In the spring
of 1825 two major fur trading companies explored Utah to identify the
region's beaver supply. American trappers affiliated with William H.
Ashley and led by Johnson Gardner had traveled westward along the Strawberry River and ultimately into Weber Canyon. Meanwhile, Peter Skene Ogden of the rival Hudson's Bay Company, a British outfit, led his Snake River Expedition southward along the Green River.
For several months the two parties saw little of each other. Aside from
a few impromptu encounters, each company left the other alone. But the
solitude quickly ended when both groups met at Mountain Green on the Weber River in what would later be part of Utah's Morgan County.
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