Mountain Men — Jedediah Smith

After this experience, the trapping further upstream proved to be good and many pelts were gotten. Ashley, however, decided to split up the group and Smith’s group were sent to the Black Hills where pelts were plentiful. One experience he did not want while setting out traps occurred. He suddenly came face to face with a bear. He ran for his rifle but the bear was faster and he hit Smith with a paw that opened the side of his head, virtually tearing off his ear. Smith managed to shoot the bear and, although in awful pain and in shock, he directed his buddy to sew his ear back on and clean the deep cut. He survived but he allowed his hair to grow long after that so as to hide his scars.

Winter came and Smith and his group decided to stay over winter at Salt Lake. While there, he grew restless and formed a plan to go to Spanish-controlled California. It would be dangerous because foreigners were not allowed in Spanish California. This didn’t daunt Smith and he chose 16 of his men to accompany him on the trip.

The journey was horrible. He had no knowledge of how to travel the deserts and lack of streams and water almost killed them as they traveled west. They finally reached Mission Gabriel Mission and were immediately thrown into jail because they had no passport. Luckily, a sailor vouched for the men and after Gov. José MarÃa de Echeandia granted him permission to stay a while, he told Smith and his men to return going east out of California. Smith obeyed part of this directive as he returned to the Mojave Desert but then turned west and crossed over the Tehachapi Mountains into the great San Joaquin Valley. They were uninterrupted in the travel until they reached Placerville where Digger Indians attacked them. They caused no harm but Smith decided not to continue to their destination of the Colombia River in Oregon and returned to Salt Lake City. Smith left part of his group at the Stanislaus River (Calif.) to trap beaver.

There was snow on the mountains but the group was able to cross the Sierra Nevada in eight days. On July 3, he was back at Bear Lake (Utah) where he sold the pelts they had left with his group by Salt Lake. Not having had enough excitement on the first trip, Smith planned a return trip, this time he was going directly to his men in the San Joaquin Valley.

He replenished his supplies for the trip and chose 16 men to go along with him. Things went OK until he began crossing the Colorado River at Needles, Calif. when the Indians attacked the party and killed half of them besides stealing the horses and supplies. Their trip from Needles was all hardship until they entered California. After acquiring horses, the remaining group followed the San Joaquin Valley to where they had left their men on the first trip of trap beaver. On Sept. 18, 1827, after two days resting, he went to San Jose to get a passport for California, but instead they were thrown into jail at Mission San Jose. This was a repeat of San Gabriel Mission but eventually he got permission to travel to Salt Lake by acting Gov. Don Luis Arguello. Smith replenished his supplies in San Francisco, acquired 300 horses, and lit out for Oregon instead of going east. After being attacked by Indians in Oregon and losing his pelts, horses and supplies, he continued north to the Hudson Bay Company at Fort Vancouver where the Chief Factor (boss) let him recover. Later, they returned to the Indians who attacked the group and they were able to get back much of their gear and pelts worth $2,370 which was enough to re-supply the group.

The group spent the winter of 1828-1829 at the fort then left for Salt Lake and a “mountain man” reunion where they could sell their pelts. By now, Smith told his men that he was going to sell his business and retire. Wanting to continue fur hunting, there were men who wanted to buy the company, so he sold it to them and formed the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to hunt furs in that area. Smith, however, was talked into taking one more trip to Santa Fe and hunt around that area. On the trip, Smith was killed by Comanche Indians. He was 32. His contribution in opening the routes to California by land will always be contributed to this courageous mountain man.

Rediscovering the Peninsula by Darold Fredricks appears in the Monday edition of the Daily Journal.