Alexander Mackenzie
"Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand, seven hundred and ninety-three."
Painted in a mixture of vermilion and grease on a rock at Bella Bella, the triumphant inscription announcing his arrival at the the coast is still visible. Others probed the Arctic for the elusive Northwest Passage, but Mackenzie remained focused on finding the "Western Sea."
In 1793, with a North West Company partner and native guides, he achieved that ambition. The English king, George III, knighted the Scottish-born Mackenzie, out of recognition that he was the first European explorer north of Mexico to reach the Pacific Ocean by an overland route. Later, Americans Lewis and Clark duplicated the feat of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, arriving at the Pacific near Portland, Oregon in 1805.
The Mackenzie River and the town of Mackenzie, BC, bear the name of this explorer. Schools are also named after him in Vancouver and Hagensborg, BC, and in Cochrane, Alberta. This past June, Sir Alexander Mackenzie School in Inuvik, which opened in 1959, closed along with another school named after explorer and naturalist Samuel Hearne. The two will be replaced by a larger, more modern facility.
Alexander Mackenzie was also the name of Canada's second Prime Minister, a Liberal, but that namesake was not born until 1822, long after our fur-trading explorer had accomplished his most memorable feats. His memory continues to be honoured by BC Grizzly Tours. Photo: Mackenzie's inscription, from Beyond the map.