Smith Explores the Far West
At a glance:
- Series: Great Events from History: North American Series
- Categories: Land Acquisition and Expansion, Territory Redistribution, Discovery, Exploration, Geography
- Subcategories: Explorers, Frontier, Pioneers
- Curriculum: American History 1816-1855
- Geographical Location: Missouri, California, Arizona, Oregon, Utah
- Date: September, 1823-1831
Article abstract: An American explorer opens both a central and a southern route across the continent to the Pacific Ocean.
Summary of Event
A native of Chenango County, New York, Jedediah Smith learned to read and write before he and his family moved to St. Louis in 1816. Soon he became interested in fur trapping, beginning his career in Missouri in 1822. Over the next decade, and thirty years before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War and the Southwest was ceded to the United States, Smith would twice traverse the country to open the...
[The entire page is 1613 words long]