July 10, 1793. Most Delightful Situation.

July 10, 1793.

Daily excerpts from the journal of Alexander MacKenzie, on his overland Voyage to the Pacific Ocean.

     “At an early hour of this morning we prepared to cross the water. The traverse is about thirty yards, and it required five trips to get us all over. At a short distance below, a small river falls in...when it expands into a lake...”

He has now reached what we know as the Kluskus lakes. This is in the territory of the Lhoosk'uz Dené. A reserve was established there in 1912. 

     “At half past eight we came to the termination of the lake, where there were two houses that occupied a most delightful situation…” This beautiful area had been used as a meeting place by natives for thousands of years, and 50 years after MacKenzie it actually became the site of a small HBC trading post, Fort Kluskus. Built in 1844, it was short-lived due to the fact that the trading patterns and associations between the local people and those of the coast were already well established. 

       “Their inhabitants called themselves Sloua-cuss-Dinais...I have no doubt that they are the same people, from their name alone, which is of the Chipewyan language. My interpreters, however, understood very little of what they said, so I did not expect much information from them. Some of them said it was a journey of four days to the sea, and others were of the opinion that it was six; and there were among them who extended it to eight; but they all uniformly declared that they had been to the coast.”

Picture 1. Old Kluskus.

     “At twelve I obtained an altitude, which made our latitude 53.4.32 North, being not so far South as I expected.” 

     The actual latitude at the southern shore of Kluskus Lakes is 53.4.32 N. Once again his latitude reckonings are bang on.

Picture 2. Kluskus Lakes. (photo Northern Health)

     “At four in the afternoon, we proceeded with considerable expedition, by the side of the lake, till six, when we came to the end of it; we then struck off through a much less beaten track, and at half past seven stopped for the night. Our course, was about West-South-West thirteen miles, and West six miles.”