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David Thompson, Explorer and Mapmaker (Part 1) - Page 2

© Elizabeth Gibson

In 1797, he left the Hudson’s Bay Company and joined North West. They paid better, and by 1799, he was making 100 pounds a year. He also had a chance to share in profits and gain rank. He participated in the international boundary survey, to establish the 49th parallel as the division between the U.S. and Canada.

In January of 1798, Thompson’s began surveying and mapping the Assiniboine River and the headwaters of the Mississippi to Turtle Lake. He also surveyed the east and north shores of Lake Superior. After that he was sent to the Athabasca region to explore the river. When he returned in the spring of 1799 he stopped in a town called Ile a La Crosse. There he married Charlotte Small on June 10, 1799. They spent the winter at Fort George on the upper Saskatchewan.

In the spring of 1800, they moved to the Rocky Mountain House. Here they established a trade relationship with the Kootenai Indians. That fall, Thompson and Duncan McGillivray began scouting for a good pass over the Continental Divide. They had no luck so waited until spring. But that trip was unsuccessful too as the river route they proposed to take was too hazardous because of spring run-off. The men returned to Rocky Mountain House by June 30.

In 1802, Thompson moved to a post on the Peace River near Lake Athabasca. He spent two hears there trading and surveying. In the summer of 1804 he went to the annual rendezvous in Fort William, on Lake Superior. He returned to the Rocky Mountain House in October of 1806. In May of 1807, he set out again to cross the Continental Divide. It took three weeks to reach the Kootenai Plains. From there they followed the Howse River. By the end of the June they crossed Howse Pass. They were on the west side of the Rockies.

They followed the Braeberry River for a while until they reached another big river. Thompson didn’t know it, but it was the Columbia. They were running low on food when they reached Lake Windemere, on the Columbia. There was good grass, deer, and berries there. Thompson decided to build a post there. He called it Kootenai house. Some Kootenais advised Thompson that the post was not a good position, so Thompson moved it as they suggested.

He spent the winter reworking his calculations and coordinates and drawing maps. Finan McDonald had also arrived with trade goods. Now there was plenty to trade for furs, if only Thompson could motivate the Kootenai to get out and hunt the beaver, as this was the time of year their pelts were the best. But winter was generally a time of rest for the Kootenai. In the spring of 1808, he left McDonald and charge while he went south. He followed the Kootenai river south to St. Mary’s River. On April 25 he reached the Tobacco Plains. This is were the Kootenai said they grew their own tobacco.

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