Independence Rock was probably discovered by returning Astorians in 1812 and received its name from emigrants who celebrated Independence Day there on July 4, 1825. Capt. Bonneville passed by with the first wagons in 1832. Whitman and Spalding, missionaries traveling with their wives, stopped there in 1836. Father DeSmet saw the rock in 1840 and, because of the many names upon it, called it the "Register of the Desert." Gen. John C. Fremont camped there with the U.S. Army on Aug. 2, 1842. It became the most famous landmark on the Old Oregon Trail. Later memorials associated with the rock honored Ezra Meeker; Narcissa Prentiss Whitman and Eliza Hart Spalding; the first lodge of Masons in what is now Wyoming, convened there on July 4, 1862, by Master Masons traveling west on the Old Oregon Trail; Father P. J. DeSmet; the Mormon pioneers who passed on June 21, 1847, under Brigham Young on their way to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, followed by more than 80,000 Mormon emigrants seeking religious liberty and economic independence; Jason Lee; Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard; and Anderson Deckard and party, who camped there on July 4, 1853, before settling near Albany, Oregon.