OCR Text |
Show 20 of the Wasatch Range. By I830 the Wasatch area was becoming trapped out, and the center of trapping activity was moved out of the Great Basin to the northern Rocky Mountains. Although numerous individuals hung on to their old trapping grounds along the Wasatch for years to come, whatever exploring accomplishments they might have produced in the unknown regions of the Great Basin are not recorded. The exception to this was the Bonneville-Walker expedition of 1832-35. While it was a failure as a trapping expedition, it was successful in establishing a direct overland trail to California along the Humboldt River. Bonneville was a captain in the United States army who became deluded with the idea of making a fortune in the far west fur trade. He obtained a leave of absence from the army for the supposed reason of making a "scientific" expedition to the Rocky Mountains and beyond. Guided by Joseph R. Walker and M. S. Cerre, Bonneville plunged his party of H O men into the Great Salt lake region in 1833 by way of the Bear River. He was apparently oblivious to the fact that this area had been nearly trapped to extinction. While Bonneville explored to the north, he sent Walker with about forty men to explore the country to the west. Walker rounded the north side of the Great Salt Lake, crossed the desert, and struck the Humboldt River which.they followed to its sink. In October the party crossed the Sierras in the neighborhood of present Yosemite National Park and entered the San Joaquin Valley thus establishing the overland trail to California. They recrossed the Sierras the following spring at a more southerly location naming the place Walker Pass. Turning to the north, they marched up the western side of the Great Basin to intersect their westbound route at the Humboldt Sink. In 1841 the Bartleson-Bidwell company became the first party of emigrants |