Show 57 waters of the Great Salt Lake before the fall or winter of Bridger’s bullboat trip down the Bear river from Cache valley probably in the late fall of 1824 resulting in the first authenticated view of the lake by white man has given him the enviable position in history as the discoverer of that great body of water However Bridger might 1824 James well have been preceded by other adventurers although no definite documentary evidence of such earlier visits has Nevertheless some of these earlier possible discoverers are worthy of mention and their cases should be ex- been found amined already shown the existence of a large salty lake somewhere amid the wilds of the West beyond the Rocky Mountains had been known or believed to exist as early as 1689 2 as a result of the "explorations" of Baron La Hontan of the French colony at Baron La Hontan was As "lord-lieuten- Placentia in New ant Foundland" from whence he made his remarkable likely mythical) journey into hat is the Missouri river region of the United States An account of his discoveries was published in English in 1755 According to his account he ascended the Mississippi for nine days when he "entered the mouth of the Long River which looks like a (more now Great Salt Lake Exploration to the account Stansbury of the La in Utah 151-1carries a rather complete HonTjaiT’tradition Quotations used in this discussion are from this source 2 Howard 56 |