First Across the Continent: Sir Alexander Mackenzie

Oklahoma Western Biographies #14

by Barry M. Gough

Seeking the Northwest Passage and the fabled link to Russia, Japan, and Cathay, Alexander Mackenzie drove himself and his men relentlessly, by canoe and portage, across the uncharted rivers, valleys, and mountains of North America. Mackenzie's 1789 journey to the Arctic Ocean and his arduous journey to the Pacific in 1793 predate the Lewis and Clark expedition. By the age of thirty-one, Alexander Mackenzie had become the first man to cross North America from the northwestern hub of the interior trade, Lake Athabasca, to the Pacific Ocean. He had opened the continent to trade and exploration. In his research, Barry Gough traveled from Mackenzie's birthplace to his tomb and from Montreal to both the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific. He takes the reader along with Mackenzie on his hazardous travels and voyages, using contemporary accounts to bring to life the perils faced by the young explorer. First Across the Continent reveals the international impact of Sir Alexander Mackenzie's expeditions and places him among the elite of New World Explorers, illuminating his vital role in the history of the fur trade and the American West.

Genres: History, Biography

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 1997

About the author

BARRY GOUGH was professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario until retirement in 2004. An expert on the maritime history of the Pacific Ocean, he has published widely on Anglo-Canadian naval subjects.

Reviews

[Andrew Allison]

I emailed the author about an article he wrote in Canada's History magazine where he said that Mackenzie was the first PERSON to cross North America by land, north of Mexico. I emailed him asking why he said that because many other sources list Mackenzie as being the first EUROPEAN to cross North America by land north of Mexico. In his reply email he told me that he believed Mackenzie was the first -- though it had been reported to him at a conference that others had taken indigenous testimony that another European had crossed before him but that he didn't buy it because Peter Pond never mentioned it -- and that this was the subject of this book that he had written. So I read this book and it's really good, it is. But I get to the final chapter, waiting for him to make the definitive claim that Mackenzie was the first PERSON to cross North America by land north of Mexico and there I see it in black and white that Mackenzie was the first EUROPEAN to cross North America by land north of Mexico. What a shame, what a shame. Who was the first person to cross North America by land north of Mexico? It appears that within the pages of Canada's History and in emails with me, Gough will tell you that it was Mackenzie, but in this book, he did not.

[Julie Richert-Taylor]

A quick and lively introduction to the Canadian version of the race of exploration.
Some truly wonderful journal passages and glimpses of how the Northwest appeared to new observers.

[J Bradley]

A must read for Lewis & Clark enthusiasts, because Mackenzie went across before L&C.

[Dave Franklin]

Barry Gough’s “First Across the Continent” is a concise, yeomanlike biography of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the Scottish born Canadian explorer. Born in 1762, Mackenzie emigrated to New York in 1774. Amid the stirrings of revolutionary unrest, Mackenzie, and family, left New York for Montreal in 1778. A year later, Mackenzie entered the fur trade as a clerk in the North West Company. By 1785, Mackenzie became a partner in the company, on the condition that he would travel to Canada’s frontier. In 1787, he arrived at Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca.

In July, 1793, at Bella Coola, in British Columbia, Mackenzie, and a spartan crew of trappers and Native guides, beheld the Pacific littoral. A year after their arduous journey to the Arctic Ocean, Mackenzie had pioneered a route that traversed North America from east to west. Like his American successors, Lewis and Clark, the journey did not locate a navigable trade route to the Pacific. The trek did, however, increase British economic, scientific, and military interest in the region. Thomas Jefferson followed Mackenzie’s endeavors closely, and influenced Meriweather Lewis to carry a copy of Mackenzie’s “Voyages from Montreal” on his expedition of discovery.

Gough manages to tell Mackenzie’s story in a straightforward manner that relies on source documents, while avoiding arcane minutiae. In short, Gough allows the reader to assess the grandeur of Mackenzie’s accomplishments without obsessive theorizing, or post hoc virtue signaling. A worthwhile read.

[Sam]

A good book, once you get past say the first 1/3, which is informative. It get's exciting when you get to the 2nd half. And wow, Mackenzie was certainly an adventurer of "steely" spirits.

You also get a sense of what happened later to his life, the politics of that whole ere. a very good read.

[Audrey]

Well-written and well-researched story of Alexander Mackenzie's exploratory trips up what became the Mackenzie River and to the Pacific Coast. Also contains details of the politics of the fur trade.