| OCR Text |
Show 14 rivers, in the early days of the United States, navigation upon nearly every river in the United States was first established by the fur trade; in the period of the first fifty years of the nineteenth century, the fur trade in the west was a big business; they were the people who were seeking our trade routes. As early as 1825, Governor Ashley of Missouri, Bridger Cayson, and others were in this country ( indicating on map), in and about Green River, Wyoming, and probably as far south as a place on the Green River known as Browns Hole. They were engaged in their occupation of professional traffic; and the testimony will show that, when it came time to take the products of their catch out, instead of taking it, as one would naturally suppose if the river was navigable, by the easiest way, down the Colorado River to the Gulf of California, and putting it it boats, they chose in place of that, to come down and cross the Continental Divide, and then to the Platte River, and into Missouri, and by way of the Missouri River. Or they passed that up, and moved north into the Yellowstone, and down the Yellowstone, to the Missouri River. Later on, they came on here ( indicating on map), into Colorado, connected with the Arkansas River, and came through the Missouri River in that way ( indicating on map). But no traveler, except Governor Ashley, ever attempted any navigation upon the Green River. Governor Ashley's operations on the Green River were confined to one ship, which was 1975 |
