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Show BILL WILLIAMS' RIVER NOTED. 421 banks grass and all the woods proper to a river; as far Pacific Railroad surveys, and I am under the impression it originated with Joseph R. Walker, about 1840. Sitgreaves' Report, pub. 1854, p. 13, at date of Oct. 23, 1851, when he was at one of the headwaters, speaks of " a small stream, called by trappers Bill Williams's fork." That same season he identified at its mouth the river which he correctly supposed to be the same one. The name thus acquired literary currency, and in this full form, or shortened to Williams, appears on all the maps of Sitgreaves, Whipple, Ives, Beale, etc. The original use of the term is no doubt synchronous or nearly so with the application of that worthy's name to the magnificent mountains which still uphold it " Old Bill Williams" was the noted character of unsavory repute with whom Fremont had his disastrous experiences in the San Juan mountains in 1848; it is probable that cannibalism saved some lives on that expedition, and this led to the saying I have heard in the West, that Bill Williams was not a man one would want to walk in front of if there was no meat in camp! The river was first fully explored in January and February, 1854, when Lieut. A. W. Whipple followed it down from some of its sources to its mouth. Having gone through Aztec pass, Whipple fell upon one of the headwaters of the river, Jan. 26. This is the present Trout creek, arising in the vicinity of Cross mountain, of the subsequent Fort Rock, etc. Next day he was on another, which he named White Cliff creek. Both of these flow into what he called Big Sandy wash and supposed to be what had been so named by Walker. This wash, joined by various other tributaries, becomes Bill Williams' river, after the junction of its main fork. Following it down, Whipple came to this fork on Feb. 7, and says in his report ( P. R. R. Reps. vol. Hi, p. 103): " We call it Rio Santa Maria, a name which early Spanish map makers applied to the whole river." This restriction is now the accepted nomenclature- that is, * |