Show I I EARLl Of 0 RG ON ONI I Three Books in the City Library Which Should Be Skeen Ogden General Ashley and Others Who Vho Were Pioneers Trapp Trappers era Were All Over This in the Ogden of Great Salt Lake LakeI J I I I I Editor Standard In the Ule City JI Ii Is n a now non work In three volumes whIch he road by everyone who ho hoIs Is Interested If the arly ariy history of Ogden and of it has beon In Inthe the tho library for some months but bul has not received much reading as yet ct I Iam Iam am Quito sure of this because when I read It a few fow weeks eels ago aso I found oun many of the tho leaves sUB still uncut The Tho title of the tho work Is History of oC the American Fur Trade of the Far Farrest West rest It deals with the fur trade trado In that Part of the United States lying west of the Missouri river rIer and as a the tho r and trapper bus hns always been the first pioneer and explorer book really contaIns the beginnings ot or orthe the known history of the Far West The author Is 1 Major JaJor Hiram Martin Chittenden for lor luau years ears a resident or of Sioux City In his youth he was a trapper and In later laler ears cars came cume Into possession of the ac account books and correspondence of oC several or of the old fur trading companies of St Louis which city was for more than half halfa a century the recognized headquarters of the fur trade Xo No oue can read Major books being Impressed b by his ol evident ent anxiety to ho he accurate and with the great amount or of original data to which ho be has had exclusive access This Is nowhere bottor shown than In those pages dealIng with the early his history tor tory of 01 the vIcinity of Ogden City On page of volume 2 Is the follow ollow following Ing Early History of Ogden Near ear the thoro of the Great Lake Lalie there was a deep re coss In the tho range of mountains to the cast known In early Union limes as lIole Holc near where now the city of Ogden Utah Ulah stands ds It was wasn wasa n a sheltered cove coe of striking form and beauty and no doubt was frequented by In the tho retainers or of that noted trad trader er or whoso whose name it now bears The most Important valley near Gr Great at Salt Lake however was that b by Bear river In northern Utah and s southern Idaho It was an extensive valley alley bounded on the east enst eastby by a noble range of mountains antI and on the west weal b by smaller hills whore where nil all the ns were to be found that made a desirable ground for forthe forthe the trapper TOda Today It is 15 the horn home of a bus busy pop population with ten or more thriving vil 11 lagos lages all In sight at It Is known by Its name namo or of Cacho valley which arose from Crom some somo circumstance possibly from flom the cacho of beaver furs belonging to Peter Sheen Ogden which tradition says sas was lifted hv by General Ashley to the gre great l financial ad t Gen Ashley of St Louic Vo re that th the A hley re referred erred to lo was a bankrupt St Louis politician who organized a trapping I I and nd trailing expedition to the Rock Rocky I Mountains antI after suffering ser I bus lous losses lossos from the hostile Indians on the tho upper Missouri river crossed over oyer inlo the Great Lake basIn I In 1825 On page of Volume 1 Is given I Ithe the following account of his doings whIch tire perhaps characteristic of the or of many busIness men still sUIi residing In the vicinity of St StLouis StLouis Louis and who still regard The Tho Far Farrest West rest as their lemon It was on this occasion that Ash Ashby lo by made his explorations south of Groat SnIt Salt Lake He wont as far as Soler Sevier lake lale which was then given the name of Ashley Ashier lake Jale Historians have bave generally supposed that It was Utah Ja lake ko which was wag I honored with the tho Generals but this it not time the cast case Jl It was on time tho shores of either Utah or Sevier lake that th the trading post stood which Ashley Is Bald to ha have vo bu built Ill Having completed these explorations lions Ashley final and Provost turned north northen en n route to the animal rendezvous In Inthe the tho valley of Green Croon River At sonic some point north or of Great Salt Lake an in the beautiful mountain park known as Cache Va Valley H 0 an nt took place which mark marked d the tho turning point in Ashleys fortunes There w vas in this neighborhood at I lii time lime a party of Hudson Day Bay trap under the tho leadership of the well known trader Peter Skeen Ogden i iTh Th They y were In possession or of a large larro I quantity o of beaver fur variously esti I at from seventy to two hundred t dollars worth Those furs through some transaction now not pos positively known came Into Ashleys at un an Insignificant some sa say b by looting hooting a cache In whIch thor they wore concealed and somo b by vol voluntary 01 sale to Ashley b by Ogden to re 11 0 tho neco ties Bo Be that ns as It may the event was an Important one to Ashley lie He Is said to have been deeply involved In debt at that time owing to his re repented repeated but tho returns ot of this year oar enabled him to pay pac oft off his debts and In lay the foundatIons of a good goodly fortune There Thore Is nn an elaborate footnote cit citing In ing auth ritie on this Incident which seems Booms to have hao attracted the tho attention of a number or of writers RObbed a i Cache Common tradition among the trade OI org which has oven oen to the tho present time limo that Ashley and amI Provost accidentally came caine upon n a cache or of Oden fur Cur and not feeling the Brit British Yer very well toward ish on general principles nor bolio InS ing that they had nn any In this Quarter the fur furOne Ono One says ans that thal Ogden was WUK In groat straits for some somo or oth other othor or er and that he sold soM out to Ashley for fora a more nominal sum Bum In order to roo re Hove his W Wyeth oth says Sources of the Ills lor tory of Oregon Vol 1 1 P H 74 flint a aI aMr Mr I Gardner Gardnor one of hl hh Ashleys agents me a MI Ir Ogden Ogdon clerk of the tho II B Co In tIme the Snake country countr at th the bond boud of a trapping party Gardner Induced the men of oC party part to desert b by promises or of supplies and good prices for furs Thu Tho furs urs thus obtained amounted to about pads packs 0 or poun pounds s worth at that time lInw about 7 t t says that th the furs cost coal comparativelY little II quotes Ashl Ashley l na as saying i th the diSaster at vii 11 lags proved tor or hIm W a It turned his stops steps toward some other 5 spot whore ho he procured n a hundred packs ot of beaver skins for a mere mero son song Of the main fact therefore there thero IS i ino no room for Cor doubt but tho exact de details I tails taUs will probably remain unknown until the world hears from Mr Ir Ogden through the records ot Of the Hudson Bay Bar company That ThaL Ogden shoUld vol voluntarily have disposed or of his hie furs at atall nU all and nt at a nominal price to an American rival is 15 scarcely cred credible ible to one who knows anything of the methods of the British companies The loss of a seasons work doeR not se m to have hae daunted Peter Ogden for according to he later lator to his trapping grounds on what Is now knon ns as North Middle and SOU South l Fork ot C the tho Ogden river and where the tho m number mbel o of beavers seems to hare been He wm was still the Hudson Da Bay company compan and was in inI I charge of n a large Jarge party parl The ruins o oI of I O dens fort or trading post are arc sun still pointed out Just east o of North Ogden and at al the west entrance to lo tho pass I that leads aver oer to Liberty Libert ono one of tho villages of oC Hole Meantime General Ashley with his gains returned to lo Missouri fitted out moro more expeditions made more money maner ran for congress and married his 1115 third and In fact ho was otherwise and generally so dis disgustingly gusting prosperous that with him In mind it Il Is hard to keep up our faith In the doctrine that honesty honest is the best policy About tIme tho year rear 1830 Ashley Ishley sold out his fur Cur trading equipment to R a firm composed or of several known moun mountaineers who at once proceeded to hunt up imp their old friend Peter Skeen Ogden N Natural Commercial Center Even Een at that early date the site of the present Ogden City was recognized sized as the natural Commercial Con Cen Center ter Cr of the Intermountain Region On Page Pago of Volume 1 arc aro the As soon as Smith Jackson and had left the Wind river ron ren In August 1830 the new firm organized Its campaign for the tho ensuIng lag Ing autumn Fraed and Gervais led lell leda a party part south into Inlo the mountaIns of Colorado and nothing Is known of their exact whereabouts until the next rendezvous Fitzpatrick and Bridger a party of over oer two hundred men moved moed north thron through h the Dig Big Horn basin crossed the he Yellowstone ri river r rand and continued In a northwesterly di direction l until they thoy reached the tho Mis sotiri river In the vicinity of the Great Falls Turning south the they as ascended the Missouri to the loe I Forks and then oU I Fork to lo the tho Divide The expeditIon was a successful ono one and a large quantity or furs was taken while the appearance of the tho party part k kept pt the from attacking It IL Hole Crossing the Divide the tho trappers continued their course for tor se sev oral eral hundred miles and finally reach reached ed cd HoJo on tIme the northwest shore hore of Great Grent Salt Lake Here It Is said saltI they ther fell feU In with Skeen Og Ogden Ogden den the same Hudson Bay Bar company compan trader whom Ashle Ashley had relieved of oC his furs five fic years rears before Fitzpatrick proceeded without do de delay dolay lay to follow his old J leaders aders example If not method at le least ast in the results obtained As the tho Hudson Ba Bay com company company pany did not nol permit th the nse of liquor In the trade except lIons along th the International international boundary Ogden was at quIte he help helpless lr less to lo oppose Fitzpatrick who with ont on t the si scruple his men nion with liquor and goon oon secured the product ot of a years ears hunt for Cor com coni el nothing After AHer lh this Is profitable hut discredit discreditable dIscreditable able stroke of business the party part left Hole and crossed time the country to the eastward In time limo to roach the tho allo alley ot of Powder before win winter winterset tor torset set In An Idea of the lengthy jour journeys noys which these parties were wont to tomake tomake make may mar be had from coin the tho present Instance In whIch the distance tray b by FItzpatrick nail his party dur lag Ing their fall aU hunt could not nol have hae been less than twelve hundred miles Thought It the Pacific St Louis liquor seems to have hae cut cuta a good doal or of n figure In Ogden Ogdon City history even ven SO year tit t Ito above Incident reminds remind ono one of oC of the themore moro more recent cases of doping strangers once so o popular flu 11 low lower r strooL r Beginning on or of 2 Is th the following early es cs So fat eal IlS as Indu indubitable proof goes I tIme tho discoverer of the tho lake Jake is connect connected ed cd with time the expeditions of General II Ashley which 1 these regIons In A of lr lri i mon men were d for the tho thoI winter or of In valley and I wore were trapping on boor anti Its Hero a controversy I arose a us to the course or of Bear river after It left leCt the tho valley A wager was wa laid and aud James Bridger ws to follow the river and the hot bet This ho did and soon arrived arnI at Its outlet In Groat Greal Salt Lake Inke Tast TastIng lag Ing th the water vatOr he dIscovered It to lo bo be I salt Jl and on reporting to his com all assumed that It was ns nn an arm of oC the Pacific ocean nut But In tho sprint spring of 1825 four men In skin boats I explored Its shore line Uno and found that It had no outlet The discovery or of the Great Grent Salt Lake cnn can therefore ro hardly be consid ored ered a settled question In history It ItIs Itis Is possible that b before fore 1824 the Span lards may have havo seen it il or that white men from Crom the thc eust eastward nay nav have penetrated 80 far or that It may lm hare been beon discovered etI b by Andrew mon men or b by the It Is probe that It known to the th trap trappers pers pars of the North Northwest est and hudson Bay naj companies But none of things are arc as yet ot certainties The Sit situation ma may bo be concisely stated by saying that while Bridger Is the firSt white man whom Wp we positively kno know to have hlo seen Great Grent Salt Lake we do donot donot not positively kno know that thaL ho was the first white man to see It Who Discovered Salt Lake Time The essential facts tn In r regard to Great Salt Lake such as its Ils location approximate size lack Jilek of outlet and quality or of water were thus definitely known as carl early as the tho sprIng of 1825 In fad fact the geographical ture tuie of oC tho valley dates In no small smaIl degree from the tho Ashley expeditions although to some somo extent from the Hudson Bay Bar company compan explorers Os Og Osden Ogden den river Is of course named for tor Peter Sheen Skeen Ogden who ho came into the vat yal Ie hey at least as early ns as 1825 1525 The Tho tributaries of Bear river such as Tul lochs and Smiths forks are arc probably ably named for or and riv river r dates from this time hut but the identity of the tho individual for whom it WOK was given is lost Jost Utah lake Jake was lion known by Its present name and Sevier lake was called Ashley lake lak lakA A trIbutary or of Utah lake Is now called river and near Deal Its mouth Is th the modern Provo CIl City Utah It was wasso wasso so named for Provost who was with these expeditions and ono one of the tho most noted mountaIneers or that t To the south of the present alloy alley or of Great Salt Lake lie SeI Senor r lake Jako and its long Sevier river This valley occupies a large larbe part parl of south Utah and geologIcally Is a apart apart part of old Lake Bon Bonnville The Tho Se Sevier Seler vier ler river rises near the soul southern horn end of tIme tho range flows north aJon along the west vest base of these talus for a hundred and fifty miles and then turns southeast for about miles Into Senor Soler lake The Tho similarity between Its Hs courso and that or of Bear ear river the principal tributary of Great SnIt Salt Lako Is striking lag ing Senor Sevier lako has no outlet and tho characteristics of the Great Salt Lake at the north are accentuated here The Tho water Is shallow and oven oen before the tho advent of civilization a large part of the area probably be became came camo bare and covered wIth salt every summer from rom evaporation in later times irrigatIon has so far ab absorbed absorbed the waters aters of the tho Sexier Seler river that the lake has become practically dry Westward of the valley Vaney of the tho Great Salt SaIl Lake along the eastern base of the Sierra JN da mountains lies another extensIve sectIon of the Greal Basin Here tro man many lakes an all without to the tho ocean Among the moro more are the lake the Carson Jakes Walker arid and d lakes and Lake Lako Tahoe There nr also many others extending along th base baso or of tho ho base of time the mountains ns as far north as to the pr present state f Married an l Woman The most considerable or of this section Is the tho Hut humboldt which flows Into the 0 em as tho they often aro called coUet S 8 the It takes Ill about ono one hun him hundred dred miles of Great Suit Salt Lake and in a direction senora generally south of west for some three miles About midway of its course It receives n a tributary from the tho south of consid length but bul insignificant pro proportions proportions portions |