The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-01-04
ALEXANDER MACKENZIE
A. D. 1898

A. -. 1893
The very greatest events in human
annals are those which the historian
forgets to mention. Now, for example,
in 1888 Louis XIV was born; the Scots
set up their solemn league and cove
nant; the Turks romped into poor old
Bagdad and wiped out thirty thousand
Persians; Van Tromp, the Dutchman,
whipped a Spanish fleet; the English
founded Madras, the cornerstone of
their Indisr empire; but the real event
Of the year, the greatest event of the
Seventeenth century, was the hat act
passed by the British parliament Hat
tiers were forbidden to make any hats
except of beaver felt. Henceforth, for
two centuries, SLOUGH hats, cooked hats,
top hats, all sorts of hats, were TO be
made of beaver fur felt, down TO the
fiat-brimmed Stetson hat, which was
borrowed from the cowboys by the
Northwest Mounted Police, adopted by
the Irregular Horse of the Empire,
and finally copied in rabbit for the
Boy Scouts. The halter must buy
beaver, no matter what the cost, so
Europe was stripped to the last pelt.
Then far away to east and west the
hunters and trappers explored from
valley to valley. The traders followed,
building forts where they dealt with
the hunters and trappers, exchanging
powder and shot, traps and provisions,
for furs at so much a castor or
beaver skin, and skins were used for
money, instead of sgold. Then came
the settlers to fill the discovered lands,
soldiers to guard them from attack
by savages, judges and hangmen, flag
and empire.
The Russian fur trade passed the
Ural hills, explored Siberia and
crossed to Russian America.
Westward the French and British
fur trade opened up the length and
breadth of North America.
By the time the halter invented the
imitation beaver" our silk hat, this
mad hat trade had pioneered the Rus
sian empire, the United States and
the Dominion of Canada, betting the
planet with the white mans power.
Now in this monstrous adventure the
finest of all the Adventures were
Scotch, and the greatest Scot of them
all was Alexander Mackenzie, of
StornOway, in the Scotch Hebrides.
At the age of seventeen he landed in
Montreal, soon after Canada was TAX
en- by the British, and he grew up in
the growing fur trade. In those days
the HudsOn's Bay company was a
sleepy old corporation with four forts,
but the Nor'westers of Montreal had
the aid of the valiant French Canadian
voyageurs as guides and canoe men in
the far wilderness
Their trade route crossed the upper
lakes to Thunder bay in Lake Superb,
thence by Rainy river to the Lake of
the Woods, and Rat Portage; thence
up Lake Winnipeg to the Grand Sas-
katchewan. There were the forts
where buffalo hunters boiled down
pemmican, sort of pressed beef OF
venison spiced with service berries, to
feed the northern posts. Northw ard
the long trail, by lake and river,
reached La Crosse, which gave its
name to a famous Indian ball game
and SO to the source of the Churchill
river at Lac la Loche, from whence
the Methye portage opened the way
into the Great Unknown.
When Mackenzie reached Clear-wa-
ter river, Mr.. Peter Pond of the Nor
westers had just shot Mr.. Ross of the
X. Y. company. Mackenzie took
charge, and he and his cousin moved
the trade down to the meeting of the
Athabasca and the Peace, at an inland
sea, the Athabasca lake, where they
built the future capital of the North,
Fort Chipewyan. From here the Slave
river ran down to Great Slave lake,
second inland sea whose outlet was I'M
known. Mackenzie found that outlet
six miles wide. The waters teemed
with wild fowl, the bush with deer,
and the plains on either side had herds
Of bison
French voyageurs, a German and some
Indians, working them as rule from
three a. m. till dusk, while they all
with one accord SHE'D at the terrors
ahead, the cataracts, the savage tribes,
the certainty of starvation. The days
heightened until there was no night,
they passed coal fields on fire which
a hundred years later were still burn
ing, then frozen ground covered with
grass and flowers, where the river
parted into three main branches open
ing on the coast of an ice-elad sea.
The water was still fresh, but there
were seaweeds, they saw whales, the
tides would wash the people out of
camp, for this was the Arctic ocean.
So they turned back up that great
river which bears MacKenzie's name,
six thousand miles of nayigable waters
draining q land so warm that wheat
will ripen on the Arctic circle, home
for millions of healthy prosperous peo-
pie in the days to come.
MacKenZie's second journey was
much more difficult, up the Peace f1ver
through the Rocky mountains, then
by portage TO the Fraser valley, and
down Bad river All the rivers were
bad, but the birch bark canoe, how
ever much it smashes, can be repaired
with fresh sheets of bark, stuck on