Famed mountain man William "Bill" Sherley Williams was born January 3, 1787 in Horse Creek North Carolina. Much of his early life was spent in Missouri, where he was a traveling preacher. He became a master fur trapper and became known by the nickname of Old Solitaire or just Old Bill Williams.
According to his friend, Zebulon Pike, Williams was a hunter and trapper who was tall, gaunt, redheaded, and fairly well educated. The mountain man mastered several Indian languages and lived with the Osage Indians and then the Ute Indians during his life. He also trapped in the Yellowstone country and in Texas and went to California on an expedition in 1833–34. After that he spent quite a bit of time in the mountain country and along the Santa Fe Trail.
In Arizona during the year 1837, Antoine Leroux, a famous guide, met the rugged "mountain man" after whom the mountain is named. At that time William's was in Arizona alone on the river which now bears his name. He had traveled through the Mogollon and Little Colorado River region, living off the land and trapping beaver. Leroux reports that Williams headed north across the Colorado River, thus completing his only known visit to what is now Arizona.
In 1848, Williams, who was one of the most colorful of the mountain men, joined John C. Frémont's fourth expedition at Bent's Fort as a guide. Frémont, disregarding the advice of Williams, led the group toward the headwaters of the Rio Grande, where most of the party perished of cold and starvation. Frémont retreated, blaming the episode on the guide. In 1849 Williams was killed by the Ute while retracing the path of the expedition.
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