Jedediah Smith - Early explorer of the Pacific Coast

Jedediah Smith, a trapper and mountain man was the first white settler to cross the Southwest part of the American continent. Smith discovered the South Pass in Wyoming.
All the overland migration into Oregon and California would travel over the South Pass.

Smith' love for exploring began at the age of 22 when General William Ashley signed him up for an expedition to trap beaver on the Upper Missouri River. A year later he lead a fur-trapping group into the Central Rockies that is when he discovered South Pass.

Fur trading was the greatest business of St. Louis during the time Smith was a fur trader. In 1825 Smith agreed to explore the west in search of furs. Eventually after battling formidable forests, mountains and unfriendly Indian, Smith came to Humboldt County in California. It was the second year of the expedition in 1828. The undergrowth and vegetation was thick and difficult to pass through. Men and horses were weak with hunger. Horses along with their only dog had to be shot for food. Some Indians found them and traded food for beads. This was the first contact coastal Indians had with white men.

Jedediah Smith died at the age of 32, trespassing through Comanche Indian Territory however his body was never found.

Smiths hardships passing through the coastal redwoods did not go unnoticed.
The last major free flowing river in California was named after him "the Smith River of Del Norte County". Years later there would be more things with his name.

• The Dominguez-Escalante Expeditions Journal:

Through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in 1776

• I Walked to Zion:
- Young Pioneers on the Mormon Trail

• The Gathering of Zion:
- The Story of the Mormon Trail

• National Geographic's Guide to:
- Lewis and Clark Trail

• Hiking Historic Trails
- Utah's Favorite Hiking Trails

• Scenic Driving - Travel guides
- Scenic Driving in Utah

• Historical reading
- The Old Spanish Trail

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