This location marks a travel corridor for Plateau Tribes moving seasonally from the Columbia River to the Blue Mountains.  In 1811, members of the Astor Party under the leadership of Wilson Price Hunt camped here on their way west. They traded with the Cayuse people for horses.   The Imatalam Wana (Umatilla River) abounded with beaver and salmon then. Oregon Trail migrations began passing this way in 1841. In 1868, the emerging town of Pendleton was named for George Hunt Pendleton, U.S. Senator from Ohio