From Merk’s introduction to Fur Trade and Empire:

The accompanying journal of George Simpson [1792–1860] is a memoir of trade and of empire. The author was Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company Territories in America, and as such, director of the economic life of the greater part of what is now the Dominion of Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States. At the time of writing this journal he was primarily interested in the task of rehabilitating the fur trade of one section of this vast empire, the Oregon Country, stretching westward from the Rocky Mountains to the sea and from California to Alaska. His account opens with his embarkation in a North canoe on Hudson Bay bound for the Pacific and for the work of reorganizing this trade. He gives a lively narrative of his swift journey across the continent, with comments interspersed on the state of trade along his route. In Oregon the record becomes a memoir of Indian life, of trade problems, of the slashing reforms by which he revived a demoralized and profitless industry, and of his plans for holding possession of the country against any future competition of Americans.…

The Oregon Country, which is the central theme of the document, was in 1824-25 a region in dispute. Not only was it contended for by Great Britain and the United States, but it was claimed also by the Russian Czar, though he was preparing in 1824-25 to give up such rights as he had there for recognition of his sovereignty north of the parallel of 54° 40′. Governor Simpson was ambitious to win the Oregon Country, or as much of it as possible, for Great Britain and for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Peace came by way of a coalition agreement entered into in London in 1821. In the merger the Hudson’s Bay Company retained its identity; it took over the assets of the North West Company, evaluated like its own at €200,000, and to finance the consolidation doubled its outstanding stock. The charter and the ancient privileges of the Hudson’s Bay Company remained undisturbed. To the privileges a princely addition was made. The British government as a reward for the peace and as a means of preventing any future outbreak of war conferred upon the reorganized Company, under an act of Parliament of 1821, exclusive trading rights for twenty-one years in all that part of British North America lying between Rupert’s Land and the Rocky Mountains, and, in addition, the sole British trading rights in the whole of the Oregon Country. Thus the entire area which is now the Dominion of Canada excepting only the valley of the St. Lawrence and the maritime provinces was, after 1821, under the control of the Hudson’s Bay Company, either as proprietor or as possessor of exclusive trading rights, and besides the Company held sole British rights of trade in all of what is now the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

The Company divided this empire, for purposes of trade, into four great Departments. Of these the Northern Department of Rupert’s Land was the largest and most important, embracing the area lying between the Arctic Ocean on the north, the United States on the south, Hudson Bay on the east and the Rocky Mountains on the west, together with New Caledonia west of the mountains. The Southern Department extended from James Bay southward to the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and also East Main, the eastern slope of Hudson Bay. The Montreal Department comprised whatever business was done in the Canadas, and included the Kings Posts, and at a later date part of Labrador. The Columbia Department embraced the valley of the Columbia and after 1825 the province lying to the north of it — New Caledonia. Departments such as these were principalities! (1)

In 1813 the North West Company established a post on Brûlé Lake as a “provision depot with the view of facilitating the passage of the mountains through Athabasca Pass.” By 1817, Jasper House was on the west shore of the lake, according to Ross Cox [1793–1853].

James Hector [1834–1907] wrote of his explorations in January 1859:

At three o’clock we reached the point where the Athabasca emerges from “Lac à brulé,” which lies at the base of the mountains, which rise from its western shore at least 3,000 feet. This lake was swept by such a violent wind from the south that we could hardly make way against it over the smooth ice. Its eastern shore is formed of immense sand-hills; and as we reached its upper part we found the ice so covered with the same material that the dogs could hardly pull the sleds.

Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot [1880–1924] makes the following comments on the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in the area around 1911:

Here and there the builders were confronted by tremendous difficulties, such as in the vicinity of Brule Lake, at the entrance to the Rockies. This sheet of water is in reality an enlargement of the Athabaska River, the southern bank being deeply indented, and the soil a light sand. The railway skirts the southern bank, and in order to preserve the grade, heavy embankment work was requisite. The remarkable feature of this sheet of water is that it is always swept by a wind which at times assumes the fury of a gale. Even at the time of my arrival in mid- summer, when the air a few hundred yards inland was oppressively still, a keen breeze played across this lake. This peculiarity is attributed to the fact that the expanse lies in the path of the funnel formed by the passage of the river through the mountains, and through this constricted channel the wind is forced to make its way like a huge draught, to expend its force upon this area of water. Be that as it may, its existence resulted in a pretty battle between Nature and the engineers, and the struggle for supremacy lasted a long time.

As fast as the sand was excavated from a cutting and dumped to form an embankment, it was picked up by the wind and driven back again. On this short length of line around the lake there are two notable pieces of work, a cutting from which 87,000 cubic yards were removed, and an embankment built up of 117,000 cubic yards. The broad, high surface of the latter suffered from the full force of the wind, which picked up the sand in dense clouds and drove it irresistibly forward into the cut. At last the engineers erected a series of screens which deflected the eddying, circling wind laden with dust, the latter falling helplessly against these obstructions, and in time forming a natural protection to the cutting. So far as the slope of the embankment was concerned, the expedient of protect- ing its surface with scrub was adopted and found to be highly successful.

Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820] travelled the river in 1798 the hope it would lead to the Pacific Ocean, but instead reached its mouth on the Arctic Ocean on 14 July 1789. There is a story, likely apocryphal, that he named it “Disappointment River”, but eventually it was named after him.

Mackenzie was also the first European to cross North America north of Mexico. In 1793 the North West Company of Montréal approved Mackenzie’s plan to search for a route to the Pacific Ocean to facilitate the fur trade. Starting in northern Alberta, Mackenzie led a company up the Peace River. They crossed from the Arctic watershed to the Pacific over an unnamed pass that led to the Fraser River, which Mackenzie assumed to be the Columbia River, the Fraser then but little known. South of the big bend in the Fraser, the party headed west over land and reached salt water. Mackenzie concluded that the route was impractical.

“Mackenzie River / Fleuve Mackenzie” is among the 75 “Pan-Canadian names,” large and well-known Canadian features and areas designated in Treasury Board Circular 1983-58 to require presentation in both official languages of Canada on federal maps. In French, a fleuve is a river that flows into an ocean or sea.