Ogden, Peter Skeene (1790–1854)

Canadian fur trader and explorer. As chief trader for the Hudson's Bay Company, Ogden led six trapping expeditions between 1824 and 1830 to the ‘Snake country’, an area in the upper reaches of the Columbia River, now in the USA. He wrote a journal about each trip, later called the Snake Country Journals. Ogden had a reputation for ruthless and violent behaviour, which was one of the reasons he was sent into the Snake country's dangerous and hostile environment.

Ogden's expeditions provided the first written accounts of parts of present-day Oregon, Idaho, Utah, California, Nevada, and Wyoming. The Snake country region had been declared open to both British and US occupation in 1818, until a permanent boundary could be agreed, but it was thought that the USA would gain the area south of the Columbia. Until that time, the Hudson's Bay Company intended to take as much as possible from the country, both for profit and political purposes, and Ogden was the ideal candidate.

Born in Québec, Ogden was the son of a judge but, unlike his brothers, did not take up the legal profession. In 1809 he joined the North West Trading Company, a bitter rival of the Hudson's Bay Company. Posted to trading stations in Saskatchewan and Edmonton, he became notorious for his rough conduct and in 1819 was indicted for the murder of an American Indian who had tried to trade with the competition. He was temporarily banned from the Hudson's Bay Company after it merged with North West in 1821, but in 1823 was appointed a chief trader, and ordered to set up the Snake country expeditions.

In 1830 he was transferred to British Columbia to set up a trading station from which he competed successfully with US and Russian traders along the northwest coast. He was promoted to chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1834, and in 1845 he returned to the Columbia River area to help run operations in the region. After the boundary between Canada and the USA was set at the 49th parallel in 1846, the Hudson's Bay Company continued to operate over the border and remained influential in the region for some years.