Mountain Green in Morgan County, Utah — The American Mountains (Southwest)

Peter Skene Ogden

Photographed by Jeremy Snow, June 20, 2025

1. Peter Skene Ogden Marker, Plaque One

Inscription. 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

Paid Advertisement

Click or scan to see
this page online

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

Peter Skene Ogden Marker, Plaque Two image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Jeremy Snow, June 20, 2025

2. Peter Skene Ogden Marker, Plaque Two

wouldn't become American until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Exploration • Industry & Commerce. A significant historical date for this entry is May 23, 1825.

Location. 41° 8.306′ N, 111° 47.837′ W. Marker is in Mountain Green, Utah, in Morgan County. It is on Interstate 84, on the right when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Morgan UT 84050, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in the Wasatch Front

and in Greater Salt Lake.

It is also in the American Mountain West

and on the Colorado Plateau.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Rocky Mountains,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain

and also Mexico’s Alta California.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 9 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Elias Adams (approx. 7.6 miles away); Settlement of South Weber (approx. 7.7 miles away); East Layton City (approx. 8.3 miles away); Huntsville Ward Church Bell (approx. 8½ miles

Peter Skene Ogden Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Jeremy Snow, June 20, 2025

3. Peter Skene Ogden Marker

away); Huntsville Monument (approx. 8.6 miles away); In Memory of Mary Heathman Smith (approx. 8.6 miles away); Huntsville (approx. 8.6 miles away); Captain Jefferson Hunt (approx. 8.6 miles away).

Credits. This page was last revised on July 6, 2025. It was originally submitted on July 6, 2025, by Jeremy Snow of Cedar City, Utah. This page has been viewed 146 times since then and 35 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on July 6, 2025, by Jeremy Snow of Cedar City, Utah. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.