route to the Pacific was too far north to be of practical use for the fur trade, the partners decided to make another attempt...Thompson’s first attempt in 1801 to cross the mountains had failed. 

           North Fork of the Saskatchewan River and Howse Pass ~ Elevation 5049 Ft.

On May 10, 1807, the David Thompson family, Finnan McDonald, and eight voyageurs traveled up the North Saskatchewan River, past Kootenay Plains, and over  Howse Pass to a large north flowing river. Because the river flowed north, Thompson was unsure it was the Columbia River…from its source at Columbia Lake, the Columbia River flows five hundred miles north along the base of the Canadian Rocky Mountains before turning south and west to the Pacific Ocean. Going south up the river, Thompson stopped at Lake Windemere and built Kootenae House.

The following spring (1808), David Thompson left Charlotte and the children at Kootenae House. He planned to explore the Kootenay River as well as locate the Flathead Indians (Salish). Thompson followed the Kootenay River into Montana, Idaho, and back into Canada before returning to Kootenae House. From Kootenae House, Thompson returned the furs in 1808 to the North West depot at Rainey Lake and in 1809 to Fort Augustus near Edmonton.

Accompanied by Jaco Finlay and his family, Thompson moved to Pend Oreille Lake in Idaho in 1809, and built Kullyspell House near the mouth of the Clark Fork River on Hope Peninsula. Kullyspell House was the first trading post west of the Continental Divide in present day United States. Thompson spent the fall and early winter exploring in the vicinity, and ended the year by establishing Saleesh House (Flathead Post) on the Clark Fork River near modern day Thompson Falls, Montana.

In the spring of 1810, David Thompson made a number of explorations in the Saleesh and Kullyspell house areas. In May, he took his furs over Howse Pass to the North West Company depot at Rainy Lake. While there, Thompson learned John Jacob Astor had dispatched a ship, and an overland party, to the mouth of the Columbia River.

Thompson realized the supply route from the Columbia River Basin to the North West Company depots was too long. From the locations of his Columbia River Basin posts and the surveys of Lewis & Clark, David Thompson knew it was not far to the mouth of the Columbia River. With a post there, ships could transport the furs and trade goods, and thus eliminate the long North West supply route--horses and canoes  transported the furs from Saleesh House, Kullyspell House, and Kootenae House across the mountains, down the Saskatchewan, on to Fort William, and from there to Montreal.

David Thompson and several men headed for the Columbia River Basin. At Rocky Mountain House, Thompson learned a hunting party of Flatheads, along with some of his men, had gone to the Montana plains to hunt buffalo. In a quarrel with a party of Piegans (Blackfeet), seven Piegans were killed and thirteen wounded (Josephy). The Blackfeet were determined to block Howse Pass and keep white traders out of the Columbia River Basin...Thompson and his men traded guns to Piegan enemies, the Kutenai, Flathead, and Nez Perce. Because of the Piegan threat, Saleesh House and Kullyspell were abandoned  (Josephy).

With Howse Pass blocked, David Thompson retraced his steps to Boggy Hall. After pausing to make dog sleds and snowshoes, Thompson’s party, with an Iroquois named Thomas as a guide, set out for the Athabasca Valley. 

                                     Athabasca Pass ~ Elevation 5751 Ft. - Google

 Trade goods Thompson's party took with them.

"Gave the Men their Loads for the Sleds--each Sled that has 2 Dogs, B. D'Eau, Coté, Francois, & L'Amoureux have 120 lbs of Goods & Necessaries for the Journey, & Vallade, Battoche, Pareil & Du Nord each 1 Dog & Sled have 70 lbs per Sled.  4 Horses loaded with Meat, havg 208 lbs of Pemmican, 35 lbs of Grease & 60 lbs of Flour also accompany us to ease the Dogs". On January 6th, they left the horses because of the poor trail and lack of feed, and on January 24th, Thompson cached some of his trade goods. "Part of the Things in the Hoard are 3 fine Capots, 4 do Shirts, 12 lbs of Beads, Garden Seeds, 8 groce of Rings, 3 Rolls of Ribbon, 6 groce of Bells, 3 Jockey Caps, 4 Cotton Shirts, 1 pr of Cloth Trowsers DT, 3 doz Glasses, 6 Bott[les] of Turlington, 1 Roll of Gartg, 2 Bott[les] of Peppermint, 6 Worms, 6 Steels (Baylea)."

David Thompson crossed the mountains through Athabasca Pass (near today's Jasper, Alberta). At the forks of the Canoe River and the Columbia River, Thompson's men refused to go on, and he was forced to spend the winter; the winter camp was named Boat Encampment. In the spring, the men constructed clinker-built (overlapping boards) canoes out of cedar. The party proceeded south up the Columbia to Kootenae House. From Kootenae House, Thompson went to Spokane House which was built the year before by Jaco Finlay. Going on to Kettle Falls, Thompson and five voyageurs, two Iroquois, and two Sanpoil interpreters started down the Columbia River.

At the junction on the Columbia and Snake rivers, David Thompson planted a pole with a note on it:

Know hereby that this country is claimed by Great Britain as part of its territories and that the N.W. Company of Merchants from Canada do hereby intend to erect a factory.

The party reached the mouth of the Columbia on July 15, 1811, three months after the arrival of the Tonquin. Thompson showed the Astorians a letter addressed to William McGillivray, chief of the North West Company in Canada which stated: the wintering partners had resolved to abandon their trading posts west of the mountains and enter into an agreement with us on the condition that we promise not to meddle in their trade to the east (Franchère)....if this was the case, why did Thompson post the sign at the junction of the Columbia and Snake Rivers?

After a week of being wined and dined at Fort Astoria by Duncan McDougall, Thompson's party started up the Columbia. David Stuart, Alexander Ross, and seven Astorians accompanied them. Leaving the Astorians on the last day of July, Thompson and his men continued up the Columbia to Boat Encampment. When he reached his previous winter camp, David Thompson had traveled the entire course of the Columbia River.

With supplies brought over Athabasca Pass, Thompson returned to Spokane House, and then proceeded overland to rebuild Saleesh House. A week after his party's arrival, John McTavish and James McMillan appeared with a group of fifteen men on the way to Astoria. 

Fort Astoria was sold to the North West Company in August of 1813 for about one third the value of the fort and its contents, i.e. approximately forty thousand dollars was allowed for furs worth upwards of one hundred thousand dollars (Irving). Two months later, the British war ship Raccoon arrived on the Columbia and the captain declared Fort Astoria was a prize of war. Fort Astoria was renamed Fort George. Because it was a prize of war, Fort Astoria was returned to Astor in 1818, but Astor had no further interest in the Pacific fur trade. Fort George remained a North West post until the 1821 merger of the North West and Hudson’s Bay Companies. After the merger, Hudson's Bay Company built Fort Vancouver (1825) across the Columbia from the mouth of the Willamette River. Fort George was abandoned.

David Thompson left the Columbia River Basin in the spring of 1812, and was at Fort William by August. Retiring from the North West Company, he was allowed his share of the North West Company profits for three years.

David and Charlotte moved to Terrebonne, north of Montreal, where she bore him eight more children. Following the war of 1812, David Thompson surveyed the boundary between Canada and the United States. The Thompson measurements along the 49th parallel were accepted by Canada and the United States without question.

With the merger of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, Thompson and his maps were treated with indifference. The Governor of  the Hudson’s Bay Company, George Simpson, supplied Thompson's survey data to the London mapmaker Aaron Arrowsmith. Thompson received no credit for the data Arrowsmith used on his maps.

David Thompson retired relatively wealthy, but financial reversals left him in poverty. In 1857, David Thompson died blind, penniless, and in virtual obscurity. Charlotte died three months later. David and Charlotte Thompson lie side by side in Montreal's Mount Royal Cemetery.

In 1927, J. B. Tyrell edited Thompson's journals for the Champlain Society. Tyrell placed a monument with a sextant on it at the head of Thompson's grave. This was the first act of public recognition for the man now grudgingly recognized as the worlds greatest land geographer (Gottfred).

 Mountains of Stone, a historical novel, provides detailed information on the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the fur trade with the upper Missouri and Plains Indians. The Hudson's Bay and the North West Company traders, including a detailed account of Alexander Mackenzie's exploration to the Pacific and Alexander Henry (the younger) at Pembina are discussed in Mountains of Stone.

The David Thompson article was written by O. Ned Eddins of Afton, Wyoming. Permission is given for material from this site to be used for school research papers.

Citation: Eddins, Ned. (article name) Mountainsofstone.com. Afton, Wyoming. 2002.

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Related Articles:  Lewis and Clark    Astorians    Wilson Price Hunt     Robert Stuart    David Thompson      Sir Alexander Mackenzie      References     Fur Trade     Oregon Trail      Mountain Man  

References:
Belyea, Barbara (ed.),  Columbia Journals of David Thompson. McGill-Queen's : Montreal, 1994.

Ewers, John C. The Blackfeet Raiders of the Northwest Plains. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman Oklahoma. 1988.

Franchère, Gabriel. Adventures at Astoria 1810-1814. Translated and Edited by Hoyt C. Franchère. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman, Oklahoma. 1967.

Irving, Washington. Astoria or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. Edited by Richard Dilworth Rust. Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska. 1982.

David Thompson, National Geographic, May, 1996.

O’Meara Walter, The Savage Country, Houghton Miffin Company, Boston, Mass. 1960.

Ross, Alexander. Adventure of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810‑1813. Bison Books. University of Nebraska Press. Lincoln, Nebraska. 1986.

Josephy, Alvin M. David Thompson, Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West Leroy Hafen (Ed.) Vol. III, pp.309. Arthur H. Clark Company, Glendale, California. 1966.

Internet Sources:
J & A Gottfred. The Life of David Thompson,  Northwest Journal
www.telusplanet.net/public/gottfred/dtnav.html  - This web site is an excellent source of information on David Thompson and his navigational skills.

www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/lewis_clark/