Peter Pond - Milford, CT - Connecticut Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Peter Pond (1740 - 1807) began his fur trading in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He and his partners formed the North West Company, a rival of the Hudson's Bay Company. He explored farther north and west in search of furs. During the winter of 1776–1778 he created a trading post at the junction of the Sturgeon River and North Saskatchewan River near present day Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. The site is today a National Historic Site.

Five years later Pond reached the Lake Athabasca region and mapped the locations of Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake. Peter Pond drew a map showing rivers and lakes of the Athabasca region from the Hudson Bay to the Rocky Mountains and made predictions about great rivers flowing north to the Arctic and the Northwest Passage. As a result, a business partner, Alexander Mackenzie, followed this lead and explored the what is now called the Mackenzie River to its terminus in to Arctic Ocean. Peter Pond gained international acclaim for his maps of the river basin reported by Mackenzie.

In 1790, he returned to Milford, Connecticut, where he died in 1807. He is buried in an unknown grave in the cemetery opposite St. Mary's Church on Gulf Street.

Roadside Marker was placed by the Milford preservation Trust ir reads:

Peter Pond
1740-1807
Somewhere in this cemetery lies the unmarked grave of Peter Pond, a veteran of the French and Indian Wars, fur trader, explorer and cartographer born in Milford. He helped organize expeditions west of the Great Lakes. He became internationally renowned for maps he drew of the Northwest and Canada based on his explorations and input from others, including Native Americans. His exploits ultimately prompted President Thomas Jefferson to send Lewis and Clark on their quest to explore the Northwest Region. In 1790 Pond sold his shares of the North West Co., the trading company of which he was a founding member and returned to Milford.

Milford Preservation Trust


Link to information about the marker (visit link)

Link to the Peter Pond Society's Biography (visit link)

Marker Name: Peter Pond Marker Type: Urban Date Dedicated / Placed: October 2010 Additional Information: Not listed

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