Monday, May 8, 2023

A Fur Trader & Explorer in the American West III – Explorer

Jedediah Strong Smith (1799-1831) 
maternal 4th cousin 5x removed 
 
 
[My siblings, maternal first cousins, and I share a common great-grandfather with Jedediah Smith. John Smith (1637-1676), son of the English immigrant, Samuel Smith (1602-1680), was Jedediah's 3rd great-grandfather and our 8th. A chart at the end of this post shows the relationship.]
 
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Parts I and II of Jedediah Smith's story recount his
Jedediah Smith (Wikipedia)
beginnings in the fur trade, his explorations in the Rocky Mountains, his rediscovery of the South Pass, and the beginning of the mountain man rendezvous (posted Feb & Mar 2023). This post, the third of four, follows Jedediah as he makes an incredible journey
through the unexplored Southwest and into California.
 
Left: A friend sketched this portrait of Jedediah from memory around 1835. "It is the only portrait known with any claim to authenticity." (Jedediah Smith Society)  
 
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Much of this post is taken from the journals of Jedediah Smith and his clerk, Harrison G. Rogers. Some passages are difficult to read due to offensive or racist terminology. However, I used the original texts because I believe it's important to be historically accurate; no disrespect is intended toward any person or group. The history of the United States is complex and, as ugly as some of it is, those events are part of our country's story. We need to accept the past for what it was, move on, and do much better. 
 
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 – THE ORIGINS & CHARACTER OF THE MAN
 
Jedediah Strong Smith was not a typical trapper for a number of reasons. He was an easterner born in the Susquehanna Valley of New York who later moved with his family to Erie, Pennsylvania. By contrast, American fur trappers usually hailed from states closer to the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Overall, trappers were a mixed bag of cultures and ethnicities: French-Canadian, Irish, British, Scots, Hispanic, German, African American, Native American, and Euro-American.
 
Jedediah didn't smoke, drink, or use rough language, all of which were common among mountain men, and he was better educated than the majority, courtesy of family friend and physician, Dr. Titus G. V. Simons. He had a dry sense of humor and serious, calm demeanor that didn't waiver, even in adverse situations when he had little time to decide a course of action. He was known for his resourcefulness which saved the day on more than one occasion. 
 
Usually a quiet, peaceful man, Jedediah was not opposed to using forceful means when a situation called for it. He first showed his mettle in the June 1823 fight with the Arikaras, earning the respect of his fellow trappers and his employer, William Ashley. "When his party was in danger, Mr. Smith was always among the foremost to meet it, and the last to fly; those who saw him on shore, at the Riccaree fight, in 1823, can attest to the truth of this assertion." (Jedediah Smith Society, Castor Canadensis Newsletter /Summer 2013)

THE LAY OF THE LAND

During Jedediah Smith's 1823-1825 travels, he explored much of what was then the northwestern United States [orange area on the map below]. His first foray outside the U.S. took place in 1824 when he went to the British-owned Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) Flathead Post in Oregon Country [gray area]. It was jointly claimed by the U.S. and Great Britain.  
 
The area labeled "Spanish Possessions" became part of Mexico after it won its independence from Spain in September 1821. In the early months of 1825, Jedediah stepped foot into this region when he accompanied an HBC trapping expedition to the Bear River near the Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah. Far from Mexican settlements, neither HBC nor Jedediah were concerned about any trouble from that quarter at the time. Later, Jedediah would have two unpleasant encounters with Mexican authorities.

"The Missouri Compromise." The comprehensive series, historical-geographical maps of the United States. 1919. (Library of Congress) [The red arrow points to the Great Salt Lake.]

~ 1826 ~
   
THE FIRST CALIFORNIA EXPEDITION
 
After the July 1826 Cache Valley rendezvous northeast of the Great Salt Lake, Jedediah, David Jackson, and William Sublette bought out William Ashley's fur trading company. The three men had been together since the Arikara fight in June 1823. In a few short years, their company, "Smith, Jackson, and Sublette," would dominate the American fur trade.
 
In August, the partners met at Soda Springs in present-day Idaho to make plans for the upcoming trapping season. They decided that Jackson and Sublette would lead two large brigades north to trap along the Snake and Missouri Rivers, while Jedediah would lead a small brigade southwest to explore and assess the region's potential for trapping beaver. They planned to reunite during rendezvous the following summer. 
 
Jedediah looked forward to this opportunity to explore but he faced two significant challenges he would be in a foreign country, and he had no knowledge of the land or its inhabitants since only a small area around the Great Salt Lake had been explored. 
 
Jedediah Smith's route to California in 1826. (Google map with added locations and labels)
 
August-October 1826

 
     I started about the 22d of August 1826, from the Great Salt Lake, with a party of fifteen men, for the purpose of exploring the country S.W. which was entirely unknown to me, and of which I could collect no satisfactory information from the Indians [the Ute and Paiute tribes] who inhabit this country on its N.E. borders. (Smith Narrative, 186-187)   
 
[This list of fourteen men and their origins was compiled from several sources. I have been unable to find a fifteenth man, unless Jedediah included himself in the count.]

     
     I followed Adams river [later named the Virgin River] two days further to where it empties into the Seedekeeden [the Colorado] .... I here found the country remarkably barren, rocky, and mountainous; ... at this place a valley opens out about 5 to 15 miles in width, which on the river bank is timbered and fertile. I here found a nation of Indians who call themselves Ammuchabas [the Mojave]; they cultivate the soil, and raise corn, beans, pumpkins, watermelons and muskmelons in abundance, and also a little wheat and cotton. 
 
     I was now nearly destitute of horses, and had learned what it was to do without food; I therefore remained there [with the Mojave] fifteen days and recruited my men, and I was enabled also to exchange my horses and purchase a few more of a few runaway Indians who stole some horses of the Spaniards. (Smith Narrative, 189-190)
  
November 1826
 
In early November, Jedediah's party and two hired Indian guides set out from the Mojave villages near present-day Needles, California, to travel west to the mission the guides had come from. Jedediah hoped to obtain provisions there for his return to the Great Salt Lake. 
 
Colorado River and the "Needles." (Wikimedia Ken Lund-CC BY-SA 2.0)
 
Unbeknownst to him, Jedediah and his small band of men were about to cross the blazing Mojave Desert.
 
     I travelled a west course fifteen days over a country of complete barrens, generally travelling from morning until night without water. I crossed a Salt plain about 20 miles long and 8 wide; .... (Smith Narrative, 190)

Jedediah Smith's party crossing the burning Mojave Desert during the 1826 trek to California. Photomechanical reproduction of Frederic Remington's painting. Originally published in Collier's magazine in 1906. (Library of Congress)

[Note: Jedediah was known to be clean shaven. Remington and other artists portrayed him with the iconic beard of the mountain man.]
 
Using the Cajon Pass, the guides led the expedition through the mountains on the western border of the desert. Once across, they were rewarded by the sight of the lush San Bernardino Valley beneath them. A few days later, Jedediah and his bedraggled company arrived at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. They were the first Americans to travel overland from the east into California.
 
MISSION SAN GABRIEL – 

Jedediah was unsure of the reception he would receive at the Mexican mission. He just wanted to rest, acquire horses, provisions, and supplies and be on his way without complications. He was pleasantly surprised when his party of exhausted, grimy, half-starved trappers was warmly received by Father José Sanchez.
 
Hoping to prevent any potential problems, Jedediah notified the Mexican governor, José María de Echeandía, of his presence in Mexico and intention to return to U.S. territories as soon as he and his men recovered from their ordeal. The Indian guides were also apprehensive about how they would be treated at the mission – unfortunately, their concerns were not unfounded.
 
From the journal of Jedediah's clerk, Harrison Rogers, in The Ashley-Smith Explorations...:
 
     [30th] ... Our 2 Ind. guides were imprisoned in the guard house the 2nd. day after we arrived at the missionary establishment and remain confined as yet. (Rogers 1st journal, 203)

Painting of Mission San Gabriel by Ferdinand Deppe (1832). (Wikimedia)
 
While waiting to hear from the governor, Jedediah and Abraham Laplant, who spoke some Spanish, traveled to another mission nearby to make arrangements to acquire horses. During this time, Harrison Rogers recorded his observations of daily life and the business enterprises by which the mission supported itself.
 
December 1826
     
     [2nd] ... this mission ships to Europe annually from 20 to 25 thousand dollars worth of hides and tallow, and about 20 thousand dollars worth of soap. There vineyards are extensive; they make there own wine, and brandy; they have orranges and limes growing here. 
 
     The Inds. appear to be much altered from the wild Indians in the mou. that we have passed. They are kept in great fear; for the least offense they are corrected; they are compleat slaves in every sense of the word.

     Mr. S and Laplant returned late in the evening ... Mr. S. tells me that Mr. Francisco, the Spanish gentleman that he went to visit, promises him as many horses and mules as he wants. (Rogers 1st journal, 205)
 
When Jedediah finally received a reply from Governor Echeandía, it was not good news.
 
     W. 8th.  ... Mr. S. was sent for to go to Sandiego to see the governor. Capt. Cunningham, commanding the ship Courier, now lying in port at Sandiego, arrived here late this evening. The captain is a Bostonian, and has been trading on the coast for hides and tallow since June last. (Rogers 1st journal, 207)

     9th. Mr. Smith and one of the men, in company with Capt. Cunningham, left San Gabriel, this morning for Sandiego, the governor's place of residence. I expect he will be absent for eight or ten days.
 
     10th. Sunday. There was five Inds. brought to the mission by two other Inds, who act as constables, or overseers, and sentenced to be whiped for not going to work when ordered.
 
     Each received from 12 to 14 lashes on their bare posteriors; they were all old men, say from 50 to 60 years of age, the commandant standing by with his sword to see that the Ind. who flogged them done his duty .... (Rogers 1st journal, 208)

    18th. I received a letter from Mr. S. informing me that he rather was under the impression that he would be detained for some time yet, as the general did [not] like to take the responsibility on himself to let us pass until he received instructions from the general in Mexico; under those circumstances I am fearful we will have to remain here some time yet. 
 
    Our men have been employed fitting out a cargo of hides, tallow, and soap for a Mr. Henry Edwards, a German by birth ...; he is what they term here a Mexican trader. (Rogers 1st journal, 211)
 
Jedediah was right he was, in fact, obliged to remain in San Diego for several more weeks, and the journals and maps he had taken as proof of his reason for being in California were confiscated. Governor Echeandía found Jedediah's presence in Mexico highly suspect, thinking him to be a spy, particularly because of the maps he had drawn. He informed Jedediah that even Mexican citizens were not permitted to draw maps unless they received permission from the government. Jedediah wrote of his frustration with the situation.

     Whilst my fate depended on the caprice of a man who appeared not to be certain of any thing or of the course his duty required him to pursue and only governed by the changing whims of the hour my feelings can only be duly appreciated by those who have been in the same situation. I knew the eager expectations with which my party at St Gabriel Looked for my return. I felt the ruinous effect which my detention had on my business and the gloomy apprehensions which my protracted absenc would cause to my partners in the distant Mountains. (Mountain Men - First Expedition to California)
 
 ~ 1827 ~
January 1827
 
Governor Echeandía released Jedediah and issued the necessary passports after he received a letter in which American ship-masters anchored in San Diego’s harbor vouched for his character. Jedediah sailed to the port of San Pedro on the "Courier" and made the remaining forty-five mile trek to San Gabriel on horseback, both courtesy of Captain Cunningham.
 
A portion of a letter written by Capt. William H. Cunningham, dated December 1826 at San Diego, was published in the October 25, 1827 edition of The Missouri Republic. In it, the captain wrote of his amazement at the tenacity and endurance of Jedediah and his company. The excerpt is below. 
 
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American Enterprise
 
     There has arrived at this place Capt. Jedediah Smith with a company of hunters, from St. Louis, on the Missouri. These hardy adventurers have been 13 months travelling their route, and have suffered numerous hardships. They have often had death staring them in the face, sometimes owing to the want of sustenance; at others to the numerous savages which they have been obliged to contend with. Out of 50 horses which they started with, they brought only 18 in with them; the others having died on the road for want of food and water. 

     Does it not seem incredible that a party of fourteen men, depending entirely upon their rifles and traps for subsistence, will explore this vast continent, and call them-selves happy when they can obtain the tail of a beaver to dine upon? Captain Smith is now on board the Courier, and is going with me to St. Pedro to meet his men; from thence he intends to proceed northward in quest of beaver, and to return, after-wards, to his deposits in the Rocky Mountains. (JSTOR, R. Cleland)

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THE WAY NORTH
 
January-February 1827 
 
When Jedediah returned to the mission on January 10th, he learned of a troubling situation.

     During my absence one of my Indian guides who had been imprisoned was released by death and the other was kept in the guard house at night and at hard labor during the day having the menial service of the guard house to perform. I took a convenient opportunity to speak to the Father in his behalf he told me he would do all in his power for his release. From his expression I took the idea that government had ordered their imprisonment. (Mountain Men - 1st Journal Jedediah Smith)
 

Fortunately, the guide was released after the priest had a word with his captors. 


As Jedediah prepared for the journey to the Great Salt Lake, he was aided by the good Father Sanchez. The priest arranged for Jedediah and company to go to San Bernardino on the frontier of Spanish settlement. There they could obtain many of the needed supplies. Harrison Rogers wrote of the company's departure from Mission San Gabriel.  

 
     Sunday, 21st. All hands were up early and getting their horses packed; we were under way in pretty good season in the morning, and had an Ind. boy as a pilot; we ... reached an Ind, farm house about 4 m. distant from San Bernado, ... , where we have an order from the governor, and our old Father Joseph Sanchus, at the Mission of San Gabriel, for all the supplyes we stand in need of. The country quite mountainous and stoney. (Rogers 1st journal footnotes, 225)
 
At San Bernardino, Jedediah’s blacksmiths made a supply of horseshoes, while other men dried beef or broke newly acquired wild horses; Jedediah left to collect the rest of the horses he had arranged to buy.
 
When all was ready, the company departed the San Bernardino Valley through the Cajon Pass. Then Jedediah turned northwest toward the San Joaquin Valley, despite the fact that Governor Echeandía had instructed him to leave by the same route he had come. Jedediah had several reasons for doing this. He still wanted to search for beaver as he traveled to the Great Salt Lake, the explorer in him didn't want to cover the same territory twice, and he wasn't willing to repeat the experience of crossing the desert and endangering his men again.
 
Jedediah Smith's route 1826-1827 California Expedition. (Google Maps with added locations)

February-April 1827
 

As the Smith party made its way up the San Joaquin Valley, Jedediah stayed far from the coast to avoid an encounter with Mexican authorities – he couldn’t afford any more delays. He didn’t know what obstacles he might encounter in this unexplored region, or where he would find a way to cross the mountains to his east, which appeared to be getting higher as he traveled north. But he knew he had to keep moving – the clock was ticking.

 
In his journal, Jedediah observed that the valley was "somewhat fertile, and inhabited by a great many Indians, mostly naked and destitute of fire arms, and who subsist upon fish, roots, acorns and grapes." (JSTOR, R. Cleland) 
 
San Bernardino, Cajon Pass, San Joaquin Valley, Stanislaus River camp, Ebbetts Pass (Google Maps with added locations)

May 1827
 
After some 350 miles, the company came to what Jedediah called the Appelamminy River [now the Stanislaus River]. Here he found few beaver but a great number of antelope, deer, and elk. Before undertaking the mountain crossing, Jedediah stopped to let his men and horses rest, and also to hunt so there would be an adequate food supply for the trek across the mountains.
 
CROSSING THE SIERRA NEVADA
 
Within the first three days of travel, the party met several groups of native inhabitants that behaved in a menacing, threatening manner but were not blatantly hostile. One large group, armed with bows and arrows, outnumbered Jedediah's company and encircled his men before departing without further incident. And there was another concern - the weather. Jedediah wrote of his predicament.
 
      On the 4th [day] I started early ... Snow increasing in depth as we advanced and becoming less compact timber had disappeared .... Still in advancing the snow became deeper and less compact and when I had got about 12 miles from my encampment the horses began to sink so deep as to render the prospect of proceeding verry doubtful. We were not yet at the highest part of the Mt and the distance across was unknown. This was our situation when news came up from the rear that some of the horses had given out being able to proceed no further. 
 
     It was at once apparent that if I proceeded farther I should be obliged to leave my horses or at least the greater part of them and as we knew not how far the Mountain extended to the East it was more than probable that in attempting to cross it we might ourselves be lost. On the other hand should I retrace my steps I would be obliged to pass among indians highly exasperated against us who if not warlike were sufficiently numerous if acting in concert to surround our little party and kill us with clubs and should I be so fortunate as to return to the foot of the Mountain in safety what could I do. To travel north seemed useless for far as I could see with my glass the Mt seemed to increase in heighth offering no probability of a pass. (Mountain Men - 1st Journal of Jedediah Smith)
 
Faced with this dilemma, Jedediah decided to return to the valley and set up a camp on the Stanislaus River. He would make the crossing with only two men.
 
 The Stanislaus River (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation)

After organizing what he would need for the journey to the Great Salt Lake, Jedediah left instructions with his clerk.
 
     I gave Mr Rodgers instructions to remain in the vicinity leaving a note at the cache with directions that would enable me to find him whenever I should return. If the 20th of September should arrive without my return he might then consider me dead. In that case he was to proceed to Bodega [a California port] and get supplies and if possible make his way to the Depo. If this was found impracticable he was then to dispose of his property wait an opportunity to ship to the sandwich Islands and from thence to the United States.
  
     ... On the 20th of May 1827 my preparations being finished I took leave of my small but faithful party and started on an enterprise involved in great uncertainty. I took but two men with me Robert Evans and Silas Goble. I had six horses and two mules. I had about 60 lbs of meat and a part of my horses were packed with hay to feed them during the passage of the Mountains. (Mountain Men - 1st Journal of Jedediah Smith)
~ THE BLIZZARD ~
 
     25th  18 miles N E    Keeping the divide and over the snow which soon increased to the depth of 8 feet at 3 O Clock it turned cold and commenced snowing. I was obliged to encamp found a few pines for shelter tied up my horses to keep them from running away and gave them some of the hay I had packed from the valley. During the night the storm increased in violence and the weather became extremely cold.
 
Peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains (Timothy Bottomly, Pubic Domain - National Scenic Byways)

     26th The Storm still continued with unabated violence. I was obliged to remain in camp. It was one of the most disagreeable days I ever passed. We were uncertain how far the Mountain extended to the East. The wind was continually changing and the snow drifting and flying in every direction. It was with great difficulty that we could get wood and we were but just able to keep our fire. Our poor animals felt a full share of the vengeanc of the storm and 2 horses and one mule froze to death before our eyes. Still the storm continued with unabated violence and it required an utmost exertion to avoid the fate of the poor animals that lay near but almost covered with the drifting snow. 
 
     Night came and shut out the bleak desolation from our view but it did not still the howling winds that yet bellowed through the mountains bearing before them clouds of snow and beating against us cold and furious. It seemed that we were marked out for destruction and that the sun of another day might never rise to us. But He that rules the Storms willed it otherwise and the sun of the 27th rose clear uppon the gleaming peaks of the Mt St Joseph. I shall never forget the 26th of May 1827. Its incidents are engraven on my mind as well as the grateful feeling with which my heart was expanded when the storm was stilled.
 
     On the 27th [of May] we resumed our journey N E 12 miles over the snow. The last fall of 15 inches in addition to what the horses sank in the old snow made the traveling verry fatigueing. Passing across a deep ravine and ascending a high point I could discover the plain. Thence N 13 miles the snow decreasing gradually until going down a high and steep hill it entirely disappeared and I came into a valley where there was some good grass. A valuable horse gave out and was left in the snow. I also lost my Pistol. (Mountain Men-1st Journal of Jedediah Smith)

 

It took the men eight days to travel sixty-one miles across the Sierra Nevada. Researchers believe they completed the brutal passage near Ebbetts Pass on the eastern side of the range. (Ebbetts Pass National Scenic Byway)

 
Ebbetts Pass viewed from Highland Peak - elevation 10,935 ft (AA Roads)

THE GREAT BASIN DESERT  
June 1827
 
Jedediah, Robert Evans, and Silas Gobel were now at the western edge of the Great Basin, an unexplored desert 400 miles wide with an area of over 205,000 square miles, including the Great Salt Lake Desert on the east. It's characterized by wide, rock-strewn valleys between parallel north-south mountain ranges. Altitudes range from 3,900 feet in the valleys to peaks over 10,000 feet high.  
 
Relief map with Great Basin overlay. (Wikipedia)
 
Jedediah's path would take him across the northern part of the Great Basin Shrub Steppe region, where summer temperatures range from about 50°F at night to over 90°F during the day; the area receives less than nine inches of rainfall annually, most of it in the form of snow near the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the winter. Scrubby vegetation and sagebrush dominate the landscape.

Great Basin Shrub Steppe with sagebrush. (One Earth)

Near the foothills of the Sierra Nevada there is a little water. Traveling east from there the hot, dry air sucks what little moisture there is out of everything, causing dehydration to happen quickly. Horses cannot survive and humans only if they know where to find water. Jedediah occasionally met small groups of Indigenous peoples who, if not frightened away by the three men, were sometimes kind enough to direct them to a small spring or share some food as they slowly made their way across the barren land.
 
SKULL VALLEY & THE GREAT SALT LAKE DESERT
 
At this point, Jedediah, Evans, and Gobel were all in a weakened state due to lack of food and water. Now they faced the challenge of crossing the 75-mile-wide Great Salt Lake Desert, formed when an ancient lake evaporated, leaving salt-saturated mud from the lake bottom with a layer of salt on top. Author Charles Kelly described the desert in a 1930 article in the Utah Historical Quarterly:
 
     No streams flow into this great salt basin surrounded on every side by volcanic hills and granite mountains; and around its borders are to be found only a half dozen small springs of fresh water. On the eastern "shore" of this old lake bed only two insignificant springs are to be found in a distance of over a hundred miles, and the country approaching from both the east and the west is almost equally destitute of water.

The Great Salt Lake Desert from Pilot Peak, Nevada. The view is looking East from the western edge of the desert. (Wikimedia/User:Famartin - CC BY-SA 3.0)

     June 24th N E 40 Miles. I started verry early in hopes of soon finding water. But ascending a high point of a hill I could discover nothing but sandy plains or dry Rocky hills .... I durst not tell my men of the desolate prospect ahead, but framed my story so as to discourage them as little as possible ....
 
     While I had been up on the hill one of the horses gave out and had been left a short distance behind. I sent the men back to take the best of his flesh, for our supply was again nearly exhausted, whilst I would push forward in search of water ... the view ahead was almost hopeless. 
 
      With our best exertion we pushed forward, walking as we had been for a long time, over the soft sand. That kind of traveling is verry tiresome to men in good health who can eat when and what they choose, and drink as often as they desire, and to us, worn down with hunger and fatigue and burning with thirst increased by the blazing sands, it was almost insurportable. (Mountain Men – 1st journal of Jedediah Smith
 
The heat was so unbearable the men were forced to lie in holes they dug in the sand to try and cool their bodies. Jedediah wrote, “... it then seemed possible, and even probable, that we might perish in the desert unheard of and unpitied.” (Mountain Men – 1st journal of Jedediah Smith
 
The next day, "... Robert Evans laid down in the plain under the shade of a small cedar, being able to proceed no further." (Mountain Men and the Fur Trade) Jedediah and Silas Gobel continued the search for water, hoping to find some in time to save Robert's life. About three miles away, they were successful and returned to him. Jedediah wrote of Evans,
 
     He was indeed far gone, being scarcely able to speak. When I came (within hearing but was not yet in sight) the first question he asked me was, have you any water? I told him I had plenty and handed him the kettle, which would hold 6 or 7 quarts, in which there was some meat mixed with the water ... putting the kettle to his mouth he did not take it away until he had drank all the water, of which there was at least 4 or 5 quarts, and then asked me why I had not brought more. (Mountain Men and the Fur Trade)
 
Charles Kelly, author of “Jedediah S. Smith on the Salt Desert Trail” published in the Utah Historical Quarterly, believes the descriptions in Jedediah’s journal confirm the path of his crossing over the Great Basin and Great Salt Lake deserts. He also asserts that following this route would have put the three men in Skull Valley on the southwestern side of the Great Salt Lake. Kelly cites Isaac K. Russell’s “Hidden Heroes of the Rockies” as further evidence:

     For years after Smith's journey, the Piute Indians of Skull Valley, Utah, repeated the tradition that the first white men they ever saw were three who staggered, almost naked, in from the western desert, and were half crazy from breathing alkali dust. (Hidden Heroes, 158)
 
Skull Valley in the Cedar Mountain Wilderness in northern Utah. (Wikimedia/Bureau of Land Management)
 
On June 27th Jedediah wrote,
 
     ... North 10 Miles along a valley in which were many salt springs. Coming to the point of the ridge which formed the eastern boundary of the valley I saw an expanse of water Extending far to the North and East. The Salt Lake, a joyful sight, was spread before us ... I durst scarcely believe that it was really the Big Salt Lake that was before me. (Mountain Men and the Fur Trade)
 
Great Salt Lake Antelope Island in the southeastern portion of the lake. (Credit: pixabay by AnnicaB)

Jedediah described the grueling desert journey in a letter to General William C. Clark, Superintendant of Indian Affairs, dated July 17, 1827. [The letter was printed in its entirety in the October 11, 1827 issue of The Missouri Republican.]

     After travelling twenty days from the east side of Mount Joseph, I struck the S.W. corner of the Great Salt Lake [the location of Skull Valley], travelling over a country completely barren and destitute of game. We frequently travelled without water sometimes for two days over sandy deserts, where there was no sign of vegetation and when we found water in some of the rocky hills, we most generally found some Indians who appeared the most miserable of the human race having nothing to subsist on (nor any clothing) except grass seed, grass-hoppers, etc. When we arrived at the Salt Lake, we had but one horse and one mule remaining, which were so feeble and poor that they could scarce carry the little camp equipage which I had along; the balance of my horses I was compelled to eat as they gave out. (Utah Historical Quarterly, Charles Kelly)
 
Upon reaching the Great Salt Lake, Jedediah, Robert Evans, and Silas Gobel became the first U.S. citizens to traverse the dangerous Great Basin Desert.
 
THE 1827 RENDEZVOUS
 
Jedediah’s July 3rd arrival at rendezvous caused a good deal of excitement, since most thought he and his party were hopelessly lost or had perished. A small cannon brought from St. Louis by William Ashley was fired as a salute to the men.
 
Fur Traders' 1827 Rendezvous Historical Marker. (HMdb By Duane Hall, May 28, 2013)
 
Even though Jedediah was grateful to be back to what he considered home, he was anxious to return to the men he left behind on the Stanislaus River. Ten days after the close of rendezvous Jedediah and an eighteen-man brigade began a second California expedition. 
 
 
NEXT: A Fur Trader & Explorer in the American West IV – A Man of Many Firsts
 
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DIG A LITTLE DEEPER
  • Jedediah Smith - Frontier Legend, a 2018 documentary that originally aired on the H&I Channel is now available at the Internet Archive. The film presents an account of Jedediah's life and experiences in the West, providing interesting background details, many from the perspectives of the numerous Indigenous peoples, fur trappers, and traders he encountered. It's worth watching. 
  • The full screen option is low quality; the small option is clearer. Also, you might have to adjust the volume on the video and/or your device. 
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