to Clark's Fork, and then to the rendezvous of his company in the Rocky Mountains, having gained the distinction of making the first overland trip from the United States into California, and also the first from California to Oregon.
Wagons cross South Pass; Captain Bonneville. The next spring (1830) Smith, Jackson, and Sublette took the first loaded wagons into the Rocky Mountains to the head of Wind River, having driven from the Missouri along the line of the Platte and the Sweetwater. The partners reported that they could easily have crossed the mountains by way of South Pass. The discovery of this natural highway, so important in the history of the entire Pacific coast, must be credited to Ashley's trappers, some of whom first made use of it in 1823. Three years later a mounted cannon was taken to Salt Lake by this route, and six years after that loaded wagons crossed over for the first time to the west flowing waters. These vehicles belonged to the train of Captain Bonneville, a Frenchman in the United States army, who turned fur trader in 1832, hoping to gain a fortune like General Ashley. The story of his romantic marches and long detours through the great western wilderness has been charmingly told by Irving in his "Adventures of Captain Bonneville." In the space of about three years he traversed a large portion of the Snake River valley, and went down the Columbia as far as Fort Walla Walla.^ But the gal ^ A few of his men, under Joseph Walker, went to California in 183.3- 1834. Some of them remained there as settlers.
