This area includes all of Idaho south of the Sawtooth Mountains between American Falls and the Bruneau River. It has been seen that the area of the Boise, Payette, and Weiser rivers was entered regularly by populations that did not customarily winter there; this is true also of the area of the middle Snake, and to a much greater degree. First, the salmon run did not extend above Shoshone Falls, and the population living upstream from that point resorted regularly to favored fishing places below the Falls. Second, the prairies about the locale of present-day Fairfield, Idaho, were the richest camas-root grounds in this section of the Basin-Plateau area and large numbers of Indians convened every summer to gather the roots. Historical sources testify to the numbers of Indians found in the area during certain times of the year, but it is usually impossible to determine the geographical locus of these people during the remainder of the year. Travelers observed small, impoverished groups of Indians and also larger camps of mounted people. Near Glenn's Ferry, Idaho, Stuart on August 23, 1812, noted (1935, p. 108): ... a few Shoshonie (or Snake) Camps were passed today, who have to struggle hard for a livelihood, even though it is the prime of the fishing season in the Country. Stuart encountered some 100 lodges of Shoshone fishing at Salmon Falls (p. 109). In 1826 Peter Skene Ogden met a camp of 200 "Snakes" bearing 60 firearms and a quantity of ammunition at Raft River, above the limit of the salmon run (Ogden, 1909, p. 357). In October of the following year he visited Camas Prairie, the camas grounds in the vicinity of Fairfield, and noted a pattern of movement that is still reported by informants (p. 263): It is from near this point the Snakes form into a body prior to their starting point for buffalo; they collect camasse for the journey across the mountains. Their camp is 300 tents. In Spring they scattered from this place for the salmon and horse thieving expeditions. Buffalo were formerly found on the plains of the upper Snake River, but American Falls was apparently their approximate western limit. Wyeth was at American Falls in August, 1832, and wrote (1899, p. 163): We found here plenty of Buffaloe sign and the Pawnacks come here to winter often on account of the Buffaloe we now find no buffaloe.