The American frontiersman Christopher Gist (ca. 1706-1759) was one of the first explorers of the Ohio and Kentucky wilderness. He also accompanied George Washington on missions to the French in the Ohio Valley.

Christopher Gist was born in Maryland. He probably did some surveying as a young man because he wrote and drew maps well in later life. But nothing is known of his youth in general. In 1750 he was living with his family on the Yadkin River of North Carolina not far from Daniel Boone. He married Sarah Howard (the date is not known) and raised five children.

The Ohio Company chose Gist to explore the country of the Ohio River as far as the Louisville area, and he carried out a careful examination of the territory in 1750. When he returned to North Carolina, he found that his family had fled to Roanoke, Va., because of Indian...