Simon Fraser (explorer)

Simon Fraser (20 May 1776 – 18 August 1862) was a Canadian explorer and fur trader who charted much of what is now the Canadian province of British Columbia. He also built the first European settlement in British Columbia.

Employed by the Montreal-based North West Company, he had been by 1805 put in charge of all of the company's operations west of the Rocky Mountains. He was responsible for building that area's first trading posts, and in 1808, he explored what is now known as the Fraser River, which bears his name. Fraser's exploratory efforts were partly responsible for Canada's boundary later being established at the 49th parallel (after the War of 1812) since he, as a British subject, was the first European to establish permanent settlements in the area. According to the historian Alexander Begg, Fraser "was offered a knighthood but declined the title due to his limited wealth."

Fraser was born on 20 May 1776 in the village of Mapletown, Hoosick, New York. He was the eighth and youngest child of Captain Simon Fraser (d.1779), of the 84th Highland Regiment, and Isabella Grant, daughter of the Laird of Daldregan. Captain Simon Fraser grew up at his family's seat, Guisachan (Scottish Gaelic: 'Giùthsachan'), as the second son of William Fraser (d.1755), 8th Laird of Guisachan and 3rd Laird of Culbokie, by his wife, Catherine, daughter of John McDonell, 4th Laird of Ardnabie. The Frasers of Guisachan and Culbokie were descended from a younger brother of the 10th Chief of the Frasers of Lovat.

Simon's father came with his regiment to North America in 1773 and died in prison after being captured during the Battle of Bennington (1777). After the war ended, Simon's mother was assisted by her brother-in-law, Captain John Fraser, who had been appointed Chief Justice of the Montreal district.

In 1789 at the age of 14, Fraser moved to Montreal for additional schooling, where two of his uncles were active in the fur trade, in which his kinsman, Simon McTavish, was the undisputed leading figure. In 1790, he was apprenticed to the North West Company.

In 1789, the North West Company had commissioned Alexander Mackenzie to find a navigable river route to the Pacific Ocean. The route he discovered in 1793 — ascending the West Road River and descending the Bella Coola River — opened up new sources of fur but proved to be too difficult to be practicable as a trading route to the Pacific. Fraser was given responsibility for extending operations to the country west of the Rockies in 1805. Mackenzie’s expeditions had been primarily reconnaissance trips, while Fraser’s assignment, by contrast, reflected a definite decision to build trading posts and take possession of the country, as well as to explore travel routes.

In the autumn of 1805, Fraser began ascending the Peace River, establishing the trading post of Rocky Mountain Portage House (present-day Hudson's Hope) just east of the Peace River Canyon of the Rocky Mountains. That winter Fraser and his crew pushed through the mountains and ascended the Parsnip and Pack Rivers, establishing Trout Lake Fort (later renamed Fort McLeod) at present-day McLeod Lake. This was the first permanent European settlement west of the Rockies in present-day Canada. The name given by Fraser to this territory was New Caledonia in honor of his ancestral homeland of Scotland. Further explorations by Fraser's assistant James McDougall resulted in the discovery of Carrier Lake, now known as Stuart Lake. In the heart of territory inhabited by the aboriginal Carrier or Dakelh nation, this area proved to be a lucrative locale for fur trading and so a post, Fort St. James, was built on its shore in 1806. From here, Fraser sent another assistant, John Stuart, west to Fraser Lake. Later, the two men would build another post there which is now known as Fort Fraser. Fraser later sent the expedition's logbook keeper, Jules-Maurice Quesnel, up the river at the forks to see what was there and ended up naming the Quesnel River and the Quesnel Lake after him.

Fraser had found out from the Indigenous people that the Fraser River, the route by which Mackenzie had ascended the West Road River, could be reached by descending the Stuart River, which drained Stuart Lake, and then descending the Nechako River to its confluence with the Fraser. It had been Fraser's plan to navigate the length of the river which now bears his name. Fraser and others believed that it was, in fact, the Columbia River, the mouth of which had been explored in 1792 by Robert Gray.