The Jedediah Smith Society

July 6, 2020 Had the opportunity to get out over the Independence Day weekend and, once again, follow along in the footsteps of Jedediah Smith for a few miles. Our first stop was at the Jedediah Smith Historical Marker on I-94, near Hysham, MT. Next we picked up his trail at the southern end of the Black Hills, near Custer, South Dakota. We were following Jed’s first trip overland to the Rocky Mountains in 1823, when he was 24 years old and had been promoted by William As...hley following the Arikara battle, in which he had distinguished himself, on the Missouri River that summer. Ashely put Smith in charge of a group of men he sent overland to seek new trapping opportunities. Smith and his party, which included James Clyman, William Sublette and Thomas Fitzpatrick among other Fur Trade Era notables, headed west from Fort Kiowa (present Chamberlain, SD) in September, 1823. We found the Society’s Interactive map of Jed’s travels very helpful in attempting to follow along his route as closely as possible. Using the map’s Google Earth functions can enable one to pinpoint places along the way and coordinate them to modern highways, landmarks and place names. We also found the feature article in the Winter 2013 Castor to be an excellent resource. This article by professor Charles L. Camp was entitled: Jedediah Smith’s First-Far Western Expedition. Using the map and Dr. Camp’s article we were able to get pretty close to the spot where the grizzly bear ran into Jed, or vice versa, that October. Emerging from the Black Hills put Smith’s party into the great prairie country in the middle of eastern Wyoming. We drove from Newcastle to Wright, Wyoming along state highway 450. These days it’s part of the Thunder Basin National Grassland. This is about ten miles north of the Cheyenne River near its headwaters. What few streams there are in this vast sea of prairie grass are denoted by winding brushy areas, lined with cottonwood tress, sheltering birds and other critters. Big and Little Thunder creeks are two of these. It was along one of these stream courses that Jed had his close encounter with the bear. From around Wright, following his two week recuperation, Jed and his party headed northwest toward Buffalo and Sheridan, and crossed the Bighorn mountains; while our road took us south toward Casper and eventually home to Montana. The country looks about the same now as it did in 1823. The beauty and vastness of the northern plains is as amazing to the contemporary traveler as it must have been to Jed and his companions. See more

A few photos from the 84th annual Green River days in Pinedale, Wyoming last weekend. Including events at the Museum of the Mountain Man.

The Jedediah Smith Society held its 2019 Annual Meeting at the end of March at the San Joaquin County Historical society in Lodi, California. A good time was had by all. The keynote speaker was Dr. Stephen dow Beckham, retired professor of history at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Beckham discussed Jedediah's journey up the Oregon-California coast in 1828, the Umpqua Fight, and the map he prepared while at Fort Vancouver that winter in a presentation entitled: Jedediah Smith's Map of the American West, 1828. Here's a few photos from the annual Meeting.

The Jedediah Smith Society just revised the basic brochure. There's a copy below. Included is a membership application and an order form for the wall map showing Jedediah Smith's Travels in the West.