Scotsman Alexander Mackenzie is one of the great explorers of North America. He is the first recorded person to travel the length of Mackenzie River, and he is the first person to cross the North American continent north of Mexico. He did the latter more than a decade before the more famous Lewis and Clark expedition.
Episodes
Alexander Mackenzie – Part 1 – Early life, the fur trade, and the Mackenzie River Expedition
In the first part of our series on Scottish Explorer Alexander Mackenzie we take a look at his early life including his move from Scotland to America. We follow Mackenzie as he becomes a part of the fur trading industry in Canada – which will eventually lead to his first expedition of exploration – a search for a route to the Pacific Coast – which will instead lead him to one of Canada’s great waterways – the Mackenzie River.
Audio link coming soon.
Maps
This map shows the routes of Mackenzie’s expeditions in Canada 1792-1793. From A History of Geographical Discovery in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, by Edward Heawood.
Click on the map to see a larger view of it.
