Peter Fidler (explorer) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Peter Fidler was a British

Kingdom of Great Britain

The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

surveyor

Surveying

See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...

, map-maker, chief fur trader and explorer who had a long career in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

in what later became Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He was born in Bolsover

Bolsover

Bolsover is a town near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England. It is 145 miles from London, 18 miles from Sheffield, 26 miles from Nottingham and 54 miles from Manchester. It is the main town in the Bolsover district.The civil parish for the town is called...

, Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

and died at Fort Dauphin

Fort Dauphin (Canada)

Fort Dauphin, was built in 1741 near Winnipegosis, Manitoba with Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye, the western military commander, directing construction. The area provided a post located between the Assiniboine River and the Saskatchewan River...

in present day Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

. He married Mary Mackagonne, a Cree

Cree

The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...

, and together they had 14 children.

Career

Fidler joined the Hudson's Bay Company as a labourer at London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

and took up his post at York Factory in 1788. He was promoted to clerk and posted to Manchester House and South Branch House in what later became Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

within his first year. In 1790, he was transferred to Cumberland House

Cumberland House, Saskatchewan

Cumberland House is a village in Census Division No. 18 in north-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada on the Saskatchewan River. It is the oldest community in Saskatchewan and has a population of about 2000 people...

and given training in surveying

Surveying

and astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

by Philip Turnor

Philip Turnor

Philip Turnor was a surveyor and cartographer for the Hudson's Bay Company.Turnor hired on for three years as an inland surveyor with the HBC and landed at York Factory in August, 1778...

who also trained David Thompson

David Thompson (explorer)

David Thompson was an English-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, known to some native peoples as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer"...

. On 23 December 1788, Thompson had seriously fractured his leg, forcing him to spend the next two winters at Cumberland House convalescing which gave Fidler the opportunity to accompany Turnor on an exploration expedition to the west from 1790 to 1792 attempting to find a route to Lake Athabaska and Great Slave Lake

Great Slave Lake

Great Slave Lake is the second-largest lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada , the deepest lake in North America at , and the ninth-largest lake in the world. It is long and wide. It covers an area of in the southern part of the territory. Its given volume ranges from to and up to ...

and therefore a route to the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. Although the river route to the west his employer sought was found not to exist, on this and following expeditions Fidler gathered data for the first of several maps that he produced. Information he gathered was incorporated into the maps of North America produced by Aaron Arrowsmith

Aaron Arrowsmith

Aaron Arrowsmith was an English cartographer, engraver and publisher and founding member of the Arrowsmith family of geographers. He moved to Soho Square, London from Winston, County Durham when about twenty years of age, and was employed by John Cary, the engraver and William Faden. He became...

.

During his years with the company, Fidler established Carlton House in 1795 (near present day Kamsack, Saskatchewan) and Chesterfield House in 1800. He was in charge of Cumberland House from 1796. In 1797, he established Bolsover House (near Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan

Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan

Meadow Lake is a city located in north west Saskatchewan, Canada about north east of Lloydminster and north of North Battleford. On November 9, 2009, it officially became Saskatchewan's 14th city....

) and Greenwich House at Lac la Biche. In 1806, after two years of harassment by Samuel Black

Samuel Black

Samuel Black was a Canadian fur trader and explorer noted for his exploration of the Finlay River and its tributaries in present-day north-central British Columbia, which helped to open up the Muskwa, Omineca, and Stikine areas to the fur trade; as well for his role as Chief factor of the Hudson's...

of the rival North West Company

North West Company

The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...

, Fidler surrendered Nottingham House on Lake Athabasca

Lake Athabasca

Lake Athabasca is located in the northwest corner of Saskatchewan and the northeast corner of Alberta between 58° and 60° N.-History:The name in the Dene language originally referred only to the large delta formed by the confluence the Athabasca River at the southwest corner of the lake...

and fled the post with his men.

Recognition

Fidler Point on Lake Athabasca is named for Fidler. There is a large carved monument to Fidler at Elk Point, Alberta

Elk Point, Alberta

Elk Point is a town located in the east central part of the Canadian province of Alberta. It is located on Highway 41.A number of oil related businesses have located in Elk Point. Agriculture is also important in the Elk Point area....

and a monument to his legacy at Fort Dauphin

Fort Dauphin (Canada)

created by the Manitoba Land Surveyors.

Sources

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.