On the Trail of Jedediah Smith

The rugged country on the west side of the Teton Range, between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, is a wilderness area named for Jedediah Strong Smith, who came west as one of the trappers organized by William Ashley in 1823. Smith, along with William Sublette and David Jackson, sought beaver in the Rocky Mountain streams, but more than a trapper, Smith was an explorer. He would spend most of his years in the fur trade on expeditions that took him to the Upper Missouri River Cou