Willard Ferdinand Wentzel was born circa 1780. In 1799, he was employed as a clerk by the North West Company, serving on the Mackenzie River and at Great Bear Lake before taking charge of the North West Company post at Fort Providence on Great Slave Lake. On reaching Fort Providence in July 1820, the British Naval Exploring Expedition [first Arctic Land Expedition], 1819-1822 (leader John Franklin), appointed Wentzel as an assistant. He undertook to accompany the expedition to the Arctic coast, recruiting Indians as guides and hunters. Setting out from Fort Providence in August 1820, the expedition reached Winter Lake where they built their winter base, Fort Enterprise. Leaving the fort in June 1821, they travelled to the mouth of the Coppermine River, where Wentzel and the Indians turned back, carrying dispatches and equipment for transmission to England.
After the expedition, Wentzel served the amalgamated Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Simpson between 1822 and 1824, at Fort Chipewyan between 1824 and 1825 and finally at Mingan, Montreal department between 1827 and 1829 before retiring. He died in 1832.
From the guide to the Willard Wentzel collection, 1821, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
