Jedediah Strong [Strong] Smith (Jericho, New York, January 6, 1799 - presumably died May 27, 1831) was a Rocky Mountain hunter, trapper, fur trader, pioneer, author, cartographer, and explorer of the West Coast of the United States and the Southwest of the United States during the 19th century
*Smith was the first white man to cross the future state of Nevada, the first to cross Utah from north to south and west to east; the first American to enter California by land route; the first white man to climb the Sierra Nevada, and the first to explore the interior of the Pacific coast from San Diego to the banks of the Columbia River.
*Forgotten by historians, almost a century after his death Smith has been rediscovered as an American hero who was the first white man to travel by land from the Salt Lake border, along the Colorado River, to the Mojave Desert until reaching finally California. Smith was the first American citizen to explore east across the Sierra Nevada and the treacherous Great Basin. Smith was also the first American to travel up the California coast to reach the Oregon Territory. Not only was he the first to do this, but he and Robert Stuart discovered the South Pass, [4] which will become the primary route used by pioneers to travel to the Oregon Territory. A survivor of three massacres and a grizzly bear attack, Jedediah Smith's documented explorations and discoveries were very significant in opening the American West to the expansion of white settlers and ranchers. [1]: 7 [2] [ 3] [5] In the California Gold Rush years, gold prospectors and settlers flocked to areas where Old Jed Smith had blazed trails as a trapper and fur trader.
*Smith was a very devout Methodist, something unusual among trappers. His closest companions were said to be his Bible and his rifle. In 1831, while searching for water off the Santa Fe Trail, Smith was killed by a group of Comanche warriors.
*Jedediah Smith is best known for leading the group of explorers that rediscovered the South Pass, which shortened the time required to reach the western slope of the Rocky Mountains from St. Louis, Missouri. Throughout his life, Smith traveled more intensively through unfamiliar territory than any other Westerner. Smith explored northwestern California, commemorated by giving his name to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and the Smith River, and was the first to reach Oregon by land following a route along the California coast. [6] Much of it on the western slopes of the Grand Teton Mountains in Wyoming is named after Jedediah Smith Wilderness, in honor of him. And the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail runs between Folsom, California, and Sacramento, California, through the primitive gold rush fields that now make up the American River Parkway.
*Smith bore the rest of his life the scars of a grizzly bear attack on the banks of the Cheyenne River. Members of his party witnessed the fight between Smith and the bear. The bear parted her side with its claws and bit her head. The bear withdrew and the trappers helped Smith, bandaged his ribs, cleaned his wounds, and badly stitched the cuts on his head and ear.
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