Jedediah Strong Smith was born in Bainbridge, New York in January 6, 1798. As a young boy Jedediah learned how to read and write which was not very common for young lads his age. Since he knew how to read he carried the Bible with him. His reading skills also allowed him to learn about Lewis and Clark which helped him later in life on his trapping adventures. In his childhood he dreamed about discovering new paths and exploring uncharted places in the west. Also in his youth he worked on Lake Erie on a cargo ship. Loving the outdoors and wanting to have his dream come true he was lucky enough to work for a man named William Ashley. Ashley hired Jed as a 23 year old man to be in his hunting party and go with him to the Missouri River to trap beavers in a new territory. This was Jed's dream come true! Later in the expedition Ashley made Jed a Captain of the exploring party because of Jed's quick thinking to hide behind dead horses when they were under attack by Blackfoot Indians. The dead horses were killed or stolen by the Indians. Bravely they dove into a river to escape.…show more content… This amazing, fast route that he used was told to him by friendly Crow Indians. Since Jedediah Smith rediscovered this route he was known as one of the greatest explorers of the American West. While the party was going by the Cheyenne River, out of the bushes emerged an enormous Grizzly bear that attacked Jedediah and no one else. He was lucky that day, the bear gave him broken ribs, scars all over his face and left his left ear dangling down off of his head. The rest of the party immediately started to bandage Jed up and sewed his ear on as best as they could. A couple weeks later Jedediah was up and back setting and checking his traps again. What a remarkably strong man he
