John McLeod (1795 - ~1842)

John McLeod was born in Scotland. He was a fur trader with the North West Company and arrived at their headquarters in Montreal in 1816. Following the merger of the North West Company with the Hudson’s Bay Company, McLeod served at various posts in the Athabasca and Mackenzie River districts. In 1823, he was manager of the post at Fort Simpson and had served for nine years as deputy to the chief trader. In 1823/24, he traded with the Kaska in the mountains near the South Nahanni River.¹⁾

In 1831, he and eight others were the first known Europeans to ascend the Liard River, Dease River, and Frances River to Frances Lake. They covered almost 1,000 km and contacted five First Nation groups. In 1834, he was chief trader at Fort Halket, near the junction of the Liard and Coal rivers. He took a second expedition from there to Dease Lake, then over the Arctic-Pacific divide and descended the Stikine River to encounter First Nations trading with the Russians. He was transferred to Fort Vancouver in 1835 and negotiated with American and Russian trading interests as far away as Northern California and Wyoming.²⁾ The trouble at the mouth of the Stikine River was settled when the Hudson’s Bay Company leased a narrow strip of Alaskan coastline.³⁾

McLeod retired from the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1842 and returned to Great Britain. Mount McLeod, west of Dease Lake, is named for him.⁴⁾