Peter Skene Ogden, the son of a loyalist from the Revolutionary War day who fled to Canada as a British sympathizer, was one of the most courageous and gallant fur trappers, traders, and explorers of the early West. During the struggle between the United States and Great Britain for supremacy in the Rocky Mountains, he served as chief field captain for the British-owned Hudson's Bay Fur Company and was charged with overtrapping the region to discourage westward advancing Americans. In May 1825, a party of American trappers confronted him at nearby Mountain Green, falsely told him he was on American soil, and ordered him to leave. Ogden defended his rights in this still unceded territory, but he was forced to withdraw when 23 of his men deserted with approximately 800 beaver pelts. Unusual among trappers, he was literate and left an excellent journal of his struggles in Utah, where Ogden City, Ogden Canyon, and Ogden Valley now honor his name.