<P> Despite Stuart's meticulous journal of the trip, which he presented to Astor and President James Madison, and published in France, the location of the South Pass did not become widely known . For more than a decade, European - American trappers continued to use a longer, more northern route . It included an extra mountain range to be crossed and had a shorter season for crossing . </P> <P> This all is very believable, and supported by many sources, but sadly not the truth . Among the "mountain men", there was a trapper known as Jeddiah Smith . He learned of the South Pass from Native Americans in present - day Wyoming . The date of this discovery was never recorded, but historians know that it was sometime between 1825 & 1840 . </P> <P> In 1823 a St. Louis merchant named William Henry Ashley (started the rendezvous system) led a party up the Sweetwater to its source, rediscovered the pass (look back to previous paragraph), and spent the summer in its vicinity trapping . He returned again in 1824, this time going as far as Great Salt Lake and setting up a trading post there, which after three profitable years he sold to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, headed by William Sublette, and David Jackson . </P> <P> In 1832 Captain Benjamin Bonneville and a caravan of 110 men and 20 wagons became the first group to take wagons over the pass . In July 1836, Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding were the first white pioneer women to cross South Pass . Between 1848 and 1868, South Pass was the preferred crossing point for emigrants westward, most of whom followed the Sweetwater River across Wyoming to its headwaters, following the Central Route . Before the railroads offered an easier crossing in 1869, perhaps half a million emigrants would trek through South Pass . </P>

Who found the south pass in wyoming in 1823