The Boise River area where the Reed trapping party established its base camp in the fall of 1813 is now the heart of the most densely populated part of Idaho.

The cities of Boise and Nampa and Caldwell sit in a valley that, in 2024, supports an agricultural and urban economy entirely different from what existed in 1813.

In 1813, the Snake River plain was a semi-arid landscape of sagebrush and bunchgrass, cut by the river and its tributaries.

The Boise River drained down from the mountains to the north and east before joining the Snake.

The mountains that surrounded the valley — the Owyhee range to the south, the Boise Front to the north — held game, timber, and the beaver populations that were the target of the trapping operation.