Seeks Kee Dee Agie, Spanish River, Rio Verde, Green River
To the Shoshone Indian, this river was the sseds-Kee-Dee Agie (Prarie
Chicken River). On Sept. 16, 1811 the Astorians near its headwaters termed it
the Spanish River. To the Spaniards far to the south it was the Rio Verde
(Green River). Jedediah Smith and his ten mountain men, making the first
westward crossing of the South Pass by white men, camped near here Mar. 19
1824 on the Seeds-Kee-Dee. They trapped the river and its forks which were
named for them, Labarge, Ham's, Black's, Smith's Henry's etc. These waters
were considered as teh greatest beaver waters ever known. The upper
reaches became the center of the fur trade and Rendezvous. In 1841 the
fur trade had ceased but the trappers had blazed the trails for emigrants. For
forty-nine years over the Oregon and California trails thousands of emigrants
going west, crossed these waters near by. The many that drowned and died
were buried along the river banks. The mountain men guided, manned the
ferries, and traded with the emigrants. Graves, marked and unmarked, names
cut in the rocks, and wagon trails worn deep, remain with the legend
and lore of a great river of the west, The Green.
Sublette County Historical Society
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
Lincoln County Board of Commissioners
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
