Legends of the Old West - MOUNTAIN MEN Ep. 2 | “Jedediah Smith: Making History”

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

In 1824, Jedediah Smith undertakes the journey of a lifetime. He travels across more of the West than any other explorer of the age. He battles starvation and Native American war parties, and ascends to co-owner of the Ashley-Henry fur company before retiring from the life of a trapper in the Rocky Mountains. Then, on his final adventure, his story ends in mystery.   Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join   Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial.   On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage.   For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You'll flip for $4 pancakes at A&W. Wake up to a stack of three light and fluffy pancakes topped with syrup. Only $4 on now. Dine in only until 11 a.m. at A&W's in Ontario. In the earliest days of spring, 1824, sometime between late February and early March, Jedidiah Smith and his group of about a dozen fur trappers became the first recorded white men to travel westward through South Pass in southwestern Wyoming. The pass, which would be used by countless travelers over the coming decades, was a wide gap in the Rocky Mountains that was tame enough for people to move through on foot, on horseback, or on wagons.

Smith's small group was about halfway through a year-long journey that had started on the Missouri River in central Montana and then followed the river to modern-day North Dakota and down to South Dakota. Along the way, it featured battles with the Rickeraw Warriors that devastated the Ashley Henry Fur Company, which employed Jedidiah Smith and other soon-to-be-famous mountain men like Hugh Glass, Jim Bridger, and Bill Sublette. From Old Fort Kiowa, near the current town of Chamberlain, South Dakota, Smith's group had headed straight west across the Badlands, the Black Hills, the High Desert of Wyoming, the Big Horn Mountains, and finally

to the Wind River Mountains, south of the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park, 50 years before the park was created. In what is now eastern Wyoming, Jedidiah Smith had survived a grizzly bear attack that happened around the same time as his friend Hugh Glass was attacked by a grizzly a couple hundred miles to the north. Smith fared better than Glass and was back in the saddle just ten days after suffering gory injuries to his head. Smith and his group had finished crossing the high desert, then the bighorns, and had camped for the winter with the Crow Nation at the base of the Wind River Mountains.

In February 1824, they continued their journey westward. A Crow elder told them how to find South Pass, and now the pioneering American Trappers were at the Green River in the southwest corner of Wyoming. Jedidiah Smith, the 25-year-old leader of the group, laid out his plan. Jim Clyman and four men would trap the northern waters of the Green River. Bill Sublette would take another five men and trap the lower branches of the river. Smith would go with Sublette's group and then continue south to trap the Black Forks River. would go with Sublette's group and then continue south to trap the Black Forks River. The two groups would then rendezvous a few miles away at the Sweetwater River with as

many beaver pelts as possible. Like most plans, it didn't quite work out that way, at least for Jim Clyman's group. As Clyman and his men rode toward their trapping grounds, they encountered a band of Shoshone, whom Kleiman recognized by the intricate porcupine quillwork that adorned their buckskin shirts. The Shoshone, on foot, accompanied the trappers for a while. Despite the fact that Kleiman's group shared their abundance of beaver meat and snow geese with the Shoshone, one morning the Shoshone stole the trappers' 20 or so horses and pack animals and disappeared. Left with no choice, Clyman's group continued trapping

on foot until it was time to rejoin Jed Smith and Bill Sublette. Clyman's group hid their pelts, traps, and chains, hung their saddles and tack on tree branches and headed for the Sweetwater River. After several miles, they surprised a small hunting party of Shoshone who were riding their stolen horses. The trappers raised their rifles and forced the smaller hunting party to surrender. The Shoshone hunters led the American trappers to their camp. One of the mountain men held the chief at gunpoint and the trappers

recovered all the remaining horses. They retrieved their hidden pelts and their gear and rode out of Shoshone territory without any loss of life. It was a close call, and Jim Clyman's luck would not hold out for long. When Jedidiah Smith arrived at the rendezvous spot on the Sweetwater River, Clyman was nowhere to be found. From Black Barrel Media, this is an American Frontier series on Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're beginning regular stories of the earliest days of American expansion across the continent. In this series we'll focus on the lives and legends of mountain men Jedidiah Smith, Hugh Glass, and Jeremiah Johnson.

This is episode 2, Jedidiah Smith, Making History. At the rendezvous spot on the Sweetwater River, Jed Smith found no sign of Jim Clyman's group. Smith directed the members of Bill Sublett's group to construct a boat, while Smith climbed onto his horse and followed the river east to find Clyman. Smith rode to the confluence of the Sweetwater and the North Platte and found a Lean 2 shelter and Indian sign. Fearing the worst, he searched the area but found no evidence of a struggle. He rode back upriver and shared the news with the others. He had found a campsite and even

with no signs of a fight, he feared the worst for Jim Kleiman and his group. The next morning, with the boat complete, half of the men glided down the Sweetwater River toward the Missouri River with the beaver pelts. Jedidiah Smith and the other half continued to trap along the tributaries of the Green River in what is today the southwest corner of Wyoming. The mystery of the fate of Jim Climbing and his group weighed heavily on Smith, and it would be a year before Smith learned the truth.

As Jedidiah Smith and his companions rode north into the Snake River country, they approached the trading and trapping grounds of the Hudson's Bay Company. Incorporated under British royal charter in 1670, the Bay, as the company was informally called, had once held a de facto monopoly on fur trading in a huge swath of North America. Smith and his men were the first Americans to enter the area in more than a decade, and they represented a threat to the Bay's dominance. In September of 1824, Smith and Company encountered a group of Native Americans they never expected to see in present-day southeastern Idaho. The group was a band of Iroquois, whose traditional homelands were 1,800 miles east in New York.

The Iroquois were employed by the Hudson's Bay Company, and they had just lost their horses, traps, and most of their furs in a conflict with the Shoshone. The embattled Iroquois offered Smith all of their remaining pelts in exchange for an armed escort to their camp farther west. When Smith and his mountain men arrived at the Bay's camp with Iroquois, the man in charge, Alexander Ross, was immediately suspicious. Ross had worked for John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, then its successor, Northwest Fur Company, and now for the Hudson's Bay Company. He suspected the Americans under Jedidiah Smith were as interested in spying on the bay's operations as they were in trapping

beaver. Ross maintained his suspicions when Smith joined him on a trip to the bustling Hudson's Bay Company trading fort known as Flathead Post. The post was alive with activity and Smith marveled at the efficiency of the HBC's operations. He was in awe of the nearly 5,000 pelts that Ross' crew brought in, and Smith noted how indigenous women played a crucial role in preparing the furs. Their expertise was eye-opening as they cleaned, stretched, and tanned the pelts. The women also prepared meals, picked berries, made pimmican, and carried pelts and supplies, which freed the men to trap even more beaver. As Smith and his small group settled in, an annual trade fair commenced.

It drew tribes from all over the region, including the Nez Perce, who were just 30 years away from beginning their long conflict with the U.S. government. Each tribe arrived in procession, their warriors and women burdened with furs and dried meats. The air was festive, filled with songs, chants, and the occasional boom of the fort's ceremonial cannon. But despite the fair's success, tension simmered beneath the surface. Alexander Ross learned he was going to be replaced. The HBC viewed the arrival of the American mountain men as an abject failure of Ross's leadership. Jedidiah Smith and the others were competitors, and the HBC did not look kindly on competition. HBC leaders issued new orders to their

men, dropped the long-standing policy of limited trapping, and created a quote, fur desert by over trapping to prevent the Americans from making a profit. The British and the Americans were now locked in a race for dominance of the fur trade in the West. While Jedidiah Smith remained at Flathead Post, he did his best to learn the meticulous organizational practices of the hugely successful Hudson's Bay Company and adapt them to his own operations. Amid the hustle and strategic maneuvering at Flathead Post in what is today northern Montana, Smith found moments of solitude to reflect on his journey.

His letters to his family revealed a deeply personal side which contrasted sharply with his rugged public persona. In his letters, he poured out his homesickness, his spiritual struggles and the emotional toil of his relentless quest for beaver pelts on the Western frontier. He spoke of the wilderness's harsh beauty, constant dangers, and isolation. Yet the letters also carried a tone of resilience and hope to continue his work. It was now early 1825, three years after he'd signed on with Ashley's Hundred. It was time for Smith to continue his business. He traveled down the Bear River in the southeast corner of the modern state of Idaho. There he found a party of Ashley's men, including Smith's old comrade, Jim Bridger. The once quiet Bear River area

became a bustling hub of trapping activity. The presence of multiple American trapping parties caught the HBC off guard. The crowded conditions and strategic maneuvers created a charged atmosphere. The trappers' camps buzzed with plans and whispered deals, each group seeking to outmaneuver the others. Smith's leadership and diplomacy were tested as he worked to secure his party's success while mitigating conflicts. And the reunion of the American trapping parties brought another piece of news that would be judged historic in the future. William Ashley had ordered all of his men to meet him at the Green River in southwestern Wyoming, on or about July 10th, 1825. It would be the first of the legendary gatherings

known as the Rendezvous. After months of grueling travel and trapping in the unforgiving wilderness in the winter and spring of 1825, Smith and his men looked forward to the gathering with anticipation and relief. Ashley promised to mark a trail to the meet-up by stripping trees of their bark or erecting stone cairns. Smith and his men followed the trail to Rendezvous Creek,

where they found a bustling scene that would be the first of what would become a legacy of the mountain men. The Rendezvous was a huge trade fair. Tents and makeshift shelters dotted the landscape. The air was filled with sounds of laughter, bargaining, and the occasional gunshot. Traders from St. Louis made the arduous journey westward, bringing goods that were in high demand—gunpowder, lead, blankets, tobacco, and alcohol. As Smith and his men unloaded their pelts, they marveled at the variety of goods on display. Beads and trinkets glinted in the sun, drawing the attention of Native American traders who came to barter their own furs and goods. The atmosphere was one of camaraderie and celebration, a temporary respite from the harsh realities of

life in the mountains. Smith took the opportunity to catch up with old friends and acquaintances, which unexpectedly included the friend he thought he'd lost, Jim Clyman. The previous year, Clyman and his group of four trappers were supposed to have met Smith at the Sweetwater River so they could reunite their forces and take their furs to market. None of the five men showed up. Smith had ridden down the river in search of climbing, but all Smith found was a lean-to shelter and some Indian sign. Smith didn't see signs of a fight at the campsite, but he could only conclude that his friends had been killed by warriors. The truth was yet another story of survival in the Mountain Man era.

There don't seem to be any surviving accounts of what happened to the four men who were with Jim Climen, but Climen left the group, presumably at the lean-to that Smith found later, and went to find a good spot to load the pelts onto a boat and float them downstream. He got cut off from the group and wandered through the wilderness of South Central Wyoming. He eventually found a Pawnee camp, where he was robbed of everything he had. Rifle, knife, gunpowder, food, all of it. One of the warriors cut Kleiman's long hair but mercifully didn't scalp him.

They let him go with just a leather sack that contained a few kernels of corn. He staggered out into the arid plains of southeastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. It appears as though he walked clear across the state of Nebraska, and when he saw the American flag over Fort Atkinson near the current city of Nebraska, and when he saw the American flag over Fort Atkinson near the current city of Omaha, he thought he was hallucinating, and he collapsed. He woke up in the fort two days later and received his own surprise, a man he thought was dead, Hugh Glass, was sitting next to him. Jim Climent had wandered alone through the high plains for more than 80 days,

Jim Climent had wandered alone through the high plains for more than 80 days. And like Hugh Glass and Jedidiah Smith, who'd survived grisly attacks, he recovered and went straight back to trapping. Now he told his tale to his old friend Jed Smith at the first rendezvous, a gathering that would happen every year for the next 15 years. And in addition to swapping tales and trading for supplies, there were larger deals to be done. At the rendezvous or shortly after, William Ashley approached Jedidiah Smith with a proposition. Ashley's partner, Andrew Henry, had retired from the company the previous year in 1824. Ashley wanted Smith to become his new partner. Smith said yes, and in the space

of three years he had gone from a volunteer who answered a newspaper ad to a captain who led expeditions to co-owner of the company. As a podcast network our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But at Realm, we also sell some pretty cool merch, and organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. When you think about successful businesses like Allo or Allbirds or Skims, an often overlooked secret is the business behind the business that makes selling and for shoppers buying simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify.

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was not just a business, but a means to explore and map the uncharted territories of the West. His expeditions contributed to a growing body of knowledge about the land, its resources, and its indigenous peoples. In this way, Smith saw himself as part of a larger mission, one that extended beyond the pursuit of profit. Smith's feelings echoed a growing sentiment that would be fully articulated 20 years later when journalist John O'Sullivan coined the phrase, Manifest Destiny.

For the year between the first rendezvous in July 1825 and the second rendezvous in July 1826, Smith and most of the other men of the company stayed relatively close to home. They trapped in the three-corner area where the modern states of Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho share a border. It's a rich region that's home to the Sweetwater River, the Green River, and the Bear River. At the second rendezvous, in July 1826 in the Cache Valley of northern Utah, William Ashley made an even bigger announcement than the previous year. Ashley told the assembled trappers and mountain men that he was transferring his stock in what had been the Ashley-Henry Furr Company to Jedidiah Smith, Bill Sublette, and David

Jackson. In effect, Ashley sold his company to three of his top trappers, one of whom, Smith, was already a partner. Ashley had made a fortune with his endeavor, and he was anxious to get into politics. He would continue to meet the men at the annual rendezvous to sell them supplies and trade for furs, but he was done doing the work personally. As Ashley put it, I now wash my hands of the toils of the Rocky Mountains. After the rendezvous, Smith and the other new owners renamed their company the Rocky

Mountain Fur Company, and they set off in different directions. Jim Bridger had told Smith of a salty lake to the southwest, and Smith took 14 men with him to find the lake. It may not have been Smith's intention when he took that first step toward what would be called the Great Salt Lake, but he ended up going on the adventure of a lifetime, which was saying a lot in the case of a man like Jedidiah Smith. His odyssey through the West over the next year would be one of the greatest feats of exploration in American history. From the Great Salt Lake in August 1826, Smith and his group traveled southwest

on a diagonal line that roughly follows the path of Interstate 15 to the corner of Utah where it meets Nevada and Arizona. They stopped the first leg of the journey at what is now Lake Mead, 110 years before Lake Mead was formed by the construction of the Hoover Dam. In 1826, the area was just a desert canyon with caves that pockmarked the canyon walls. The known destination was Salt Cave, which is now under the waters of the lake. The 15 men had crossed 600 miles of territory in 10 weeks. It was now October 1826, and they were on the northern edge of the Mojave Desert. They camped and traded with the Mojave tribesmen for a few weeks before setting off with two

Mojave scouts. They crossed out of the American lands known as the Louisiana Purchase and into the territory of California, which was now a province of the relatively new Republic of Mexico after it gained independence from Spain. The Mojave Guides followed an ancient trade path that was used by native peoples for millennia. The Guides warned Smith's party about toxic desert plants, taught them how to extract water from cacti, and helped them survive the harsh conditions. After 15 days of arduous travel, they made it to the San Bernardino foothills in what

is today Southern California. The spot marked a significant milestone. Smith and his party had completed the first recorded journey from the Missouri River to California. And whether they knew it or not, they were only halfway done with their journey. They were about to travel the entire length of California, a territory that would be added to America within 30 years and a state that would be the most populated in the Union

in a little more than 100. The Mojave Guides led the Americans through Cajon Pass in the San Bernardino Mountains and then to a small Spanish sub-mission where friars provided a feast and shelter. The next day, Jedidiah Smith and his men went to the larger and now historic Mission San Gabriel in what is now the community of Alhambra, just south of Pasadena in the greater Los Angeles area. They met Father Jose Bernardo Sanchez and a rider hurried to inform the territorial governor in San Diego of the Americans' arrival.

The governor summoned the Americans to San Diego, and Smith's group traveled down through the modern cities of Anaheim and Irvine until they hit Dana Point on the coast, just below one of the wealthiest cities in modern America, Laguna Beach. The men followed the coastline south and rode through the land that is now Camp Pendleton, the largest Marine Corps base in the U.S. They finally made it to the Presidio in old town San Diego in early January 1827. And after all that travel, the governor had just one thing to say.

Get out of California. Smith explained his purpose to the governor, and the governor agreed to release Smith and his men on the condition they returned to the United States via the same route they had entered, through the Mojave Desert. Mercifully, the group would be able to begin its return trip with a shortcut. In January 1827, the group boarded a ship that sailed them up the coast to Long Beach. From there, they traveled straight up through the heart of the modern city of Los Angeles, which was a village of about 700 people in 1827. The group retraced its steps to Mission San Gabriel, then to the San Bernardino Valley,

and then through Cajon Pass to the Mojave Desert. But at that point, they changed the plan and defied the governor's orders. Instead of continuing up through the Mojave to the area around the modern city of Las Vegas, they turned northwest and headed to California's Central Valley. They rode and walked up through Bakersfield and Fresno to the area of the current city of Modesto. It was now April of 1827, and they had been traveling constantly for nine months. They had crossed roughly 1,600 miles of territory and now they faced the challenge that might be the toughest.

They had to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains and then traverse the high deserts of Nevada and Utah to make it to the annual rendezvous by July of 1827. Smith and his group made their first attempt to cross the mountains on a trail that ran through the modern city of Diamond Springs, less than ten miles from the historic site of Sutter's Mill, where gold would be discovered twenty years in the future. Snow blocked their way and forced them to turn around and go back to the Central Valley. And all this time, Jedidiah Smith and his men had been hiding from the Mexican government, but they weren't as sneaky

as they thought. The head of Mission San Jose alerted the governor to their presence, and the governor sent soldiers to capture them. Local tribesmen warned Smith of the danger, and he made a difficult decision. He instructed most of his men to stay in California, set up camp, and survive as best they could. Meanwhile, he would take two men, cross the Sierras, make it to the rendezvous, and return with help. Obviously, that process would take months, if the three men survived. So, the

guys who stayed in California would have to settle in for the long haul. Jedidiah Smith, Robert Evans, and Silas Goebel began their crossing farther south than the first attempt. They spent a week trekking through the rugged wilderness that was thick with snow. They nearly starved to death, but made it out of the mountains at an area in Nevada that is now named Smith Valley, about 30 miles south of the future mining town of Carson City. Now, they just had to cross 500 miles of high desert in the next two months to make it to Bear Lake in the southeast corner of Utah for the 1827 rendezvous. Smith Evans and Goebel blazed a trail through the

middle of Nevada and up through Utah in May and June of 1827. And then with about 130 miles to go, Robert Evans collapsed and could go no further. They had walked 35 miles in 24 hours across a barren stretch of desert outside the future city of Provo, Utah. Including their first attempt to scale the Sierras, the three men had traveled roughly 2,000 miles and had just 130 to go, but Evans couldn't move. Smith saw a mountain in the distance, which turned out to be 40 miles away, and he guessed there would be streams flowing out of it. He made the journey, secured some water,

brought it back to Evans, and revived his fallen travel companion. With Evans back on his feet, the three men finished the adventure. They moved up to the southern end of the Great Salt Lake, then through the present-day site of Salt Lake City, then up through the future city of Ogden, then over to the Cache Valley where they started their trip, and finally to the southern tip of Bear Lake for the 1827 rendezvous.

They arrived on July 3rd, a little less than a year after they had departed, and completed one of the most remarkable journeys in American history. What's 2FA security on Kraken? Let's say I'm captaining my soccer team, and we're up by a goal against, I don't know, the Burlington Bulldogs. Do we relax? No way. Time to create an extra line of defense and protect that lead. That's like 2FA on Kraken. A surefire way to keep what you already have safe and sound. Go to kraken.com and see what crypto can be.

Not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. See kraken.com slash legal slash ca dash pru dash disclaimer for info on Kraken's undertaking to register in Canada. I'm not going back to university to be your friend.5. We'll be right back. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.

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Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. for savings, not whatever you think university is for. Get Uber One for Students, a membership to save on Uber and Uber Eats. With deals this good, everyone wants to be a student. Join for just $4.99 a month. Savings may vary. Eligibility and member terms apply. At the 1827 rendezvous, Smith's co-owners, Bill Sublett and David Jackson, were shocked to see Jed Smith and his two companions walk into camp.

Overwhelmed with joy, they fired a celebratory cannon shot. Smith brought news of the 1,500 pounds of pelts he had cashed in California. Sublett and Jackson shared their own challenges, including frequent harassment by various Native American tribes. Irish mountain man Thomas Fitzpatrick recounted returning to a camp to find men missing without a trace. Jim Climent had a close call with a Blackfeet hunting party but managed to escape. Days before Smith's arrival, a Blackfeet war party attacked the rendezvous site, resulting

in casualties among the Shoshone and the Trappers. After that event, Jim Climent announced his retirement from the beaver trade. In gratitude, Smith allowed Climent to keep the pelts he had trapped that season for himself. By the end of the rendezvous, on July 13, 1827, Smith, Jackson, and Sublett had set their routes for the coming year. Smith planned to return to his men in California, as promised. He departed with 18 men, intending to navigate the Great Basin via the Colorado River. Smith had been in camp for just 10 days, and he was already heading back out on another incredible journey.

This time, he was not as lucky with the Mojave people. Warriors ambushed his party and killed most of his men. Smith and the survivors fled, and now Smith had to lead his men through the Mojave desert without the help of guides. He was often disoriented, but he eventually found water sources to keep them alive. Nearing the San Bernardino Mountains, they traded with the Paiute for horses and water, which enabled Smith's group to immediately turn north and start to retrace the trail that Smith had used the previous year.

Jedidiah Smith led his men up through the Central Valley. On the banks of the Stanislaus River, near the spot where modern Modesto would be founded 40 years in the future, Smith found the men he had been forced to leave behind the previous year. His companions were in good spirits, but aware that their peaceful existence might end because of increasing hostility from the Mexican government. Smith decided to visit the governor in the northern California coastal town of Monterrey to negotiate their situation. Smith and a few men traveled to Mission San Jose, where they were promptly arrested. They were accused of inciting Native American uprisings, but eventually the governor decided to release Smith and his men if they sold all

their furs and left California. Smith agreed, and the governor sailed the Americans up the coast to San Francisco. The second half of Smith's overall group, the guys who had been left back at the Stanislaus River near Modesto, traveled to San Francisco and united the whole party. Modesto, traveled to San Francisco, and united the whole party. On December 30, 1827, Smith and his company departed San Francisco. It would be impossible to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains for another five months, so they marched inland to the Sacramento area and then headed north. From January through May 1828, they cut a path through Trinity National Forest and then Redwood National Forest to the Pacific Coast. They faced severe weather, challenging terrain, hostile tribes, dangerous wildlife, and dwindling resources.

But by late June, they had reached the southern edge of Oregon. The appearance of tree stumps that had been cut with steel axes indicated they were close to Hudson's Bay Company territory, offering a glimmer of hope for a safer passage. But tensions with local tribes came to a head along the Umpqua River. An axe had been stolen, resulting in the capture and punishment of the suspected Native American thief. The tribe's headman prevented immediate retaliation, but the situation remained tense. As Smith's group traveled north, the tribe followed. On July 13, 1828, as Smith and a couple other men scouted ahead, warriors ambushed the remaining

trappers and killed nearly all of them. Smith and his small scouting party hurried ahead to stay out of reach of the war party. They were just north of Coos Bay, Oregon when the attack happened, and they rushed inland and then north through Eugene, Salem, and finally to Fort Vancouver in the present-day city of Portland, Oregon. The fort was an HBC outpost, and Smith and the survivors linked up with a company of Hudson's Bay men led by Alexander McCloud. McCloud's men were going out on a simple beaver trapping expedition, but they changed it to a recovery mission. Smith, with McCloud's column, returned to the ambush site on October 28, 1828.

They found the remains of the 11 American trappers and buried them near the Umpqua River. With McCloud's support, Smith managed to retrieve 35 horses, 650 beaver and otter skins, and various pieces of equipment to bring an end to one of the darkest episodes of his career. Smith trekked back up to Fort Vancouver near modern-day Portland, Oregon and spent the winter of 1828-1829 with the men of the Hudson's Bay Company. On March 12, 1829, Jedidiah Smith and Arthur Black, one of the few survivors of the attack, embarked on a 500-mile journey from Oregon to Montana. Remarkably, they traveled without incident and reached David Jackson's trapping camp near Flathead Lake,

just below the current towns of Kalispell and Whitefish by midsummer. Smith's partners, David Jackson and Bill Sublett, reported the company's success, including a $30,000 profit despite losses to Native American attacks and natural hazards. Smith's time at Flathead Lake involved reconnecting with old friends and planning further trapping expeditions.

In early August, 1829, he reunited with Bill Sublette, Jim Bridger, and others at the annual rendezvous. This time it was at a spot called Pierre's Hole in a valley on the Idaho side of the Teton Mountains. That rendezvous marked seven years in the fur trade for Jedidiah Smith. He had traveled thousands of miles, survived bear attacks, Native American attacks, and countless other difficulties, and he was starting to see the end.

Beaver populations were declining, and the difficulty of the profession was increasing. But despite temptations to return to St. Louis, Smith chose to continue trapping with Bill Sublette. to return to St. Louis, Smith chose to continue trapping with Bill Sublett. In late 1829, Smith led an expedition through challenging territories, facing significant losses, but ultimately making it to the Wind River for the winter camp. On Christmas Day, Bill Sublett and Moses Harris set out for St. Louis to secure provisions and recruit new trappers. With them, they carried dispatches from Smith. Smith's correspondence included heartfelt letters to his family, expressing deep homesickness and a longing to return.

He also wrote to General William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and detailed his observations of Mexican and British influences in the West. He emphasized the strategic importance of those regions for U.S. expansion, and within 20 years, all the lands through which Smith had traveled would be territories of the growing American nation. By early 1830, in camp at the base of the Wind River Mountains in western Wyoming, Smith decided to leave the fur trade.

When Bill Sublette returned later that year with wagons of supplies, Smith solidified his decision. The partnership of Jedidiah Smith, David Jackson, and Bill Sublette was formally dissolved, and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company was handed over to Jim Bridger, Thomas Fitzpatrick, and Bill's brother Milton. In August 1830, Jedidiah Smith departed the Rocky Mountains for the final time. As he journeyed east across the plains, he witnessed the expansion of white settlements, an undeniable sign of westward progress. He passed the now-abandoned Fort Atkinson, north of the modern city of Omaha, Nebraska.

It had been one of the earliest U.S. military outposts west of the Missouri River. It was abandoned by the military in 1827, and now, in the fall of 1830, it was in the process of being reclaimed by nature. On October 10, Smith reached St. Louis, where he and his company were hailed as heroes. To his dismay, Smith's brother Peter expressed a desire to accompany him back to the mountains. Smith told his brother that he intended to retire from his life as a mountain man and purchase a farm near their brother Ralph's residence. As a part of his retirement from fur trapping at the ripe old age of 31, he wanted to document his explorations. Smith worked with two

men to organize his extensive notes and artifacts, and then he wrote a comprehensive report to Secretary of War John Eaton. Smith emphasized the strategic significance of Oregon and the looming threat of the Hudson's Bay Company. In his correspondence, Smith urged the termination of the Treaty of 1818 with Great Britain, which, among other things, allowed for joint occupation of Oregon territory. And then, as much as Jedidiah Smith craved retirement, he decided to put it on hold. He still had adventure in his blood, and he agreed to lead an expedition to Santa Fe, New Mexico. On April 10, 1831, Jedidiah Smith and his old friend Bill Sublett led a party of 74 men and 22 wagons out of St. Louis.

As their enormous caravan rumbled down Olive Street, the city's residents gathered to witness the impressive sight. By May 1, the caravan reached Independence, Missouri, where another old friend, Thomas Fitzpatrick, joined them. Fitzpatrick brought news of successful hunts and a plan to secure fresh supplies into Mexico. Throughout their travels, Smith's group faced challenges, including a fatal encounter with the Pawnee on the Southern Plains and a tense standoff with a large group of unidentified warriors. But the biggest trial came as they approached the Cimarron Cut-Off, a dreaded part of the

Santa Fe Trail known for its harsh, waterless terrain called the Water Scrape. A towering sandstorm engulfed the caravan. Smith had educated guesses on where to find water, but the sandstorm made everything more difficult. Smith and Thomas Fitzpatrick rode ahead to scout for water sources. They discovered a dry crater with damp sand that indicated an underground spring. Smith told Fitzpatrick to dig for water while he moved on to find the Cimarron River. The river runs through southwestern Kansas and central Oklahoma until it feeds into the

Arkansas River near Tulsa. Somewhere in that region, Jedidiah Smith disappeared. Members of the caravan frantically searched for him, but they were in an unforgiving situation. Bill Sublett and Thomas Fitzpatrick knew they had to keep moving, or there was a decent chance they could all die. The caravan arrived in Santa Fe on July 4, 1831. Jedidiah's brother Peter discovered a Vaquero who was carrying Smith's rifle, which was identifiable by his initials. The Vaquero also

had Smith's pistols, and Peter implored the man for more information. According to the Vaquero, Smith had encountered a Comanche hunting party near a water source. While attempting to communicate, Smith was surrounded and shot in the shoulder. Despite his injury, he managed to kill two attackers before being fatally stabbed with a spear. The 32-year-old legendary mountain man died somewhere on the dusty southern plains, and the location of his body remains a mystery to this day. Jedidiah Smith's contributions to the exploration and mapping of the American West are unparalleled.

His disappearance on the Santa Fe Trail marked the end of an era, even as famed explorers like Jim Bridger were still going and Kit Carson was just getting started. Smith's detailed observations and reports significantly influenced the United States military, economic, and political expansion toward the Pacific. Smith's expeditions covered vast territories from the Upper Missouri to the Platte River, across the Rockies, and along the Pacific Coast. His maps and geographic insights outlined nearly all of the 522 million acres acquired by the U.S. by the mid-1800s. Despite his significant achievements, his early death at the age of 32 prevented him from publishing his journals and rising to the mythical status of other frontiersmen like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett.

Jedidiah Smith's legacy, immortalized in a final letter to Secretary of War John Eaton, which was only discovered in the year 2000, reveals a man who was not driven by financial gain, but by an unyielding desire to chart the unknown and share his discoveries with the nation. In the famous letter, which is easy to find online, Smith proved he was a man of vision and something of a profit about American expansion westward.

In the final paragraph, he wrote, The object of this communication being to state facts to the government and to show the facility of crossing the continent to the great falls of the Columbia, the ease of supporting any number of men by driving cattle to supply them where there was no buffalo. Next time on Legends of the Old West, we delve into the harrowing tale of Jedidiah Smith's friend and fellow mountain man, Hugh Glass. Malled by a grizzly bear and left for dead by his companions, Hugh Glass' story is one of unparalleled survival and relentless determination. It's been requested many times, and it's finally here.

The story of Hugh Glass starts next week on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships are just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Matthew Kearns. Original music by Rob Valier. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer.

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