Alexander MacKenzie Heritage Trail

The Nuxalk - Carrier Route, also known as Alexander MacKenzie Heritage Trail or Blackwater Trail, is a path in the Canadian province of British Columbia, which was a commonly used trade route between Quesnel and Bella Coola. Of the many, as Grease trails or " grease trails " marked paths, he is one of the longest that connected the coast and the inland areas of the province with each other, separated by steep mountain ranges.

Already in pre-colonial times, the path was used by the Nuxalk and the Dakelh, especially for trade with the buttery fat of the candle fish ( Thaleichthys pacificus ), which was a treasured commodity throughout the North West of America. A variety of obsidian peaks indicates that the path was over several millennia in use and also other goods served as a transportation route.

Like other fur traders also took Alexander MacKenzie, who traveled from Montreal to the Pacific, the paths if no canoe route was available. On July 20, 1793, he reached the ocean. In 1987, the path was raised to the status of a heritage trail through the Heritage Conservation Act, ie, to a historic path. This designation has met with anthropologists criticism because MacKenzie only a part of the path - and only once - committed while he was an important trade route for centuries. Secondly, this obstructs the view that the path can only be understood as part of a much wider network of trade paths.

The path begins at the West Road River, and Blackwater River, between Quesnel and Prince George, passed the Kluskus and the Eliguk Lake, crosses the Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, then follows the Bella Coola River to a fjord-like bay, the North Bentinck Arm. The difficult path is likely to have taken two to four weeks.