The real life story of Jedediah Strong Smith began in 1823 when his party of explorers and trappers made the first recorded passage over the Black Hills. It was Jed Smith's earliest far-western expedition, and started at Fort Kiowa near present-day Chamberlain. Having but few horses, the mountaineers were forced to walk up the White River to that opening in the Hills called Buffalo Gap. They entered into what one member described as "...a pleasant undulating pine region, cool and refreshing, so different from hot dusty plains we have been so long passing over." Hot, indeed. Between the White River and the Hills, one dehydrated trapper was intentionally but temporarily buried up to his neck in moist soil, thus giving others time to search for water.

    The explorers pushed westward and may have crossed what is now Wind Cave National Park. Somewhere along the trail Jed Smith was attacked by a grizzly bear and his scalp was half torn off. Companions did a very rough job of sewing the scalp back in place. Thereafter Smith wore his hair long to conceal the frightful scars.

    One of the traditional tall tales of the mountain men, that of a standing petrified forest, originated with this expedition. This wild tale inspired Edgar Allen Poe to write of a "petrified forest near the head waters of the Cheyenne River which has its source in the Black Hills." An overly enthusiastic edition of the St. Louis Press said the forest's branches held small petrified birds!

    Jedediah Smith went on to fame as the West's most intrepid mountain man, but he never forgot his struggles in Paha Sapa.

10/01/03