Alexander MacKay (fur trader)

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Alexander MacKay (c. 1770 – 15 June 1811) was a fur trader and explorer (he also appears in written records as McKay) who participated in two significant events regarding North American exploration and westward expansion.

MacKay was probably born in the Mohawk valley area of New York State where his father had brought the family after the Seven Years' War. They departed the area as United Empire Loyalists and settled in the Glengarry region of Upper Canada about 1792.

In 1793, MacKay was an employee of the North West Company and was lieutenant in Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s trek to the Pacific, making him among the earliest white men to cross the North American continent.

In 1811 he took a partnership in the Pacific Fur Company, he was instrumental, along with Alexander Ross, in founding Fort Astoria (Oregon). This was the first English-speaking settlement on the Pacific Coast, although it changed hands quickly when the Pacific Fur Company sold its operations and assets to the North West Company. His son Thomas McKay would remain at the fort and would become the step-son to John McLoughlin.