Another key figure covered in Gough’s series is David Thompson, the legendary cartographer and explorer who mapped over 3.9 million square kilometers of North America, including vast portions of what is now British Columbia. Between 1807 and 1811, Thompson navigated and mapped the Columbia River, establishing crucial trade routes for the North West Company. The podcast highlights Thompson’s extraordinary skills in astronomy and surveying, his deep reliance on Indigenous knowledge, and his journey to the Pacific in 1811—where he arrived just as the American Astorians were establishing Fort Astoria. Gough emphasizes Thompson’s lasting contributions to Canadian and American geography, even though his name remains less widely known than Mackenzie or Fraser.
