First Crossing: Alexander Mackenzie, His Expedition Across North America, and the Opening of the Continent [Hardcover]

Derek Hayes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2002

Timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition is this remarkable account of Alexander Mackenzie--the explorer who beat Lewis and Clark across the North American continent. Mackenzie accomplished this feat an astounding twelve years before the Corps of Discovery. Drawing extensively on the journals of Mackenzie and other turn-of-the-century explorers--and featuring historical and contemporary photographs, illustrations, and maps--Hayes presents a lively portrait of the explorer who both preceded Lewis and Clark and provided an impetus for their expedition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Scottish-born Alexander Mackenzie's (1763-1830) journal of his travels across North America was published in 1801 as Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Laurence Through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in the Years 1789 and 1793. Mackenzie undertook this voyage from Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, for the North West Company and became the first European to cross the North American continent from the East. His book was an immediate best seller. Napoleon Bonaparte requisitioned a French translation, and Lewis and Clark carried a copy on their westward journey. Hayes (Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest) here provides an exegesis of Mackenzie's journal, throwing light on the factors driving the Canadian fur trade, the adventures and misadventures of the fur traders, and the serendipitous discoveries that led to the opening of the Northwest. Like Hayes's earlier book, this is richly illustrated, containing several historic maps. Those who wish to read another account of Mackenzie's expedition across North America may refer to Barry Gough's First Across the Continent (Univ. of Oklahoma. 1997). Recommended for academic and large public libraries. Ravi Shenoy, Naperville P.L., IL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The author begins this engrossing account with a brief history of Alexander Mackenzie's early years in the Canadian fur trade, then he focuses on the explorer's navigation of what came to be called the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean in 1789, and his expedition by boat and overland to the Pacific Ocean in 1793. Hayes draws on the journals of the Scottish-born explorer and those of other voyagers, having spent years researching the history of the Northwest and collecting historical maps of the region. Mackenzie's journals describe the hardships, dangers, weather, food, and the indigenous population and their villages. "In the distance of two miles we were obliged to unload four times and carry everything but the canoe," he records. "Our stock was reduced to 20 pounds of pemmican, 15 pounds of rice, and six pounds of flour, among 10 half-starved men in a leaky vessel, and on a barbarous coast." This book, illustrated with photographs, prints, and maps, is a vivid portrait of an intrepid adventurer. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Sasquatch Books; First Edition edition (January 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570613087
• ISBN-13: 978-1570613081
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,698,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( M ) > Mackenzie, Alexander

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not much new!, October 3, 2001

By 

"mjasumback" (Redding, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Crossing: Alexander Mackenzie, His Expedition Across North America, and the Opening of the Continent (Hardcover)

OK, there is some new information here. Mostly it seems that Hayes has helped illustrate the travels of Mackenzie, something that was not available previously. Barry Gough's book is notoriously lacking in any illustration of Mackenzie's voyages and Mackenzie's own book is virtually without useful illustration. Maybe having read the previous two books makes me jaded but Mackenzie's voyages can only be retold so many times.
Hayes has presented us with a slightly new take on telling the story with pictures, maps and historical vignettes but I hunger for a more thorough job. Perhaps more in the nature of Moulton's "Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition". Finding someone willing to wade through Mackenzie's rather impenetrable prose may be a challenge.
Notwithstanding the above this is probably the best explanation of Mackenzie's voyages since the original journals.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Illustrated throughout with maps and photographs, April 14, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Crossing: Alexander Mackenzie, His Expedition Across North America, and the Opening of the Continent (Hardcover)

First Crossing by historian Derek Hayes is the amazing story of Alexander Mackenzie, and his trailblazing journey across the North American continent before civilized society conquered the North American wilderness. Illustrated throughout with maps and photographs in black-and-white and color, the deftly researched and meticulously reported details of Mackenzie's voyage vividly reconstruct an 18th Century expedition of truly insurmountable bravery and pivotally important discovery.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars First Crossing, September 24, 2007

By 

Johnnie Deeathing "Aberdonian" (South Pacific) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Crossing: Alexander Mackenzie, His Expedition Across North America, and the Opening of the Continent (Hardcover)

This book is a welcome collection of facts about the stupendous exploits of Alexander Mackenzie's Canadian exploration. But the words are curiously bleak & dispassionate, and separate panels of information on the pages, intrude into the flow of the narrative.
What is needed now is for someone to take on the story, light it up with the raw romance of the period, paint the picture of the landscape, add colour photos of the places in the text, tell us about the man, and keep the size of the book down to normal.
Let us see the landscapes in all their glory.
The raw detailed story of the man remains to be told.