We were all told that Lewis & Clark were the first Europeans to carve a route to the Pacific from the interior of North America..............In fact, it was Scottish born Canadian Alexander Mackenzie who was the actual leader of a band of explorers that accomplished that trek to the Pacific in July, 1793, 12 years prior to the Thomas Jefferson sanctioned Lewis & Clark journey............Jefferson knew of Mackenzie's accomplishment as early as 1797...........This spurred him to get Lewis & Clark going so that the British and Spanish would not have an easy time claiming Western North America as their own...........Prior to Mackenzie's trek West, he commanded Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca in present day Alberta, Canada from 1788-to 1796.............His journal accounts of the prolific Fur trade and the enormity of animal skins flowing in and out of Montreal annually prior to the year 1800 is staggering-----North America was indeed a wild animal "Serengeti"!!!!!!!!

The Northwest Company listing of animal skins bought from the Indians in 1798-99 from the Canadian wilds North and West of Montreal---from the journal of Alexander Mackenzie


--106,000 Beaver skins

--6000 Lynx skins

--2100 Bear skins(griz and black bear not dilineated)

--600 Wolverine skins

--1500 Fox skins

--1650 Fisher skins

--4000 Kit Fox skins

--100 Raccoon skins

--4600 Otter skins

--3800 Wolf skins

--17,000 musquash skins

--700 Elk skins

--32,000 Marten skins

--750 Deer skins

--1800 Mink skins

--500 Buffalo robes


Even 300 years after the first Europeans colonized North America, its Western region was a "Seregeti" of wildlife