The beaver were then the most profitable of all, and they were the most abundant.  The pelts were estimated by “packs,” each of which consisted of about eighty skins, weighing one hundred pounds, and worth in the mountains from three hundred to five hundred dollars.  The profits were thus speedy and very great.  In the search for the richest rewards the trapper continually pushed farther and farther away from the “States,” encroaching at length on the territory claimed by Spain, a claim to be soon (1821) adopted by the new-born Mexican Republic.  Trespassing on the tribal rights of Blackfoot, Sioux, Ute, or any other did not enter into any one’s mind as something to be considered.  Thus, rough-shod the trapper broke the wilderness, fathomed its secret places, traversed its trails and passes, marking them with his own blood and more vividly with that of the natives.  Incidentally, by right of their discoveries and occupation of the wilderness, much of it became by the law of nations a part of the lands of the United States, though still nominally claimed by Mexico.  Two years after the return of the famous Lewis-and-Clark expedition, Andrew Henry “discovered” South Pass (1808), and led his party through it into the Green River* Valley.  His discovery consisted, like many others of the time, in following up the bison trails and the highways of the natives.  The latter, of course, knew every foot of the whole country; each tribe its own special lands and more or less into and across those of its neighbours.

* The name Green River was used as early as 1824, and was probably derived from the name of the early trapper.  Till about 1835 it was usually called by the Crow name, Seedskeedee.

By the time the third decade of the nineteenth century was fairly begun the trappers were crossing in considerable numbers from the headwaters of the Missouri and the Platte into the valley of the Colorado and the Columbia, and as early as 1824 one of the most brilliant figures of this epoch, General Ashley,* having previously organised a fur-trading company in St. Louis, then the centre of all Western commerce, had established himself in Green River Valley with a large band of expert trappers which included now famous names like Henry, Bridger, Fitzpatrick, Green, Sublet, and Beckwourth.  Provo (or Provost) was already encamped in Brown’s Hole.  One of Ashley’s principal camps was what they called the “rendezvous” (there were a great many French-Canadians engaged in the fur business, and hence numerous French words were in common use among the trappers of the period), just above “The Suck,” on Green River.  This Suck was at the entrance to Flaming Gorge, as it has since been named.  Beckwourth says of this:  “The current, at a small distance from our camp, became exceedingly rapid, and drew toward the centre from each shore.”  The river here narrows suddenly and attacks a high ridge.  Doubling around a point to the left and then as suddenly to the right,