Alexander Mackenzie
MACKENZIE, Alexander, fur trader, explorer (b 1764, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland; d 12 Mar 1820,
Dunkeld, Scotland). At age 10 he went to the US with his widowed father, who subsequently died
fighting on the loyalist side in the Revolutionary War. Young Alexander's aunts sent him to Montreal to
go to school, and in 1779 he entered the FUR TRADE firm of Gregory, McLeod, one of the companies
that later amalgamated to form the NORTH WEST CO. At that time Mackenzie became a partner and
went to winter at a post on the Athabasca R, where he developed a plan to seek out the great river
rumoured to flow westward into the Pacific. In 1789 he travelled north down the river that now bears
his name, as far as the Arctic Ocean. He was the first European to explore the Mackenzie R to its mouth
but he was disappointed that it had not taken him in the direction he expected. He set out again in 1793,
this time following a route up the PEACE R, across the ROCKY MTS, down the FRASER R and overland
with the help of FIRST NATIONS guides to reach the Pacific at the mouth of BELLA COOLA R on North
Bentinck Arm. He and his party continued by CANOE and reached DEAN CHANNEL, where he painted on
a rock in Elcho Harbour the famous message "Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, 22nd July
1793," before returning the way he had come. Parks Canada has erected a plaque at the site to
commemorate the first known crossing of N America by a non-aboriginal person. Mackenzie was
unaware that just 6 weeks earlier George VANCOUVER had rowed through these same waters as part of
his survey of the coast. The next year Mackenzie went to Montreal, where he became a lightning rod for
discontent within the NWC. In 1799 he quit the Nor'westers and joined the rival XY Co, which embarked
on a bitter competition for control of the trade. The rivalry proved ruinous, and in 1804 the 2 companies
combined. Mackenzie returned to England, where the publication of the journals of his expeditions,
Voyages from Montreal (1801), had made him a celebrity and won him a knighthood. In 1812 he
married and retired to a Scottish estate.
(Encyclopedia of BC: http://knowbc.com/ebc/Books/Encyclopedia-of-BC/M/Mackenzie-Alexander)
Mackenzie, Sir Alexander (Explorer)
Sir Alexander Mackenzie, fur trader, explorer (b at Stornoway, Scot 1764; d near Dunkeld, Scot
12 Mar 1820). Mackenzie's father took him to New York in 1774, and in 1778, because of the
Revolutionary War, he was sent to school in Montréal. There in 1779 he entered the employ of
the fur-trading firm of Finlay and Gregory, later Gregory, MacLeod and Co. In 1784 he became
a partner and spent the years 1785-87 in charge of the post at ÎLE-LA-CROSSE. In 1787 the
company coalesced with the NORTH WEST CO and Mackenzie became a partner in the larger
concern.
He was assigned to the post on the Athabasca River as second-in-command to Peter POND, who
had explored the region extensively and would be leaving it in the spring. Pond was convinced
that Cook's River (Cook Inlet, Alaska) on Captain COOK'S chart was the mouth of the large
river that flowed westward out of Great Slave Lake, and that it would provide a travel route to
the Pacific. This association with Pond was decisive; Mackenzie later declared that "the
practicability of penetrating across the continent" was the "favourite project of my own
ambition," and this resulted in the 2 remarkable expeditions upon which his fame rests.
He and Pond had founded FORT CHIPEWYAN on Lake Athabasca, and he set out from it in
1789 to test Pond's theory, but found that the river (the MACKENZIE RIVER) led to the Arctic,
not the Pacific. Undaunted, he planned a second expedition. Having wintered at Fort Fork, on the
upper waters of the Peace, he headed westward in May 1793. Crossing the divide from the
watershed of the Peace to that of the Fraser, he was advised by Indians to complete his journey to
the Pacific overland, instead of following the Fraser to its mouth. The last stage of this first
crossing of the full width of North America was down the Bella Coola River. The speed and
efficiency with which Mackenzie travelled were astonishing; he brought both his crews home
safely and in spite of numerous contacts with Indians never fired a shot in anger.
Mackenzie left the West in 1795, and after serving as a partner in McTavish, Frobisher and Co,
which managed the NWC, he went to England in 1799. His Voyages was published in 1801 and
he was knighted in 1802. His ambition was to form a trading concern that would span the
continent and involve a union of the NWC and the HBC, but his efforts to bring it about failed.
He married in 1812 and retired to an estate in Scotland.
(The Canadian Encyclopedia: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/sir-alexandermackenzie-explorer)
Mackenzie, Sir Alexander (1764-1820), was a Canadian explorer, trader, and businessman. He
was the first white man to reach the Mackenzie River and to cross the northern part of North
America to the Pacific Ocean.
In 1789, Mackenzie left Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca with a small party of Canadians and
Indian guides. He pushed his way north to Great Slave Lake and then followed the river that now
bears his name. It took him to the Arctic Ocean. He had hoped the river would lead him to the
Pacific Ocean.
Three years later, Mackenzie started on an expedition to the west coast. He followed the Peace
River, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and reached the Pacific Ocean in 1793. This trip convinced
him that a search for a Northwest Passage to the Orient would prove useless. However, he
promoted the idea of carrying on trade across the Pacific Ocean.
He wrote Voyages on the River Saint Lawrence and Through the Continent of North America to
the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in the Years 1789 and 1793 (1801). This book contains much
valuable information on Indian tribes and Canadian history.
Mackenzie was born in Stornoway, on the Scottish island of Lewis with Harris. In 1778, he went
to Canada. He later became a partner in the North West Company, a leading Canadian furtrading company. Mackenzie made a fortune as a fur trader. He spent his last years in Scotland.
He died on March 12, 1820.
(Gough, Barry M. "Mackenzie, Sir Alexander." World Book Student. World Book, 2012. Web.
10 Jan. 2012.)