"I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom. I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients." Gustave Courbet

20 May 2016

Greatest.

Before Lewis and Clark there was David Thompson ...

In 1788, David Thompson was working for Hudson’s Bay Company when he suffered an accident, breaking his leg so badly he almost died. But he didn’t die. It took him a year to learn to walk again. And in that year, he spent his time studying astronomy, navigation, and map-making. He looked at the maps at Hudson’s Bay Company, where he worked, and dreamed about what lay beyond their unfinished borders. He decided he wanted to finish those maps. And he did. David Thompson became the greatest map-maker who ever lived, travelling 90,000 kilometres throughout North America, and mapping 4.9 million square kilometers along the way.

The Country of Adventurers: David Thompson ...


Uncharted Territory: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau ...

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