I'll piggy back off 330's post about Jim Bridger.

From Osborne Russell:
Here we met with two companies of trappers and Traders: One is a branch of the
“American Fur Company,” under the direction of Mess Dripps and Fonanell: The other is called
the “Rocky Mountain Fur Company” The names of the partners are Thomas Fitzpatrick, Milton
Sublett and James Bridger. The two companies consist of about six hundred men, including men
engaged in the service, White, Half Breed and Indian Fur Trappers.

11th May After gathering a Supply of Salt we travelled down
the river about 15 miles and encamped near the mouth of a stream on the west side called Gardners
Fork. Here we met with Mr. Bridger and his party who informed us that the country around
and below was much infested with Blackfeet. they had had several skirmishes with them in which
they had lost a number of horses and traps and one young man had been wounded in the shoulder
by a ball from a fusee.

From River of the West:
After the death of Smith, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company continued its operations under the
command of Bridger, Fitzpatrick, and Milton Sublette, brother of William. In the spring of 1830
they received about two hundred recruits, and with little variation kept up their number of three
or four hundred men for a period of eight or ten years longer, or until the beaver were hunted out
of every nook and corner of the Rocky Mountains.

1837 On the return of spring, Bridger again led his brigade all through the Yellowstone country, to the
streams on the north side of the Missouri, to the head-waters of that river; and finally rendezvoused
on the north fork of the Yellowstone, near Yellowstone Lake. Though the amount of furs
taken on the spring hunt was considerable, it was by no means equal to former years. The fact was
becoming apparent that the beaver was being rapidly exterminated.

From W.A. Ferris
In a narrow bottom beneath the walls of Gray’s Creek, we found a party of trappers, headed by
Bridger, one of the partners in the R. M. F. Company. Their encampment was decked with hundreds
of beaver skins, now drying in the sun. These valuable skins are always stretched in willow
hoops, varying from eighteen inches, to three feet in diameter, according to the size of the skins,
and have a reddish appearance on the flesh side, which is exposed to the sun. Our camps are
always dotted with these red circles, in the trapping season, when the weather is fair. There were
several hundred skins folded and tied up in packs, laying about their encampment, which bore
good evidence to the industry of the trappers.

David Alan Clark's Jim Bridger bronze at the entrance of Fort Bridger State Historic Site in SW Wyoming

I wonder how much salt was considered a supply.
I’d imagine very important for them

Great follow up..appreciate the extra lesson.

The chronology of Smith's death and the subsequent recruitment of 200 recruits by R.M. F. in the spring of 1830 is off a tad. Smith died in spring of 1831 (at the hands of Commanches in the Cimarron).

Good stuff K. Like the photo of the statue.

That's why even with primary sources, you need to double and triple check "facts."