1826. J TRADING EXPEDITIONS OF ASHLEY. 357 



The first attempt to reestablish commercial communications 

 between the United States and the territories west of the Rocky 

 Mountains, was made by W. H. Ashley, of St. Louis, who had been, 

 for some time previous, engaged in the fur trade of the Missouri and 

 Yellowstone countries. He quitted the state of Missouri in the 

 spring of 1823, at the head of a large party of men, with horses 

 carrying merchandise and baggage, and proceeded up the Platte 

 River, to the sources of its northern branch, called the Sweet Water, 

 which had not been previously explored. These sources were found 

 to be situated in a remarkable valley, or cleft, in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, in the latitude of 42 degrees 20 minutes ; and immediately 

 beyond them were discovered those of another stream, flowing 

 south-westward, called by the Indians SidsTcadee, and by the 

 Americans Green River, which proved to be one of the head- 

 waters of the Colorado of California. In the country about these 

 streams, which had not then been frequented by the British traders, 

 Mr. Ashley passed the summer, with his men, employed in trap- 

 ping, and in bartering goods for skins with the natives ; and, before 

 the end of the year, he brought back to St. Louis a large and valu- 

 able stock of furs. 



In 1824, Mr. Ashley made another expedition up the Platte, 

 and through the cleft in the mountains, which has since been gen- 

 erally called the Southern Pass ; and then, advancing farther west, 

 he reached a great collection of salt water called the Utah Lake, 

 (probably the Lake Timpanogos, or Lake Tegayo, of the old Spanish 

 maps,) which lies imbosomed among lofty mountains, between the 

 40th and the 42d parallels of latitude. Near this lake, on the 

 south-east, he found another and smaller one, to which he gave his 

 own name ; and there he built a fort, or trading post, in which he left 

 about a hundred men, when he returned to Missouri in the autumn. 

 Two years afterwards, a six-pound cannon was drawn from Mis- 

 souri to this fort, a distance of more than twelve hundred miles ; 

 and, in 1828, many wagons, heavily laden, performed the same 

 journey. 



During the three years between 1824 and 1827, the men left by 

 Mr. Ashley in the country beyond the Rocky Mountains collected 

 and sent to St. Louis furs to the value of more than one hundred 

 and eighty thousand dollars ; this enterprising man then retired from 

 the trade, and sold all his interests and establishments to the Rocky 

 Mountain Company, at the head of which were Messrs. Smith, 

 Jackson, and Sublette, persons not less energetic and determined. 



