The territory now comprising Bannock county first entered the pages of history when, in 1662, the French Sieur de la Salle planted his country’s flag in what he called “Louisiana,” after his sovereign, Louis XIV, of France. In order to prevent England from gaining it, and hoping at the same time to win an ally, Louis XV ceded Louisiana to Spain in 1762. Napoleon traded it back from Carlos IV of Spain, but later sold it. This was the territory purchased for the United States by Thomas Jefferson in 1803 and for which the country paid $15,000,000. It included the greater part if not all, of the present state of Idaho, and certainly all of Bannock county.
The northwestern section of this purchase became known as the Northwest Territory and included all land west of the summit of the Rocky Mountain range, between the forty-ninth and forty-second parallels of latitude. This was later called the Oregon territory, and contained not only the present state of Oregon, but also Washington, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming.
In 1789, Captains Robert Gray and John Kendricks skirted the coast of this territory and traded for furs with the Indians, and three years later Captain Gray discovered the Columbia river, up which he sailed several miles. The Lewis and Clark expedition, which left St. Louis in May, 1804, headed by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, gave such encouraging accounts of the resources of the Northwest Territory that many of the more adventurous people in the states were induced to undertake settling it.
For a time Spain, Russia and Great Britain, as well as the United States, claimed the northwest, there being some dispute between the latter two countries as to the boundary line between Canada and the northern limits of the Louisiana purchase.
Great Britain and the states, by treaty of October 20, 1818, agreed that the subjects of both countries should settle the territory jointly for a period of ten years. Before the ten years had passed, both Spain and Russia had ceded their claims to the United States—the former in 1819, the latter in 1824. At the expiration of the ten years, the treaty between Great Britain and the United States was renewed indefinitely, to be annulled by either party after one year’s notice.
In his History of Idaho, Mr. Hiram T. French gives the following brief sketch of Jim Bridger, after whom Bridger street in Pocatello was named:
“Among the men who trapped on the headwaters of the Missouri and its tributaries for the fur companies, probably none was better known than Jim Bridger. He made his headquarters at a place now in southwestern Wyoming, which became known as Fort Bridger, and was later one of the landmarks along the old ‘Oregon Trail.’
“Jim Bridger is authoritatively credited with being the first white man to see Salt Lake. In 1824 he was trapping along Bear river in what is now Idaho territory. He followed the stream to the canyon leading out of Cache valley. Climbing the high hills, he saw off to the south a large body of water. His interest aroused, he went on until he reached the shore, tasted the water and found it salty. Later an exploring party went around the lake and determined that it had no outlet.
“After having spent many years among the Indians, Bridger lost his life at their hands.”