Deserter Point
On May 23, 24 and 25, 1825, there was a historic meeting that included the leaders and fur trappers from 3 different centers of the Western fur trade. One group was Etienne Provost with 15 trappers from Taos, New Mexico. The second group was Johnson Gardner and 25 trappers of the American Fur Company, St. Louis, Missouri. The third group was Peter Skene Ogden with 58 trappers from the Hudson's Bay Port of Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River (now in Washington State). They came together on the Weber River in what is now Mountain Green.
Throughout the meeting there was an on-going argument between Gardner and Ogden as to whether Mountain Green was on American or British soil. As they were actually camped on Mexican soil, both were wrong (and only the group from Taos had a legal right to be there). However, it was apparently a heated argument that could have easily turned into an open confrontation.
Ogden's trappers were rather vocal about how little the Hudson's Bay Company paid for their pelts and how much they had to pay for supplies and personal items at the company store. Gardner offered them a better deal: more money for their furs, less money for supplies, etc. 23 of Ogden's men left Ogden's company, taking 700 pelts with them, and joined with Gardner's American Fur Company. That's how the name "Deserter Point" came to the place where this all happened.
The meeting took place at the confluence of Cottonwood Creek and the Weber River. Over the years since 1825, railroad and highway construction have altered the site but on Interstate 84 there is a west-bound rest stop near mile marker 95 where there is a monument commemorating this event. If you take the short hike on the marked trail to the top of the knoll, there is a lookout shelter that gives a great view over the site of the trappers' campsites.