Jedediah Strong Smith (1798-1831), was an American trader and explorer. He was born in Bainbridge, NY. As a young man, Smith entered the fur trade in the West. He set out in 1826 to find trade routes to California and the Northwest. From the Great Salt Lake, he crossed Ute and Paiute Indian territories, the Mojave Desert, and the High Sierras, until he reached Mission San Gabriel in California. But the Spaniards ordered him out. He started north to find a pass across the Sierra Nevada. While returning to California the next year, Indians killed ten of his party. Smith escaped. In 1828, he led an expedition to Fort Vancouver (now Vancouver, WA), but an Indian attack along the way wiped out most of his party. Smith was killed by Indians on the Santa Fe Trail.

-- Excerpt, "Word Book" Encyclopedia