Jedediah Smith Trapper, Trader, Explorer

In 1826 General Ashley sold his interests in the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. to Smith, Jackson, and Sublette. As a member of this latter combination Smith charted the way for the spread of the American empire from the Missouri River to the West Coast. While searching for new streams in which to trap beaver, he discovered the central route from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

During his career in the West, he became the first white man of record to cross the Black Hills, and he opened the South Pass, used by later immigrants. He was the first American to go overland to California and the first white man to explore the Pacific hinterland from Mexico to Canada. His exploration brought him to the Great Salt Lake, itself a bitter brew but having plenty of fine streams flowing into it – and beaver sign everywhere.

After selling his interest in the successful partnership, he shifted his efforts into the Southwest, and while searching for water to succor his party he was killed by Comanche arrows at the age of thirty-two at a scooped-out mudhole on the Cimarron. No other man’s record better typifies the hard life of the successful frontiersman of the Great West.