Alexander Mackenzie

Born in Scotland around 1764, he built his career in the North American fur trade and became one of the great explorers of the late 18th century. Working with the North West Company, he traveled deep into the interior at a time when much of the region was still little known to Europeans.

In 1789, he followed a vast river all the way to the Arctic Ocean; that river would later bear his name. Four years later, in 1793, he completed a remarkable overland expedition to the Pacific, reaching the coast in present-day British Columbia and becoming the first person recorded to cross the continent north of Mexico.

He later returned to Britain, was knighted, and published an account of his journeys that helped secure his place in exploration history. He died in 1820, but his name remains closely tied to the geography and early written record of northern and western Canada.