Map of the Rivers and Lakes Above York Fort (David Thompson 1794-1795) David Thompson, for a period of time an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, provided in this map the most important source of information for those published maps which included this large region in their orbit. It concerns the same area basically as that of Turnor but it also shows the course of the Saskatchewan river well upstream beyond the Battle river tributary, as well as part of the Churchill river system and the Burntwood Lake and river connection to the Nelson river at Split Lake. It is in greater detail than Turnor’s map, but Thompson owes to Turnor the details surveyed in 1792 by Turnor from Split Lake downstream to York Fort. Thompson undertook this mapping task while on general orders from the Company to search for a route to Athabaska from Churchill river. He did not go as far as his instructions would have had him go, but he obtained valuable information on the Nelson-Churchill connections for the York Factor. This map was basic to Aaron Arrowsmith’s continental mapping of 1795 for this region. (Warkentin and Ruggles. Historical Atlas of Manitoba. map 39, p. 100)

Map of the Rivers and Lakes Above York Fort With the Communication of Port Nelson River with Churchill River Including Part of Churchill River, Thompson 1994-1795. Map prepared in black ink by R.I. Ruggles from original manuscript (map G.2/18) in the Archives, Hudson’s Bay Company, London. Manuscript map in black ink. Map drawn by David Thompson.