JEDEDIAH SMITH

'Jedediah Strong Smith' (born January 6, 1799 - presumed date of death May 27, 1831) was a hunter, trapper, fur trader and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the American West Coast and the Southwest during the nineteenth century. Jedediah Smith's explorations were significant in opening the American West to expansion by white settlers. According to Maurice Sullivan:

Smith was the first white man to cross the future state of Nevada, the first to traverse Utah from north to south and from west to east; the first American to enter California by the overland route, and so herald its change of masters; the first white man to scale the High Sierras, and the first to explore the Pacific hinterland from San Diego to the banks of the Columbia River.

Prospectors and settlers later poured in to the areas that "Old Jed" Smith had trail-blazed as a trapper and fur trader, during the subsequent Gold Rush.

Contents

Birth and accomplishments

Death

Notes

References

External links

Birth and accomplishments

Smith was born in Jericho, New York, (now known as Bainbridge) on January 6, 1799. His early New England ancestors include Thomas Bascom, constable of Northampton, Massachusetts, who came to America in 1634. Thomas Bascom was of Huguenot and French Basque ancestry.
Jedediah Smith is best known in history for leading the party of explorers who rediscovered South Pass (to which the Crow Indians showed him the direction), which shortened the time needed to get to the west slope of the Rocky Mountains from St. Louis, Missouri. Smith also explored northwestern California, which is commemorated in the naming of the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and the Smith River. He was the first explorer to reach Oregon by traveling up the California coast. Jedediah Smith Route 1828
Smith was also a devout Christian from a Methodist background. His Bible and his rifle were said to be his closest companions. In his lifetime, Smith traveled more extensively in unknown territory than any other single mountain man. Most of the western slope of Wyoming's famous Teton Range is named the Jedediah Smith Wilderness after him. And the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail runs between Folsom and Sacramento, California, through the former gold-dredging fields that are now the American River Parkway.

Death

Later, Smith became involved in the fur trade in Santa Fe. Smith was leading a trading party on the Santa Fe Trail in May, 1831 when he left the group to scout for water.^[1] He never returned to the group. The remainder of the party proceeded on to Santa Fe hoping Smith would meet them there, but he never arrived. A short time later members of the trading party discovered a Mexican merchant at the Santa Fe market offering several of Smith's personal belongings for sale. When questioned about the items, the merchant indicated that he had acquired them from a band of Comanche hunters. The Comanches told the merchant they had taken the items from a white man they had killed near the Cimarron River Smith's body was never found.

Notes

1. The Mountain Man Jedediah Strong Smith

References

★ Morgan, Dale L. ''Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the American West.'' Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press, 1964. ISBN: 0803251386

★ Maurice S. Sullivan, ''The Travels of Jedediah Smith'' (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1992), 13.

★ Maurice S. Sullivan, "Jedediah Smith, Trader and Trail Breaker", ''New York Press of the Pioneers'', 1936.

External links

★ Jedediah Smith Society