Explorer and fur trader, born in Bainbridge, New York, USA. Starting in the fur trade with General William Ashley in St Louis (1822), he took over Ashley's Rocky Mountain trade (1826) with two others. In 182630 he led exploratory expeditions from Great Salt Lake, Utah, across the Mohave desert into California, where he was nearly imprisoned by the Mexican governor. He then went N through the Sierras and along the Willamette R to Fort Vancouver, OR, surviving an attack by the Umpqua Indians en route. In 1831 he was killed by Comanches after entering the Santa Fe trade. Because he did not write of his trips, he did not get credit for his achievements for many years, but he was, among other firsts, the first American to enter and exit California by the E route.
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, mostly from New England, Missouri and Europe. 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; 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.
Birth and accomplishments
Smith was born in Bainbridge, New York, or, according to Sullivan, in Jericho, New York on January 6, 1799. Of Scottish, English and Basque-French ancestry, Smith is best known for leading the party of explorers who rediscovered South Pass [1], which shortened the time needed to get to the west slope of the Rocky Mountains, from the 'jumping-off' point of St. Louis, Missouri. Smith also discovered what is now called the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and River. Once again, according to Sullivan, "In brief, it was Smith, who, greatest of the trail breakers of his period, charted the way for the spread of the [American] Republic from the Missouri [River] to the Gage River to the Western Sea." [see references below] Smith, a committed Methodist Christian, carried a Bible wherever he went, 'worried about his soul', quoted the Bible and sang the Wesleyan hymns, and asked his church to 'pray for' him.
Pioneering the Shining Mountains (ill-fated first attempt)
In the spring of the year 1822, the young Jedediah Smith, "following a vision, strode into St. Louis." With very little money, a rifle and a pack, Jed Smith answered an advertisement which the businessman, soldier and politician, General William H. Subsequently, Smith was hired by the expedition as a hunter, to provide meat, animals and beaver pelts for the party.
The following and successful attempt to break through
Three weeks later, General Ashley had outfitted another boat and hired a crew of forty-five men. This time, Ashley took personal command of the keelboat, and sailed to the camp of Jedediah Smith and the Missouri men. Smith foraged and hunted, bringing in fresh bear, elk, deer, raccoon and turkey meat to supplement the party's rations of hardtack, corn, and bacon. Once a bear seized Smith's head in its mouth, shredded his face, tore off his scalp, and partially tore of one of his ears. The party also rescued survivors in the wilderness, trappers who had been robbed of gun, horse, pack, knife and clothes, and were left to walk hundreds of miles naked if not for the expedition, and also picked up new recruits of veteran 'mountain men' in the wilderness, who quickly joined.
The 'Petrified Forest' and the Sioux
On the Spring River, the party was excited to find along with "the supposed fortifications of ancient peoples", "the petrified figures of a youth, a maiden and a dog in what is now South Dakota", perhaps the most sensational of what later became the 'tall tales' of the expedition. Fortunately for historians, the young hunter Jedediah Strong Smith kept an extensive journal of his and his fellow-adventurers' travels. Next, the party encountered the 'roving' Sioux Indians, who impressed Smith with their "intelligence, superior morals, stature and manner of living". Although the Ashley-Henry party was well-defended and sufficiently powerful enough for the Sioux to leave them alone and despite their animosity, "Jedediah felt that here, in the Sioux nation, aboriginal life was most attractive."
The last adventure and death of Jedediah Strong Smith
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. 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. Smith's body was never found.
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.
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