The Pathfinder: A.C. Anderson’s Journeys in the West
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by Nancy Marguerite Anderson
Heritage House, Victoria, 2011
240 pp., illus., $19.95 paperback
Those longing for stories about the Hudson’s Bay Company’s epic explorations will find that Nancy Margeurite Anderson delivers in The Pathfinder. The book traces the career of her great-grandfather as an HBC fur trader, cartographer, and explorer in the Pacific Northwest during the mid-1800s.
A.C. Anderson came from a genteel Scottish family and joined the HBC “forty years too late,” discovering that under Governor George Simpson the culture of the company that once inspired him would mostly be a vexation. During his tenure, his travels ranged from Quebec to the Pacific coast, including time at Lachine House, Caledonia, Fort Nisqually, Fort Vancouver, and Fort Alexandria.
Anderson often found that his geographical knowledge and his abilities in establishing trading relationships with Native populations simply didn’t outweigh his lack of social and political skills with co-workers and superiors. The latter would ultimately result in a career-ending oversight. A.C. Anderson nonetheless got his long-awaited adventure — helping to forge a new brigade trail along the Coquihalla River to the Fraser.
The Pathfinder is a rich, personal biography that draws from a wealth of primary sources, including A.C. Anderson’s journals, and uses plenty of well-selected archival photos to provide context and imagery to the life and times of this British Columbia trailblazer.
— Deborah Morrison (Read bio)
Deborah Morrison is the executive director of SEVEC and the former president and CEO of Canada’s History Society.