Jedediah Smith 1799 - 1831
N 45° 34.226 W 100° 28.930
14T E 384347 N 5047389
For his accomplishments, Jedediah Smith was made Captian of a motley army of trappers, traders, and Indians, an auxiliary to Col. Henry Leavensworth's 6th Infantry.
Waymark Code: WMG3D
Location: South Dakota, United States
Date Posted: 07/01/2006
Views: 32
Jedediah Smith (Wikipedia article), a young man from New York, enlisted with General William H. Ashley's Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and was in a group of 90 trappers, traders, and boatmen attacked by Aricara Indians. This entire Aricara affair was to be later recorded in the history of
ole Jed Smith as the
Aricara Campaign. Jedediah, a deeply religious man, made what
Hugh Glass (Historic Marker) described a "powerful prayer" for his slain companions and the success of his mission.
This is recorded as the first act of Christian worship in South Dakota.
Jedediah Smith's explorations were significant in opening the American West to expansion by white settlers. According to Maurice Sullivan, "Smith was the first white man to...
- ~ cross the future state of Nevada;
- ~ first to traverse Utah from north to south and from west to east;
- ~ first American to enter California by the overland route, and so herald its change of masters;
- ~ first white man to scale the High Sierras; and
- ~ first to explore the Pacific hinterland from San Diego to the banks of the Columbia [River]."
Prospectors and settlers later poured in to the areas that 'Old Jed' Smith had trail-blazed as a trapper and fur trader, aided by his copious journals and descriptions of the West.
All South Dakotan's should be proud to have had
"ole Jed Smith" (
Murdo MacKenzie Historic Marker) as an early explorer and major contributor to the history and development of South Dakota.