Alexander Mackenzie
Born 1755, Stornoway, Lewis and Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scotland
Died March 1820, near Pitlochry, Perth, Scotland

A Scottish fur trader and explorer who traced the course of the 1,100-mile Mackenzie River in Canada.

In 1779 he emigrating to Canada to join Montreal trading firm, which became the North West Company, a rival of the Hudson's Bay Company. Mackenzie and a cousin set up a trading post, at Ft. Chipewyan, on Lake Athabasca in1788. This was the starting point of his expedition of 1789, which followed the Mackenzie from the Great Slave Lake to the river's delta on the Arctic Ocean. While travelling down the river, the Indians pointed out a place on the river bank where oil was oozing out of the ground. He made notes about the location and it later became the site of Canada’s first oil well that is still functioning today. It is called Norman Wells.

In 1793 Mackenzie crossed the Rocky Mountains from Ft. Chipewyan to the Pacific coast. These journeys were the first transcontinental crossing of America north of Mexico. Note about his voyages around North America and to the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, during 1789 and 1793 were published in 1801. Alexander Mackenzie was Knighted in 1802.