author
Alexander Ross
1783–1856
Drawn from a life spent on the fur-trade frontier, these writings bring early Canada and the Pacific Northwest into sharp, lived-in view. Their author was not just an observer, but a participant in the dramatic expansion of trade, settlement, and travel across the West.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Morayshire, Scotland, in 1783, Alexander Ross emigrated to Canada in the early 1800s. He first worked as a teacher, then entered the fur trade and became closely involved with the Pacific Fur Company, the North West Company, and later the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Ross took part in the founding of Astoria in 1811 and spent years traveling and trading across the Pacific Northwest and the interior. After retiring from active fur trading, he settled in the Red River region, where he served in public life as well as writing about the world he had known firsthand.
His books are still valued for their vivid picture of frontier life, the fur trade, and the colonial societies that grew around them. Though modern readers should approach nineteenth-century viewpoints with context, Ross remains an important witness to a formative period in Canadian and western North American history.