Mapping the Wilderness: The Story of David Thompson
By Tom Shardlow
()
About this ebook
David Thompsons story is one of the great tales of North American adventure. His life was a mixture of truth and legend, but he was without a doubt one of the greatest surveyors and mapmakers of the North American continent. Raised in a charity school in London, England, and apprenticed to the Hudsons Bay Company as a teenager, he then travelled extensively, recording valuable navigational information. His life was one of adventure and hardship but also of incredible accomplishment.
Tom Shardlow
Tom Shardlow's diverse writing ranges from poetry and prizewinning short fiction published in literary magazines to book reviews. His freelance work, which includes creative drawings and photographs, often appears as feature articles in magazines and in newspapers. He lives with his family on Vancouver Island.
Related to Mapping the Wilderness
Titles in the series (8)
Struggling for Perfection: The Story of Glenn Gould Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Changing the Pattern: The Story of Emily Stowe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBelieving in Books: The Story of Lillian Smith Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Caring for a Colony: The Story of Jeanne Mance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sailing for Glory: The Story of Captain Angus Walters and the Bluenose Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhotographing Greatness: The Story of Karsh Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMapping the Wilderness: The Story of David Thompson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorking for Freedom: The Story of Josiah Henson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related ebooks
Thompson's Highway: The Literary Origins of British Columbia, Volume 6 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Arctic Prairies - A Canoe-Journey of 2000 Miles in Search of the Caribou Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cusp of Dreadfulness: Fifteen Seasons in Tierra Del Fuego and Patagonia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Be a Warrior: The Adventurous Life and Mysterious Death of Billy Davidson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWonders of Sand and Stone: A History of Utah's National Parks and Monuments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Discovery of Yellowstone Park: Journal of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCape Coral Burrowing Owls Don't Hoot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pinon Pine: A Natural And Cultural History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe: The Story of Blue Babe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Patagonian Prehistory: Human Ecology and Cultural Evolution in the Land of Giants Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSailing for Glory: The Story of Captain Angus Walters and the Bluenose Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAltered Environments: The Outer Banks of North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLady Grayl: Owl With a Mission Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fresh and the Salt: The Story of the Solway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At the Water's Edge: A Walk in the Wild Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disaster on the Mississippi: The Sultana Explosion, April 27, 1865 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alaska Days with John Muir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yosemite National Park and Vicinity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Those Days: Tales of Arctic Whaling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pterodroma Petrels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Written in the Ruins: Cape Breton Island’s Second Pre-Columbian Chinese Settlement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeep Powder and Steep Rock: The Life of Mountain Guide Hans Gmoser Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMountains and Men Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Adventure of the Lion's Mane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwo Years Before the Mast Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDispatches from the High Country: Essays on the West from High Country News Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAncient Denvers: Scenes from the Past 300 Million Years of the Colorado Front Range Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Act III in Patagonia: People and Wildlife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Voyageur's Highway: Minnesota's Border Lake Land Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Children's Biography & Autobiography For You
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hiding Place Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farmer Boy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cross and the Switchblade: The True Story of One Man's Fearless Faith Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Prairie Girl: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little House Book of Wisdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life of Fairness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lincoln: A Photobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki: and the Thousand Paper Cranes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Albert Einstein and Relativity for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities and Thought Experiments Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina Young Readers Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Last Days: The Death of the Nazi Regime and the World's Most Notorious Dictator Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bessie Coleman: Bold Pilot Who Gave Women Wings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Elk's Vision: A Lakota Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Farewell to Manzanar Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic Failures: True Stories of People Who Changed the World by Falling Down First Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dav Pilkey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei (Caldecott Honor Book) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sackler Family: The Empire of Pain: How the Sacklers Founded a Pharmaceuticals Dynasty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmanda Gorman: Inspiring Hope with Poetry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShel Silverstein Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Mapping the Wilderness
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Mapping the Wilderness - Tom Shardlow
years.
Why Were His Achievements Ignored?
Other Canadian explorers who lived in Thompson’s day became famous in their own time. Alexander Mackenzie, who followed the magnificent Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean and who was the first to travel overland to the Pacific in 1793, was knighted by King George III. Simon Fraser, who explored the Peace River, established the first trading post in British Columbia and who was the first to map and follow the mighty Fraser River to the Pacific Ocean in 1808, was a living legend. Why were David Thompson’s achievements ignored for so long?
Some say it was because he deserted the Hudson’s Bay Company and joined with their rival, the North West Company. Others say it was because he needlessly delayed exploring the Columbia River to the Pacific which allowed the United States, instead of Canada, to claim the rich Columbia territory. After so many years, the truth of these allegations is hard to know. But today these criticisms seem like drops in the ocean when compared to his achievements.
MODEST EXPLORERS
Unlike other explorers, Thompson was reluctant to name the places he discovered after himself. It was Simon Fraser who named the Thompson River in British Columbia after his fellow explorer. Thompson, maybe in appreciation, gave the Fraser River its name.
Arriving In The New World
On the afternoon of September 2nd, 1784, David Thompson walked down the gang plank of the Hudson’s Bay Company ship Prince Rupert and stepped onto the western shore of Hudson Bay. He was fourteen years old and had landed at Churchill Factory, the Hudson’s Bay Company company post in Rupert’s Land. He was thankful to have survived the turbulent seas and treacherous icebergs of the North Atlantic, but he was not happy. He had trained to be a midshipman or a junior navigator. He had hoped to enter the Royal Navy or to join a merchant ship, but instead he was beginning a seven year term as a fur trading apprentice to the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC).
An HBC advertisement designed to attract workers
David had received a remarkable education from an orphanage. London’s Grey Coat Charity School for Boys had taught him how to navigate a ship by the stars and how to understand the ebb and flow of ocean tides. But England was not at war in 1784, so the navy was not recruiting. When the HBC approached the school asking for senior boys skilled in mathematics, Grey Coat had only two, David Thompson and Samuel McPherson. McPherson ran away rather than face the uncertain life of an HBC apprentice.
GREY COAT SCHOOL
Grey Coat Charity School was chartered in 1706 by Queen Anne as part of a social experiment. In those days, poor or orphaned children were neglected and had to beg or steal in London’s squalid streets as their only way of finding food and shelter. The school’s founders believed that religion and education could save London’s orphan boys from a life of begging and thieving.
Although the boys were housed, fed, and given grey clothes to wear, life at the school was sometimes very hard. At one point the boys revolted against the terrible treatment they were given. They rioted and threw hot coals from a fire at their cruel masters.
Nevertheless, the school did shelter and educate many orphans.
Some students not only learned to read and write, but also were taught about mathematics, astronomy and navigation. These students were the lucky ones. When they left the school, they were able to help navigate sailing ships for the navy or for merchant ships.
An Orphan
David was born on April 30, 1770 and was given to an orphanage at age seven. His father had died when David was two. His mother was poor and unable to provide for both David and his younger brother. His mother’s choice turned out to be a wise one. Being a poor and fatherless boy in London was usually a sentence to misery. London’s poor districts were crowded, dirty and crime ridden. Poverty was made worse by an abundance of cheap alcohol, usually gin called kill grief
. Seeing the devastating effect of kill grief
on London’s poor people affected David for life. He would never use alcohol, and as a fur trader