Jedediah Smith

Jedediah Strong Smith (born January 6, 1799[1] or June 24, 1798[2] — presumed date of death May 27, 1831) was a hunter, trapper, fur trader, trailblazer, author, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the American West Coast and the Southwest during the nineteenth century. He was the fourth of twelve children. Jedediah Smith's explorations were significant in opening the American West to expansion by white settlers. According to Maurice S. Sullivan:

Smith was the first white man to cross the future state of Nevada, the first to traverse Utah from north to south and from west to east; the first American to enter California by the overland route, and so herald its change of masters; the first white man to scale the High Sierras, and the 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, during the subsequent Gold Rush.

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