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Over Thompson's career, he travelled 90,000 kilometres (56,000 mi) across North America, mapping 4.9 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles) of the continent along the way. [1] For this historic feat, Thompson has been described as the "greatest practical land geographer that the world has produced".
- 30 April 1770, Westminster, England
- Charlotte Small
- Explorer and Map Maker
David Thompson (1770-1857) fur trader, astronomer and surveyor, mapped more of North America than anyone else. By horseback, canoe, dog sled and on foot, he travelled some 90,000 kilometres (55,000 miles), equivalent to circling the globe twice. His great map of the West depicted one sixth of North America.
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Mar 22, 2022 · David Thompson. David Thompson, explorer, cartographer (born 30 April 1770 in London, England; died 10 February 1857 in Longueuil, Canada East). David Thomson was called “the greatest land geographer who ever lived.”. He walked or paddled 80,000 km or more in his life, mapping most of western Canada, parts of the east and the northwestern ...
Apr 30, 2024 · David Thompson was an English explorer, geographer, and fur trader in the western parts of what are now Canada and the United States. He was the first white man to explore the Columbia River from source to mouth. His maps of western North America served as a basis for all subsequent ones. Thompson
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Feb 8, 2012 · He used the instruments, the latest in European technology, to determine longitude and latitude, comparing his calculations to the maps the Indians drew for him in the sand. Thompson had the rare ability to draw from both bodies of knowledge, and as he traveled west, a great map began to take shape in his mind.
His great map became a summary of his lifetime of exploring and surveying the interior of North America. His greatest achievement, it was so accurate that 100 years later it was still the basis for many of the maps issued by the Canadian government. It now resides in the Archives of Ontario.
He was given a special assignment to plot all the Company’s posts on a comprehensive map of the Canadian West using the astronomical observations he had carefully recorded. Thompson’s great map of the “North-West Territory . . . of Canada” is approximately 213 centimetres (84") high by 328 centimetres (129") long.
