newly appointed governor George Simpson pushed for his reinstatement, arguing that he had done no more than many others during the "fur-trade wars". Ogden was admitted to the reconfigured HBC with the rank of Chief Trader in 1823 and put in charge of Spokane House. In November 1824, he was put in charge of the Snake River Country of the HBC's Columbia Department Expedition. Between 1824 and 1830, Ogden led a series of expeditions to explore and trap in the Snake River Country. One of the company's objectives was to bring as many furs from this area as possible to the HBC so as to create a "fur desert", which was intended to discourage inroads by American trappers and traders. The exploration trips included: 1824–25: Ogden led a fur brigade that expanded HBC's influence along the Snake River east to Montana's Bitterroot River and south to the Bear River in present-day Utah. During this trip, near modern Mountain Green, Utah, 23 freemen, independent trappers outfitted by HBC, defected with about 700 beaver pelts to Americans operating in the area. 1825–26: Traveling south from the Columbia River to the Deschutes River in Oregon, Ogden then turned east and traveled through the Blue Mountains to the Snake River. 1826–27: From Walla Walla, in present-day Washington, an expedition explored the Deschutes River, following it to Klamath Lake and an area near Mount Shasta in Northern California. 1828–29: Ogden explored the Great Salt Lake and the Weber River drainage, where the Ogden River, and subsequently the current city of Ogden, Utah, is named for him. He explored areas of the Great Basin, finding and following the Humboldt River, later named for German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, west to its dry sink in present-day Nevada. A year earlier, in 1827, American trapper and explorer Jedediah Smith had become the first American to cross the Great Basin in 1827, traversing west to east from the Sierra Nevada near Ebbetts Pass. Smith, however, missed Humboldt Lake and the Humboldt River, and nearly died for lack of food and water. Ogden's easier route following the river eventually became part of the California Trail. 1829–30: Leaving Fort Vancouver on 28 August 1829, Ogden proceeded to Walla Walla, then to the Great Salt Lake, then southwest, probably reaching the Gulf of California. He then went north through California, skirting the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada in order to avoid