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It's the most rewarding way to shop. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N, Racketon.com. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star. and the American people. Just decades following the signing of the U.S.
Constitution in 1787, Trailblazers called Mountain Men. Headed west. Here to tell the story is Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Hallowemen, and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier. Take it away, McGrath. By 1821, 24 U.S.
states had been established. The population. is something around nine point six billion. The country's border expands to the Missouri River. And beyond that border, Lies a vast western territory of brutal wilderness shrouded in myth.
We're conquering it. requires extraordinary men. One of the greatest of these is Jedediah Smith. He was the first to come overland into California. He's the first known person to cross the Sierra Nevada.
the first man to recognize the significance of the South Pass. Smith's discoveries beyond the Missouri surpassed those of even Lewis and Clark. Here's Jim Hardy. Director of the Fur Trade Research Center. Without men like Jedediah Smith, and particularly his trails.
We wouldn't have had an Oregon Trail. We wouldn't have had a gold rush.
Well, because the the routes to California and Oregon wouldn't be there yet. Smith embodies the character of America. Frontier grid. work at individualism. survival.
Genedia Strong Smith. Is born the fourth of twelve children on January six, seventeen ninety nine. in south-central New York State. To parents who descend from the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts. Following the expanding frontier, The family moves westward in eighteen ten to Erie, Pennsylvania, And two years later, the Jedediah, now thirteen years old, goes to work as a clerk on a freighter.
that sails the waters of Lake Erie. The young teenager, becomes familiar With not only shipping and trading, But also the adventurous life of those who live farther to the west. Live in 1814. A family friend gives Jedediah. A copy of The Journals of Lewis and Clark.
and he devours the book. Here's astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Lewis and Clark want to see what's on the other side. Given A mountain We want a climate. We hold those venturers of the past in great admiration.
Then in the spring of eighteen twenty two, The twenty three year old is off on his own to the edge of Western civilization, in Saint Louis, Missouri. The city is the center of America's fastest growing industry, the fur trade. Here's Bart and Barber. Author of Jedediah Smith. no ordinary mountain man.
Jedediah's primary reason for going to St. Louis and then into the Far West as a beaver hunter was motivated by his ambition, a word that he uses often, his ambition to make good at a time when the nation was in terrible economic condition after the panic of 1819 and closures of banks and rural mortgage failures.
So he's driven by the urge to make good. That means he wants to make money. A skillful writer. Smith details his life in his journal. I intend to follow my strong inclination to visit this unexplored country and unfold those hidden resources of wealth.
and bring to light those wonders which I readily imagine a country so extensive might contain. Jededi Smith becomes a regular reader of the Missouri Gazette and Public Advertiser. the town's leading newspaper. One day, an advertisement on page three. catches his eye.
Wednesday morning, february thirteenth, eighteen twenty two. To enterprising young men, The subscriber wishes to engage 100 men to ascend the River Missouri to its source. they're to be employed for one, two, or three years. For particulars, inquire of Major Andrew Henry near the lead mines or the subscriber at St. Louis.
Signed by one General William H. Ashley. It was almost as if his life was was lined up. for that particular moment, to be able to read that article.
Next. Smith gets to William Ashley as fast as he can. Thomas Mitchell.
Next. What do you do? A trapper. Man. Jedediah Smith.
Welcome, Mr. Smith. Through the Ashley Henry Fur Company. Gay of things men, let's go. It is from these beaver trapping expeditions But the new mountain man emerges.
But there's something about Smith's character that sets him apart from these other young adventurers. Smith is a devout Christian. doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't chase women. He has long on courage and clear thinking in a tight spot. His Bible and gun were or as closest companions.
As Phil Anschutz writes of Smith in Out Where the West Begins, Volume 2. Smith was hardly a stereotypical mountain man. yet few mountain men earn greater respect from their peers. Here's fur trade historian Rex Norman and Jim Hardy. There was something about his nature.
that seem to exude to people confidence. trustworthiness and boldness. He had read Lewis and Clark's journals. Lewis and Clark takes this expedition all the way out to the Pacific Ocean and back over a period of little more than two and a half years. And you read that and you can get caught up in the romance.
You can get caught up in the wonder of what's out there. And I think Jed was uh suffering from a little wander lust. I want to be the first to view a country on which the eyes of a white man have never gazed. And to follow the course of rivers that run through a new land. And you've been listening to the story of Jedediah Smith, and it's so interesting to hear from Buzz Aldrin.
one of the great 20th century explorers talking about one of the greatest 19th century explorers. When we come back more of Jedediah Smith's story here, on our American stories. Lee Habib here. As we approach our nation's 250th anniversary, I'd like to remind you that all the history stories you hear on this show are brought to you by the great folks at Hillsdale College. And Hillsdale isn't just a great school for your kids or grandkids to attend, but for you as well.
Go to hillsdale.edu to find out about their terrific free online courses. Their series on communism is one of the finest I've ever seen. Again, go to hillsdale.edu and sign up for their free and terrific online courses. At Blinds.com, it's not just about window treatments. It's about you, your style, your space, your way.
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What's that sound? That's the sound of downy, unstoppable scent beads going into your washing machine and giving your clothes freshness that lasts all day long. There it is again. It's like music to your ears, or more like music to your nose. That freshness is irresistible.
Let's get a downy unstoppable bottle shake. And now a sniff solo. Nice. With Downy Unstoppable, you just toss wash. Wow.
all day freshness. Every now and then I rinse it out And I need downy rinse tonight And I need it more I can't wait for bed and the smell never me I don't know what to do, I'm always in the dark The sweet dead short smells like a dark barny rinse it tonight Downy rinse fights stubborn odors in just one wash when impossible odors get stuck in And we continue with our American stories and the story of Jedediah Smith. as being told by Roger McGrath. Let's pick up. where we last left off.
The Ashley Henry Expedition. ascends the Missouri River in two keel boats, During the spring of 1822, For 22 weeks, The men travel nearly fourteen hundred miles. covering some five to twenty miles a day. When spring arrives in eighteen twenty three, The 24-year-old Jedediah Smith Has spent his first winter trapping beaver at the Mussel Shell River in central Montana. But the pelts come with a price, The local Indians have stolen almost all of the mountain men's horses.
Because of this, Andrew Henry looked for someone to carry a message to William Ashley. asking her to buy horses from the Auricura Indians at their village on the Missouri River. I'll go. It'd be dangerous traveling all by yourself. Here's his storehead.
Mike Moore. To me, Jedediah is the epitome of a man's man in the West. He's mentally and physically tough. He's brave. He doesn't say, I cannot do that.
He just says, let's go. They soon reached the Erikara Indian village near present-day Mowbridge, South Dakota. As we approaches the village, cautiously with some forty men. to negotiate with Chief Gray Eyes, Tobacco, who met Lewis and Clark in 1806 and earned a reputation as an iron-willed negotiator. We need horses.
But many blankets, many other things to trade for. Smith is Left in command of the shore party. Positioned on the sandbar. Ashley manages to conclude a deal trading kettles, blankets, knives, and supplies of all kinds for horses. All seems fine.
The Rick Rev deliver the horses to the sandbar, but before Ashley's men can swim them to the opposite bank of the Missouri, A violent storm sweeps down upon them. The shore party now has to remain with the horses on the sandbar overnight. This gives the Erykra. Plenty of time to think about the situation. There are six or seven hundred Rickora warriors.
And a mirror forty Ashley men down below on the sandbar. Why not annihilate them? and capture the keel boats with all the cargo and weapons aboard. At the break of day, on June 2nd, 1823. Smith and the others on the sandbar hear the crack of rifles and lead balls begin ripping into their position.
Horses start toppling over. and men dive behind them for cover. Within minutes, Most of the horses. and several of the men are dead. The Orycaras unleashed a fusillade of hundreds of flintlock guns.
The Rikora archers were also launching clouds of arrows as best they could. With this massed firepower, these guys on the exposed sandbar were in deep, deep trouble. By the twos and threes, men dive into the river and are swept downstream. Smith makes it into the river unscathed. and later is hauled aboard a keel boat.
But as Jed's leaving, he's looking at a beach that's strewn with the bodies of a dozen or so of his comrades and all these dead horses they had just traded for, and there's nothing that he can do. But my thoughts I kept to myself. Knowing that a few words from me would discourage my men. Thirteen men are killed at the battle site. and two others later die of their wounds.
The Erykra evidently suffer few casualties. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. The battle is one of the deadliest. In the history of the Western Fur Trade.
Amen. Survivors of the attack. Get downstream. and reached Colonel Henry Leavenworth at Fort Atkinson. about fifteen miles north of present day Omaha, Nebraska.
Leavenworth organizes what one fur trader called the Missouri Legion, some 350 soldiers. another 75 or 80 mountain men and trappers. And then Sioux warriors Who saw a great opportunity here to have Uncle Sam help destroy their inveterate enemies, the Aurickera? On August 9th, 1823. Six weeks after the Erykora battle, The mount men are organized into two companies.
and Shedadia Smith is made captain. of one of the companies. And the force reaches the Aripura villages. A Lakota Sioux wastes no time. and immediately began pouring fire into the uricuras.
without any plan of attack. Jedediah Smith and Colonel Leavenworth's forces have no choice but to join in. Fifty Auricara are dead. and Sue managed to kill Chief Gray Eyes. The Missouri Legion suffers no losses.
Erykra signal they want to parley. Ericra subsequently agreed to all of Colonel Leavenworth's demands. In Leavenworth, calls off further attack. The Lakota Sioux are outraged. The Lakota people thought it was stupid and disgusting that the whites didn't carry through this fight against the Orikaras.
That boosted the Lakota's contempt. for white soldiers and their power. Jededaz Smith and the other mountain men are also outraged. No way. It is simply an Euricora toy to gain time.
The mountain had a raised. That night, the Auricara slip out of their village and disappear. Smith heads west. and spends the next three years leading trapping parties through the Rocky Mountains. It's the beginning.
of expeditions that will earn him five historic First. The first of these It's pioneering. A trail through yourself pass. Together with some Crow Indians, friend James Kleiman and Tom Fitzpatrick, Smith establishes a trail, through a twenty mile wide valley. The one opening through the Rockies.
It is the door. to Oregon and California. The route will be taken by pioneers on the Oregon Trail. A stagecoach, The Pony Express? and the Union Pacific Railroad.
That fall, Jed and his crew blazed through grizzly country. in present day self the CUDA. A grizzly bear is the most deadly frontier beast, up to ten feet tall and a thousand pounds. with claws six inches long. Grizzlies don't fear anything on earth, including man.
The grizzly was the largest, most powerful animal in North America at the time. It had nothing above it in the food chain. It looked at everything as a potential source of food. It stood up, it towered over you. You could pump bullets into the thing and it would still come at you.
It was literally a monster. Yeah. Suddenly they hear this thrashing in the underbrush nearby. Sure enough, a grizzly bear bursts out of the thickets, smashes into the line of march. And Jed is in the front and he runs up into this clearing.
And I think that Jed running drew that bear to him. Bear attacks. The bear immediately grabbed him in a vicious and deadly bear hug and seized Jedediah's head in his jaws. And as he pulls his head away, pulls his jaws off, he just rips the scalp. And you've been listening to Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Howie Men, and Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier.
The U.S. Marine and former history professor at UCLA, a regular contributor here, tells the story of Jedediah Smith and what a story. It's unimaginable what these men did, these mountain men. Lewis and Clark forged the path, but these guys created the pathways and many and multiple ones, including the Oregon Trail. Jedediah Smith responsible for that and the South Pass.
and what they had to deal with. In the interim, warring Indian tribes, nature itself, storms. and yet they prevailed. The ambition, by the way, is such a big part of us, and Jedediah Smith had it in spades. He wanted to do good.
He also had that ambition that fuels so much of the Move West, and that is money. and freedom. And when we come back, more of Jedediah Smith's story here. on our American stories. And we continue with our American stories and the story of Jedediah Smith.
Telling that story is Roger McGrath. Let's pick up. Where Roger last left off. Hmm. There lay Jedediah in a bloody heap.
His men are panic-stricken. There's no surgeons there. They don't know what the heck to do, and nobody wants to lay their hands on this guy's mangled face. You gonna sit around and watch me bleed to death? Captain, what's best to do?
Give me a blanket.
Somebody get some water. And the only one who's not panicking is Jedediah Smith. And he's saying, all right, guys. You need to work on me here. Jeledia's friend.
James Clyman. Crap. describes the incredible ordeal in his journal. Get some water. Captain said, send one or two men for water.
And if you have a needle and thread, get it out. and sew up my wounds around my head. To climb and you got a needle and thread, you gotta get it out now. Yeah. I got no thread.
I got some fine sinew in it. It'll have to do. You're gonna have to work on me right here. Ugh. I got a pair of scissors.
and cut off his hair and then began my first job of dressing wounds. He would have not Upon examination, the bear had taken nearly all his head in its capacious mouth. and torn his face from his left eye to his right ear, and laid the skull bear near the crown of his head. I don't need to bleed to death right here. Yeah.
One of his ears was torn from his head out to the outer rim. After stitching all the other wounds in the best way I was capable, the ear was last. Then I put in my needle. Stitching it through and through. And over and over.
You know, laying the parts together as nice as I could. I got it. Miraculously. A stitching job is successful. Hello Smith is left with a frightful scar.
He grows his hair long. and styles it with a distinct comb over. To hide the vivid red scar. missing eyebrow and displaced ear. It becomes his signature look.
Just ten days after the attack, Jet Smith is back on his horse and heads west to High Beaver country. six hundred miles away. Smith's trapping skills earn him the record for beaver pelts taken in one season. He arrives at the annual rendezvous with six hundred and sixty eight pelts. which sell for six dollars apiece.
earning him some four thousand dollars. That's more than $400,000 in today's money. Smith is so successful as a mountain man that in eighteen twenty six At twenty seven years of age, and five years of experience already as a trapper, He organizes his own fur trading company. and brings in David Jackson, and William Sublett as partners. For the next five years, Smith's company dominates the American fur trade.
The 1826 Mount Man Rodevu. is held at the Great Salt Lake in Utah. When it concludes, Smith assembles a party of twenty men. Having talked them in to to blaze a trail through the Mexican province of California. Bell.
The map beyond the Great Salt Lake is a blank. The Indians are unable to help. They can't answer Smith's Questions about this unmapped region? All anyone knows. is somewhere.
maybe a thousand miles to the west, is this place called California. Smith and Party leave the Great Salt Lake in August 1826. And he becomes The first to travel the length of and breath. of the Great Basin. Jededai's greatest accomplishment.
was probably Getting across the Great Basin. Virtually on foot. And they basically walked across the deserts of Nevada. When he got ready to go to California, there were guys ready to follow him into lands that nobody had been to before. They didn't know what they would find, but they were willing to follow Jedediah Smith.
They travel southwest. and by November, after a little more than three months on the trail, Smith and his party reached Mission San Gabriel, some ten miles east of the small Pueblo, of Los Angeles. Today, a city of Four and a half million people. Los Angeles then had but 1500 residents. Jed Smith and his men are the first Americans to cross overland to California.
Most of the route of Smith's expedition. is followed today. By Interstate 15. Smith and his men spend the winter at a camp on the Stanislaus River. in the San Joaquin Valley.
When spring arrives, Smith attempts another first. He and two of his trappers head for the eighteen twenty seven Mountain Man Rendezvous at Bear Lake, on the border of Utah and Idaho, But to do so They have to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Despite encountering snowfields up to eight feet deep, The men struggle across the mountains in eight days. There's is the first recorded crossing of the rugged mountain range. And ironically for Americans, The Direction of Travel in this first recorded crossing of the Sierra Nevada, is from west.
To east. When Smith and the two others arrive at the rendezvous, early in july, eighteen twenty seven. Cheers are up. A small cannon is fired in salute, A nightmare. had given up Smith and his party.
For dead. No one believed that he could still be alive. No one could believe that he did what he did. The thing that stands out to me when I think about Jed Smith and his accomplishments is the. really remarkable amount of terrain that he covered.
The extraordinary uh trips that he made through territory which was uncharted, unmapped, unknown, with such ease that he traveled across the landscape. After spending a week at the rendezvous, 28-year-old Smith heads for California again. This time he has a party of nineteen mountain men with him. Traveling by the route of the previous year, Smith arrives at the Mojave Indian Settlement on the Calderana River. in August of eighteen twenty seven.
Smith has met the tribe before and traded with them and doesn't expect any trouble. His medicine was considered strong amongst a lot of the native nations that had dealt with him. they understood that there were special things about him that put him over and above other men. And they respected that. They brought him pumpkins and squash.
He got good information. He got guides that took him across the desert, showed him water holes, got him all the way over to the Mission San Gabriel. But something was different on the second trip. Yeah. Oh.
Men set up camp for the night. and prepare for departure in the morning. At daybreak Smith and the mountain men must first cross the Colorado River. Smith leaves ten of his men on the eastern shore while he and eight others Transport themselves and part of their supplies on small rafts across the Colorado. Just as they are nearing, The California shore.
Several hundred Mojave warriors attacked the mountain men left behind. And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell one heck of a story as our whole crew is listening to that mauling scene by the grizzly. And then the triage, the Medical operation performed by his buddy, stitching together with Let's just say not first grade medical materials, re-stitching his face and his ear. Reassembling this man's actual head. And then him growing the hair long and making these scars a part of his persona.
When we come back, more of the remarkable story of Jedediah Smith, who also put together the preeminent fur trading outfit in the country. more of this remarkable story of courage, ambition, and commerce. Here. on our American stories. And we continue with our American stories and with the story of Jedediah Smith.
Here for the final portion, the final segment. is Roger McGrath. Just as they are nearing. The California shore. Several hundred No Javi Warriors.
attack the mountain men left behind. They look back on the bank, and all of a sudden, these eight or ten guys that are with the party that are still there are just surrounded by Mojave's. This incredible shout goes up. They're looking back at their party and they're just being annihilated. They're being clubbed and beaten and spears, knives, tomahawks right before their eyes.
They're being choked. Here's Smith looking through the willows seeing his men being slaughtered. You can only imagine what might have been going through his head at that particular time. I thought it most prudent to go to the bank of the river. And select the spot on which we might sell our lives at the dearest rate.
They fall back into this little grove of trees. They begin to fort up. They use their knives to chop down some smaller branches and make them like spears. They tie their knives down to the end of the spears and they pile up some logs to make sort of a fort there.
Some of the men asked if I thought we would be able to defend ourselves. I told them I thought we would. But that was not my opinion. Thus, poorly prepared, we waited the approach of our unmerciful enemies. On one side, the river prevented them from approaching us, but in every other direction, the Indians were closing in upon us.
As the Mojave's approach, Jed has his two best marksmen. Shoot and kill. to of the Mojave. That was just enough. to make the Mojave's think twice about attacking.
At Nightfall. Smith and the survivors. many of them wounded. slip westward into the desert. He then blazes a trail.
through the mountains and forests of Northern California, to the Pacific coast. and then up the coast into Oregon. Smith's trailblazing. Takes him through the Coast Redwoods. And the bow man gaze upon the tallest trees on earth.
some of them nearly four hundred feet high. The area today is Jedediah Smith, Redwood State Park. Once in Oregon, Now mid July, eighteen twenty eight, Smith leads his men up the coast to the Umpqua River, and then up the river a short distance, To a large village of of kilowatts at Indians. Part of the Umpqua tribe. The Kila Wattset seemed friendly.
in clanly trade with the mountain men. Oh, it's men trading with the Indians. The killer Watson died. helped Smith scout the area ahead for the best route to Fort Vancouver. Upon returning to the village, though, Smith senses something's wrong.
He stealthily Creeps closer. and sees the Kilowatt said. have killed, scalped, and mutilated his men. The Kelowatsets used axes, knives, and whatever came to hand to murder these Americans as quickly as they possibly could. Oh, Smith.
could do nothing. but creep back up the trail. and begin what became a three week, two hundred mile journey north to Fort Vancouver. the great Hudson Bay Company post, located on the north bank of the Columbia River, in today's state of Washington. He's the first individual known to have gone from California.
to the Columbia River.
So he explored the west coast of the United States. Smith remains in the Oregon country. Trading and trapping until March 1829. The seven years of incomprehensibly hard living has taken a toll on both his physical and spiritual being. Here's Jededaz Smith scholar, James Ald, He does write a letter home, the famous letter on Christmas Eve 1829.
And he really pours his heart out. And he really lets it all go about how much he misses his spiritual life and how much he wants people to pray for him out here. And here's a chance for him to let loose and get personal, knowing that this letter is going to be read by his family. I find myself One of the most ungrateful unthankful creatures imaginable. I have need of your prayers.
During his stay, Smith gains an intimate knowledge of the Oregon country, and notes there are almost no British settled there. Earlier, Smith saw that Mexican troll of California is tenuous, and the population of Mexicans. is no more than seven or eight thousand. Moreover, almost none of them have settled north of San Francisco Bay, or in the interior valleys. Both.
The Oregon country and California are ripe for the taking. Smith feels It's his duty as an American. to make his observations known to officials in Washington. In particular, Secretary of War John Eaton. Smith sends a long, detailed letter to Secretary Eaton, that reveals not only Smith's writing skills and command of the language, but also as comprehensive understanding of geopolitical strategy.
Smith. Sends precise descriptions of his trailblazing and copies of his maps. In effect, Smith becomes an explorer and strategist. for the US government. Yet Smith is a buckskin clad mountain man, and he continues to lead trapping parties Until august eighteen thirty when when he retires to Saint Louis.
Smith has made and saved enough money to live comfortably as a gentleman. at just thirty one years of age, his most experienced man in the west. Time to call it quits.
However, Smith is intrigued by the large profits St. Louis traders are making on the Santa Fe Trail. Early. In 1831, Smith leads a trade caravan he has organized. From St.
Louis. en route to Santa Fe. By late May, The caravan has moved into the dreaded Cimarron Desert. For three days, The traders push on. and no water.
I'll be back. Smith Scott's forehead of the wagon seat. Several miles out. he comes upon a water hole. Too late.
He realizes That lying in wait at the water hole is a hunting party of some 20 Comanche. including a chief. They're waiting for buffalo. but Smith will do just fine. Smith knows that A bomb.
Approach. Yes.
Now is only hope and he rides directly up to the command seat. tries to communicate with them. in the sign language of the planes. But they ignore his peaceful gestures. and began to circle.
Who is rear? Suddenly, Smith's nervous horse wheels about, exposing Smith's back to the mansion. Instantly. Comanche fire. and the musket ball rips into Smith.
Mm gasps at the impact. but is able to turn his horse about and lets his rifle roar. Smith's single shot. drills the Comanche chief in the chest and he drops to the ground dead. Smith kills two more Comanche with his pistols.
before other Comanches close in. They thrust their long lances and repeatedly. Stab Smith. At just 32 years of age, Jedediah Smith Legendary luck. finally runs out.
The Comanche regard Smith as such a great warrior. They do not mutilate and dismember his body. but give him the same funeral rites They give their chief. Jen Smith has passed from life. Into history.
At a water hole, in the Cimarron Desert. And a terrific job by the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Roger McGrath. He's the author of Gunfighters, Highway Men, and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier. He's a US Marine and former history professor at UCLA.
Dr. McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries. You probably recognize his voice. He's a regular contributor here at Our American Stories. And my goodness, this may be one of my favorites about any of the stories about the West.
Imagine seeing the grizzly in real life. The things these men saw that no one else saw, and then these encounters with Indian tribes across. the Pacific Northwest and across America. were just brutal and vicious. And the idea that there's just one side to that story Well, these stories show that it was complicated.
and he dies in battle. and dies at the hands of the Comanches, who Bury Jedediah Smith with the same rights and respect. that they buried their own chief. The story of Jedediah Smith. Here are on our American stories.
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