Jedediah Strong Smith

Jedediah Strong Smith 1799-1831, American explorer, one of the greatest of the mountain men , b. near Binghamton, N.Y. Early in 1824, Smith took a party through South Pass , beginning the regular use of that route. He and a few men headed north and into present-day Montana and as far north as the Canadian boundary before going back to Great Salt Lake. In 1825 he set out from Great Salt Lake on his most famous journey. Traveling southwest with a small band of men, he crossed the Colorado River and the Mojave Desert, arriving in San Diego, Calif., then part of Mexico. In 1831, Smith set out from St. Louis with a company on the Santa Fe Trail and was killed along the Cimarron River by Comanches. His wide travels opened not only the rich fur-trapping and trading country but also trails and territory that were soon frequented by westward-bound American pioneers. His journal was edited by Maurice Sullivan (1934).

Bibliography: See biography by M. Sullivan (1936, repr. 1972); study by J. G. Neihardt (1920, repr. 1970).

Smith, Jedediah Strong (1798–1831) US explorer. Born in New York state, he became one of the most famous of the MOUNTAIN MEN who opened up the American north-west. In 1824 he led the third expedition organized by fur-trader William Ashley (1778–1838) into Wyoming and in subsequent years made the first west-east crossing of the Sierra by a White man. Having opened more territory than any other explorer he was killed by a group of Comanche on the Santa Fe Trail.

Smith, Jedediah Strong (1798–1831),New York‐born fur trader and explorer in the Far West, was a member of Ashley's expedition up the Missouri (1823) and led the party that established the South Pass route to the Green River Valley. Bridger, while employed by Smith, was the first white man to reach the Great Salt Lake. In 1826–27 Smith led a small exploring party from the Salt Lake, by way of the Colorado River and Santa Fe Trail, to southern California, and back across the Sierra Nevada. This was the first American crossing of the Sierra and the central overland route. He also led the first overland expedition from California to the Oregon country (1828). He was killed by Indians while guiding a party on the Santa Fe Trail. His knowledge was employed in maps and sketches by others, but his own journal was almost completely destroyed by a fire. H.C. Dale's The Ashley‐Smith Explorations (1918) described his early career, and he is the central figure of Neihardt's novel The Splendid Wayfaring (1920).