30 April 1770, David Thompson
Today marks the birthday of David Thompson. He was born on this day on 1770 and died in 1857, at 86 years old.
David was a fur trader and map maker and over the course of his career, he travelled approximately 90,000 kilometres across North America, mapping 4.9 million square kilometres of North America along the way. For this historic feat, Thompson has been described as the greatest land geographer who has ever walked the Earth. Thompson’s contemporary, Alexander Mackenzie once stated that Thompson did more in 10 months than he would have been able to do in a whole two years. While the fact remains that when Thompson died, his achievements were almost completely unrecognised, it’s safe to say that posthumously, he is without a doubt indeed recognised as the best at what he did.
Happy Birthday David Thompson!