Alexander McKay

McKay, Alexander (?–1811), early Canadian explorer and fur trader. He was a member of Alexander Mackenzie's first trans-Canadian expedition that reached the Pacific Coast in 1793. As a member of the North West Company (later Hudson's Bay Company), McKay agreed to help John Jacob Astor build Astoria, Ore. in 1810. A year later he brought his ship into the columbia River to begin work on the settlement but hostile Native Americans boarded it, killing everyone on board.