The Travels of Jedediah Smith: A Documentary Outline Including the Journal of the Great American Pathfinder

About this book

Maurice Sullivans pioneering work in the 1930s on Jedediah Smith contributed to the rediscovery of the mountain man who was the first American citizen to travel overland to California to turn eastward and cross the Great Basin and later to proceed by land from southern California to northern Oregon. Sullivans discovery of portions of Smiths journals was important in piecing together those historical explorations. The Travels of Jedediah Smith begins with Smiths own sketch of his entry into the fur trade in 1822 when he left St. Louis with an expedition headed by William H. Ashley and Andrew Henry. The book continues with Smiths daily record from June 23 1827 to July 3 1828 dealing with his remarkable journey on foot over the Utah desert his second visit to California and his trip to Oregon. Those who enjoyed The Southwest Expedition of Jedediah S. Smith also a Bison Book will want to read about his further adventures in The Travels of Jedediah Smith. Sullivan has supplied continuity that fills out Smiths career. Included is the diary of the fur trader Alex R. McLeod describing events during the Hudsons Bay Company expedition in 1828 to recover Jedediah Smiths property after the massacre of some in his party on the Umpqua River in Oregon.