Central Alberta - Fabulous Western Canada: Capture the Excitement of the Great West! - page 167

DAVID THOMPSON
David Thompson began at the Hudson's Bay Company in 1784 as a
clerk stationed at several posts on Hudson Bay and the Saskatchewan
River. While laid up with a broken leg, he took an interest in surveying
and practical astronomy. After years of exploring and surveying much
of present-day northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, he decided to
switch camps and go to work for the North West Company in 1797.
The company enlisted his services in the “Columbia Enterprise,” the
search for a route through the Rockies.
In 1806-07, Thompson made preparations to cross the Rockies at
Rocky Mountain House. However, the Peigan First Nation, who fre-
quented the post, opposed the project; if trade extended west of the
Rockies, their enemies, the Kootenay and Flathead, would acquire
guns. Thompson thus moved up-river from Rocky Mountain House
to the Howse Pass in 1807.
In 1810, the race to the mouth of the Columbia came to a head when
news of an American expedition reached Thompson. He immediately
headed west but was blocked by the Peigan. He headed north again,
skirting Peigan territory. In 1811, he crossed the Athabasca Pass and
reached the mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacifi c Ocean a few
months after the Americans had set up their post there.
Thompson later settled in Terrebonne, near Montréal, and worked
on the establishment of the boundary between Upper and Lower
Canada. He was unsuccessful in business and died in 1857, in poverty
and virtual obscurity.