Willard Ferdinand Wentzel was born In Norway about 1780 and emigrated to British North America. In 1799, he joined the North West Company as a clerk or manager of one of its fur trading posts, working first on the Mackenzie River and at Great Bear Lake, before moving to Fort Providence on Great Slave Lake. There in July 1820 Wentzel was recruited by John Franklin’s British Naval Exploring Expedition (first Arctic Land Expedition, 1819-1822) to provide Indigenous Canadian guides and hunters. In August 1820, he and his party travelled with the expedition to Winter Lake on the Arctic coast, where they established a winter base, Fort Enterprise. In June 1821, the expedition reached the mouth of the Coppermine River. Here Wentzel and his men parted company with Franklin, returning with dispatches and equipment to be sent to Britain. During that year, the North West Company merged with its rival, the Hudson's Bay Company (under its name), to form one fur trading enterprise, and Wentzel served the HBC at Fort Simpson (1822-24), Fort Chipewyan (1824-25) and at Mingan. He retired in 1829 and died in 1832.