Ranald MacDonald was an adventurer, seaman, and miner born at Fort George near present-day Astoria, Oregon, on February 3, 1824. A native of the Pacific Northwest, he was the son of Archibald McDonald of the Hudson's Bay Company and Princess Raven of the Chinook tribe. After his mother died shortly after his birth, he was cared for by his aunt in a Chinook dwelling until his father remarried. He was educated at Fort Okanogan, Kamloops, and Langley, and also attended Ball Academy at Fort Vancouver and Red River Academy in Winnipeg. At age 15, he was sent to St. Thomas, Ontario, to work in a bank, but he left that life for the sea and work on whaling ships. In 1845 he signed onto the whaling vessel Plymouth. After three years, the ship entered the Sea of Japan. Curious about Japanese society while the country was closed to most foreigners, he arranged to be set adrift off Hokkaido and was rescued by Ainu fishermen from Rishiri Island. Held by the Japanese for seven months, he became friendly with his guards, was well treated, and taught English to 14 Japanese. Three of those students later served as interpreters during trade negotiations with Commodore Perry in the 1850s. For this, he is honored in Japan as their first teacher of the English language and culture. His later life took him to Australia, where he learned gold mining, and to mining and mineral exploration in various parts of Canada. In his later years he joined family members at Fort Colville and built a cabin near the Columbia River. As his health failed, his niece Jennie Nelson Lynch brought him to her home near the confluence of Toroda Creek and the Kettle River and cared for him in his final days. His final resting place is near this site.