Wanderlust World Wanderlust World Jedediah Smith led the first documented American trapping expedition into the Oregon Country in 1826. His party of trappers explored the Umpqua River region and, crucially, rediscovered South Pass—the broad, gentle crossing of the Rocky Mountains that became the primary route for the Oregon Trail, California Trail, and Mormon Trail.
Smith's 1826 journey proved that wheeled wagons could cross the Continental Divide, transforming western migration. His detailed maps and journals guided later explorers, missionaries, and settlers. Though Native Americans and earlier traders knew South Pass, Smith's documentation made it actionable for American expansion.
Smith returned in 1827–1828, becoming the first American to reach California overland from the east and the first to cross the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin. He was killed by Comanches in 1831 on the Santa Fe Trail at age 32.