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John McLean | |
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&sq=&lang=&file=File:John_McLean.png) John McLean (c. 1860) | |
| Born | c. 1799 Isle of Mull, Scotland, UK |
| Died | 8 September 1890 (aged 90–91) Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation(s) | Fur trapper and trader Grocer and bank manager Newspaperman Court clerk Author |
| Known for | 1st crossing of the Labrador Peninsula 1st sighting of Churchill Falls Advocacy of Canadian annexation of HBC territory. |
| Notable work | Notes of a Twenty-five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory |
John McLean (c. 1799–1890) was a Scotsman who emigrated to British North America, where he became a fur-trapper, trader, explorer, grocer, banker, newspaperman, clerk, and author. He travelled by foot and canoe from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back, becoming one of the chief traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. He is remembered as the first person of European descent to discover Churchill Falls on Canada's Churchill River and sometimes mistakenly credited as the first to cross the Labrador Peninsula. Long overlooked, his first-person accounts of early 19th-century fur trading in Canada are now valued by historians. Under the pen name Viator (Latin for "Traveler"), his letters to newspapers around Canada also helped shift public opinion away from yielding the western territories to the United States during the Alabama Claims dispute over damages for British involvement in the American Civil War.