Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/49

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Ewing Young in Far Southwest 33 Klamath and Rogue rivers and passing through the camp where McLeod lost his horses and valuable catch of beaver skins, crossed Pitt River and entered the Sacra- mento valley, which he descended to the American River and then crossed the country to the San Joaquin River, up which he traveled to the great bend and then to the mouth of King's River, where, striking the trail of the preceding year, he followed it southerly to Lake Eliza- beth, where, leaving it, he traveled more easterly along the northern base of the mountain to the San Bernardino, Cajon Pass, through which he entered the valley of San Bernardino in December, 1833, and passing on to Teme- cula, took the trail upon which he had come from the Colorado in the spring of 1832, and returned to that river to make a winter and spring season hunt upon it and the lower part of the Gila River. He was moder- ately successful in this hunt and returned to Los Angeles in the early part of the summer of 1834. " 21 Upon his return to the Spanish settlements of Cal- ifornia, Young met Hall J. Kelley and was induced by him to go to Oregon where he settled and became one of the leading American citizens in that territory. With this expedition he therefore drops out of the fur trade of the Far Southwest. Summary of Young's activities in the fur trade of the Far Southwest, 1822-3 %. For some twelve years he had been one of the central figures in that trade. A com- plete account of his activity during that twelve years would give us a very full account of the fur trade in the Far Southwest during its most flourishing period. Un- fortunately, he wrote but little, himself, and no one per- sonally acquainted with his activities has left us any record of his life. It is, therefore, with difficulty that anything like a complete account of his movements during this period may be pieced together. 21 1 have here followed the text of the printed version in the Annual Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California, VII, 187-8.