May 23rd, 1793. First Edition.

Alexander MacKenzie on the Peace River

For anyone who is following along on this daily journey and interested in reading more of his writing than just excerpts, you can download Alexander MacKenzie’s accounts for free from the gutenberg press.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35659/35659-h/35659-h.htm

The title of the volume I’m using is “Voyages from Montreal Through The Continent Of North America...” Vol 2. (It actually has a much longer title) Originally published in London in 1801, the edition I downloaded was pub. 1902.   

The picture shows a valuable first edition.

By ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

May 23rd, 1793. Excerpts from his journals.

      “The weather was clear at four this morning, when the men began to carry. I joined Mr. MacKay and the two Indians in the labour of cutting a road...we could see but little...as mountains...covered with snow, were seen far above us in every direction.”

The portage continues. Everything looks differently from the bush, compared to what they are used to seeing from the river.

“The trees are spruce, red-pine, cypress, poplar, white birch, willow, alder,arrow-wood, red-wood, liard, service-tree, bois-picant- and I never saw any of the last kind before. It rises to about nine feet in height...” 

The bois-picant (Fr: prickly wood), also known as devil’s club. 

“It is covered in small prickles, which caught in our trowsers (sic), and working through them, sometimes found their way to the flesh. The shrubs are, the gooseberry, the currant, and several kinds of briars.”

“Our progress, however, exceeded my expectation...At five, in a state of fatigue that may be more readily conceived than expressed, we encamped near a rivulet or spring that issued from beneath a large mass of ice and snow.” 

It has been a long and arduous day of making the trail and moving their baggage over rough terrain through thick woods. These men would rather be in the canoe than packing it.

     “Our toilsome journey of this day I compute at about three miles...the passage through them painful and tedious.”

May 22, 1793. Very Perilous Undertaking.

 Excerpts from the Journals of Alexander MacKenzie; on his epic Voyage to the Pacific in 1793 via the Peace River.

“At break of day we entered on the extraordinary journey which was to occupy the remaining part of it. The men began, without delay, to cut a road up the mountain...The baggage was now brought from the water side to our encampment. This was...a very perilous undertaking...as one false step...would have been instantly followed by falling headlong into the water.”

      They are beginning the long portage. For reasons that are unclear, he missed the “Indian carrying-place”, the portage trail starting near present day Hudson’s Hope, that had been used by First Nations for centuries. Some history suggests that he was too frightened by the chance of running into violent natives; others suggest that he simply couldn’t or didn’t find it, or maybe that he just wanted to try the river to find out for himself. I think this is more likely, as even after they start to make their own makeshift trail, he still sends men looking for the “Indian carrying-place”. Either way, he was forced to abandon the river in the midst of the canyon, and his crew must now drag the canoe and everything in it up the steep banks, around obstacles, over the mountain and eventually to the upper river.

“Indeed by a general and most laborious exertion, we got everything to the summit by two in the afternoon. At noon, the latitude was 56.0.47 North. At five I sent the men to cut the road onwards…”

      “At about ten, I observed an emersion of Jupiter’s second satellite; time by the achrometer 8.32.20. By which I found the longitude to be 120.29.80 West from Greenwich.” 

     This reckoning is out, by about 2 degrees. If he had found it to be 122.29.80, then he would be very close to correct. I don’t know if he has actually made this large of an error in calculation, or if it is a misprint somewhere between his journal written on the river and the later published work. Either way, he is much farther west than the 120 meridian, (the BC-Alberta border), which he had passed on the 14th. When he took the reckonings of longitude at Fort Fork the previous season, we found that the Fort was actually 8 miles East from his finding. So, if you Google Earth his (revised) numbers; 122.29.80 W and 56.0.47 N, and then go East 8 miles; that should be very close to where he was on this day,  227 years ago.

May 21, 1793. Sweetened With Sugar. (Day 13)

 Daily excerpts from the journal of Alexander MacKenzie on his epic Voyage to find an Overland route from Canada to the Pacific Ocean: (Con't)

“It rained in the morning, and did not cease till about eight, and as the men had been very fatigued and disheartened, I suffered them to continue their rest till that hour. Such was the state of the river, as I have already observed, that no alternative was left us...but the passage of the mountain over which we were to carry the canoe...As this was a very alarming enterprize (sic), I dispatched Mr. MacKay... ”

Some of his men were sent hiking over the mountain until they should find the river navigable, some are sent to find the “Indian carrying-place”, and some stayed with him. 

     “The people who remained with me were employed in gumming the canoe, and making handles for the axes. At noon I got an altitude, which made our latitude 56.0.8.”

      “At sunset, Mr. MacKay returned...they got beyond the rapid, which, according to their calculation, was a distance of three leagues.” 

According to Google, about 3 miles per league. 

      “Unpromising, however, as the account of their expedition appeared, it did not sink them into a state of discouragement; and a kettle of wild rice, sweetened with sugar, which had been prepared for their return, with their usual regale of rum, soon renewed that courage…”

     He hasn’t written much about food, only the odd remark here or there. This is the first mention in his journal of wild rice, however the voyageurs and fur traders would be no strangers to maple sugar. 

(Photo By elPadawan)

He wants to know how far west he has come. 

     “I sat up, in the hope of getting an observation of Jupiter and his first satellite, but the cloudy weather prevented my obtaining it.”

May 20, 1793. Steam Vents.

May 20, 1793. (Day 12) Alexander Mackenzie's Journey to The Pacific

     “The weather was clear with a sharp air, and we renewed our voyage at quarter past four…At noon we stopped to take an altitude, opposite to a small river that flowed in from the left:    I believe this to be Johnson Creek. His latitude reckoning (which he figured was “tolerably correct”) was almost exact, at 56.0 N.  

     “We now continued our toilsome and perilous progress with the line West by North, and as we proceeded the rapidity of the current increased, so that in the distance of two miles we were obliged to unload four times, and carry everything but the canoe...”

He is now in the future location of the Bennett Dam. (see photo) After this his river descriptions aren’t much help in pinpointing locations on the river; because it’s now all under Williston Lake. I found this old map from 1872 that shows the river course as it was mapped then, 80 or so years after MacKenzie. The lat and long on this map are a bit off when compared to Google Earth, which is to be expected, however it gives a good idea of the direction that the river actually followed back in his day. 

      “Along the face of these precipices, there appears a stratum of a bitumenous substance which resembles coal…”

Gething Creek is famous for it's coal.

“Mr. Mackay informed me, that in passing over the mountains, he observed several chasms in the earth that emitted heat and smoke, which diffused a strong sulphureous stench.”  

I’d like to know more about this. *(update: May 22nd. I have discovered since I wrote this, that Mr. MacKay had found what are known as the Hudson's Hope Steam Vents. Now a B.C. Recreation site)

“At five we had proceeded to where the river was one continued rapid.”

Poling, and lining, and traversing the river in the canyon was hard on the men and the canoe on this day. 

     

      “Indeed it began to be muttered on all sides that there was no alternative but to return...Instead of paying attention to these murmurs, I desired those who had uttered them to exert themselves in gaining an ascent of the hill, and encamp there for the night.” 

He is not very clear about the location of this encampment, but he did say this;

     

     “The river above us, as far as we could see, was one white sheet of foaming water.”

   

May 19, 1793. Asylum for Geese.

Excerpts from the Journal of Alexander Mackenzie’s overland journey to the Pacific Ocean in 1793 (by way of the Peace River).

“It rained very hard in the early part of the night, but the weather was clear towards morning, when we embarked at our usual hour. As the current threatened to be very strong, Mr. Mackay, the two hunters, and myself, went on shore, in order to lighten the canoe…we found a beaten path, and before we had walked a mile, fell in with a herd of buffaloes, with their young ones...sent our dog after the herd, and a calf was soon secured by him...we heard two reports of firearms from the canoe...a signal for me to return...immediately hastened down the hill, with our veal…”

He has a lot of hungry men to feed.

“....the canoe was...at the foot of a very strong rapid, and that as several waterfalls appeared up the river, we should be obliged to unload and carry.”

They have reached the canyon above present day Hudson’s Hope. 

“Here are several islands of solid rock...which have been worn away by the constant force of the current...presenting, as it were, so many large tables, each of which supported by a pedestal...they are very elevated for such a situation, and afford an asylum for geese, which were at this time breeding on them.”

These islands and rock formations can be seen at Alwin Holland Memorial Park.

“Til we came to the foot of the most rapid cascade we had hitherto seen...and here I could not but reflect, with infinite anxiety, on the hazard of my enterprise…”

This would be at the present day location of the Peace Canyon Dam.

From here on, his journey up the Peace is on a river that is destined to be no more. In our time, his path is deep under the water, at the bottoms of Dinosaur and Williston Lakes.      

“The Indians...had informed us that at the first mountain, there was a considerable succession of rapids, cascades, and falls, which they never attempted to ascend; and where they always passed over land the length of a day’s march...a path appeared to ascend a hill, where there were several lodges, of last year’s construction. The account which had been given me of the rapids, was perfectly correct…”

“Near the foot of a mountain: between which, and a high ridge, the river flows in a channel of about 100 yards broad...in about a mile and a half I came to a part where the river washes the feet of lofty precipices…”

Portage Mountain. 

“at the entrance of the narrow channel...and the canoe had been broken...but they had persevered with success, and having passed the carrying place, we proceeded ... when we crossed over and encamped on the opposite beach…

I estimate today’s encampment was somewhere near where the channel narrows, about 5 river miles downstream from the site of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam.

May 18, 1793. 227 Years Ago To-day.

May 18, 1793. (Day 10) The Voyage Of Alexander MacKenzie to The Pacific.

Excerpts from his journal, 227 years ago to-day:

     “It again froze very hard during the night, and at four in the morning we continued our voyage, but we had not proceeded two hundred yards, before an accident happened to the canoe, which did not, however, employ more than three quarters of an hour to complete the repair.” 

“About noon we had landed on an island where there were eight lodges of last year. The natives had prepared bark here for five canoes, and there is a road along the hills where they had passed.” 

     Today he has gone in a SW or SSW direction all day. “The current was very strong through the whole of the day…” In spite of having to stop for that repair, they had made about 10 miles by the time they reached “where there is a small run of water from the right…” 

The Farrell Creek. The BC Hydro realignment project plan with new crossing is shown. ( in the first photo)  

     “When the canoe struck the stump of a tree...it required, however, two hours to complete the repair, when the weather became dark and cloudy, with thunder, lightning, and rain; we, however, continued the last course half a mile, and at six in the evening were compelled by the rain to land for the night.” 

      Although they had to stop and repair the canoe twice, he has still managed to make about 14 river miles. The campsite of this day would have likely been on an island, or perhaps at the site of the present day Lynx Creek RV Park. Either way he is now camped just few miles downstream from what will become Hudson’s Hope.  

“In the course of the day we saw a ground hog, and two cormorants.”

May 17, 1793. Rocky's in Sight.

May 17. 1793 

     “It froze during the night, and the air was sharp in the morning, when we continued our course...at two in the afternoon the rocky mountains appeared in sight,with their summits covered in snow, bearing South-West by South: they formed a very agreeable object to every person in the canoe, as we attained the view of them much sooner than we expected. A small river was seen on our right, and we continued our progress South-West by South six miles, when we landed at seven, which was our usual hour of encampment.”

       The first photo is one I took in June 2018, looking SW towards the distant mountains from The Peace River Valley Viewpoint site. MacKenzie would have been near here at two in the afternoon,  when the “rocky mountains appeared in sight”. 

      Today they have passed by the Halfway River on the right, whose delta will also be flooded after Site C Dam is completed and will be bridged by a new 1 kilometer long bridge. The second photo is a BC Hydro rendition of what the new Halfway River bridge will look like when completed.

Today’s camp, 227 years ago,  would have been about 4 miles upstream from Attachie, B.C. The buffalo he describes are the Wood Bison, and were great in numbers in this area. 

     “On the high grounds...we saw a buffalo tearing up and town with great fury, but could not discern the cause of his impetuous motions; my hunters conjectured that he had been wounded with an arrow by some of the natives. We ascended several rapids in the course of the day, and saw one bear.”

May 14, 1793. The 120th Meridian.

MAY THE 14th. 1793

(227 years ago today)

Excerpts from the Journals of Alexander MacKenzie, regarding his epic journey overland to the Pacific Ocean from Montreal; via the Peace River.

   “The weather was clear, and the air sharp, when we embarked at half past four”

After a few miles of river course they had to stop and repair the leaky canoe which he says “we lost an hour” and at noon they stopped to take a meridian altitude, which he reckoned to be 56.10.19 North latitude. *

Sometimes his recorded “miles”, and the actual miles on the map differ, which can make his course somewhat difficult to follow. Also the river courses themselves have changed in unknown ways in the last 200 years, which can also affect the actual miles covered, especially where the river valley is really wide. The next land-mark that he mentions is: 

“Here the Bear River which is of a large appearance, falls in from the East…”

He often refers to the “East” or “West” side of the river, as he has been heading in a general SW direction. Even though he is now going in a mostly Westerly direction, he still refers to the “West side” or “East side” of the river in his descriptions. I think that MacKenzie’s “Bear River” is likely the Pouce Coupe River, which actually comes in from the South. On this date they have passed by the areas we know as Clayhurst and Rolla Landing, and they have crossed the 120° Meridian West, which will much later become the provincial boundary of the new province of British Columbia.  

     “The land...has the appearance of being a good beaver country; indeed we saw some of those animals in the river. Wood is in great plenty, and several rivulets added their streams to the main river. A goose was the only article of provision which we procured to-day…” 

     Shot with a “fowling piece”, probably much like the one shown here, from the 1760’s. (One goose in the kettle, for 10 hungry men) 

“...we encamped on an island about seven in the evening.” 

      In my estimation, the camp on this day would  have been a mile or so downstream (East) from the mouth of the Kiskatinaw River, which he won’t see until the next morning. 

*note- In print, this reading appears as 56.1.19 N. However, nowhere does the river course appear that far south, heading upstream. A reading of 56.10.19 N would be his actual latitude on this day. I believe this was a mis-print in the printing of his Journal, that was missed in editing, and not a reckoning mistake on his part.

May 13, 1793. The Grisly Bear.

May 13, 1793. Alexander MacKenzie’s Journey Of Discovery (Day 5)

     -Although it seems like they are not making many miles in a day, remember that they are paddling or poling the heavily laden canoe upstream, against a strong current, and in water that he notes has been rising by 2 inches each day, since departure. He admits that even high winds sometimes impede his progress. 

“The weather was cloudy, with an appearance of rain...but my object was to lose no time...we embarked at four...proceeded on our course...here I took a meridian altitude, which gave 56.17.44 North latitude.”

Comparing his latitude reckoning to Google Earth he is almost exact on this. 

“The last course continued...here the land lowered on both sides, with an increase of wood, and displayed great numbers of animals. The river...was full of islands and flats.”

      This area is present day Many Islands Provincial Park. 

      

      “We perceived along the river, tracks of large bears, some of which were nine inches wide...the Indians entertain great apprehension of this kind of bear, which is called the grisly bear, and they never venture to attack it but in  party of at least three or four.”

Grizzly bears have always been dangerous.

     “...having continued our course three miles, we made for the shore at seven, to pass the night.” 

     This camp would have been somewhere just North of present day Silver Valley, Alberta, probably on the North shore of the river. 

May 15, 1793. A Beautiful Scenery.

May 15, 1793. 227 years ago to-day. (Day 7) 

Excerpts from: Alexander MacKenzie’s “Voyage from Montreal to the Pacific Ocean, via the Peace River 1793.” 

If you have been following along with this, or if you’re just starting the journey, today is Day 7 of the famous voyage and the Explorer and his crew of 9 have now paddled and poled upstream for about 175 river miles since they left Fort Fork, near present day Grimshaw, Alberta a week ago. I have been quoting some excerpts from his daily journal descriptions, and following his route by using Google Earth. I like to read books and journals of the fur trade history, and this is a fun project for me as I’m trying to pinpoint some of the actual locations of their encampments and adventures. The voyageurs are working their way upstream against the mighty Peace River, with a rising current and a strong spring run-off. They have with them only the very basic technology, and yet seem to be undaunted. Fur trader Alexander MacKenzie is searching for an overland route from Canada to the Pacific Ocean, and a way across the Rocky Mountains. 

“The rain prevented us from continuing on our route till past six in the morning, when our course was South-West by West three quarters of a mile; at which time we passed a river on the left...the bank was steep, and the current strong.”

The Kiskatinaw River. 

“The last course continued...where a river flowed in from the right…”

The one we know today as the Beatton River. 

“The land to the right is of a very irregular elevation and appearance, composed in some places of clay, and rocky cliffs, and others exhibiting stratas of red, green, and yellow colours. Some parts, indeed, offer a beautiful scenery, in some degree similar to that which we passed on the second day of our voyage, and equally enlivened with the elk and the buffalo, who were feeding in great numbers, and unmolested by the hunter.” 

He remarked in his journal about how beautiful the scenery was on day two. 

“The river, in this part of it, is full of islands; and the land, on the South or left side, is thick with wood.”  This area he describes is now protected and known as Peace River Corridor Provincial Park.

“In an island which we passed, there was a large quantity of white birch, whose bark might be employed in the construction of canoes.”

Canada’s fur traders were always on the lookout for this precious resource,  everywhere they went in Canada. The voyageurs had learned how to make canoes from the natives, and they could build or repair a canoe at any time, provided they had access to birch-bark. 

The campsite this night was on the islands just a mile or two downstream from the present day Taylor Bridge, on the Alaska Highway.