History of Utah, 1540-1886, by Hubert Howe Bancroft, , at
sacred-texts.com Invasion By Fur Hunters—Baron La Hontan and His
Fables—the Popular Geographic Idea—Discovery of the Great Salt
Lake—James Bridger Deciding a Bet—He Determines the Course of
Bear River and Comes Upon the Great Lake—Henry, Ashley, Green,
and Beckwourth on the Ground—Fort Built at Utah Lake—Peter Skeen
Ogden—Journey of Jedediah S. Smith—a Strange Country—Pegleg
Smith—Wolfskill, Yount, and Burton Traverse the Country—Walker's
Visit to California—Some Old Maps—the Bartleson
Company—Statements of Bidwell and Belden Compared—Whitman and
Lovejoy—Frémont—Pacific Coast Immigrations of 1845 and
1846—Origin of the Name Utah. Half a century passes, and we find
United States fur hunters standing on the border of the Great
Salt Lake, tasting its brackish waters, and wondering if it is
an arm of the sea. 1 First among these, confining ourselves to
authentic records, was James Bridger, to whom belongs the honor
of discovery. It happened in this wise. D