Source: National Archives & Historic Records of United States
Exploration • Historical Archive • 🇺🇸 United States • 3 views

Simon Fraser 🇺🇸

Simon Fraser (Known as "Simon Fraser")
North West Company Fur Trader, Explorer, Charted the Fraser River to the Pacific
Born May 20, 1776 🇺🇸 Mapletown (New York), United States
Passed Away Aug 18, 1862 St. Andrews West (Ontario), Canada
Lifespan 86 years old
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Notice / Correction
"Our journey was along the brink of precipices where the least misstep would have plunged us into eternal darkness."

Archival Overview

Heroic North West Company explorer and fur trader who established the first European trading posts in central British Columbia and completed the perilous 1808 descent of the Fraser River to the Pacific Ocean.

Biographical Record

Joining the North West Company at age 16, Fraser was tasked with expanding the company's fur trading network west of the Rocky Mountains into New Caledonia (present-day British Columbia). Between 1805 and 1807, he founded Fort McLeod, Fort St. James, Fort Fraser, and Fort George (Prince George).

In 1808, Fraser embarked on a hair-raising 800-kilometer canoe voyage down the turbulent Fraser River canyon, navigating treacherous rapids and towering cliffs with Secwépemc and Nlaka'pamux guides to reach the Pacific delta near modern Vancouver, confirming the river was not the Columbia.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
St. Andrews Roman Catholic Cemetery
St. Andrews West (Stormont, Ontario), Canada
GPS: 45.0936, -74.7958
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