Strategies for Finding the Northwest Passage: The Roles of Alexander Mackenzie and Meriwether Lewis

Alexander Mackenzie and Meriwether Lewis were the first explorers who intentionally crossed North America. ¹ Mackenzie’s experience as a fur trader and Meriwether Lewis’s as an Army officer shaped their searches for the Northwest Passage. Assessing Mackenzie’s voyage in the context of a Fur Trade Culture and Lewis’s in that of an Army Officer Culture will indicate how both explorers approached their tasks. Such an assessment focuses not so much on what they did, but how they did it.