Peter Pond was an American explorer, cartographer, merchant and soldier who was a founding member of the North West Company and the Beaver Club.
16 Facts About Peter Pond
1.
2.
Peter Pond traded throughout the regions south of Lake Superior and west of Lake Michigan, which later became Minnesota and Wisconsin.
3.
Peter Pond was chosen to take four canoes northward into the Athabasca region.
4.
Peter Pond took his party through the Portage La Loche.
5.
Peter Pond collected so many furs he did not have capacity to haul them all away in one trip.
6.
Peter Pond operated this post, the first white man's building in present-day Alberta, for ten years.
7.
In 1783, Mrs Waddens requested the governor of Quebec, Frederick Haldimand, to arrest Peter Pond, submitting an affidavit of one of Waddens' men.
8.
Peter Pond was examined in 1785 but was not brought to trial, most likely because Lac La Ronge lay in the territories of the HBC, beyond the jurisdiction of the Province of Quebec.
9.
In 1783, Peter Pond's explorations led him again to the Athabasca, a region stretching from Lac Ile-a-la-Crosse to the Peace River.
10.
From his notes and diaries Peter Pond drew a map showing rivers and lakes of the Athabasca region, including what was known of the whole area from Hudson Bay to the Rocky Mountains and interpolating his information to the Arctic Ocean or Northwest Passage.
11.
In 1785, one copy of Peter Pond's map, accompanied by a detailed report, was submitted to the United States Congress and a second to the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, Henry Hamilton.
12.
Peter Pond needed financial support to carry his explorations to the limits of North America's northwest, but the British government was not forthcoming.
13.
Peter Pond had contributed to the mapping of Canada by drawing the general outline of the river basin that Mackenzie recorded in 1789.
14.
The maps that Peter Pond subsequently drew, based on his explorations and on the information provided to him by First Nations peoples, ultimately gained international recognition for Pond at the end of the 18th century.
15.
In 1790, Peter Pond sold his shares in the NWC to William McGillivray.
16.
Peter Pond returned to Milford, Connecticut, where he died in 1807.