Thomas McKay (fur trader)
Encyclopedia
Thomas McKay was a Anglo-Métis
Canadian
Fur trader who worked mainly in the Pacific Northwest
for the Pacific Fur Company
(PFC), the North West Company
(NWC), and the Hudson's Bay Company
(HBC). He was a fur brigade leader and explorer of the Columbia District
and later became a U.S.
citizen and an early settler of Oregon
.
in in 1796, or perhaps 1797 or 1798.
His father was the fur trader Alexander MacKay
. His mother was a Métis
woman named Marguerite Wadin, the daughter of a Cree
woman and Jean Etienne Wadin, a Swiss fur trader.
woman, daughter of Chief Concomly. McKay's second wife was an Umatilla
woman about whom little is known. His third wife was Isabelle Montour. He had six sons and two daughters altogether.
to the mouth of the Columbia River
, where the Pacific Fur Company's Fort Astoria
was built.
Thomas, who was about 15 years old at the time, was at Fort Astoria when his father Alexander McKay was killed in late 1811 at Clayoquot Sound
during the Tonquin
incident. In 1813 Fort Astoria and all other Pacific Fur Company assets were sold to the North West Company. Thomas McKay, like a number of other Astorians, joined the NWC at that time.
Between 1815 and 1819 Thomas was in the Red River Colony
and fought on the side of the North West Company and the Métis people against the Hudson's Bay Company. McKay fought at the 1816 Battle of Seven Oaks
. By 1819 he was back on the Columbia. Within two years the entire North West Company was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company.
war. In 1824 John McLoughlin was appointed Chief Factor of the Columbia Department
. He and his family moved that year to Fort George (Astoria) and then, once it was built, Fort Vancouver
, the new headquarters of the HBC Columbia Department
. In 1811 McLoughlin had married Marguerite Wadin, widow of Alexander MacKay and mother of Thomas McKay. Thus in 1824 Thomas's mother and stepfather moved across the continent to the very place Thomas was living.
In the 1820s the HBC sent trading, trapping, and exploring parties south into the Willamette Valley
and beyond, eventually reaching California
(Mexican Alta California
at the time). In 1825 Thomas McKay and Finan McDonald led one of these exploring expeditions south of the Columbia River. He led or accompanied several others.
From 1826 to 1828 McKay took part repeatedly in the Snake Country
brigades under Peter Skene Ogden
. During this time Ogden explored not only the Snake River
basin, but the Deschutes River and Blue Mountains
of Oregon, as well as the Klamath Lake region, and the Great Salt Lake
and its tributary the Weber River
.
George Simpson
, head of the HBC, had decided to try to over-exploit the Snake Country and create a "fur desert", for the political purpose of keeping American trappers and traders away. McKay, along with other former NWC trappers such as Peter Ogden, Finan McDonald, Francois Payette
, and others, "took up Simpson's orders with a fanatical zeal, declaring war on fur-bearing animals south of the Columbia," as historian Richard Mackie put it.
In 1829 Thomas McKay took part in Alexander McLeod's
expedition to California. McLeod's party reached as far south as the San Joaquin River
and was the first of what became an annual trapping expedition to California, known as the Southern Party. The route from Fort Vancouver to the lower Sacramento River
became known as the Siskiyou Trail
.
In 1836 McKay led a HBC Southern Party brigade to the Pit River
region of California. In 1840-41 McKay and Michel Laframboise
were brigade leaders of the Southern Party to California.
In 1832 McKay was given charge of an HBC farm at Scappoose
. Within a year he had moved to and settled at Champoeg
. He may have retired from the HBC at this time, although he continued to work for the company off and on for many years.
McKay lead a brigade to the Snake Country in 1834, reaching into the far southeast of today's state of Idaho
. John Kirk Townsend
, who was accompanying an American expedition to establish Fort Hall
, described Thomas Mckay's party at the future site of Fort Hall in 1834 as consisting of 17 French Canadian
s and "half-breeds"
, and 13 Indians (Nez Perce, Chinook, and Cayuse
). Townsend also noted that McKay enforced the HBC policies brigade order, decorum, and strict subordination, as well as the prohibition of trading whiskey to the Indians. All these things, Townsend noted, were in stark contrast to the behavior of American fur traders in the region. Fort Hall was part of an effort by Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth
to break into the Columbia region and compete with the HBC. Politically the entire Oregon Country
was free and open to British and American ventures, but the HBC was able to maintain its dominance in the region through various barriers to entry
tactics such as dumping
and predatory pricing
. Wyeth's attempt to compete in the early 1830s was quickly made untenable by the HBC. In the case of Fort Hall, Thomas McKay built the rival post of Fort Boise
, which supported an increased HBC effort to turn the Snake Country into a "fur desert" and drive the Americans out. The strategy worked and by 1837 Wyeth had abandoned the region and sold his company's assets, including Fort Hall, to the Hudson's Bay Company.
In 1834 McKay met the American missionary Jason Lee
at Fort Hall. McKay guided Lee from Fort Hall to Fort Vancouver, then helped Lee select the site of Willamette Mission
.
Thomas McKay remained active in the Snake Country until 1838. He spent most of 1839 at Champoeg.
In 1840 he drove more than 3,600 sheep and 661 cattle from California to Fort Nisqually
for the HBC.
In 1841, members of the overland party of the Wilkes Expedition
met and breakfasted with McKay at his Champoeg farm. George Colvocoresses
of the expedition wrote about McKay, saying that he is "one of the most noted individuals in this part of the country. Among the trappers, he is the hero of many a tale."
McKay raised and led a company of militia which saw active service during the Cayuse War
of 1848.
In September 1848 he guided a train of 50 wagons to California.
He died in 1849, and is buried in an unmarked grave in Scappoose.
Anglo-Métis
A 19th-century community of the Métis people of Canada, the Anglo-Métis, more commonly known as Countryborn, were children of fur traders; they typically had Orcadian, Scottish, or English fathers and Aboriginal mothers. Their first languages were generally those of their mothers: Cree, Saulteaux,...
Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Fur trader who worked mainly in the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
for the Pacific Fur Company
Pacific Fur Company
The Pacific Fur Company was founded June 23, 1810, in New York City. Half of the stock of the company was held by the American Fur Company, owned exclusively by John Jacob Astor, and Astor provided all of the capital for the enterprise. The other half of the stock was ascribed to working partners...
(PFC), the North West Company
North West Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...
(NWC), and the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
(HBC). He was a fur brigade leader and explorer of the Columbia District
Columbia District
The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. It was explored by the North West Company between 1793 and 1811, and established as an operating fur district around 1810...
and later became a U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
citizen and an early settler of Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
.
Family
Thomas was born at Sault Ste. Marie, OntarioSault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Sault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948. The community was founded as a French religious mission: Sault either means "jump" or "rapids" in...
in in 1796, or perhaps 1797 or 1798.
His father was the fur trader Alexander MacKay
Alexander MacKay (fur trader)
Alexander MacKay was a Canadian fur trader and explorer who worked for the North West Company and the Pacific Fur Company...
. His mother was a Métis
Métis people (Canada)
The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
woman named Marguerite Wadin, the daughter of a Cree
Cree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
woman and Jean Etienne Wadin, a Swiss fur trader.
Wives and children
Thomas McKay had at least three wives during his life. His first wife was Timmee, a ChinookChinookan
Chinook refers to several native amercain groups of in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, speaking the Chinookan languages. In the early 19th century, the Chinookan-speaking peoples lived along the lower and middle Columbia River in present-day Oregon and Washington...
woman, daughter of Chief Concomly. McKay's second wife was an Umatilla
Umatilla (tribe)
The Umatilla are a Sahaptin-speaking Native American group living on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, who traditionally inhabited the Columbia Plateau region of the northwestern United States....
woman about whom little is known. His third wife was Isabelle Montour. He had six sons and two daughters altogether.
Pacific Fur Company
In 1811 Thomas McKay accompanied his father on the TonquinTonquin
The Tonquin was an American merchant ship involved with the Maritime Fur Trade of the early 19th Century. The ship was used by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company to establish fur trading outposts on the Northwest Coast of North America, including Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River...
to the mouth of the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
, where the Pacific Fur Company's Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria was the Pacific Fur Company's primary fur trading post in the Northwest, and was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast. After a short two-year term of US ownership, the British owned and operated it for 33 years. It was the first British port on the Pacific coast...
was built.
Thomas, who was about 15 years old at the time, was at Fort Astoria when his father Alexander McKay was killed in late 1811 at Clayoquot Sound
Clayoquot Sound
Clayoquot Sound is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is bordered by the Esowista Peninsula to the south, and the Hesquiaht Peninsula to the North. It is a body of water with many inlets and islands. Major inlets include Sydney Inlet,...
during the Tonquin
Tonquin
The Tonquin was an American merchant ship involved with the Maritime Fur Trade of the early 19th Century. The ship was used by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company to establish fur trading outposts on the Northwest Coast of North America, including Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River...
incident. In 1813 Fort Astoria and all other Pacific Fur Company assets were sold to the North West Company. Thomas McKay, like a number of other Astorians, joined the NWC at that time.
North West Company
Thomas McKay joined the North West Company after the failure of the Pacific Fur Company in 1813.Between 1815 and 1819 Thomas was in the Red River Colony
Red River Colony
The Red River Colony was a colonization project set up by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk in 1811 on of land granted to him by the Hudson's Bay Company under what is referred to as the Selkirk Concession. The colony along the Red River of the North was never very successful...
and fought on the side of the North West Company and the Métis people against the Hudson's Bay Company. McKay fought at the 1816 Battle of Seven Oaks
Battle of Seven Oaks (1816)
The Battle of Seven Oaks took place on June 19, 1816, during the long dispute between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, rival fur-trading companies in western Canada.-Background:Miles Macdonell had issued the Pemmican Proclamation...
. By 1819 he was back on the Columbia. Within two years the entire North West Company was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company.
Hudson's Bay Company
After the North West Company was merged with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821 Thomas McKay became an HBC employee, despite having fought the company in the Red River ColonyRed River Colony
The Red River Colony was a colonization project set up by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk in 1811 on of land granted to him by the Hudson's Bay Company under what is referred to as the Selkirk Concession. The colony along the Red River of the North was never very successful...
war. In 1824 John McLoughlin was appointed Chief Factor of the Columbia Department
Columbia District
The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. It was explored by the North West Company between 1793 and 1811, and established as an operating fur district around 1810...
. He and his family moved that year to Fort George (Astoria) and then, once it was built, Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading outpost along the Columbia River that served as the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the company's Columbia District...
, the new headquarters of the HBC Columbia Department
Columbia District
The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. It was explored by the North West Company between 1793 and 1811, and established as an operating fur district around 1810...
. In 1811 McLoughlin had married Marguerite Wadin, widow of Alexander MacKay and mother of Thomas McKay. Thus in 1824 Thomas's mother and stepfather moved across the continent to the very place Thomas was living.
In the 1820s the HBC sent trading, trapping, and exploring parties south into the Willamette Valley
Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley is the most populated region in the state of Oregon of the United States. Located in the state's northwest, the region is surrounded by tall mountain ranges to the east, west and south and the valley's floor is broad, flat and fertile because of Ice Age conditions...
and beyond, eventually reaching California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
(Mexican Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
at the time). In 1825 Thomas McKay and Finan McDonald led one of these exploring expeditions south of the Columbia River. He led or accompanied several others.
From 1826 to 1828 McKay took part repeatedly in the Snake Country
Snake River
The Snake is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean...
brigades under Peter Skene Ogden
Peter Skene Ogden
Peter Skene Ogden , was a fur trader and a Canadian explorer of what is now British Columbia and the American West...
. During this time Ogden explored not only the Snake River
Snake River
The Snake is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean...
basin, but the Deschutes River and Blue Mountains
Blue Mountains (Oregon)
The Blue Mountains are a mountain range in the western United States, located largely in northeastern Oregon and stretching into southeastern Washington...
of Oregon, as well as the Klamath Lake region, and the Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake
The Great Salt Lake, located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest salt water lake in the western hemisphere, the fourth-largest terminal lake in the world. In an average year the lake covers an area of around , but the lake's size fluctuates substantially due to its...
and its tributary the Weber River
Weber River
The Weber River is a c. long river of northern Utah, USA. It begins in the northwest of the Uinta Mountains and empties into the Great Salt Lake. The Weber River was named for American fur trapper John Henry Weber.-Weber River:...
.
George Simpson
George Simpson (administrator)
Sir George Simpson was a Scots-Quebecer and employee of the Hudson's Bay Company . His title was Governor-in-Chief of Rupert's Land and administrator over the Northwest Territories and Columbia Department in British North America from 1821 to 1860.-Early years:George Simpson was born in Dingwall,...
, head of the HBC, had decided to try to over-exploit the Snake Country and create a "fur desert", for the political purpose of keeping American trappers and traders away. McKay, along with other former NWC trappers such as Peter Ogden, Finan McDonald, Francois Payette
Francois Payette
Francois Payette was a fur trader. Born near Montreal, he began his career as a canoeman, was hired by John Jacob Astor and shipped to the Oregon Country aboard the Beaver, entering the mouth of the Columbia River on May 9, 1812...
, and others, "took up Simpson's orders with a fanatical zeal, declaring war on fur-bearing animals south of the Columbia," as historian Richard Mackie put it.
In 1829 Thomas McKay took part in Alexander McLeod's
Alexander Roderick McLeod
Alexander Roderick McLeod was a fur trader and explorer who began his career with the North West Company in 1802.McLeod became a chief trader with the Hudson's Bay Company after they joined with the NWC in 1821...
expedition to California. McLeod's party reached as far south as the San Joaquin River
San Joaquin River
The San Joaquin River is the largest river of Central California in the United States. At over long, the river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through a rich agricultural region known as the San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean...
and was the first of what became an annual trapping expedition to California, known as the Southern Party. The route from Fort Vancouver to the lower Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
became known as the Siskiyou Trail
Siskiyou Trail
The Siskiyou Trail stretched from California's Central Valley to Oregon's Willamette Valley; modern-day Interstate 5 follows this pioneer path...
.
In 1836 McKay led a HBC Southern Party brigade to the Pit River
Pit River
The Pit River is a major river draining from northeastern California into the state's Central Valley. The Pit, the Klamath and the Columbia are the only three rivers in the U.S...
region of California. In 1840-41 McKay and Michel Laframboise
Michel Laframboise
Michel Laframboise was a French Canadian fur trader in the Oregon Country that settled on the French Prairie in the modern U.S. state of Oregon. A native of Quebec, he worked for the Pacific Fur Company, the North West Company, and the Hudson’s Bay Company before he later became a farmer and...
were brigade leaders of the Southern Party to California.
In 1832 McKay was given charge of an HBC farm at Scappoose
Scappoose, Oregon
Scappoose is a city in Columbia County, Oregon, United States. It was named for a nearby stream, which drains the southern part of the county...
. Within a year he had moved to and settled at Champoeg
Champoeg, Oregon
Champoeg is a former town in the U.S. state of Oregon. Now a ghost town, it was an important settlement in the Willamette Valley in the early 1840s. It is positioned halfway between Oregon City and Salem and the site of the first provisional government of the Oregon Country...
. He may have retired from the HBC at this time, although he continued to work for the company off and on for many years.
McKay lead a brigade to the Snake Country in 1834, reaching into the far southeast of today's state of Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
. John Kirk Townsend
John Kirk Townsend
John Kirk Townsend was an American naturalist, ornithologist and collector.Townsend was born in Philadelphia and trained as a physician and pharmacist. He developed an interest in natural history in general and bird collecting in particular...
, who was accompanying an American expedition to establish Fort Hall
Fort Hall
Fort Hall, sitting athwart the end of the common stretch shared by the three far west emigrant trails was a 19th century outpost in the eastern Oregon Country, which eventually became part of the present-day United States, and is located in southeastern Idaho near Fort Hall, Idaho...
, described Thomas Mckay's party at the future site of Fort Hall in 1834 as consisting of 17 French Canadian
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...
s and "half-breeds"
Anglo-Métis
A 19th-century community of the Métis people of Canada, the Anglo-Métis, more commonly known as Countryborn, were children of fur traders; they typically had Orcadian, Scottish, or English fathers and Aboriginal mothers. Their first languages were generally those of their mothers: Cree, Saulteaux,...
, and 13 Indians (Nez Perce, Chinook, and Cayuse
Cayuse
The Cayuse are a Native American tribe in the state of Oregon in the United States. The Cayuse tribe shares a reservation in northeastern Oregon with the Umatilla and the Walla Walla tribes as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation...
). Townsend also noted that McKay enforced the HBC policies brigade order, decorum, and strict subordination, as well as the prohibition of trading whiskey to the Indians. All these things, Townsend noted, were in stark contrast to the behavior of American fur traders in the region. Fort Hall was part of an effort by Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth was an American inventor, ice harvester, and explorer and trader in the far west.-Early life:Wyeth was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Jacob and Elizabeth Wyeth...
to break into the Columbia region and compete with the HBC. Politically the entire Oregon Country
Oregon Country
The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed ownership region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from...
was free and open to British and American ventures, but the HBC was able to maintain its dominance in the region through various barriers to entry
Barriers to entry
In theories of competition in economics, barriers to entry are obstacles that make it difficult to enter a given market. The term can refer to hindrances a firm faces in trying to enter a market or industry - such as government regulation, or a large, established firm taking advantage of economies...
tactics such as dumping
Dumping (pricing policy)
In economics, "dumping" is any kind of predatory pricing, especially in the context of international trade. It occurs when manufacturers export a product to another country at a price either below the price charged in its home market, or in quantities that cannot be explained through normal market...
and predatory pricing
Predatory pricing
In business and economics, predatory pricing is the practice of selling a product or service at a very low price, intending to drive competitors out of the market, or create barriers to entry for potential new competitors. If competitors or potential competitors cannot sustain equal or lower prices...
. Wyeth's attempt to compete in the early 1830s was quickly made untenable by the HBC. In the case of Fort Hall, Thomas McKay built the rival post of Fort Boise
Fort Boise
Fort Boise refers to two different locations in southwestern Idaho. The first was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post near the Snake River on the Oregon border, dating from the era when Idaho was part of the fur company's Columbia District. After several rebuilds, it was ultimately abandoned in...
, which supported an increased HBC effort to turn the Snake Country into a "fur desert" and drive the Americans out. The strategy worked and by 1837 Wyeth had abandoned the region and sold his company's assets, including Fort Hall, to the Hudson's Bay Company.
In 1834 McKay met the American missionary Jason Lee
Jason Lee (missionary)
Jason Lee , an American missionary and pioneer, was born on a farm near Stanstead, Quebec. He was the first of the Oregon missionaries and helped establish the early foundation of a provisional government in the Oregon Country....
at Fort Hall. McKay guided Lee from Fort Hall to Fort Vancouver, then helped Lee select the site of Willamette Mission
Methodist Mission
The Methodist Mission was founded in Oregon Country in 1834 by the Reverend Jason Lee. The mission was started to educate the Native Americans in the Willamette Valley and grew into an important center for politics and economics in the early settlement period of Oregon.-Foundation:In 1831, several...
.
Thomas McKay remained active in the Snake Country until 1838. He spent most of 1839 at Champoeg.
Later life
Thomas McKay spent most of his later years between his farms at Champoeg and Scappoose. At some point he became a United States citizen.In 1840 he drove more than 3,600 sheep and 661 cattle from California to Fort Nisqually
Fort Nisqually
Fort Nisqually was an important fur trading and farming post of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Puget Sound area of what is now DuPont, Washington and was part of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department. Today it is a living history museum located in Tacoma, Washington, USA, within the...
for the HBC.
In 1841, members of the overland party of the Wilkes Expedition
United States Exploring Expedition
The United States Exploring Expedition was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States from 1838 to 1842. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones. The voyage was authorized by Congress in...
met and breakfasted with McKay at his Champoeg farm. George Colvocoresses
George Colvocoresses
George Musalas "Colvos" Colvocoresses was a United States Navy officer who commanded the USS Saratoga during the American Civil War. From 1838 up until 1842, he served in the United States Exploring Expedition, better known as the Wilkes Expedition, which explored large regions of the Pacific Ocean...
of the expedition wrote about McKay, saying that he is "one of the most noted individuals in this part of the country. Among the trappers, he is the hero of many a tale."
McKay raised and led a company of militia which saw active service during the Cayuse War
Cayuse War
The Cayuse War was an armed conflict that took place in the Northwestern United States from 1847 to 1855 between the Cayuse people of the region and the United States Government and local Euro-American settlers...
of 1848.
In September 1848 he guided a train of 50 wagons to California.
He died in 1849, and is buried in an unmarked grave in Scappoose.