Before nearly a quarter of a million California-bound emigrants followed the Humboldt River from 1841 to 1869, Peter Skene Ogden had explored it after traveling south from Oregon and first arriving near here in late 1828. Ogden worked for the Hudson's Bay Company, an early 19th century fur-trade enterprise that also advanced Great Britain's interests by using fur traders in the West to check American expansionism. Ogden and his men twice tried to trap all the beaver out of this valley so that Great Britain could claim the land, but they failed. Under the pretense of exploring new country, they were violating the sovereign territory of Mexico. After the treaty ending the Mexican-American War in 1848, the Great Basin became part of the United States. In 1850 this area became part of Utah Territory, after Congress rejected the State of Deseret proposed by Mormons in Salt Lake City in 1849. In 1864 the Humboldt River Valley became part of the new State of Nevada.