Plot: The opening of the Canadian West is a story of great fur-trading empires, of the Aboriginal people who were the fur traders' indispensable allies, of bold explorers and map-makers, and span two centuries and the boundless territory from sea to sea. The episode recounts the remarkable stories of Pierre Radisson, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Matonabbee and Samuel Hearne, Alexander Mackenzie, and David Thompson, and concludes as settlers and miners begin to claim the West for themselves