Ashley, William Henry (1778?–1838), a United States western explorer and political leader. He engaged in fur trading and explored widely in the present states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. In 1825 Ashley became the first white man to navigate the Green River. The next year he reached the region of Great Salt Lake.
Ashley was born in Powhatan County, Virginia. He settled in Missouri about 1804. He was the first lieutenant governor of Missouri, 1820–24, and was an anti-Jackson representative in Congress, 1831–37.
