USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 5
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 5
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 5
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Significant names are White Valley and Alkali Valley; but these in reality are scarcely more efffor- escent than the margins of Steptoe and Meadow creeks, and of Reese and Walker rivers. At a little distance the appearance there is as if the ground was covered with pure snow, which, bordering the gen- erally bronzed aspect, produces a new scenic effect. It is said that the alkali poisons vegetation and ren- ders worthless the soil; but to this an antidote may yet be found. It does not seem to injure the water of running streams, though wells dug under it are often worthless. There is, nevertheless, much good agricultural land along Walker River, as well as on the banks of the Truckee and Quin.
As in much of the water, so in most of the soil, there is a little salt, this being the result of universal confinement. Often it is found, as at the Malade River, that the lowlands are rich and moist, while the higher plains are dry and gravelly. Then again there are large tracts like that westward from the Malade,
23
AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES.
where the land is poor and with no water but a few brackish springs. East of Utah Lake is a strip of good land from three to ten miles wide; and over the mountains broad fertile tracts are found along the borders of Green River and its tributaries. In the valleys about the Carson sink is much good land, while the foothills bordering the deserts afford food for numerous herds. Washoe and Steamboat valleys offer great advantages to the farmer and stock-raiser. Combined with agriculture in this section are the mining and timber interests.
The Jordan Valley is low, yielding but little water, though most of it may be irrigated from the Jordan River. Wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, and the vine grow well here. At the northern end, near the great lake, are extensive saleratus flats, and on the border of the valley many springs of brackish water. The land in Tuilla Valley is much of it too strongly impregnated with alkali to permit production.
Apples grow in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and also peaches, apricots, and melons; but wheat is the great staple, from forty to seventy bushels to the acre being sometimes produced. It is only in the warmer valleys that corn is raised, but barley and oats thrive elsewhere. There would be great pas- toral possibilities but for lack of means for the pres- ervation of stock in winter; such at all events is the complaint, but in more rigorous climates than this large herds are frequently raised.
In regard to nomenclature, I will mention here the origin of a few names, leaving that of others to appear during the progress of this history. The ori- gin of the word Utah I have given in a note at the end of the second chapter of the History of Utah. The word Nevada, in Spanish signifying 'covered with snow,' 'white as snow,' 'snow-fall,' is borrowed of course for the naming of this state from the moun- tain range upon its western border. Skull Valley, in
24
THE GREAT BASIN.
the Great Salt Lake desert, was so called from the skulls of Goshutes whose bodies had been buried in springs, according to their custom. Captain Simpson named a valley after George H. Crosman, deputy quartermaster-general; a peak in the Oquirrh Moun- tains, Floyd, in honor of the secretary of war; Bean, and Reese, from whom comes Reese River, at first called New River, were long residents, and served as guides for Simpson and others; Shell Valley was so called from being covered with shale. Simpson named a stream after Lieutenant Marmaduke, of the United States army, a stream and cañon after Lieu- tenant J. L. Kirby Smith, his assistant, a valley after Captain I. C. Woodruff, a creek for Lieutenant Putnam; a pass, creek, and cañon he called Gibral- tar. He named Dryflat Valley, Alkali Valley, Black Mountains, Edward, Clay, McCarthy, and Dodge creeks, Fountain, Lee, and Barr springs, Phelps Val- ley, and many others, mostly after his men, com- paratively few of which names have been retained. Steptoe Valley is from Colonel Steptoe, of the United States army; while all that is Carson comes of course from Kit Carson, the famous frontiersman. There was a class of path and pass finders, such as Hastings, Beckwourth, and others, whom the readers of this history will well know. The aboriginal names will be easily recognized.
In the northern part of Rush Valley is a small lake filled with rushes which gave the place the name. Mount Davidson was called Sun peak by the early settlers, who thereby fixed in the imagination a high point touched by the sun's rays. Later the name of an eminent scientist was very properly substituted.
The name and naming of Lake Tahoe have first and last caused no little discussion. In his report of 1845-6 Frémont calls this sheet Mountain Lake, but on his map of 1848 he lays it down as Lake Bonpland. There were those who thought to do John Bigler further honor than making him governor of Califor-
25
NOMENCLATURE.
nia, by setting on foot the name Lake Bigler. Noth- ing could have been in worse taste-particularly when we consider that only a portion of the lake belongs to California-than in applying to a liquid so beautifully clear and cool the name of one who so detested water. A legislature might make the name legal, but no stat- ute-book could render the proceeding reputable. The Indian name, always the most appropriate, in this in- stance the most beautiful and most applicable that could be devised-Tahoe, 'big water'-the lake has been fortunate enough finally to secure.
CHAPTER II.
EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS. 1540-1833.
NEAR APPROACH OF CORONADO'S EXPEDITION, AND ESPECIALLY OF PEDRO DE TOBAR-PARTY OF SPANIARDS UNDER ANZA-WANDERINGS OF FATHER FRANCISCO GARCÉS-PETER FONT'S JOURNAL AND MAP- MYTHICAL STREAMS-OTHER ANCIENT MAPS-APPROACH OF DOMIN- GUEZ AND ESCALANTE TO NEVADA-PETER SKEEN OGDEN FOR THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY-DISCOVERY OF MARY OR OGDEN RIVER- ADVENT OF FREE TRAPPERS-HENRY, ASHLEY, BRIDGER, AND GREEN- EXPEDITION TO CALIFORNIA OF JEDEDIAH S. SMITH-NEVADA TRAV- ERSED FROM WEST TO EAST-INFLUX OF TRAPPERS FROM THE NORTH- THE WOLFSKILL EXPEDITION-PARTIES UNDER NIDEVER, FRAPP, AND WYATT-ENCOUNTER WITH THE SAVAGES-JOSEPH WALKER'S VISIT TO CALIFORNIA AND RETURN -ILL-TREATMENT OF INDIANS -- MEEK'S STATEMENT-SOMETHING OF CARSON AND BECKWOURTH.
IN my History of Utah and elsewhere I make men- tion of the visit of Pedro de Tobar, of Coronado's expedition of 1540, to the Moqui villages, then called Tusayan, where he heard of a large river to the north and west. I have told how, when Tobar returned to Cíbola, or Zuñi, where the army rested, Captain García Lopez de Cárdenas set out with twelve men to explore said river. Some say the direction he took from Moqui was westerly; some intimate it was to the north of west; I am inclined to the latter view. In either event it is not probable that the territory now called Nevada was entered, or that any portion of it was seen by the members of that expedition, though such discovery is possible.
There may have been expeditions into the country of the Yutas from Cíbola, or Zuñi, from Moqui, or from the country of the Mojaves, of which there is no
· ( 26 )
27
CORONADO AND CÁRDENAS
record. After the occupation of New Mexico by the Spaniards, excursions in every direction were com- mon; so that it is unsafe to say of any one of them that it was the first. It is true that in making and placing upon record an expedition of any considerable importance, any other important excursion then known to have taken place at some former period would be likely to receive mention; and, indeed, was often mentioned.
H
A
T
U
River
Utah Boundary
-
DESERT
Probable
Little Colorado River
Route
Moqui or Tusayan Villages
Cardenas
Zuni or Cibola
PROBABLE ROUTE OF CÁRDENAS.
The first European to enter within the present limits of Nevada of whom we now have knowledge, and without doubt in my mind absolutely the first to enter, was Father Francisco Garcés, of the order of St Francis, who set out from Sonora in 1775 with a party under Colonel Anza for California, and who stopped at the junction of the Colorado and Gila to explore for a mission site. Of the expedition to Cali- fornia was Father Pedro Font who wrote a narrative of it, and drew a map which included not only his
28
: EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS.
own wanderings but those of Garcés.1 If Garcés is right in his reckoning, and Font's map is correct, the friar was in Nevada at the time.
The month of January 1776 was occupied in estab- lishing a residence on the spot where later stood Fort Yuma, the examination of the ranchería of San Pablo,
PAYUCHA
R.Colorado
Sta.Fe'
Pto.Bucareli
R.Jaquesua
Zuni 奋
36
CHEMEGUABA
"Oraibe MOQUI
35
YAMAJAB
YAVAPAI
JAQUALAPAI
APACHERIA
HED
S
R
TEHUA
COCO/MARICOPAS
CUCAPA
CAJUENCHES
Candelaria
P.Tuqulsom8
a P.Sta.Cruz S.Bernardino&
Janos
PAPAGUERIA
"S.Xavier
32
Sonoitac
Tubaca
&Fronteras
PIMERIA
Tumacacori. P Colabazas
Cuquiarichic
Quitobac
ALTA
Terrenate
Cocospera
Aribaycpia
Sta. Teresa
Imuris
31
Caborca Bisanie
Pitic
Oquitoa
Sta. Ana
S.Ignacio Magdalena
AArizpe
E
.Altar
°Dolores
R. Yaqui
30
PADRE FONT'S MAP, 1777.
below on the river, which was found to be a suitable site for a mission. In February he visited the Yam- ajabs, that is to say the Mojaves, arriving on the
. 1 These wanderings are designated by dotted lines. See Ansa, Diario, MS., 198 et seq .; Font's Journal, MS., 45 et seq .; Arricivita, Cron. Seraf., 464 et seq .; Ilist. Cal., i. 273-S, this series.
2 ' Across a sierra to Santo Angel Springs 34° 31' (in Chemehueves coun- try); 61 N. E. and N. w .; 71 N. N. E. across a sierra to Yamajab nation, whose rancherías, La Pasion, were across the river (35 on Font's map).' Hist. Cal., i. 275, note, this series.
33
Pedro
YUMAS
Posos
Casa Grande
Gila
ANIMA
ES
Assumpcion
Ati
29
TRAVELS OF GARCÉS.
west bank of the river nearly opposite their village on the 28th.3
Garcés did not cross the river at this time, but two thousand people of a nature superior* to that of the Yumas came to him on the west side. "I showed them a picture of the virgin," says the friar, "and they were well pleased, but the picture of the damned they thought it sorrowful to see." The Yamajabs spoke of their neighbors and enemies, on the north- east the Yavipais-cuercconaches, on the east the Yaguallapais, and on the south the Yalchedunes. Be- fore penetrating farther these parts the friar deter- mined to visit his brother priests at San Gabriel. Some of the Yamajabs accompanied him, and the month of March was chiefly occupied in the journey west.
On the 9th of April Garces set out from San Gabriel and proceeded by way of San Fernando Val- ley to the Tulare Valley, whence he crossed to the Mojave River, and returned to his former position on the Colorado, after having traversed as discoverer a wide extent of country. Garcés then took up his east- ward line of exploration which extended to the Moqui country as elsewhere explained.
The people inhabiting this part of Nevada, and located to the north of the Yamajabs, are named on Font's map the Chemeguabas, and north-east of these the Payachas, and the Baoniora. Two large rivers toward the north-west are likewise given on Font's map, both flowing from Nevada through the Sierra into California. Garcés did not explore these rivers but was told of them by the natives when in the
3 For detail of the route from the mouth of the Gila to the Mojave country, which was along the west bank of the Colorado, see Hist. Cal., i. 275, note. + Sce Native Races, i. 477 et seq., this series. 'Esta gente es muy sana y robusta, las mujeres las mas agraciadas del rio ... ellos dicen que son muy fuer- tes, especialmente en aguantar la hambre y sed.' Diario y derrotero que siguió el M. R. P. Fr. Francisco Garcés en su viaje hecho desde Octubre de 1775 hasta 17 de Setiembre de 1776, al Rio Colorado para reconocer las naciones que habitan sus márgenes, y á los pueblos del Moqui del Nuevo-México. In Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii. tom. i. 225-374.
30
EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS.
Tulare Valley, and he in turn reported them to Father Font. They are named in the map "Rio de San Phelipe," and " Rio de que se viene noticia por el P. Garcés," and are probably the origin of the San Buenaventura River myth. Garcés states: " I was also told that hence seven days' journey to the north
PAYHAM
L.Aguinanbock
EWANGUMO
E.of Iste
I.COLUBRA
The Great Lake
of Thongo or
Thoya
J.STJAGO
Blanco
Quivira.
CES Sebastian
C-Mendocino
Panetoca
NOVA
Mauruth
Cormedo
Gataka o
Oupapa
Causa,
0
R.Angucht
Pocon R.,
I.DE COMBAS
New Grenada
o S.Jean
ES.CATHALINA
P.S.Clara or
NEW
MEXICO
P.S. Andrew
S.Fe or
DESICLEMEN
NEW
New Mexico
The 7 Citties O
o Parce
Acoma
· Salines
L.D'PARRAROS-
S.Antonio
1
Gardeloupa ·
GRENADA
MAP BY JOHN HARRIS, 1605.
was a great river5 running north-east and connecting with the San Felipe, the latter dividing, and one of
5 The friar thought this might be the San Joaquin, emptying into San Francisco Bay, which indeed it was, or perhaps it was a branch of the Colum- bia. 'Este gran rio que corre á los 36° puede ser el que entra al puerto de San Francisco en la California, ó al brazo del rio Colombia.' Diario, in Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii. tom. i. 297.
Outantes R.
P.S.Fund Drake ALBION
CAL
The 4 Vill.of
Pasola o
IF
Bona Guia R.
Parousse
Zages
RNI
S.Clara
31
SOME OLD MAPS.
the branches flowing toward the north. They gave me to understand that the first was three times larger than the other. They wanted me to go and see it, saying that all along the way were good people. This I greatly desired to do. They estimated the distance to be from thirty-five to forty leagues, a trip of seven days, as they march slowly on account of their fre- quent bathing and unprotected feet. I concluded not to go, having no present to give. Here runs the Sierra San Marcos6 to the north-west, and between
Septem
Civitatum"
Patria
R. Axa
GRANA
R. Totonteac
Cucho
S
Totonteac
B.Buina Guia AB.Miraflores
Granata
Ceuola
Los Farallones
Tierra Prata
CALIFOR NIA
C
B.Hermosa
(B.San Laurentia
Y.S.CRUZ
P.S. Maria
P.S. Clara/
El Abrigo ¿Quicama
R. de Pasaia R.R.Agustin C. Baxo
P.Posicion P.S.Jacobo
PP.S.Pedro
.Ometlan
00
Y.S. MATHEAS
Y.DE CEDRE
CAZONES
TES
Calderon
DIAMA
R.S. Sel astian
Y.DE PARAROS
LOS
Agua
Cara
=20
de Balena
SANYS
210
250
260
270
GRANATA NOVA.
this sierra and that of the San Luis can be seen vast plains which without doubt are the tulares mentioned by Father Font in his diary and map; this Sierra of San Marcos being the one seen by him at the distance of forty leagues, white with snow, and east of the tulares; and although the distance is not so great, the mountains open gradually, so that farthest away can be seen only the Sierra of San Marcos."7
6 On Font's map the mountains north of the 'Rio de quien se viene noticia por el P. Garcés' are called the Sierra Nevada, and south of that stream and down to the 'Rio de San Phelipe' the Sierra de San Marcos.
7 ' Dijeronme tambien, que siete dias de camino al norte habia una agua é
NOVA
P. Buena
SEsperanza
R.Sta. Anna
Marata (
Y. DE STEPHANO
P.Lobos
30
P.Escondido
meio
R. Guaianal
Perlatan-
L.Lisleo
e Cedros
REscondido
de los ludeos
Valaso
P
de Cruz
C
Y.CEDROS
C. California
C. Engano
11
40
Axa
32
EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS.
There are many curious old maps showing the gen- eral conception of the country about that time, or rather showing the ability of map-makers for drawing on their imagination, which I might reproduce; and, indeed, many of them have been given in various volumes of this historical series, notably in the His- tory of the Northwest Coast, in connection with an elucidation of the great Northern Mystery. A map drawn by John Harris in 1605 seems to give the name Quivira to a vast region which embraces Ne-
Juan de Follcas Inlet
L.of theg
Eel L. Woods
Queen Hythe
MIt. Olympus
Sturgeon LE
Red L.
Shootwater
Pau
&Bear L.
Deception
CFoulwea
Missouri R.
R.St.Peter
Goose R.
Falls of St. Anthony
C-Perpetua
B.Green
P.de la Trinidad
CMendocino
Padqueas R.
"Kershaws R.
o St. Francisco
Kansas
oQuirirà
Puerto de Monterrey Bagopas
Arkansas
Santa Fe
Osagues R.
Black R.
ST-CRUZ
St.Felipe
St.Gregoria
St. Ancomio
ST . CATALINA
St. Salvador.
ST CLEMENTO
St. Padro
oSt.Mateo
St.Xavier
St. Cruz
St.Rafael
Antonio o
<9.of Rio Bravo
& Rio del Norte
Colorado R.
Trinity R
alicatalo
Texas o
St. Paul
St. Therescor or Malin
o Sabas
St.Diego
Opato
F.Janos
<<<<<<<<<<<
Lezza
Quiquimo
Cali
Red R.
ST. BARBARA-
ALBION
Taguayo
oAraas
77
NEW
C Blanco
White &B Bear L.6
UTAH AND NEVADA, 1795.
rio muy grande, que corria del nordeste y se juntaba con el de San Felipe, porque éste, como diré, cuando se divide en dos brazos lleva el uno el rumbo del norte; y daban á entender que el primero era tres veces mayor que el otro; querian que fuera á verlo, que por todo aquel camino habia buena gente. Yo lo deseaba mucho, porque consideraba de distancia hasta treinta y cinco ó cuarenta leguas, pues aunque ellos reputaban necesarios siete dias, es porque andan poco á causa de que se bañan mucho y no tienen defensa en los piés. Por último no me determiné, asi porque no tenia que regalar como por lo que dije arriba de Sebastian y los jamajabs: por aquí corre la sierra de San Már- cos al norueste, y entre ella y la de San Luis se ven unos llanos dilatadísimos, que sin duda son los tulares de que hacen mencion en su diario y mapa el padre Font, siendo esta sierra de San Márcos la que como á distancia de cua- renta leguas veia nevada al oriente de los tulares; y aunquo aquí no hay esta distancia, se van abriendo las sierras, de modo que á lo último solo se vé la de San Marcos: 2 leguas.' Diario, Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii., tom. i. 297-8.
33
FROM WINTERBOTHAM.
vada in common with other undefined countries. From the Histoire Universelle des Indes Orientales, Divisée en deux livres, faicte en Latin par Antoine Magin, Dovay, 1611, I copy the Granata Nova et California, which, however, presents little historical significance. The work from which it is taken pur- ports to contain an account of the " descovuerte, nauigation, situation, et conquete, faicte tant par les Portugais que par les Castillans, Ensemble leurs mœurs et Religion." A Latin poem of twenty-four lines introduces the general history, which begins
Clarker
Attinibains
R.
Ria
R. St. Toouiy
WayCon La.
Chayenne R
Mest:Irclens
Missoury
R.Jacques
Siour R
Mis
C. Blanco
Shulet L.
R.
White Z.
Ri
cunne
Highest
Peak
River La Platte
Illinois R.
Russian Furt
Grand Saline
PucharSt.Franciscy St.Bernardp
Ft
Jeffersou
Spanish Fom
Li de la Trinite
.Ft.
Puckering
Santa Fe
Nagrara R.
Grand
Salina
Gulf
RECTOR'S MAP, 1818.
with comments on the ancient cosmographers and the discovery of Columbus, the first book giving the history of the Spanish Americas, and closing with a sonnet in French. Book ii. contains numerous maps, with a brief description of the countries, fourteen lines being devoted to California.
In a map of North America drawn to accompany Winterbotham's history, published in New York 1795, Nevada is a blank save the delineation of a stream with its tributaries flowing eastward into a nameless lake, presumbably Great Salt Lake, the three towns of Axaas, Bagopas, and Quivira, and a section of HIST. NEV. 3
Fillamette R.
rsun
Jorn
Waternoo R.
St. Peter B:
Salt P
Ft. Madison,
Republica
St. Louis
Arkynsul
oky lli
Black K
to Colorado
Kansas R. (yage K.
St. Francis R.
Ringel No
n. LLood
34
EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS.
the Sierra Nevada from opposite San Francisco Bay southward toward Lower California.
In January 1818 was filed in the general land office a map of western North America by William Rector, United States surveyor for Missouri and Illinois,8 whose greatest peculiarity so far as the western slope is concerned lies in draining into the Willamette the whole region north of the latitude of San Francisco Bay, and east of the Columbia and Colorado rivers, the Siskiyou Mountains being crowded south to ac- commodate this arrangement.
Black feet Inds.
Whitby's=B
Pembina
Wayton
Ft. Mandans
Red L.
Disappointment
hianan R.
Astoria
Mandans a Otter Tail L.
Pt.Xelimag
Lewis
308k
C.Foulweather.It. Hood
Ricarcles
Cannaveral B
LL. BBig Stone
Shiennes
St. Peter R:
C=Orford
Shoshone or Snake
White R.
Indians
S.F.
Trinidad
Lake
North FE
Bluffs
Timpanogos
B-
Republican
G. Net.
Sou
awhau R.
P.t.Arenas
.Salada
Konzas
Bay of Sir Frs. Drake
Brigsda
Port Francisco ? St.Francisco
IPMALNS OF SENORA DE LA LUZ
Monterey B. b St.Carlos
Noch Inds. Timbabachi
bajo
Grand
AR. San Felipe
UL Trinidad
orth Fork
Montereyp S. Luis
Inds.
VER.Jaqu
St.
Canadian R.
B
CALIFORNIA
Moqui Inds
0
fannillo
Pt.Arguelles
Das Gabriel
R. S. Maria
ST.ROSA
Last Pedro B
R. Colorad
False Wa
Choctaws
IST.CATALINA
tenis
Jumas Inds. R. St. Francisco
erto
Lonia P.t. S. Diego
R.G
Apaches
L.Saltillo
FINLEY'S MAP, 1826.
In 1826 A. Finley, of Philadelphia, presented quite an elaborate map, the unknown regions being well filled from ill-founded reports, or from the imagination. Thus the Rio San Felipe is made to flow from south- ern Nevada due west through the Sierra into Mon- terey Bay. The Rio Buenaventura mystery is here multiplied, so that from the great lakes three large streams are made to flow in the most direct course, regardless of intervening mountains, to the ocean. The one most southern, the Rio Buenaventura, rises
8 Lieut. Warren, who presents a reduced copy in Pac. R. Rept., xi. 23, says the map, though the most complete up to that time, was never published.
lark
R.o Pembina
Willia
ration
Yellow Stone R.
Spirit L. A
Xelimac R.
North Branch/Rammet
& Sho
on R.
Big Horn R.,
Tongue R.
Sioux
R. Los Mongos
Council
Bay
Pawnees
EGrand D
Mendorn
amon
Man's Cr.
Kansas R. Jefferson
R.Buenaventura
. Zaquananos
merone R.
a Saline
puquerqu
Concepciones
South Fork
onich Inds.
itta R.
Porcupine
À Travers L.
MIt. Jefferson
35
PETER SKEEN OGDEN.
near the source of the Lewis branch of the Columbia and empties into Lake Salado, which may be Great Salt Lake, or Utah Lake, as one chooses; thence it takes up a direct course for San Francisco Bay. From Lake Timpanogos, the original Lake Ashley, or Utah Lake, but now greatly enlarged and placed north of Salt Lake, if indeed Timpanogos be not itself Great Salt Lake, flow directly to the ocean the rivers Timpanogos and Los Mongos, the former finding the 1216709
Utah L.
Clemente
Sevier L.
R.S. Raquel
PLATEAU
SUM
Escalante's Rout
Nieves
R. Flori
776
Sun
Abiquin
.Ch
Colorado
SANTA FE
ESCALANTE'S ROUTE.
sea below Cape Mendocino, and the latter just south of Cape Orford.
Although the San Felipe was purely an imaginary stream, Friar Garcés' branch of it running toward the north was a reality, being none other than the San Joaquin. From the Colorado Garcés proceeded east- ward and visited the Moqui towns, returning to the Yamajabs after a month's absence. Then he descended the Colorado.
Next to enter Nevada, or at least to touch its
36
EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS.
border, following the record, were the two friars, Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante, who were near Nevada, on or not far distant from the path later called the old Spanish trail between Great Salt Lake and Los Angeles when they determined to abandon their purpose of going to Monterey, and turned eastward from the eastern line of Nevada, near its junction with the southern bound- ary of Utah, crossing the Colorado in latitude 37°. An account of this expedition, which is of primary importance to the history of Utah, is given at length in the volume of this series relating to that subject.
We come now to more defined discoveries. In the spring of 1825, while preparations were in progress for the transfer of the metropolitan post of the Pacific from Astoria, or Fort George, to Fort Vancouver on the Columbia, Peter Skeen Ogden,? then in the ser- vice of the Hudson's Bay Company, set out from head-quarters with a party of trappers for the region round the head-waters of Snake River, or the Lewis branch of the Columbia. Passing by the country of the Walla Wallas, they set their traps, working their way southward up the stream until they reached the point where later was built Fort Boisé. Thence they struck to the west of south, followed up the Owyhee, and after some exploration of its tributaries at length dropped down upon the Humboldt, now first beheld by Europeans.
It was now mid-summer, and one of the party becoming enamored of a damsel native to that region, he married, that is to say bought, her, thereby secur-
9 He was a son of Chief Justice Ogden of Quebec, and prior to this time had served both in the Pacific Fur Company and in the Northwest Company. Later he rose to the position of chief factor and manager. At Fort Vancou- ver he was second only to Douglas, who succeeded McLoughlin, and indeed at one time was chief factor in charge. He was short, dark, and exceedingly tough, with an inexhaustible fund of humor, and consequently a great favor- ite. He dicd at the age of 60 in Oregon City in 1854. See Hist. Oregon, i. 32, this series; Applegate's Views, MS., 13; Allan's Rem., MS., 9.
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