Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are celebrated today as the acclaimed explorers of the Western territories of North America, but in fact they are just the best-known ones. A Canadian fur trader, Alexander Mackenzie, was just as eager to find an outlet to the west coast. He thought he had it during his fist voyage, when he sailed up the westward-flowing Great Slave Lake, only to be disappointed in finding it flowing into the Arctic ocean rather than the Pacific. Undaunted, he taught himself navigation and restarted his trip over another waterway, the Peace River.

On this day, July 22, 1793, Alexander Mackenzie and his group reached the Pacific, becoming the first Europeans north of Mexico. (The Spanish had control of Mexico to the south.)

Mackenzie reached what today is called Vancouver island, making camp among an influx of Indian warriors that already had some hostile encounters with white explorers and did not seem pleased to see him. The next day, as more Indians arrived in canoes, Mackenzie got ready to head back — but not before mixing some vermillion paint in bear grease and writing on a nearby stone his claim: “Alex Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, 22d July 1793.”