In 1801, Mackenzie published his book "Voyages from Montreal".
The recognition of this journey and the men and women who participated in
it provides an opportunity to remember this country's original native inhabitants
and the courageous entrepreneurs who envisioned this nation from "sea
to sea".
After his disappointing attempt to find the Northwest passage (1789), Alexander
Mackenzie set out from Fort Chipewyan (northeast Alberta) in 1792 to find
the Pacific Coast (instead of the non-existent Northwest Passage). He made
his way through the Peace River to break through the Rocky Mountains. He used
the water systems to make his way to the mouth of the Columbia River on the
Pacific. Alexander Mackenzie was the first European explorer (along with his
crew of 9 men) to cross the full breadth of the North American continent.
His explorations preceded the more famous Lewis and Clark expeditions by 12
years.
To his credit, he never lost any member of his crew and managed to avoid violence
during the course of his travels.
Dried fish and cedar bark were bartered for moose hides and beaver pelts.
The coastal berries were exchanged for obsidian from the interior. The aboriginal
trade routes allowed trade between the coastal tribes and the aboriginal bands
of the interior. Eulachon, a small fish that was dried or often rendered into
grease was a valuable commodity for the coastal people. The tiny fish spawned
in great numbers in many of the coastal inlets in the early spring. They were
an important part of the aboriginal food source.
Before European contact, great quantities of Eulachon grease were carried
inland from the coast along the trails. For this reason aboriginal trade routes
are often referred to as grease trails.
This is part of the trade routes of the prehistoric Carrier Indian peoples
some 6000 years ago. Mackenzie and his native guides followed the trade routes
and trails that run through the Rainbow Range to the Bella Coola Valley. He
was met by the Nuxalks of Friendly Village who in turn took him down the Dean
Channel in dugout canoes to the ocean shores.
The trail takes the voyageur across the Euchineko and Kluskus waterways. There
you will find Ranch and Indian settlements along the upper Blackwater Valley.
The path takes you through Pan Meadows and into the Rainbow Range of extinct
volcanoes in Tweedsmuir Park, moving through into the Bella Coola valley where
the Great Village sit with 10,000 foot peaks on each side.
There in the great village Mackenzie described the "… four elevated
houses, their length… to an hundred and twenty feet, and they are about
40 feet in breadth." You will find the giant Red Wood Cedars of the Bella
Coola Valley and discover the petroglyphs in a shaded canyon at Bella Coola.
The Mackenzie Monument on Dean's Channel is the end point of Mackenzie's journey.
The 450 km stretch is registered as a BC Heritage Site. It was at the Blackwater
River where Mackenzie noted… "before I left this place, to which
I gave the name of the West Road River… two of the men found a well
beaten path… which I imagined to be the Great Road ." The twisting
canyons of the upper Blackwater proved to difficult to travel by canoe, so
Alex and his team made their final journey from "sea-to-sea" by
hiking over the prehistoric trade route known as the Nuxalk-Carrier Grease
Trail.