We discovered Truckee,
Carson and Walker rivers, Donner lake and Walker's pass, through which
we went and pitched our camp for the winter on the shore of Tulare Lake,
in December, 1833. Walker, with a party of ten men, went to Monterey and
returned in March, when they broke camp and retraced their steps to Humboldt
river, thence south to the Colorado, thence up that stream, thence north
again, passing West of Great Salt Lake to Bear river, where we met Bonneville.
In the fall of 1834 I went with Bonneville and 22 men and trapped Snake river and all its tributaries to Walla Walla; then up John Day river, over to Lake Harney; then to Malheur, Owyhee and Powder rivers, and wintered on Snake river.
In the spring of 1835, I started for the Willamette valley, and when I reached Walla Walla engaged to the Hudson Bay Co., staying until the spring of 1836 at Vancouver. That spring I went with a party of men under the celebrated Tom McKay to California, trapping Scott river and the Sacramento. We went to Yerba Buena (San Francisco) and left our furs with the agent of the company, Mr. Ray, and then returned, trapping on the American, Yuba, Feather, Pit, McLeod and Shasta rivers, and then to Vancouver.
In the spring of 1837, I went to the Rocky Mountains with a few companions, trapping on the way, selling pelts to Bridger at Green river. I then trapped in the Black Hills, on the Sweetwater and Platte, and wintered at Fort Larmie, which was just built by Wm. Sublette.
In the spring of 1838 I went south to Pike's Peak; then to Taos, New Mexico; then to the Arkansas and to the north fork of the Platte, and wintered at the mouth of Cherry Creek, where Andrew Sublette built Fort Robert (Campbell), opposite the city of Denver.
That winter I went to Independence on horseback, carrying the annual express. Having ten days to spare, I went to Lexington to see my brother and sister. While there I called on some young ladies, to whom I related many incidents of my mountain life, which so startled their worthy mother that she exclaimed:
"Law sakes! Mr. Meek, didn't you never get killed by none of them Indians and bears?"
"Oh, yes, madam," said I gravely, "I was frequently killed."
--from the autobiography of Stephen Hall Meek