author
John McDougall
1842–1917
A Methodist missionary on the Canadian prairies, he turned years of travel and frontier work into lively books about the North-West. His writing draws on close experience with Indigenous communities, mission life, and the fast-changing world of western Canada.
3 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Upper Canada in 1842, he was the son of Methodist missionary George Millward McDougall and grew up in mission settings in the West. He later became a Methodist minister himself, working in what is now Alberta and building a life closely tied to the prairies and to Indigenous communities, especially the Stoney Nakoda.
Alongside his ministry, he became a published author. His best-known books include Forest, Lake and Prairie, Saddle, Sled and Snowshoe, and Pathfinding on Plain and Prairie, works that blend memoir, travel writing, and frontier history.
He died in Calgary in 1917. Today he is remembered as both a missionary figure and a writer whose books preserve a firsthand picture of western Canadian life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.