Peter Skene Ogden/Encounter at Mt. Green

Two fur-trading empires nearly came to blows here in 1825. Peter Skene Ogden — the Hudson's Bay Company brigade leader whose name marks Ogden City, its river, valley, and peak — had just finished a hunt in nearby Ogden's Hole when American trappers under Johnson Gardner confronted his camp. Gardner claimed the ground was United States soil and urged the British men to quit their company; over three days, more than twenty of Ogden's trappers deserted to the Americans with their furs. No shots settled it, but the standoff, remembered as Deserter Point, loosened Britain's grip on the country.

What the plaque says

Peter Skene Ogden - mountain man and trapper, for whom Ogden City, North Ogden, Ogden River, Ogden Valley and Mount Ogden were named. Mormon colonizer Brigham Young first proposed that Ogden City be named for Ogden in the year 1850 Encounter at Mountain Green or Deserter Point The only hostile encounter between American and British furtrappers - known to history as the encounter at Mountain Green or Deserter Point - occurred in this area between May 23 and 25, 1825. Peter Skene Ogden, one of the most capable and successful brigade leaders of the British Hudson's Bay Company, camped here after completing an extraordinarily successful six day hunt in Ogden's Hole, the mountain valley located approximately 8 miles north of this site. During that hunt Ogden's brigade, consisting of 131 persons (including trappers' squaws and half-breed children), 268 horses and 352 traps, took over 80 prime beaver per day. The brigade's assignment to this area by Hudson's Bay officials was part of a determined British policy to make the Oregon territory unattractive to American trappers by removing all the beaver. Camped within 100 yards of Ogden's camp was a rowdy bunch of American free trappers who resented the British trappers presence on so-called "American soil." Under the vocal leadership of Johnson Gardner 25 Americans and 14 deserters from Ogden's brigade, all well armed, rode into Ogden's camp, demanded the removal of the British from American territory, declared freedom and protection to Ogden's brigade members who would like to join the Americans and offered $3.50 per pound for their pelts which happened to be 8 times the price paid by Hudson's Bay Company. After two days of such attractive inducements Ogden lost 23 of his free trappers and over 700 pelts to the Americans. To avoid a more extended mutiny and a possible shoot-out with the Americans Ogden broke camp and returned north by the same route he had come. No Hudson's Bay trapper ever penetrated south of this point. The irony of this event and the conflicting territorial claims of the American and British trappers was that they were south of jointly occupied Oregon Territory which lay north of the 42nd parallel. In 1825 all present at this site were trespassers on Mexican territory which wouldn't become American until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Snowbasin — 6.2 mi
  One of the country's oldest ski areas and a 2002 Olympic downhill venue — world-class terrain that somehow still skis uncrowded.
• Hill Aerospace Museum — 8.3 mi
  Over 90 military aircraft displayed indoors and on the tarmac
• Ogden Union Station — 11 mi
  A grand 1924 train depot turned museum complex
• Lagoon Amusement Park — 12 mi
  A beloved family amusement park operating since 1886

More markers nearby

• Settlement of South Weber — 7.7 mi
• Captain Jefferson Hunt — 8.5 mi
• Huntsville — 8.5 mi
• Mary Heathman Smith — 8.5 mi