- James McDougall (explorer)
James McDougall was a nineteenth century
fur trade r andexplorer , who is remembered for his participation in opening up present-dayBritish Columbia ,Canada to European settlement as part of aNorth West Company expedition to the region, led by Simon Fraser.McDougall was third-in-command on Fraser's team, functioning as junior clerk to John Stuart. Fraser and his crew entered the territory they would call New Caledonia in
1805 , a foray that would culminate in the successful descent and ascent of theFraser River in the spring and summer of1808 . During that time, Fraser and his men constructed several fur-trading posts.The first of these resulted from a trip undertaken by Fraser and McDougall up the
Parsnip River in the autumn of 1805, in order to determine an ideal route for reaching the Fraser from the Peace River canyon, which was a major portal at the time into the territory west of theRocky Mountains . Their travels resulted in the establishment by Fraser of the first post and permanent European settlement west of the Rockies, at present-dayMcLeod Lake .That winter, the crew member left in charge of the nascent post deserted, and McDougall was charged with administration of the post while Fraser and Stuart were engaged elsewhere. During that time, McDougall seized the initiative to investigate reports he had received of an important lake and fur region to the northwest, in the heart of the region inhabited by the
Dakelh First Nation . He journeyed down the as-yet un-named Fraser River, becoming the first European to find and ascend theNechako River , a major tributary thatSir Alexander Mackenzie , travelling that way twelve years earlier, had inexplicably missed. From there, McDougall ascended theStuart River to its source atStuart Lake . McDougall would later go on to explore what has come to be known as British Columbia's "Lake Country", ascending the Nechako beyondFraser Lake as far asBabine Lake andFrancois Lake . The fruit of McDougall's explorations would be the construction by Fraser of a post at Stuart Lake,Fort St. James , which would become headquarters of the New Caledonia department of the North West Company (merged in 1821 with theHudson's Bay Company ).Following Fraser's expedition, McDougall stayed in New Caledonia to assist Stuart as a trader at the Fort St. James' post for a period of some years.
External links
* [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38559&query= Simon Fraser's biography at "Dictionary of Canadian Biography" Online] .
* [http://www.bcadventure.com/ianforbes/fraser/fraser.phtml A fishing article on the Fraser River article containing a paragraph detailing McDougall's explorations] .
* [http://www.calverley.ca/Part%2002%20-%20Fur%20Trade/2-012.html "Simon Fraser's Contribution's" by Dorthea H. Calverley]
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