Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth (January 29, 1802 – August 31, 1856) was an American inventor and businessman in Boston, Massachusetts who contributed greatly to its ice industry.

The Fort Hall site has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is considered the most important trading post in the Snake River Valley through the 1860s.

[2] As the Dictionary of American Biography states, "[I]t was said at his death that practically every implement and device used in the ice business had been invented by Nat Wyeth."

[3]At Independence, Missouri, they joined William Sublette,[4] who was taking supplies to the planned Rendezvous of trappers at Pierre's Hole, just west of the Teton mountains.

"[8] After spending the winter months at Fort Vancouver, Wyeth departed overland with Francis Ermatinger who was headed to the Flathead Post.

After reaching the trade station in February 1833 Ermatinger mentioned he had previously come to a Rendezvous with supplies to sell to the mountain men in return for furs.

[6] Wyeth took upon the idea and while at Fort Colvile sent letters to the Hudson's Bay Company Governor George Simpson along with John McLoughlin, the manager of the Columbia District, offering a business proposal.

[3] Wyeth and his remaining men moved with the party of Benjamin Bonneville to the 1833 Rendezvous, held in the vicinity of modern Daniel, Wyoming on the Horse Creek.

Included in the company were two noted naturalists, Professor Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859) of Harvard University, and John Kirk Townsend, plus the missionary Jason Lee.

[7] Continuing west with Thomas McKay, a stepson of McLoughlin, Wyeth quickly founded Fort Hall (July 1834) in southeastern Idaho.

The Methodists were guided by McKay to Fort Nez Percés, but by the time Wyeth reached there he had left back east, leaving the missionaries with Pambrun.

"[3] Wyeth reports in his journal that on September 15, 1834, he met the Bg [Brig] May Dacre in full sail up the River boarded her and found all well she had put into Valparaíso having been struck by Lightning and much damaged.

Nuttall collected and identified 113 species of western plants, including sagebrush, Artemisia tridentata and "mule's ear", a sunflower genus, which he named Wyethia in Wyeth's honor.