Overview

As an agent of the Northwest Company trading furs in western Canada, Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1755?-1820) became the first European to cross the continent of North America at its widest part, north of the Spanish territories in Mexico. He achieved this feat in two landmark expeditions: exploring the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean at Beaufort Sea (1789) in Western Canada and traveling overland from Lake Athabasca to the Pacific Ocean over the Canadian Rockies (1793). While working towards expanding the reach of the Northwest Company, Mackenzie made new contact with tribes that had never before seen Europeans and created new trading routes for furs and other goods in western Canada.

Background

By the late eighteenth century...