blackfoot-valley

the Bella Coola River, which ends at a salt water fjord near the present town of that name. MacKenzie, and his twelve white companions, on July 22nd of 1793, became the first known Europeans to cross the American continent north of Mexico. But again, MacKenzie was bitterly disappointed at not hav- ing found a usable trade route to the Pacific. In one of history’s ironies, he could not know that it was just a year before the American sea captain Robert Gray had sailed into the mouth of the Columbia River, naming it for his ship. The reality of the River of the West was thus confirmed, but not by MacKen- zie. Slipping into a profound depression upon his return to Fort Chipewyan, MacKenzie left Canada that same year and never returned. His account of the historic journey did not see publication until 1801, in London. In it he urged the British government to find and establish a practical land route to the con- tinent’s west coast for purposes of commerce with Asia. Stephen E. Ambrose has commented on this historic exploration and its result thus: “ No wonder the North West Company liked MacKenzie. He thought big and he thought like a businessman. The fire he lit, however, was not under the company, or the British government, but under Jefferson.” Hudson Bay Company western trading routes 1780 57