They urged me to take up winter quarters at the forks of the Platt, stating that if I attempted to advance further until spring, I would endanger the lives of my whole party.

"William Henry Ashley" Notable Names Database
American National Biography - Ashley William Henry. Though a native of Virginia Ashley had already moved to St.

Before the war he did some real estate speculation and earned a small fortune manufacturing gunpowder from a lode of saltpeter mined in a cave near the headwaters of Missouri's Current river. In 1826 he led an expedition into the Salt Lake Valley. South of the Great Salt Lake he discovered Utah Lake which he named Lake Ashley.