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Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)

Scottish explorer and fur trader (1764–1820)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 24, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Sir Alexander Mackenzie was a Scottish explorer and fur trader known for accomplishing the first crossing of North America north of Mexico by a European in 1793. The Mackenzie River and Mount Sir Alexander are named after him. As a leading member of the North West Company, he aspired to extend the Company's operations into western Canada and sell furs gained from there in China. His ambitions competed with the monopoly positions of both the Hudson's Bay Company and the East India Company.

Editorial summary

“Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)” enters the record as scottish explorer and fur trader (1764–1820). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Alexander, Mackenzie and explorer can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1793—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Alexander, Mackenzie and explorer.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Alexander, Mackenzie and explorer provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1793.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Alexander Mackenzie (explorer) primary sources, Alexander Mackenzie (explorer) archive and Alexander research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.