Born January 6, 1799,
Jericho, New York
Died May 27, 1831,
Near Santa Fe, New Mexico

Jedediah Smith was one of the famed mountain men of the American West. He rediscovered the South Pass, which became the principal gateway for travelers to the Far West; he also pioneered the overland route to California and opened the overland route from California to the Columbia River. Later Smith became a partner in a prosperous fur-trading company. He was killed by Comanche Indians on the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Takes job in fur trade

Jedediah Strong Smith was born on January 6, 1799, in Jericho, New York, to parents who had come from New Hampshire. The family moved to western Pennsylvania in either 1810 or 1811. In the spring of 1822 Smith went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was hired by William Henry Ashley, a Virginia businessman who had founded a fur-trading company in the...