May 12, 1793. North by East.

May 12, 1793. (227 years ago today) Alexander Mackenzie’s Journey of Discovery (Day 4)

MacKenzie generally records the course of the river in his journal by describing the distance travelled, in each particular direction the canoe points. This information he will use later, when making maps of the journey. As in this record of their travel on May 12th…

      

 “Some of the Indians passed the night with us, and I was informed by them, that according to our proceeding, we should, in ten days, get as far as the rocky mountains....At four in the morning  we proceeded on our voyage, steering West three miles, including one of our course yesterday, North-West by North four miles, West 2 miles and a half, North-West by West a mile and a half, North by East two miles, North-West by West one mile, and North-North-West three miles. After a continuation of our course to the North for a mile and a half, we landed for the night on an island where several of the Indians visited us…”

-Here is where his record of direction really helped me to pinpoint his location. His direction of travel on this day has pointed the voyage, “NORTH by EAST two miles”, as described above. After looking at the entire river (with either Google Earth or a good map), I was surprised to find that when going upstream there is only one place in the entire journey across these plains where his direction goes Easterly, and that happens only for the two mile stretch as described above. Since the direction of the river valley hasn’t changed since then, we can pinpoint this as his EXACT location on May 12, without any doubt.  

You will find that the valley (going upstream) trends North by East for two miles, just a few miles up from the present site of Dunvegan (NWC 1805). It’s interesting that he passed by that site without note.

The site of their encampment this day was on an island, about 5 ½ miles upstream from that pinpoint. That would place their camp of May 12, 1793, approximately 14 miles west of present day Hines Creek, Alberta. 

 (ed. Note: The terms I use in these articles and quotes, for the indigenous people, are the names that he used...i.e. The Beaver Indians he refers to are actually known as the Dane-zaa)

“The land on both sides of the river , during the two last days, is very much elevated...and on the western side, presents in different places, white, steep and lofty cliffs. Our view being confined by these circumstances, we did not see so many animals as on the 10th...we killed an Elk, and fired several shots at animals from the canoe…”