Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/399

 Peter Skene Ogden 367 its adventures and romances, greatly impressed young Peter Skene Ogden. He felt the call of the wild, and in 1811, when he was about seventeen years of age, he en- tered the service of The NorthWest Company as a clerk. In 1818 he came to Oregon as an employe of the North- West Company, whose headquarters, in the Oregon Coun- try were at Fort George, now Astoria. After 1821, on the consolidation of the Hudson's Bay Company and the NorthWest Company, he cast his fortunes with the new Hudson's Bay Company, and in course of time he became a Chief Factor of that company. A Chief Factor is the highest position in that company, next to that of a Di- rector of the company. Dr. John McLoughlin came to Oregon in 1824, as Chief Factor of the new Hudson's Bay Company, and, in 1825, moved its headquarters from Fort George to Fort Vancouver, where Vancouver barracks now are. He had charge of all of the country west of the Rocky Mountains to the Arctic Ocean, over which the new Hudson's Bay Company exercised jurisdiction. Peter Skene Ogden was an intrepid explorer and fur trader. He had charge of parties of the Hudson's Bay Company who traded and trapped for furs along the Snake River, in Eastern Oregon, and parts of what are now the states of Washington, Idaho, California, Nevada, and Utah. He discovered and named Mount Shasta, in Northern California. He discovered and explored many rivers, streams, and places. The city of Ogden and Ogden River, in Utah, are named in his honor. He took a party to the shores of Great Salt Lake and to the Gulf of Cali- fornia. He and his parties suffered many hardships; they were frequently short of food ; and sometimes faced actual starvation. But Ogden was resourceful and saved his parties. He was accustomed to look danger in the eye and not be afraid. He was a manly man — and all that means — and he was a born leader. As his hair grew white, the