Information AboutJedediah Smith |
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Jedediah Strong Smith (born January 6 , 1799 - presumed date of death May 27 , 1831 ) was a hunter, trapper, fur trader and explorer of the Rocky Mountains , the American West Coast and the Southwest during the nineteenth century. Jedediah Smith's explorations were significant in opening the American West to expansion by white settlers. According to Maurice 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 . BIRTH AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS Smith was born in Jericho, New York, (now known as Bainbridge ) on January 6 , 1799 . His early New England ancestors include Thomas Bascom, Constable of Northampton, Massachusetts , who came to America in 1634 . Thomas Bascom was of Huguenot and French Basque ancestry. |
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