Peter Skene Ogden: The Controversial Life and Legacy of the Canadian Fur Trader Who Explored the Pacific Northwest

The fur industry was by extension the face of every world power pursuing a stake in the West, and the rivalries were ruthless. The Mexican border during this era lay far north of its present position, and the Canadian border was as yet nonexistent, pending the outcome of competing British, American, Russian and Spanish interests. Despite the American outpost established early at the mouth of the Columbia River in what would become Astoria, Britain ruled as the preeminent military power in the region. That authority was evident in the vast Hudson’s Bay Company, which imposed its own judicial structure wherever it went, on land or by sea. The Americans responded with rival companies operating out of the Midwest and traveling over Lewis and Clark’s original route. Among the most prodigious and influential personalities to emerge from that protracted battle was Peter Skene Ogden, a Canadian fur trader and explorer. As a zealous member of Canada’s North West Fur Company, his vicious campaign against Hudson’s Bay Company members marked him as one of the most dangerous personalities on the continent, unpredictable and capable of the lowest tactics for unseating the great British power. So talented was Ogden that when the rivals finally merged in the following decade, he rose to the top echelons of his greatest rival’s industry. During that period, he traveled the continent in several extensive expeditions, and with the solidification of the American-Canadian border, well to the north of what was originally anticipated, it was Ogden the negotiator who held Russia at bay in the Alaskan country. More than any other individual, Ogden spent years shaping the international dynamics of the beaver fur trade, “continental in reach, [and in] rapacious competition for wealth,” yet no comprehensive biography has been produced for a man who not only served as a central catalyst for a continent, but did so in such a colorful manner.