Henry the Younger had the same name as his uncle, Henry Alexander, a trapper who gained fame for exploring the lands between Montreal and the Rocky Mountains. The younger Alexander worked for the North West Company establishing trading posts along rivers; among them he built Park River and Pembina on the Red River in 1800. One of the chores his men performed in that area was making salt from the water of Forest River, which was then known as the Big Salt River.

Ironically, Alexander also met his death on a river, on this date in 1814. While being transported from Fort George, OR, to a boat called the Isaac Todd, Henry the Younger and his partner drowned in the Columbia River.

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