HISTORICAL EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE ON THIS DAY IN CANADA

15 July

David Thompson taking an observation

River Mouth Reached

On July 15, 1811, David Thompson reached the mouth of the Columbia River only to find that John Jacob Astor's fur company had established a post there late in March. This was a great disappointment to Thompson, who had hoped to claim the territory for Britain. Nevertheless, this is an opportunity to present a few highlights in the life of the man who was probably the greatest geographer in the world.

David Thompson was of Welsh extraction and came from a poor family. He was only fourteen years of age when he was apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company and sent to Fort Churchill, Hudson Bay, in 1784. He spent thirteen years there and at other company posts in Saskatchewan, and also a winter with Indians at the present site of Calgary. Surveying, which he studied with Philip Turnor, became his favourite hobby.

In 1797 he transferred to the Northwest Company and made a 4,000 mile journey of exploration that included the headwaters of the Mississippi. Later he was made a partner in the company. Years were spent tracing the crazy course of the Columbia River, which curves back and forth between Canada and the United States, almost entwining itself with the Kootenay. Thompson was the first man to travel the full length of the Columbia and back again. He began his final assault on the Columbia in 1810. He manufactured snowshoes and sleds and started from the Athabaska River on December 29 in weather 21 degrees below zero! He traveled through the Rockies under these conditions to the junction of the Canoe and Columbia Rivers.

After Thompson finished his work in the West, he went to live at Terrebonne, near Montreal, where he prepared a map of Western Canada which is now in the Ontario Archives. His maps were not like those of the early explorers. They were accurate.

When Thompson arrived at Churchill in 1784, the map of Canada was blank from David Thompson taking an observation Lake Winnipeg to the west coast of Vancouver Island. When he departed from the West in 1812, he had mapped the main travel routes through 1,700,000 square miles of Canadian and American territory! It is tragic to remember that David Thompson died in 1857, in poverty and nearly blind.

15 July

-1710    A British force attacked Port Royal, Nova Scotia.

-1870    Manitoba became the fifth Canadian province (see May 12).

               A royal proclamation stated that all territory between Ontario and British Columbia belonged to Canada.

-1889    The C.P.R. was given a contract by Britain to carry mail from Halifax or Quebec to Hong Kong.

-1896    The Canadian yacht Glencairn won an international race.

-1930    The Federal Government allowed Manitoba to control its own natural resources.