James McDougall

Who is James McDougall?

James McDougall was a nineteenth-century fur trader and explorer, who is remembered for his participation in opening up present-day British Columbia, Canada to European settlement as part of a North West Company expedition to the region, led by Simon Fraser.

McDougall was third-in-command on Fraser's team, functioning as junior clerk to John Stuart. Fraser and his crew entered the territory they would call New Caledonia in 1805, a foray that would culminate in the successful descent and ascent of the Fraser River in the spring and summer of 1808. During that time, Fraser and his men constructed several fur-trading posts.

The first of these resulted from a trip undertaken by Fraser and McDougall up the Parsnip River in the autumn of 1805, in order to determine an ideal route for reaching the Fraser from the Peace River canyon, which was a major portal at the time into the territory west of the Rocky Mountains. Their travels resulted in the establishment by Fraser of the first post and permanent European settlement west of the Rockies, at present-day McLeod Lake.