author
Alexander Ross
1783–1856
A Scottish-born fur trader who turned firsthand frontier experience into vivid books, he wrote about the Pacific Northwest, the fur trade, and the Red River settlement from direct experience. His work is still valued for the window it gives into early western North America.
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About the author
Born in Scotland in 1783, he emigrated to Upper Canada in the early 1800s and began working first as a teacher before entering the fur trade. He later worked with major trading companies in the Pacific Northwest and took part in the early history of Astoria, giving him unusual firsthand knowledge of a fast-changing region.
In later life, he settled in the Red River colony, where he served in public roles including sheriff and member of the Council of Assiniboia. Alongside that civic work, he became known as an author whose books drew on personal experience rather than distant hearsay.
His best-known writings include Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon and Columbia Rivers (1849), The Fur Hunters of the Far West (1855), and The Red River Settlement (1856). Today he is remembered both as a participant in the fur trade era and as an important early chronicler of life in the Pacific Northwest and Red River settlement.