NORTH WEST VOYAGEUR

Growing up in western Canada, I have often crossed the very paths once travelled by this land’s early explorers and Indigenous peoples. On those journeys, I have felt their presence – spirits of resilient men and the remarkable communities they encountered. The Métis, First Nations, and early travelers all walked these same trails, paddled these same waters, and rode through the same sweeping valleys and rugged mountain passes that I have known. Standing where they once stood, I am filled with the same awe they must have felt for the wild and wondrous landscape that surrounded them. At times, I long to have stood beside them — to have shared in those moments that stirred their souls… Surely, I was born in the wrong century.

And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west | I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me | To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.
How then am I so different from the first men through this way | Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all away.
To seek a northwest passage at the call of many men |  To find there but the road back home again.

From ‘Northwest Passage‘ performed by Stan Rogers

This website, through the creation and sale of spatial data, chronicles the early explorers and travelers that traversed early North America and the geography that they crossed. It will always evolve and always grow in information. So please do return.