1770-1857

English-Canadian Fur Trader, Surveyor and Explorer

David Thompson has been characterized as "one of the greatest practical land geographers the world has ever known," having done all his work in western North America, principally Canada and the northwestern United States.

Thompson was born in London, England, of Welsh immigrants. His father died when Thompson was only two years old. His formal education was limited to seven years of attendance at a London charity school for the poor, where he learned something of navigation and mathematics. In 1784 he went to Canada as an apprentice with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), landing at Fort Churchill on Hudson Bay. Though principally assigned to do clerical work, he soon became a competent woodsman, familiarizing himself with the countryside. He learned surveying, astronomy, and applied mathematics with the HBC surveyor Philip Turnor (1789-90). During this time, he also lost the...