May 31, 1793. Old Man's Narrative.

 Excerpts from the Journals of Alexander MacKenzie`s Voyage Of Dicovery

`The morning was clear and cold, and the current very powerful. On crossing the mouth of a river that flowed in from the right of us, we were very much endangered;indeed all the rivers which I have lately seen, appear to overflow their natural limits, as it may be supposed, from the melting of the mountain snow.``

     The Wicked River. He is battling these rivers at the time of their highest water; when all of the streams and rivers draining the huge glaciers and mountain peaks are all melting at once. When he says they were “very much endangered”, it’s not hard to believe him.

Picture 1. Mt. Selwyn, from the Wicked River. (1929 Swannell Survey photo)

      “...the river was barred with rocks, forming cascades and small islands...there appeared a ridge or chain of mountains, running North and South as far as the eye could reach.”

     Alexander Mackenzie has reached the Rocky Mountain Trench, an amazing valley from which are borne four river major basins; the Liard, Peace, Fraser, and Columbia.  It separates the Rocky Mountains from the Cassiar Mountains and stretches almost the entire length of British Columbia, with a slight break at about 54. N., near Prince George, B.C. The trench bottom is up to ten miles wide, with an elevation between 2000 and 3000 feet. It is so large that it is easy to see from the air or with Google Earth, and can even be seen from the ISS. (Picture 2).  North of the divide the water is drained by the Peace and MacKenzie Rivers to the Arctic Ocean, whereas water south of the divide drains to the Fraser and Columbia Rivers, and the Pacific Ocean. Of course, in 1793 none of these rivers or features have been named yet.

“On advancing two or three miles, we arrived at the fork, one branch running about West-North-West, and the other South-South-East...”

He has become the first explorer to navigate the entire length of the mighty Peace River, and has reached the fork, which will be known later as Finlay Forks. And in his next journal entry is probably the most important thing he has said or done so far. He is determined that he will not make a navigational error that could cost him his ultimate goal of reaching the Pacific on this Voyage…

      “If I had been governed by my own judgement, I should have taken the former, as it appeared to me to be the most likely to bring us nearest to the part where I wished to fall upon the Pacific Ocean, but an old man, whom I have already mentioned as having been frequently on war expeditions in this country, had warned me not, on any account, to follow it… that there was no great river that ran in any direction near it, but by following the latter, he said, we should arrive at a carrying-place to another large river…There was so much apparent truth in the old man’s narrative, that I determined to be governed by it, for I did not entertain the least doubt, if I could get into the other river, that I should reach the ocean.”

     Good thing he listened to the old man. The “former” or WNW branch was what we knew as the Finlay River, which actually flows down the Trench from the northwest; and the “latter” or SSE direction branch is (was) known as the Parsnip River, and that’s exactly the one he needs to go up, to reach “the other river”.