American Minute with Bill Federer
Colter's Run, Jedediah Smith & the Mountain Men
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John Colter
accompanied
Lewis and Clark
on their expedition, 1804-1806.
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Colter
then traveled the mountain wilderness alone for months, being considered
the first "mountain man."
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In 1807, Colter
became the first person of European descent to see the
Teton Mountain Range
and traverse the area that became known as
Yellowstone National Park.
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His description of bubbling mudpots, geysers and steaming pools of water, resulted in the area being named
"Colter's Hell."
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In 1809, hundreds of
Blackfeet
captured
John Colter.
His friend,
John Potts
, was riddled with bullets and hacked to pieces.
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Wanting to make a sport out of killing
Colter,
Indians stripped him naked and forced him run the gauntlet.
He was chased by dozens of young warriors across miles of prairie.
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After running for his life nearly five miles, bleeding from his nose,
Colter
grabbed the spear from his charging assailant, then quickly turned it around, and killed him with it.
As other warriors stopped to see their dead friend,
Colter
raced ahead to the chilly
Madison River,
where he dove in and swam under a beaver dam.
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Washington Irving wrote in
Astoria
(1836, chapter 15):
"John Colter
... swam below water until he succeeded in getting a breathing place between the floating trunks of trees ...
He had scarcely drawn breath after all his toils, when he heard his pursuers on the river bank, whooping and yelling like so many fiends. They plunged in the river ...
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... The heart of
Colter
almost died within him as he saw them, through the chinks of his concealment, passing and repassing, and seeking for him in all directions ...
He remained until nightfall ... finding by the silence around that his pursuers had departed ...
Colter
dived again and came up ... then swam silently down the river."
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Colter
then walked naked and exposed to the weather for 11 days to a trading fort on the
Little Big Horn.
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Other famous
mountain men
of the early 19th century included:
- John "Grizzly" Adams,
- John "Liver-Eating" Johnson,
- Thomas L. "Pegleg" Smith,
- "Blackfoot" John Smith,
- John Albert,
- Jim Baker,
- William Henry Ashley,
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- Jim Bridger,
- Kit Carson,
- William Sublette,
- Jean Baptiste Charbonneau,
- John C. Fremont,
- Robert "Doc" Newell,
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- Black mountain man James Beckwourth, and
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Jedediah Smith's
travels were exceeded only by
Lewis and Clark.
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He led expeditions up the
Missouri River
with such characters as keelboatman
Mike Fink
-- the notorious brawler and braggart.
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Jedediah Smith
was a renown frontiersman, hunter, trapper, and map-maker.
He explored the
Rocky Mountains,
from the Northwest to the Southwest.
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Smith
helped discover the
"South Pass"
through the
Rockies
and the
first land route to California,
which opened the door for the
largest voluntary mass migration in world history of nearly 400,000.
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Leading settlers across the
Santa Fe Trail, Smith's
party were the first white Americans to cross the the
Mojave Desert into California.
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Returning east,
Smith
and his party were the first U.S. citizens to cross the treacherous
Sierra Nevada
and
Great Basin Desert.
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His was the first documented exploration from the
Salt Lake
to the
Colorado River.
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Smith
and his companions were also the first U.S. citizens to travel by land up the
California
and
Oregon coast.
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Born JUNE 24, 1798,
Jedediah Smith's
adventurous career began at age of 22, when he answered an add in the
Missouri Gazette
, place by Missouri's Lieutenant Governor, William H. Ashley, seeking:
"Enterprising Young Men ... to ascend the river Missouri to its source ... to be employed for ... three years."
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Jedediah Smith
was known to carry two books,
the Bible
and a copy of
Lewis & Clark's Expedition.
He never drank alcohol, never used tobacco, and never boasted.
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Jedediah Smith
wrote in his Journal:
"Then let us come forward with
faith,
nothing doubting, and He will most unquestionably hear us."
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Jedediah Smith
entered into a fur trapping partnership,
"Smith, Jackson and Sublette,"
and in 1827 sold furs at a
rendezvous
near the
Great Salt Lake.
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When fellow trapper John Gardner died,
Jedediah Smith
gave the eulogy, as recorded by another expedition member, Hugh Glass:
"Mr. Smith,
a young man of our company made
a powerful prayer
which moved us all greatly and I am persuaded John died in peace."
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As captain of his second expedition,
Jedidiah Smith
was attacked by a Grizzly bear, as Jim Clyman described:
"The Grissly did not hesitate a moment but sprang on the capt taking him by the head first pitching sprawling on the earth ... breaking several of his ribs and cutting his head badly ...
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... The bear had taken nearly all his head in his capacious mouth close to his left eye on one side and close to his right ear on the other and laid the skull bare to near the crown of the head ...
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... One of his ears was torn from his head out to the outer rim ..."
Smith
had
Jim Clyman
sew his scalp back on, but the ear was too cut to save.
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Smith
insisted he try, as
Clyman
wrote:
"I put my needle sticking it through and through and over and over laying the lacerated parts together as nice as I could with my hands."
After two weeks of rest,
Smith
resumed leading the expedition.
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On December 24, 1829, from the
Wind River
on the east side of the Rocky Mountains,
Jedediah Smith
wrote to his parents in Ohio:
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"It is a long time since I left home & many times I have been ready, to bring my business to a close & endeavor to come home; but have been hindered hitherto ...
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... However I will endeavor, by the assistance of
Divine
Providence,
to come home as soon as possible ... but whether I shall ever be allowed the privilege,
God
only knows ..."
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Smith
continued:
"I feel the need of the watch & care of a
Christian church.
You may well suppose that our society is of the roughest kind.
Men of good morals seldom enter into business of this kind -- I hope you will remember me before the
Throne of Grace
...
May
God
in
His infinite mercy
allow me soon to join my parents is the
prayer
of your undutiful Son,
Jedediah S. Smith."
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In a letter to his brother, Ralph, December 24, 1829,
Jedediah Smith
wrote:
"Many hostile tribes of Indians
inhabit this space ...
In August 1827, ten men who were in company with me lost their lives by the
Amuchabas Indians
...
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... In July 1828, fifteen men who were in company with me lost their lives by the
Umpquah Indians
...
Many others have lost their lives in different parts ...
My Brother ... I have need of your
prayers
... to bear me up before the
Throne of Grace."
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Jedidiah Smith
sold his shares in the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company
in 1830 and retired, buying a townhouse in
St. Louis.
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However, he had agreed to go on one last trip for the
Sublette and Jackson Company,
leaving in the spring of 1831.
On May 27, 1831, while looking for water along the
Santa Fe Trail
in southwest Kansas,
Jedediah Smith
was ambushed by
Comanche warriors
and killed.
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Just four months earlier, January 26, 1831,
Jedediah Smith
had written to his brother Ralph in Wayne County, Ohio:
"Some, who have made a profession of
Christianity
& have by their own negligence caused the
Spirit
to depart, think their day of grace is over; but where did they find Such doctrine?
I find
our Savior
ever entreating & wooing us."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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