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    Thompson mapping Canada
    From: Joe Schultz
    Date: 2009 Dec 4, 05:58 -0800

    We may not have heard of Thompson if it hadn't been for the efforts of Joseph 
    Tyyrrell.  His "David Thompson's narrative...." is interesting reading.  The 
    university in Toronto has a digital version of this book, but the URL is a 
    bazillion characters long.  Access it at the bottom of the following.
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Thompson_(explorer)
    
    I think the field books are still in Ontario's provincial archives.  Have they been digitized?
    
    American Public Television did a film a few years ago, good for background.
    
    http://www.pbs.org/empireofthebay/
    
    The Hudson Bay Company archives are now in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and are still 
    being catalogued.  Of interest to this list are the maps, see the following 
    for a description.
    
    http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/holdings/special_media.html
    
    Appointment only, and they'll like you if you bring your own gloves.  There's 
    nothing like having the archivist uncover a map and thinking Hearne or Fidler 
    said "Yes, that looks good."
    
    Apacherunner, lots of areas weren't mapped.  The companies owned the land and 
    did as they pleased in accordance with their charters.  East India Company 
    started the survey of India on their own, Hudson's Bay Company didn't do much 
    more than what folks in this area call "cruising."  Get the lay of the land 
    and figure out the local population centers and transportation routes.  Some 
    used instruments, some didn't.
    
    I live on the American side of old Rupert's Land, and my area wasn't 
    adequately mapped (in a fairly modern sense) until the 1850s.  The land was 
    de facto controlled by Hudson's Bay Company until the early 1870s, although 
    the North West Company (and their predecessors, the Montreal free traders) 
    were also there and competed hard for trade about a hundred years before 
    Thompson.  Actual survey and "Americanization" began in the mid 1870s.  I 
    wonder what is forgotten in a dusty archive in France or Spain?  Were Le Seur 
    and de Noyon really the first Europeans?
    
    The American Revolutionary War treaty and the international border west of 
    Lake Superior is a whole 'nother issue.  The 49th parallel was moved three 
    times (that I know of) in my area, the final move was after Hudson's Bay 
    Company relinquished control of the land to Canada in the 1870s.  WGS-84 now 
    has N49 almost where it was at the 1818 treaty!  The border in northeastern 
    Minnesota wasn't resolved until the 1940s, due to the remoteness of the area. 
     Didn't Thompson "survey" this area twice?  There were "free" Indians living 
    their lives until the late 1930s/early 1940s in the area east of 
    International Falls, Minnesota, until they were displaced to a reservation.
    
    Below are more links for background reading.
    
    I don't know where the original Hudson's Bay Company charter is (or the 
    amendments) or if they've been scanned.  See the following for one 
    transcription of the original and an 1884 amendment.  Interesting trivia: a 
    20th century amendment ended the crown tribute.  Reason was that the company 
    was sold to Americans.
    
    http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6580
    
    Always more than one side to a story.  One of my good friends is Metis (pronounced Mae-TEE).
    
    http://nfb.ca/film/other_side_of_the_ledger/
    
    And Gustavus Myers is always fun reading.  See "A History of Canadian Wealth" 
    at the left side of the following.
    
    http://www.yamaguchy.netfirms.com/7897401/myers/myers_index.html
    
    Joe
    
    
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