Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)
Scottish explorer who first crossed North America north of Mexico.
Sir Alexander Mackenzie (c. 1764 – 12 March 1820) was a Scottish fur trader and explorer. In 1793, he became the first European known to have crossed North America north of Mexico. He was a key figure in the North West Company and wanted to push its fur trade into western Canada, then sell those furs in China. This put him in direct competition with the monopolies held by the Hudson’s Bay Company and the East India Company. The Mackenzie River and Mount Sir Alexander are named for him.
Mackenzie was born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, the third of four children. His father, Kenneth, had served as an ensign during the Jacobite rising of 1745 and later became a merchant. His mother was Isabella MacIver. After his mother died, young Alexander sailed to New York City in 1774 with his father to join an uncle. During the American War of Independence, his father and uncle served as lieutenants in the King’s Royal Regiment of New York. For safety, Alexander was sent to Montreal in 1778, accompanied by two aunts. By 1779, he had secured an apprenticeship with Finlay, Gregory & Co., a major Montreal fur trading firm. In 1787, that company merged with the North West Company.
On behalf of the North West Company, Mackenzie travelled to Lake Athabasca and helped found Fort Chipewyan in 1788, replacing Peter Pond. From Pond, he learned that local Indigenous peoples said the rivers flowed northwest. Hoping this would lead to Cook Inlet in Alaska, he set out by canoe on 3 July 1789 on the river the Dene called the Dehcho. He reached the Arctic Ocean on 14 July, not the Pacific. In a letter to his cousin, he reportedly called it the “River Disappointment,” though contemporary records refer to it simply as the “Grand River.” It was later renamed the Mackenzie River.
In 1791, Mackenzie returned to Britain to study new methods for measuring longitude. After the Nootka Crisis, he came back to Canada in 1792 and set out to find a route to the Pacific. Accompanied by two native guides (one named Cancre), his cousin Alexander MacKay, six voyageurs, and a dog, he left Fort Chipewyan on 10 October 1792. The party travelled to the Peace River and built a winter fortification, later called Fort Fork. On 9 May 1793, they left Fort Fork, crossed the Great Divide, and reached the upper Fraser River. Local natives warned them that the Fraser Canyon was unnavigable and dangerous. Inst
- born
- c. 1764, Stornoway, Lewis, Scotland
- died
- 12 March 1820, Avoch, Black Isle, Scotland
- field
- Exploration, fur trade
- nationality
- Scottish
- known_for
- First European crossing of North America north of Mexico (1793); Mackenzie River
Lore & Background
Mackenzie was born in Stornoway, Lewis, the third of four children of Kenneth Mackenzie and Isabella MacIver. After his mother died, he sailed to New York City in 1774 with his father to join an uncle. During the American War of Independence, his father and uncle served as lieutenants in the King's Royal Regiment of New York. In 1778, for his safety as a son of loyalists, Mackenzie was sent to Montreal. By 1779 he had secured an apprenticeship with Finlay, Gregory & Co., a fur trading company that merged with the North West Company in 1787.
On behalf of the North West Company, Mackenzie journeyed to Lake Athabasca and helped found Fort Chipewyan in 1788. In 1789 he set out by canoe on the river known to the Dene as the Dehcho (later the Mackenzie River), reaching the Arctic Ocean on 14 July. The river did not prove to be the Northwest Passage he sought. In 1791 he returned to Britain to study longitude measurement, then returned to Canada in 1792. On 9 May 1793 he left Fort Fork on the Peace River, crossed the Great Divide, and followed a grease trail over the Coast Mountains, reaching the Pacific coast at Bella Coola on 20 July 1793. He inscribed a message on a rock near Dean Channel and turned back, arriving at Fort Chipewyan on 24 August.
Mackenzie later became a leading partner of the North West Company, left in 1799 to lobby in London, and helped form the New North West Company (XY Company) in 1800. He was knighted in 1802, served in the Legislature of Lower Canada from 1804 to 1808, and in 1812 married 14-year-old Geddes Mackenzie, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. He died of Bright's disease in 1820 and is buried at Avoch.
Reader's Guide
Mackenzie's significance lies in his completion of the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico, twelve years before Lewis and Clark. His 1793 journey to the Pacific demonstrated a viable overland route through the continent, advancing European geographic knowledge and the ambitions of the North West Company. The Mackenzie River, named after him, became a major waterway for exploration and trade. His published journals provided early records of the Carrier language and informed later British interest in the Pacific coast. Although his plan for a permanent British fishery and fur trade on the west coast was not acted upon due to conflict with Napoleon, his explorations paved the way for later fur traders like Simon Fraser and David Thompson. Today, his legacy is preserved in place names, schools, a national historic site, and cultural references such as the folk song 'Northwest Passage.' The Alexander Mackenzie rose and the Mackenzie Bicentennial Sea-to-Sea Expeditions further commemorate his achievements.
Did You Know?
- Mackenzie reached the Arctic Ocean on 14 July 1789, but the river he followed (later named the Mackenzie River) did not lead to the Pacific as he had hoped.
- He unknowingly missed meeting explorer George Vancouver at Bella Coola by 48 days in 1793.
- Mackenzie's journal contains the first written record of the Carrier language, an Athabaskan language.
- He was knighted in 1802 and later served as a member of the Legislature of Lower Canada for Huntingdon County from 1804 to 1808.
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