Scottish Explorer. He is remembered for his overland crossing of what is now Canada to reach the Pacific Ocean in 1793, the first east to west crossing of North America north of Mexico and predated the Lewis and Clark expedition by 10 years. The third of four children, his father served as an Ensign to protect Stornaway during the Jacobite rising of 1745. In 1774 his mother died, and he sailed to New York City, New York to join his father and uncle. In 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, his father and uncle joined the King's Royal Regiment of New York as Lieutenants. By 1778, to escape the ravages of war, he was either sent, or accompanied by two aunts, to Montreal, Canada and by 1779 he had a secured apprenticeship with Finlay, Gregory & Co., one of the most influential fur trading companies in Montreal. In 1787 the company merged with the rival North West Company and the following year, on behalf of the North West Company, he travelled to Lake Athabasca (in present-day northwest Saskatchewan) and became was one of the founders of Fort Chipewyan. He had been sent to replace Peter Pond, a partner in the North West Company. From Pond, he learned that the First Nations people understood that the local rivers flowed to the northwest. Acting on this information, he set out by canoe on the river known to the local Dene First Nations people as the Dehcho on July 10, 1789, following it to its mouth in the hope of finding the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. As he ended up reaching the Arctic Ocean on July 14, it is conjectured that he named the river "Disappointment River" as it did not lead to Cook Inlet in Alaska as he had expected. The river was later renamed the Mackenzie River in his honor. In 1791 he returned to England to study the new advance in the measurement of longitude. Upon his return to Canada the following year, he set out once again to find a route to the Pacific. Accompanied by two native guides, his cousin, and six Canadian voyageurs, he left from Fort Chipewyan on October 10 1792 and travelled via the Pine River to the Peace River. From there he travelled to a fork on the Peace River arriving 1 November where he and his men built a fortification that they resided in over the winter, later as Fort Fork. On May 9, 1793 he left Fort Fork and followed the route of the Peace River. He crossed the Great Divide and found the upper reaches of the Fraser River but was warned by the local natives that the Fraser Canyon to the south was unnavigable and populated by belligerent tribes. He was directed to follow a grease trail by ascending the West Road River, crossing over the Coast Mountains and descending the Bella Coola River to the sea. He followed this advice and reached the Pacific coast on 20 July 1793 at present-day Bella Coola, British Columbia, on North Bentinck Arm, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, thereby completing the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico. Wanting to continue westward out of a desire to reach the open ocean, he was stopped by the hostility of the Heiltsuk Native American tribe. Hemmed in by Heiltsuk war canoes, he wrote a message on a rock near the water's edge of Dean Channel, using a reddish paint made of vermilion and bear grease, and turned back east. The inscription read: "Alex MacKenzie from Canada by land 22d July 1793" (at the time the name Canada was an informal term for the former French territory in what is now southern Quebec). The words were later inscribed permanently by surveyors. The site is now Sir Alexander Mackenzie Provincial Park and is designated a National Historic Site of Canada. In 1801 the journals of his exploratory journeys were published. He was knighted for his efforts in the following year and served in the Legislature of Lower Canada from 1804 to 1808. In 1812 he returned to Scotland where he later died at an age of 55.