Ewing Young, an American fur trapper and trader, had brought a herd of horses and mules over the Siskiyou Trail from missions in California for sale at British and American settlements in Oregon in 1834.

Although this initial effort had been met with suspicion by Hudson's Bay Company officials in Oregon, Young returns to California in 1837, where he purchases seven hundred head of cattle that he drives over the Siskiyou Trail to Oregon.

This monumental task, requiring nearly three months, helps widen and establish the trail, thereby solidifying the new American settlements in Oregon.