John Palliser (January 29, 1817 – August 18, 1887) was an
IrishIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
-born
geographerA geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's physical environment and human habitat.Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
and
explorer. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he was the son of Colonel Wray Palliser and a brother of Major Sir
William PalliserMajor Sir William Palliser CB MP was an Irish-born politician and inventor, Member of Parliament for Taunton from 1880 until his death.-Early life:...
(1830-1882), all descendants of Dr William Palliser,
Archbishop of CashelThe Archbishop of Cashel is an archiepiscopal title which takes its name after the town of Cashel in County Tipperary, Ireland. The title is still used by the Roman Catholic Church, but in the Church of Ireland it was downgraded to a bishopric in 1838....
(1644–1726).
From 1839 to 1863, Palliser served in the Waterford Militia, eventually with the rank of captain.
John Palliser (January 29, 1817 – August 18, 1887) was an
IrishIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
-born
geographerA geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's physical environment and human habitat.Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
and
explorer. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he was the son of Colonel Wray Palliser and a brother of Major Sir
William PalliserMajor Sir William Palliser CB MP was an Irish-born politician and inventor, Member of Parliament for Taunton from 1880 until his death.-Early life:...
(1830-1882), all descendants of Dr William Palliser,
Archbishop of CashelThe Archbishop of Cashel is an archiepiscopal title which takes its name after the town of Cashel in County Tipperary, Ireland. The title is still used by the Roman Catholic Church, but in the Church of Ireland it was downgraded to a bishopric in 1838....
(1644–1726).
From 1839 to 1863, Palliser served in the Waterford Militia, eventually with the rank of captain. He was also sheriff of Waterford. His first hunting expedition was in North America in 1847 during which time, Palliser wrote
Solitary Rambles and Adventures of a Hunter in the Prairies, first published in 1853. He travelled back to
Rupert's LandRupert's Land, also sometimes called "Prince Rupert's Land", was a territory in British North America, consisting of the Hudson Bay drainage basin, that was owned by the Hudson's Bay Company for 200 years from 1670 to 1870. The area once known as Rupert's Land is now mainly a part of Canada, but a...
as leader of the
British North American Exploring ExpeditionThe British North American Exploring Expedition, commonly called the Palliser Expedition, explored and surveyed the open prairies and rugged wilderness of western Canada from 1857 to 1860. The purpose was to explore possible routes for the Canadian Pacific Railway and discover new species of plants...
, which travelled over the uncharted regions of the far west between 1857 and 1861. He made a topographical delimitation of the boundary between
British North AmericaBritish North America consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783....
and the United States, from
Lake SuperiorLake Superior is the largest of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by Ontario, Canada and Minnesota, United States, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan...
to the coast of the
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
. He was assisted by astronomer Lieutenant
Thomas BlakistonThomas Wright Blakiston was an English explorer and naturalist.Born in Lymington, Hampshire, England, Blakiston was the son of Major John Blakiston, second son of Sir Matthew Blakiston, 2nd Baronet...
of the
Royal ArtilleryThe Royal Artillery is the common name for the Royal Regiment of Artillery, an arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
, botanist
Eugene BourgeauEugene Bourgeau was a native of Brizon in the Department of Hautes-Alpes in France. He had previously been a botanical collector in Spain, North Africa and the Canary Islands before joining the British North American Exploring Expedition of Western Canada from 1857 to 1860.-External links:*...
and geologist Dr
James HectorSir James Hector was a Scottish geologist, naturalist, and surgeon who accompanied the Palliser Expedition as a surgeon and geologist...
.
His travels took him to Rupert's Land, exploring a few rivers:
- White Fish River
- Kaministiquia River
The Kaministiquia River is a river which empties into western Lake Superior at the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Kaministiquia is an Ojibwe word meaning " with islands" due to two large islands at the mouth of the river...
- North Saskatchewan River
The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river flowing east from the Canadian Rockies to central Saskatchewan. It is one of two major rivers that join to make up the Saskatchewan River....
- South Saskatchewan River
The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada that flows through the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan....
- Red River
The Red River or ' and Red River of the North, is a North American river. Originating at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States, it flows northward through the Red River Valley and forms the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota before...
He returned to
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
in 1862 and presented his findings to the British Parliament. The information contained in his survey was instrumental in the ending of the
Hudson's Bay CompanyThe Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world...
's ownership of Rupert's Land (lands encompassing all tributaries to
Hudson BayHudson Bay is a large body of water in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. A smaller offshoot of the bay,...
) with the Deed of Surrender in 1869. While Palliser is credited with opening up a new era of settlement and development in the Canadian West, his warnings about the unsuitability to agricultural development of the area now known as
Palliser's TrianglePalliser's Triangle, or the Palliser Triangle, is a semiarid geographic area in the Prairie Provinces of Western Canada that was determined to be unsuitable for agriculture because of its unfavourable climate and soil...
went unheeded. Palliser reported that the region, in southeastern
AlbertaAlberta is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south....
and southwestern
SaskatchewanSaskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of and a population of 1,023,810 , mostly living in the southern half of the province. Of these, 233,923 live in the province's largest city, Saskatoon, while 194,971 live in the provincial capital, Regina...
, was too arid for farming. The area was nevertheless settled for farming, but was devastated in the
Dust BowlThe Dust Bowl or the Dirty Thirties was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936 . The phenomenon was caused by severe drought coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation, fallow...
drought.
There were rumours he was working on behalf of certain Caribbean islands and the Confederate states in America but there is no evidence he was a spy.
In 1869 he travelled to
Novaya ZemlyaNovaya Zemlya is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe at Cape Zhelaniya...
in
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
with another brother, Frederick Palliser aboard the ship
SampsonSampson may refer to:Animals* Sampson , a shire horse that is the tallest horse on recordAstronomy* Sampson , a small impact crater on the near the central part of the Mare Imbrium on the MoonReligion...
.
Palliser was named a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG). He never married and retired to
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
, where he spent the rest of his life caring for his family. He died at his house, Comeragh House, Mahon Bridge, in County Waterford, Ireland in 1887. He is buried in the graveyard of Comeragh Church, Briska, Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford. The Alberta administration have placed a plaque on his grave in commemoration of his achievements.
The
Fairmont Palliser HotelThe Fairmont Palliser, is a hotel of the Canada-based Fairmont Hotels and Resorts chain. The historic hotel is located in downtown Calgary, Alberta on 9th Avenue South adjacent to the Calgary Tower and Palliser Square...
and the neighbourhood of
PalliserPalliser is a residential neighbourhood in the south-west quadrant of Calgary, Alberta. It is bounded to the north by 90 Ave SW, to the east by 19 Street SW, to the south by Southland Drive SW and to the west by 24 Street SW...
in
CalgaryCalgary is the largest city in the Province of Alberta, Canada.The Calgary census metropolitan area is the third most diverse in Canada in terms of visible minorities after Toronto and Vancouver when considering only CMAs with population greater than 200,000...
, Alberta, are named after him, as are the
Palliser RangeThe Palliser Range is a mountain range of the Canadian Rockies that lies in the extreme southeast corner of Banff National Park.The Palliser Range is part of the East Banff Ranges of the Central Front Canadian Rockies....
and
Palliser FormationThe Palliser Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Famennian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. found in the ranges of the canadian Rockies and Foothills....
of the
Canadian RockiesThe Canadian Rockies comprise the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains range. They are the eastern part of the Canadian Cordillera, extending from the Interior Plains of Alberta to the Rocky Mountain Trench of British Columbia. The southern end borders Idaho and Montana of the USA...
External links