The Scottish fur trader who beat Lewis and Clark across the North American continent

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Twelve years before the famous American expedition, Alexander Mackenzie achieved the first documented journey across North America north of Mexico. Driven by the fur trade, he navigated treacherous rivers and mountain ranges to reach the Pacific, leaving a legacy that remains etched into the geography of the Canadian wilderness.

Born in Stornoway, Scotland, around 1764, Alexander Mackenzie arrived in Montreal as a teenager to pursue a career in the fur trade. By 1779, he had secured an apprenticeship with a firm that eventually merged into the powerful North West Company. His ambition was to expand trade networks westward, hoping to find a navigable route to the Pacific that would facilitate commerce with China, bypassing the monopoly held by the Hudson’s Bay Company.

In 1789, Mackenzie embarked on an expedition from Fort Chipewyan, which he had helped establish a year earlier. He followed a massive northern river, hoping it would lead to the Pacific, but instead arrived at the Arctic Ocean. Disappointed by this discovery, he returned to Great Britain in 1791 to study longitude measurement. He was soon back in Canada, determined to find the elusive path to the western sea. In 1792, he set out with a small party, including his cousin Alexander MacKay and several voyageurs, to traverse the continent.

The 1793 journey was a feat of endurance. After navigating the Peace River and crossing the Great Divide, Mackenzie followed indigenous guidance along a grease trail to reach the Pacific coast at Bella Coola on July 20, 1793. Hemmed in by the hostile Heiltsuk people, he famously painted a message on a rock face before retreating. His journals, published in 1801, detailed these travels and provided the first written record of the Carrier language. Though he later lobbied the British government to secure the west coast for trade, his primary legacy remains his pioneering role in mapping the vast, unknown interior of the continent.

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