After the departure of the land parties, I embarked with six men on thursday, the 21st april, on board my newly made boat and began the descent of the river.

"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.