Sir Alexander Mackenzie, fur trader and explorer (born in 1764 at Stornoway, Scotland; died on March 12, 1820, near Dunkeld, Scotland). A fur trader for the North West Company, he was the first non-native to travel overland to both the Arctic and Pacific oceans.

Mackenzie left Scotland as a young boy to live in New York. During the American Revolution, he moved again, this time to Montreal where, at age 15, he went to work for a fur-trade company. Six years later he made his first trip with a canoe brigade into the Canadian Northwest to live at a trading post.

Alexander Mackenzie became a partner in the North West Company when it was formed. He was sent to trade on Athabasca Lake. There he worked with Peter Pond, a veteran trader who set Mackenzie's mind on finding a canoe route to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1789, Mackenzie set off to travel down a great river which he believed would lead far to the west. But he was mistaken; the river flowed north, not west. With the assistance of native guides, Mackenzie went all the way to the Arctic Ocean, a great accomplishment but not the one he was hoping for. The river was later named after him.

In 1793, Mackenzie tried again. With natives to guide him, he crossed the mountains on foot, then followed the Fraser and Bella Coola rivers down to an arm of the Pacific Ocean, which he reached on July 20.

Neither of Alexander Mackenzie's discoveries were much use to the fur trade, but they made him a highly respected figure in the Northwest. In 1799 he quit the North West Company and later joined a rival firm, the XY Company. Mackenzie was a great celebrity; in England his explorations won him a knighthood. But his efforts to form a single, united fur-trade company failed and in 1805 he retired to his native Scotland.

Related Articles: EXPLORATION; NORTH WEST COMPANY; PETER POND; XY COMPANY.