Mackenzie River Bicentennial Dollar, 1989.

 

Obv: Arnold Machin (designer) / Patrick Brindley (modeller)
Rev: John Mardon (designer) / Sheldon Beveridge (modeller)
Silver, .500 fine. Wgt: 23.3 grams. Diam: 36.07 mm
Mintage: 272,319 cased proofs; 110,650 BUs in holder.

Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820) was born on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland but was brought to New York when he was 10. Upon the outbreak of the American Revolution, Alexander's father became a loyalist officer and Alex was sent north to Montreal . In 1779, he entered the service of the independent fur company of Findley, Gregory & Co. and was sent west as a "wintering partner" in 1785. Upon the absorption of the firm by the North West Company in 1787, he was named a partner and placed in charge of Fort Chipewayan on Lake Athabaska in the following year.

It was from this post that he would begin the journey of discovery commemorated on the silver dollar two hundred years later. But the result of the feat was largely unintentional since Mackenzie's purpose was to find an easy water route to the Pacific Ocean so that the cost of shipping furs might be greatly lessened.

 

Alexander Mackenzie. His only known true likeness is this portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, now in the National Galley of Canada , Ottawa .

On June 3, 1789 , Mackenzie with 13 companions and three canoes set off from Fort Chipewayan (in what is now Alberta ) and headed north down the Slave River to Great Slave Lake . Indians had told him of a river flowing generally westward from the Lake 's western end and on June 29, he entered the river, hoping that it would prove to be a route through the Rockies .

It didn't. By July 10, the river had widened into a delta with the Rockies still to the west and on the 15 th , Mackenzie tasted salt water; his river had reached what is now the Beaufort Sea . Since he could see no way for ships to navigate to this spot, he returned to the fort, reaching it on September 12 and naming his discovery "River Disappointment". But the river that now bears his name is the second largest in North America and was the means by which Russian (and later American) coastal claims did not extend far inland.

Convinced that his lack of skill had caused these results, he travelled to England and studied navigation and the use of a chronometer during 1791, returning to Canada and his post in 1792. Determined to make yet another try, he left Fort Chipewayan that fall with company clerk Alexander Mackay, six voyageurs and two Indian interpreter/hunters and wintered 300 miles closer to the coast at Fort Fork (near present-day Peace River, Alberta).

Setting out as early as possible in the spring, the party had to first of all fight their way up 270 feet elevation in the river in 22 miles; then through 9 miles of "impassible" rapids, followed by portaging across the face of an entire mountain (Portage Mountain, near today's Hudson's Hope, B.C.). By the end of May, and still 500 miles from the sea, a decision had to be made at a fork in the river (present-day Findley Forks): take the slow northwest running Findlay or the narrow, swift south-running Parsnip. Mackenzie chose the latter and near the head of that river at Arctic Lake , and then Portage Lake , they crossed the Continental Divide. There the Sekani Indians told Mackenzie of a "stinking lake" to the west where white men sailed boats as big as islands - they knew of the Pacific Ocean .

Although "downhill", their journey down the "Bad River" (now James Creek) was fraught with accidents and on June 18, near present-day Prince George, they reached what would become known as the Fraser River, travelling down it for four days before leaving it to portage directly west - a portage that turned out to be 12 days staggering through hail, snow and rain to what is now the Bella Coola River. At its mouth, at a village near today's North Bentinck Arm, Mackenzie could determine that they were in an arm of the sea with all doubt removed when they traversed today's Dean Channel.

The next morning, Mackenzie mixed red pigment with melted grease and wrote on a rock: "Alex Mackenzie / from Canada / by land / 22d July 1793". Although weather erased the original words within a few years, they have since been rendered permanent in

 

the rock by embedding in cement and may be seen in Sir Alexander Mackenzie Provincial Park , 25 miles to the northwest of Bella Coola.

Again, Mackenzie was disappointed. The route was not viable for shipping furs. However, unknown to him again , his prior discovery also gave the British a claim to the coast south of the Queen Charlotte Islands . Oddly, at the same time, Captain George Vancouver was mapping the same coast; he and Mackenzie missed meeting by only a matter of seven weeks!

Wayne Jacobs is a numismatic expert. Currently secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia, he is the award winning author of numerous articles. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.