Jedediah Strong Smith: Trails West By, Richard L

Newsletter of the Jedediah Smith Society • University of the Pacific, Stockton, California SPRING 2016 Jedediah Strong Smith: Trails West BY, RICHARD L. DYER INSTRUCTOR EMERITUS IN AMERICAN HISTORY, COLUMBIA COLLEGE, CA INtRodUCtIoN The west ward movement of these hardy pioneers— JEdEdIAH StRoNG SMItH the “continuous rebirth of society” in increasingly was among America’s premiere trailblazers. His more distant frontier zones, as described by historian explorations contributed to overland routes used by Frederick Jackson Turner—contributed to the birth of a over 400,000 emigrants following the Platte River- new nation decades before the Revolution of 1776. South Pass Trail.1 Included in these pioneers were an The frontier from the 1600s to 1750s extended estimated 40,000 children and over 1 million animals about two hun dred miles from the Atlantic seaboard enroute to Oregon and California on what would to the Appalachian Mountains; from the 1750s to early become America’s famous Oregon-California Trail. 1800s, it increased by over fve hundred miles to the This article focuses on Jedediah Strong Smith, his Mississippi River; and from the early 1800s to 1850s, extraordinary skills as a mountain man, trail explorer, Anglo-Americans expanded the land claimed by 1,800 and man of moral principles. miles to the Pacifc Ocean. Additionally, this last move Great Britain’s Atlantic colonists were instilled by the pioneers was an “all or nothing” trek since with a “sea to sea” mentality, an early “manifest there were few places to stop for help along the way destiny,” which encouraged them to acquire as much (frequently the situation in early migrations): for these hemispheric land as possible to assist in the expansion emigrants, it was “a greater distance to be covered in of an increasingly more expensive imperial system. one season than their ancestors had accomplished in Anglo-American pioneers initially were encouraged to more than two centuries.”2 extend their presence into regions with an abundance of How did one get to the Pacifc? In the early resources through trade with the Indians and, eventually, 1800s, few had tried. There were the three American to establish frontier settlements and businesses. The expeditions—Lewis and Clark, Jedediah Smith, and policy seemed to be a prof table and noble undertaking Joseph Walker. During the 1840s, mountain men spoke to promoters in London. However, long before they of the “great, unmeasured distance” to the coast and realized that this was tantamount to an assured loss the “inhospitable” wilderness inhabited by “savage” of their American empire, autonomous colonists had Indians. The entire distance west of Missouri had been relocated in the virgin wilderness during a century untra versed by a single wagon before 1830. The route of “salutary neglect” by Parliament Colonists chose that would become the popular Oregon-California Trail to emigrate from the security of their coastal Anglo- was largely trackless prairie and uncharted wilderness, American communities to the log cabin out posts of a waiting to be reconnoitered by trailblazers. Before rapidly emerging “America” from which they created 1840, the route to the Rocky Mountains was virtually and introduced new institutions and personal values. the same as that explored by Smith and his party of trappers during the 1820s. When these men ascended the Platte River and its tributaries, they knew: Author’s note: In 1999, the bicentennial of Jedediah Strong Smith’s birth will be celebrated. This manuscript They were approaching the Black Hills [also has been written as an invitation for OCTA members to known as the Laramie Hills], which rose at assist in the transforma tion of Jedediah Strong Smith frst only slightly above the rolling plains, but from an often unappreciated mountain man into an presently became a pleasant, undulating region exemplary western hero. of pointed dark pines, refreshingly different from Continued on page 2 Jedediah Strong Smith: trails West the hot and dusty land they had thus far seen. H. Ashley and Andrew Henry’s fur company in 1822 The hills grew higher and near the dividing ridge as a hunter and trapper searching for beaver along were more bushy, with scrubby pine and juniper. the upper Missouri River. Although scarcely in his Beyond the divide the ravines were steeper, twenties, this skilled plainsman indicated that he “was rugged and rocky. The western slope of the Black destined to become America’s greatest explorer.”6 Hills was undiscovered country....3 After leading several proftable trapping expeditions to the eastern Rocky Mountain foothills, Smith was The expedition rediscovered South Pass4 by way of invited to become a partner in the fur company. In the Sweetwater branch of the north fork of the Platte 1826, not committed to a life of hardship, Ashley River. During the spring of 1824, the Smith party made decided to leave the mountains to concentrate on his the frst effective dis covery of what would become business interests and political aspirations in St. Louis. the most important wagon route across the Rocky Consequently, he sold his share in the fur company Mountains. It was Smith’s crossing which for the frst to Smith and his new partners, David Jackson and time announced to the entire country that a passage for William Sublette. Despite Ashley’s preoccupation loaded wagons destined for the Columbia River had with his personal affairs, he continued to supply the been found. South Pass—the gateway to the Rocky new partners with provisions in exchange for furs. Mountains and as important as was the Cumberland On 17 or 18 August 1826, Smith and seventeen Gap for eastern travelers crossing the Appalachian trappers left Jackson and Sublette camped at their Cash Mountain—commanded the various routes to the Great Valley rendezvous site in northeastern Utah. Smith Salt Lake Basin and entire Pacifc Coast. Although hoped to “fnd parts of [the south west] country as well Astorian trappers had crossed the pass from west to stocked with Beaver as the water of the Missouri . .” east in 1812, the Smith party was the frst to publicize Smith assured his partners that he would return with a that American pioneers with their wagons could not complete report about his journey at their next summer only overcome the mountainous barrier but go forth ren dezvous, scheduled for Bear Lake near the juncture and transform the rich coastal regions of the continent of present-day Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. into thriving American outposts. The route beckoned The expedition traveled south along the eastern farmers, gold seekers, missionaries, mountain men, and side of the Great Salt Lake, following the Sevier and entrepreneurs. Virgin rivers, then to the Colorado River where the Thus, began the fnal chapter of America’s group met the hospitable Mohave Indians. After resting occupation and annexation of the Far West. This and trading for food and fresh horses, the expedition period actually began with the Smith party’s Southwest crossed the Colorado River. With assistance from two Expedition in 1826. Indians, the travelers followed an ancjent Indian The frst of the historic expeditions to reach the trading route (Old Spanish Trail) through the “complete Pacifc Ocean from the central Rocky Mountains barrens” of the Mohave Desert. The exhausted mountain in trapping grounds started from the recently men proceeded across the San Bernardino Mountains discovered Salt Lake basin in the summer of into the increasingly more fertile valleys of the great 1826. Its leader was Jedediah Strong Smith, a southern California basin. Their unannounced arrival pathfnder beyond the Rocky Mountains who at Mission San Gabriel startled the resident padre, deserves a place in national tradition equal in Father Jose Sanchez. Nevertheless, his greeting and every respect to that accorded Meriwether Lewis, hospitality were genuine. William Clark, Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, or any The padre, although “a very fne man and very other American explorer.5 much of a gentleman,” warned the Americans about BIoGRAPHY his government’s opposition to the intrusion of borderlands by armed explorers; he convinced Smith JEdEdIAH StRoNG SMItH was born 6 to communicate with the governor in San Diego and January 1799 in the fertile Susquehanna Valley of explain his intentions while in the Mexican province. western New York. He was raised on a diet of Indians, After receiv ing Smith’s letter, the governor demanded wild animals, pioneer hardships, and God-fearing the American’s pres ence in San Diego to personally sermons. His career began when he joined William explain the expedition’s nature. While some of the -2- Continued on page 3 Jedediah Strong Smith: trails West Monuments located ten miles east of Sacramento, California, at Folsom City Park near the historic American River. The monument was erected by the Sacramento County Historical Society and is dedicated to Smith who was the “First of American Trappers on This River, April 30, 1827....” (Photograph by Raymond F. Wood, The Jedediah Smith Society) -3- Continued on page 4 Jedediah Strong Smith: trails West trappers enjoyed the hospitality of the mission, Smith eighteen trappers, and two Indian women for the return and several companions rode to San Diego. They trip to California. Later, ten members of the expedition expected to secure from Governor Jose Echeandia were killed while crossing the Colorado River. The official permission to continue their expedition north Mohave Indians had become treacherous after a bloody through coastal California. After several weeks of encounter with another group of American trappers vacillating during the detainment of the Americans, since Smith’s last visit to their village. Smith and the Echeandia denied the request. The suspicious gover - survivors retraced portions of their route of the previous nor feared both the armed American trappers and his year and in sever al weeks rejoined their comrades along own fckle superiors in Mexico City.

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