Sir Alexander Mackenzie
1800 portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence
Wikipedia
Sir Alexander Mackenzie
b. c 1764 — Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland
d. 12 March 1820 — Dunkeld, Perthshire, Scotland
Alexander Mackenzie, a Scottish-Canadian explorer and fur trader, in 1793 lead a North West Company expedition that started from a post on the Peace River in the Mackenzie River drainage, crossed the Continental Divide to a tributary of the McGregor River in the Fraser River drainage, and continued overland to the Pacific Ocean. This was the first reported crossing of North America north of Mexico.
Details of his life are available on Wikipedia [1], the Dictionary of Canadian Biography [2], and Derek Hayes’s First Crossing [3].
Works pertinent to the Mount Robson region of which Mackenzie was author or co-author:
- — Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Lawrence through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in the Years 1789 and 1793 with a Preliminary Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Fur Trade of That Country. London: T. Cadell, Jun., and W. Davies, 1803. Internet Archive [accessed 3/10/2025]
- — First Man West: Alexander Mackenzie’s Journal of His Voyage to the Pacific Coast of Canada in 1793. Edited by Walter Sheppe. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962
- — The journals and letters of Sir Alexander Mackenzie. Edited by W. Kaye Lamb (1904–1999). Cambridge, U.K.: Published for the Hakluyt Society at the University Press, 1970
Mackenzie is the namesake of the following places in the Mount Robson region:
Events in the Mount Robson region in which Mackenzie was involved:
References:
- 1. Wikipedia. Alexander Mackenzie
- 2. Lamb, William Kaye [1904–1999]. Mackenzie, Sir Alexander (1764-1820). 1983. Dictionary of Canadian Biography [accessed 19 September 2026]
- 3. Hayes, Derek [1947–]. First Crossing: Alexander Mackenzie, His Expedition Across North America, and the Opening of the Continent. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2001. Internet Archive [accessed 20 September 2026]