Show J A Ar r N 2 7 mils is isa a r u Y T Ha gl y i iI il I l r s w wa a 4 I Y 7 f t Ft i Ii LJ I l t tf THIS IS AN artists artist's conception of William H Ashley going ove over details of a trapping Ci f expedition with some of the men In his company In the Uintah Basin a river a valley end and many businesses bear his name Gen Wm Ashley Trapper Leaves His Name to Several Basin Areas The following article and ac accompanying companying art were provided by the courtesy of Dixon Paper Co of Salt Lake City Some men came west in the early days of exploration and trapping because they would not live in crowded places with with- within in smelling distance of a neigh bars bors campfire for example Others had records and a n d sought safety the fron tier Probably most of them came because something inside drove them across the prairies and over the mountains They wanted to take one look from the skyline of the first range of mountains and having seen could not again turn back Whatever other reasons Ash ley may have had he came chiefly because he was a shrewd resourceful business business- businessman man who saw an opportunity to tomake tomake make a fortune trapping the fur bearing animals of the West Ills was no small outfit in the early as it moved out of St St Louis and up the long river valleys toward the Rocky Moun tabs somewhere beyond the western horizon More than men made up his company with perhaps four to five times that many horses and mules for packing supplies and bringing back the furs fursa IT WAS NO EASY task to transport supplies for a year or two not in roomy prairie scho- scho schooners schooners but on pack saddles There would be beaver traps guns powder and lead clothing blankets a few tents axes knives shovels and as much food as could be carried Sup Sup- Supplies Supplies plies would have to be packed securely because it is easy for fora fora a saddle saddie to turn or a pack to become loosened and fall off At the beginning of the trip most of the extra animals would have to be led each man taking a string of two to four But the discipline of the long trail would soon make the animals easier to handle Then the extras could be turn turn- turned ed loose with a few riders scattered scat scat- scattered among them to watch for stragglers slipping saddles and generally to make sure that everything was in order The men planned to live off the land so far as possible They would build log cabins for wint wintering ering and would use buffalo hides for blankets buckskin for clothing and would trade with the Indians for a few other nee necessities Ashley and his men success success- successfully fully trapped the small rivers and their tributaries in the up up- up upper per Bear Weber Provo and upper Duchesne River country they went down along the Green River and into the Uintah Basin where a river a valley and many modern busin business ss and oth oth- oth other er institutions now bear his name IT WAS ONE of Ashleys Ashley's men Jim Bridger who left the camp in Cache Valley and us us- us using ing a rough boat went down Bear River into the Great Salt Lake part of which he explored before returning to camp lIe supposed he had discovered an arm of the Pacific Ocean On one of his early expeditions into the Great Basin Ash Ash- Ashley 1 ley Jey traveled south at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains asfar as asfar far as Utah Valley spending the winter in a fort he bunt built near the present site of Provo After a few very successful years of trapping he sold out outto j to three of his outstanding men Jedediah Strong Smith David Jackson and William Sublette Returning East he became an important member of Congress Thus like one part of a great drama General Ashley and his men to the accompanying hoof hoof- beats of their horses the creak creak- lag ing of saddles and the jingling of beaver traps and camp sup sup- supplies supplies plies passed on down the moun moun- mountain tain trails leaving the stage forthe for forthe the next act in the conquering of the West |