Jedediah Strong Smith

Smith, Jedediah Strong (1799–1831), U.S. pioneer who led fur-trapping expeditions to the Missouri and Wind rivers and in 1824 discovered the South Pass route across the Rocky Mountains to the far West. Smith was the first white man to cross the Sierra Nevada and the Great Salt Desert and to explore the California-Oregon coast by land. He was killed by Comanches.

See also: Pioneer life in America.