The Only Way Through · Episode 3 of 14 · 24 min
A River Named for a Man Who Never Saw It
In 1828 a Hudson's Bay Company brigade leader named the river the Unknown River, then watched it vanish into a swamp. Over seventeen years it was called by six names, all given by outsiders, until John C. Frémont's 1848 map honored Alexander von Humboldt, who never saw it. The episode asks what the sequence shows about naming and power, and notes that no Indigenous name for the whole river was found.
Who's who
- Peter Skene OgdenHudson's Bay Company leader who first reached the river in 1828
- John C. Frémont+1 more episodeArmy topographer whose 1848 map named it Humboldt
- Alexander von Humboldt+1 more episodePrussian naturalist for whom the river was named
- Joseph Reddeford WalkerLed the first recorded east-to-west crossing of Nevada in 1833
- Benjamin BonnevilleArmy officer on leave whose party traveled the river
- Washington Irving+1 more episodeAuthor whose 1837 book popularized "Ogden's River"
- Charles PreussMapmaker who drew the 1848 map
- Kit CarsonGuide for Frémont's smaller party in 1845
Where it happens
- Paradise Hill Pass, NevadaWhere Ogden crossed on November 9, 1828
- Humboldt Sink, Nevada+2 more episodesTerminus where Ogden found the river ended in a swamp
- Carlin Canyon, Nevada+1 more episodeWhere trapper Joseph Paul died and the river was briefly Paul's River
- Whitton Spring, NevadaWhere Frémont's third expedition split in 1845
- Winnemucca, Nevada+1 more episodeNear where Ogden first struck the river
Timeline
- November 9, 1828Ogden names the river the Unknown River.
- June 1, 1829Ogden's journal records the river's discharge into a swamp full of frogs and toads.
- 1833The Bonneville-Walker party crosses Nevada by the river and names it the Barren River.
- 1837Irving's book popularizes the name Ogden's River.
- December 1845Frémont's third expedition divides; Talbot and Walker descend the river.
- 1848Frémont's memoir and map name it the Humboldt River.
Still debated
No one agrees who Mary, the namesake of Mary's River, was. Whether Frémont traveled the river he named is disputed between a state chronology, which says he did not, and a Winnemucca marker, which says he did.
