Philip Turnor

Philip Turnor. , Michipicoten can be found on some of the earliest European maps created by early explorers of North America. One of the first official cartographers to put Michipicoten on the map was the English surveyor Philip Turnor. , Born in the English countryside in 1752, Philip Turnor developed keen skills as a navigator and surveyor. In 1778 Turnor was hired by the Hudson's Bay Company as the first navigator to map the interior routes and fur trading posts of their territory north and west of Lake Superior. His contract was for 3 years for which he was paid £50 per year. Turnor was based out of the HBCo. posts at Albany and Moose Factory along the Hudson's Bay coastline. In the spring of 1781, Turnor mapped his way up the Moose and Missinabi Rivers to Wapisocogamy/Brunswick House (north of Chapleau). On June 26, Turnor and his guides arrived at the Michipicoten House by paddling down the fast flowing Michipicoten River. , Turnor was interested in an important portage route used by the local Ojibway and traders. This overland route avoided the many long portages and rapid water of the lower Michipicoten River while traveling northeast of Superior back into the interior. This route started on Sandy Beach. , Edited by J.B. Tyrell and published by The Champlain Society in 1934, Philip Turnor's Journal of 1780-81 documents his travels on June 30th, 1781:

They descended the Michipicoten River ...to its mouth in Lake Superior, and coasted northward (1 ½ miles) along the shore of the lake to a Portage over which the outfit was carried (up a steep hill) to Magpie River...They ascended Magpie River, following its windings for five miles, then turned eastward into a little creek ... Ascending this creek for a quarter of a mile, they left it, and portaged across to Wawa Lake ... They paddled three and a half miles over this beautiful lake and camped on its shore.

, This route continued over Ghost Lake, Twin Lakes, Hawk Lake and eventually into Manitowick Lake and the upper Michipicoten River to Dog Lake, over the height of land at Crooked Lake and on to the Missinabi River. , Turnor's maps of Michipicoten, Northern Ontario and the Athabasca River in Alberta became integral sources of information for the Hudson's Bay Co. and were later utilized by the British map maker Aaron Arrowsmith in 1795. Turnor's skill was passed on to his students Peter Fidler and David Thompson who are also recognized as important explorers and cartographers. Philip Turnor died in 1800 and is buried in the Parish of St. Marylebone, Middlesex, Westminster, England. Philip Turnor's legacy laid the foundations of the detailed maps of North America still used today. , www.wawahistory.com .