History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

20 ADVENT OF TRAPPERS AND TRAVELLEES.
themselves on Bear River, in Cache, or Willow Valley.
A discussion arose as to the probable course
of Bear River, which flowed on both sides of them.
A wager was made, and Bridger sent to ascertain the
truth. Following the river through the mountains
the first view of the great lake fell upon him, and
when he went to the margin and tasted the water he
found that it was salt. Then he returned and reported
to his companions. All were interested to
know if there emptied into this sheet other streams
on which they might find beavers, and if there was
an outlet; hence in the spring of 1826 four men explored
the lake in skin boats. 2
During this memorable year of 1825, when Peter
sional report, by one Samuel Adams Ruddock, that in the year 1S21 he
journeyed from Council Bluff to Santa Fe, and thence with a trading party
' On the
proceeded by way of Great Salt Lake to Oregon. The report says :
9th of June this party crossed the Rio del Norte, and pursuing a north-west
direction on the north bank of the river Chamas, and over the mountains,
reached Lake Trinidad; and then pursuing the same direction across the
upper branches of the Rio Colorado of California, reached Lake Timpanagos,
which is intersected by the 42d parallel of latitude, the boundary between
the United States of America and the United States of Mexico. This lake
is the principal source of the river Timpanagos, and the Miiltnomah of Lewis
and Clarke. They then followed the course of this river to its junction with
the Columbia, and reached the mouth of the Columbia on the first day of
August, completing the journey from the Council Bluffs in seventy-nine
days.'
2 This, upon the testimony of Robert Campbell, Pac. P. Rrpt., xi. 35, who
was there^at the time 'and found the party just returned from the exploration
of the lake, and recollect their report that it was without any outlet. ' Bridger's
story of his discovery was corrroborated by Samuel Tullock in Campbell's
counting-room in St Louis at a later date. Campbell pronounces them both
'men of the strictest integrity and truthfulness.' Likewise Ogden's trappers
met Bridger's party in the summer of 1825 and were told of the discovery.
See Hist. Nevada, this series. Irving, Bonneville's Adv., 1S6, says it was
probably Sublette who sent out the four men in the skin canoe in 1826. Bonneville
professes to doubt this exploration because the men reported that they
suffered severely from thirst, when in fact several fine streams flow into the
lake; but Bonneville desired to attach to his name the honor of an early survey,
and detract from those entitled to it. The trappers in their canoes did
not pretend to make a thorough survey, and as for scarcity of fresh water in
places Stansbury says, Ezped., 103, that during his explorations he frequently
was obliged to send fifty miles for water. Other claimants appear prior to
Bridger's discovery. W. M. Anderson writing to the National Intelligencer
under date of Feb. 26, I860, says that Provost trapped in this vicinity in
1S20, and that Ashley was there before Bridger. Then it was said by Seth
Grant that his partner, Vazquez, discovered the great inland sea, calling it an
arm of the ocean because the water was salt. That no white man ever saw
the Great Salt Lake before Bridger cannot be proven; but his being the only
well authenticated account, history must rest there until it finds a better one.