b. 1764
d. 1820-03-12
Alexander Mackenzie was a trader and explorer who published a journal of his travels
throughout North America. Born in Scotland, Mackenzie came to New York in 1774 with
his father, Kenneth Mackenzie, and two aunts, who took care of him. In 1778, Alexander's
aunts sent him to Montreal for schooling, and, in 1779, he joined a fur-trade company
that would later be amalgamated into the North West Company, of which Mackenzie would
receive a partner's share.
In 1788, Mackenzie headed the North West Company's Athabasca post, and, a year later,
the company ordered him to find route, navigable by water, to the Pacific Ocean. Mackenzie
departed on his first voyage from the newly built from Fort Chipewyan in June 1789
and travelled the length of the
Mackenzie River only to arrive at Garry Island,
Northwest Territory.
Makenzie set out on a second voyage in October 1792; he hoped to find a river on the
western descent of the
Rocky Mountains with which he could follow to the coast. He entered the
Fraser River, which he though was the
Columbia, and traversed it until he met First Nations individuals who counselled Mackenzie
not to continue on that route, but instead, take the valley of the West Road River
westward, advice which Mackenzie heeded.
Mackenzie's party proceeded down the Bella Coola River into North Bentinck Arm and
further into Dean Channel, where in a mixture of vermillion and melted grease Mackenzie
wrote on a rock Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand
seven hundred and ninety-three.
Alexander Mackenzie's route, however, was too difficult to be a feasible trade route.
In 1804, Mackenzie represented Huntington in the Lower Canada House of Assembly, and
was also involved in
Selkirk's
Red River Settlement, but had withdrawn to Scotland before the height of the colony's problems. He married
Geddes Mackenzie in April 1812, and the couple would have a daughter, and two sons.
Mackenzie died in January 1820 at an inn outside of Dunkeld, Scotland.