“Jedediah Smith 1799-1831”

When Jedediah was 23 years of age he went to St. Louis and enlisted with General William H. Ashley as an employee of the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. In 1823 he was with Ashley and a party of 90 trappers, traders, and boatmen when they were attacked by the previously friendly Aricara Indians as the group camped near their villages 5 miles upstream from this monument. After the bloody encounter they regained their boats and drifted downstream. When the boatmen and some of the others refused to try to pass the villages, Ashley had to send word to his partner, Major Andrew Henry, on the Yellowstone to warn him of the treachery of the Aricara. Jedediah Smith responded to Ashley’s call for a volunteer. Being a deeply religious young man, Smith made what Hugh Glass described as a ‘powerful prayer’ for his slain companions and the success of his own mission. This is recorded as the first act of Christian Worship in South Dakota.

Although the journey was through an unknown wilderness full of hostile Indians, the boy from New York was successful and made marvelous speed. Much impressed, Ashley named Smith captain in the motley army of trappers, traders, and Indians who were a potent auxiliary to Col. Henry Leavenworth’s 6th Infantry in its August attack to punish the Aricara.

Corson County, US 12 West end of bridge near Mobridge (2003)