To the Shoshone Indian, this river was the Seeds-Kee-Dee Agie, or Prairie Chicken River. On Sept. 16 1811, the Astorians near its headwaters called it the Spanish River, and to the Spaniards far to the south it was the Rio Verde, or Green River. Jedediah Smith and his Mountain Men, making the first westward crossing of South Pass by white men, camped near here on Mar. 19, 1824 on the Seeds-Kee-Dee. They trapped the river and its forks, which were named for them: LaBarge, Ham's, Black's, Smith's, Henry's, and others. These waters were considered the greatest beaver waters ever known. The upper reaches became the center of the fur trade and the Rendezvous. In 1841 the fur trade ceased, but the trappers had blazed the trails for the emigrants. For forty-nine years, thousands of emigrants going west on the Oregon and California trails crossed these waters nearby. Many who drowned and died were buried along the river banks. The Mountain Men guided, manned the ferries, and traded with the emigrants. Graves, marked and unmarked, names cut in the rocks, and wagon trails worn deep remain with the legend and lore of a great river of the West, the Green.