The Green River and the surrounding Wyomings, or Bear Rivers, to the west and Windrivers to the east formed the setting for rendezvous sites along the river banks in 1833, 1835 at New Fork, 1836, 1837 at Cottonwood, 1839, 1840, and at Fort Bonneville. Trappers, traders, and Indians from throughout the West met wagons from the east there to barter, trade for furs, gamble, drink, frolic, pray, and scheme. The Indians, including Deleware and Iroquois brought in by the Hudson Bay Company, Snakes, Bannocks, Gros Ventre, Flatheads, Nez Perce, Crows, and Chinoocks, made their first contact there with white men, while the warring Blackfeet did not participate. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company, Hudson Bay Company, Captain Bonneville, Wyeth, and free trappers controlled the trade. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, Mr. and Mrs. Spalding, Samuel Parker, Father Desmet, Jason Lee, and W.H. Gray tempered the hilarity. Jim Bridger, Milton and Bill Sublette, Tom Fitzpatrick, Joe Walker, Joe Meeks, Kit Carson, Baptiste Gervais, Bob Jackson, Moses Black Harris, Lucien Fontenelle, Etinne Provot, Henry Fraeb, Andy Dripps, Robert Campbell, Henry Vandenberg, Sir W.D. Stewart, and the artist A.J. Miller were part of this and left their names embedded in the annals of the West. As they scattered in pursuit of the value of a beaver plew and to see what was beyond the horizon, their trails became the highways of an empire at the cost of many violent deaths.